Ingo Schulze - New Lives

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226. On Dec. 6, 1989, representatives of the civil rights movement had, as was the case in many other towns as well, occupied the local offices of State Security.

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227. T. evidently thought he was being reduced to a “deduction.” It is said of him that later on he would make a point of crumpling up the bill after a business lunch and tossing it into the ashtray. (As reported by Johann Ziehlke.)

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228. T. was probably afraid that Frau Schorba would be too heavy for a room declared off-limits by the police.

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229. This letter is among the most illegible, due primarily to cross-outs and insertions, especially in the final third.

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230. From this point on T. insinuates — evidently intentionally — a suspicion. It is as if no letter can fail to mention some connection between Vera and State Security. And yet nothing in his presentation, either to this point or afterward, points to any such relationship. An unbiased reader will be unable to share T.’s qualms on the basis of remarks made here by V. T.

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231. The next three lines are blacked out in both original and copy.

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232. Crossed out: if only for this one night.

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233. Crossed out: and all my problems.

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234. T. is mistaken here. Sunday was the 13th.

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235. V. T. lived in West Beirut during her three months there. On April 18, 1990, a school bus got caught in an exchange of fire between rival Christian militias. Fifteen children lost their lives.

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236. Saxon slang for “head,”“skull.”

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237. T. means dozen. Correct terminology, as we shall soon see, would have spared him a moment of panic.

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238. The agreement with Barrista was that he would risk everything, not just his interim winnings. Judged on that basis, T. did fail.

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239. In his letter to Johann, T. had just boasted of having handed Vera his winnings.

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240. The university was required to find a job for each of its graduates.

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241. Wolfgang Hilbig, born in Meuselwitz in 1943, was allowed to publish only one thin volume of poems and short stories in the GDR, Stimme, Stimme [Voice, voice] (Leipzig, 1985); since 1979 his books have been published by S. Fischer in Frankfurt am Main.

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242. The collection consists of 180 early Italian paintings on wood panels.

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243. Something she might very well have suspected. T. was only fleetingly familiar with the museum and regarded exhibition openings there primarily as an opportunity for nurturing social contacts — both Johann Ziehlke and V. T. agree this was the case. Moreover this passage about the museum interrupts, for no good reason, the description of his theater experiences.

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244. T. is quoting the same passage from the introduction to the museum’s catalog that was already mentioned by C. von Barrista, cf. the letter of March 28, 1990. The panels referred to in the next paragraph are found in the same sequence in the registry of the collection.

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245. T. evidently failed to notice that he was describing himself here as the quintessential observer, the voyeur.

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246. Here as well T. is fantasizing. For if in fact it was as dark as he describes, he could scarcely have experienced a fly “whirling” around him.

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247. One cannot avoid the impression that T. was reveling in a certain nostalgia during the period of separation from Michaela.

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248. It would be interesting to learn what T. imagined a love affair was supposed to be.

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249. Presumably T. has once again forgotten the complimentary close that had already been reduced to a rather mechanical “Your Enrico T.” in his preceding letters.

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250. Cf. Appendix, “May.”

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251. T. means September 1988. Because of construction work that began without warning in the fall of ’87, the theater was closed for almost an entire season. The company did not resume production until September ’88.

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252. Legendary productions directed by Alexander Lang at the Deutsches Theater and by Heiner Müller at the Volksbühne.

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253. East German term for “subscription series.”

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254. During World War II only the industrial plants on the periphery of Altenburg were bombed, which was why the city had taken in a disproportionate number of refugees.

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255. This turn of phrase, which T. has used before (cf. the letter of May 5, 1990), can also be found in a slight variation on the next page. It is thus quite probable that T. has put these words into Michaela’s mouth.

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256. T. surely ought to have expected as much from a refugee family like the Paulinis.

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257. At least on the basis of the version printed here ( Titus Holm: A Dresden Novella ), I cannot second T.’s judgment regarding the quality of his novella.

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258. The last local elections in the GDR, held on May 7, 1989, marked the first time that fraud was ever proved, because in many precincts the counting of votes was observed by civil rights groups. The official tally showed 98.77 percent of votes cast went to the “candidates of the National Front.”

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259. In January 1988.

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260. T. has failed to provide any basis for such statements. Why should cool observation be purest kitsch?

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261. Cf. the story “Voting,” in the appendix.

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262. June 4, 1989.

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263. Required reading in school. A novel about a member of the youth organization Komsomol who became a Hero of the Soviet Union during the Russian Civil War.

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264. In the GDR women in their early thirties were considered almost too old to be bearing children.

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265. “Black and Blond” will be introduced later. At this point all that needs to be noted is that this had to do with “the two men in the white Lada” that T. thought he had seen at the accident on March 7th (cf. the letter of March 9, 1990). The reason behind T.’s question must have been just as incomprehensible to Johann Ziehlke. The explanation is revealed in letters to N. H. that follow.

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266. In his letter of April 10, 1990, T. wrote that Jörg had asked him to “keep working on his article on Piatkowski.” It was therefore originally T.’s assignment to write the article.

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267. One of the most popular chants at the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig.

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268. The help-wanted ad for a South African paper factory appeared on p. 1.

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269. Johann Ziehlke reports that T. often called Leopold Bloom, the central figure in Ulysses by James Joyce, the “patron saint of the advertising business.” In T.’s opinion, then, Marion’s “mistake” lay in not immediately being reminded of Leopold Bloom, who was anything but a “wretched character.”

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270. Manuela, “the blond waitress,” who by this time had become a sales rep.

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271. According to V. T., a very exaggerated version of a letter that has not survived.

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272. On September 11, 1989, Hungary opened its border to Austria. By the end of the day approximately ten thousand citizens of the GDR had fled to the West.