The next document in my file bears the title “Informational Report” and “Main Department XX” appears in the upper left corner. It is a three-page summary of my principal activities in the GDR during the fall of 1975. From the following entry, I learn how concerned the authorities were about the possible inclusion of Wolf Biermann in my book:
By means of operative surveillance measures that were initiated, it was learned that Dr. Zipser had asked specifically—in the interviews already conducted with Christa WOLF and Gerhard WOLF, PLENZDORF, SCHLESINGER, BECKER, FÜHMANN, Uwe KANT, MICKEL, MORGNER, HACKS and PANITZ—whether they favored the inclusion of Wolf BIERMANN in his project.
Eight of the authors named above answered this question in the affirmative. According to Dr. ZIPSER’s comments, the majority of the GDR writers were with that response standing by Biermann. If additional GDR authors should speak out in Biermann’s favor, Dr. ZIPSER intends to seek permission from the Writers’ Union to include Biermann in his undertaking.
In addition, it was learned unofficially that Dr. ZIPSER—according to his own statements—is very close friends with Christa and Gerhard Wolf, Schlesinger, and Plenzdorf. In conversations with the writers just mentioned he was advised not to forget to include Heym in his book. [The reference is to perpetual dissident writer Stefan Heym.]
Remembering East Germany 