Richard Schade Interviews Nobel Prize Winner Grass

From "The Tin Drum":

"You can begin a story in the middle and create confusion by striking out boldly, backward and forward. You can be modern, put aside all mention of time and distance and, when the whole thing is done, proclaim, or let someone else proclaim, that you have finally, at the last moment, solved the space-time problem. Or you can declare at the very start that it's impossible to write a novel nowadays, but then, behind your own back so to speak, give birth to a whopper, a novel to end all novels."

When Richard Schade handed in his proposal for a Taft Center Research Fellowship last year, little did he know what awaited him.

Schade, professor of German Studies, planned to interview and focus his attention on Günter Grass, the German author whose first novel, "The Tin Drum," was published in 1959. Forty years later, the widely revered writer – also a poet, playwright and artist – won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

German Studies professor Richard Schade, right, recently interviewed Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass.

More specifically, Schade intended to study the interrelationship between Grass's literary texts and his art – engravings, watercolors, lithographs and sculptures.

Last August, however, Grass revealed in an interview and memoir that he had been a member of the elite and infamous Nazi fighting force, the Waffen SS.

True, he was then just 17 and he fought for just a few weeks. But Grass – whom some considered to be the conscience of Germany – was roundly excoriated by the world for over 60 years of silence.

Schade’s research plans demanded a reorientation. He contacted Grass’s office in Germany and asked for an interview. Amazingly, Grass accepted and in December Schade sat down across from the internationally renowned author of "The Tin Drum."

Schade said: "It was like speaking with Ernest Hemingway, if you know what I mean, but without the 'macho.' Grass is going on 80 and is really mellow. Besides, he’d given a reading at UC back in 1965, so maybe I had an in."

As to the SS issue, Schade learned from the author that he considered himself to have been just so much cannon-fodder and that much of his writing was driven by the desire to compensate for his hidden guilt.

"Sounded reasonable to me," said Schade. “On the other hand, he should have revealed it back when. Then his moralizing statements would have been even more credible."

"The Tin Drum," by Günter Grass, was published in 1959.

Despite all of the controversy, said Schade, "Grass had a lot to say about his art. The written word is but an extension of drawing, as far as Grass is concerned."

And Grass remembered his visit to Cincinnati well. He was on his way to receive an honorary doctorate at Kenyon College in May 1965 and the stopover at UC left an indelible impression on him.

"The place was packed, the discussion was good and I later mentioned Cincinnati in one of my poems, ''The Transatlantic Elegy,' as a sort of thank you," Grass told Schade.

Grass will be visiting New York City later this year and Schade plans another interview.

"Every word we exchange is important for my research," said Schade. "He is pleased by my interest in his art work, since so few researchers take it into serious account."