Stefan Heym, Christa Wolf, Heiner Müller and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Stefan Heym, Christa Wolf and Heiner Muller were influential popular writers in the German Democratic Republic who also presented themselves as critics of the Communist regime. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, they nonetheless remained loyal to the State and opposed those who called for German reunification. This ambiguous discourse demonstrates that these writers never wished to use their criticism to destabilise the State, but rather to improve it, as they ultimately believed in Socialism. In a closed authoritarian State where literature served as a source of alternative information, their critical loyalty allowed them to occupy a legitimate function. After 1989, however, this strategy was no longer adapted for the new reality.