Билер

The string of great names in contemporary German literature has thinned out. In the last decade, death has cut short the lives and creative paths of Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin, Johannes Becher, Leon Feuchtwanger, Hans Heni Jahn, Hermann Hesse. It is true that there are still several significant companions of these writers among us (such as Arnold Zweig and Anna Zegers), but the question arises: have writers grown up in Germany in the meantime, from whose talent we could expect something representative in fiction in the future. In this connection, the name of Manfred Bühler, a young fiction writer and radio dramatist, one of the few authors in the GDR who attracts attention in the Federal Republic and the Western world, is sometimes mentioned - among many others. Of course, success coexists above all with clever organization, but Bühler, who is only 31 years old, makes demands on his readers and clearly has a gift. After studying German studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin and being a lecturer for a short time, he set out to travel the world. In the late 1950s, he visited Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria; he closely followed Bulgarian literature (e.g., the poems and epigrams of Radoi Ralin, Ivaylo Petrov's novel "Dead Excitement"). In 1960, as a worker on a fishing boat, he undertook a trip to Canada and Newfoundland, and in 1965 he was also in London. It is known how much travel contributes to the development of a person, what a school it is, because it brings us new knowledge with ease or being full of dangers. Through travel, a person overcomes his one-sidedness, prejudices, and obstacles in his development and achieves, given sufficient prerequisites, a higher level.