[In the following review of Die Ritter der Tafelrunde, Mueller examines the play as a representation of the East German regime of Communist Party Secretary Erich Honecker.]

Christoph Hein is an East German author who has rapidly risen to prominence in the past few years. His novella Drachenblut (1983) was translated into all the major European languages; his 1989 novel Der Tangospieler (see WLT 64:2, p. 308) received high praise in a Zeit review by Volker Hage (“Sage niemand, daβ es in der Literatur der deutschen Sprache derzeit nichts zu lesen gebe”); and in the new edition of the Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR (1989) Wolfgang Emmerich wrote: “Kein Autor der DDR hat binnen weniger Jahre die Literatur seines Landes so schlagend und so nachhaltig verändert wie Hein.”

The author's most recent play, Die Ritter der Tafelrunde (The Knights of the Round Table), is called a Komödie or comedy in the subtitle and must necessarily be measured with a different gauge from that which is applied to the literature of socialist realism. Indeed, the most fascinating aspect of the play is its outspoken abandonment of the principles of socialist realism. It can only be classified as a work of romantic escape. The play is a not very subtle depiction of life in the late stages of a glorious reign—i.e., Arthur's—which Hein expects his audience to understand as a disguised picture of the end of the Honecker era. The old guard in the persons of the knights Kay and Orilus has long since passed its prime and no longer has a viable function in society. At the play's opening, two other knights of the old guard, Lancelot and Gawain, are still off on their search for the Holy Grail, their continuing aspiration to attain the dreams of the past. The remaining members of the Round Table are either too old to seek the Grail or are too cynical about it to consider it an aspirational goal. Briefly into the play a letter arrives from Gawain stating that he is withdrawing from the Round Table and giving up his quest for the Grail. Gawain belongs to the old-timers, and he is pulling out before his disillusionment becomes absolute.

Lancelot remains the sole hope for Arthur and all those in his circle who have not surrendered themselves entirely to the past. He has been away for two years, and there is a growing anticipation that his return will signal a new beginning for the circle. At the end of the second act he does return, not with the flourish and fanfare of a successful hero, but as a broken and despondent old man. His vain search for the Grail has aged him so much that he is barely recognizable to the others, including his former lover Guinevere. The Grail is a primary symbol for the knights of Arthur's Round Table. They have kept their faith in its existence, and their search for it has helped them retain their optimistic view of the future. It is depressing, however, to search for so long and constantly come up empty-handed, as Lancelot points out: “Wenn man jahrelang einer Idee hinterherrennt, ohne ihr auch nur ein winziges Stück nähergekommen zu sein, dann ist es etwas sehr Niederdrückendes.”

Two persons stand apart from the others in the play. Parzival is a transition figure who has moved with the times. He is now the editor of a newspaper that is critical of the old ways. For him his paper represents a new goal, a new Grail. The old guard views him as a traitor. They would like to retain the status quo. Parzival is the chief cynic in the play, and it is he who sets much of its tone. The other is Mordred, Arthur's son, who represents the youth of the era. He would like to change the social and political structures in the realm, but he is so skeptical about the old-timers that he does not know to whom to turn or how to begin.

Hein offers no path out of this dilemma. The old guard is fading and has discovered that its quest for the Grail is meaningless. The younger generation is without direction. Transition figures such as Parzival can only criticize the existing state of things but present no alternative paths for the future. In the closing lines of the play Arthur himself acknowledges his disillusion and turns to Mordred, seeking his advice. The latter's recommendation is that the old ways, symbolized by the Round Table itself with its one leg that is constantly falling off, should be placed in a museum. Arthur wonders how that will help, and Mordred merely answers that it will make room: “Luft zum Atmen, Vater.” Arthur warns that Mordred will destroy a great deal with his housecleaning, to which the son can only respond, “Ja, Vater.” Only after the discarding of the old can there be any hope for the future.

In view of the events of the past few months in East Germany it was probably not necessary for Hein to resort to such escapist literature in order to present his critique of the decaying regime of Erich Honecker and his cronies. The turn from socialist realism to a cynical romanticism has done more to lead spectators to an optimistic view of socialist life, the ultimate goal of socialist realism, than have the works of any of Hein's literary predecessors. The sterile model of the proscriptive guidelines of socialist realism is dead, as dead as the knights of the Round Table and their noble quest. Socialist realism itself continues to live on in the literature of that era, but, doubtless to the delight of creative authors in the East, it is now no longer the “Holy Grail” that they are required to seek. They are now free to tap and release their true creativity and write about the real society in which they live.