The relatively new Kanon Verlag has high standards. On his website you can read that he intends to publish only ten books by outrageous voices in German and international literature per year. Lutz Rathenow can also be found in the list of authors. He wrote down his eventful life in stories and published it in the book “Smiling defiantly and stroking the universe”. Tonight he will present it during a reading and in a subsequent discussion in the Wist literature shop.
Lutz Rathenow was little known to a larger readership in the GDR era. The book publishers were hardly allowed to publish his texts because he was one of the best-known members of the opposition who bothered the cultural officials and the Stasi. In 1976 Rathenow was arrested and taken to the central remand prison of the State Security in East Berlin. After his release, he was given the opportunity to leave the GDR.
The writer stayed and was able to keep his head above water with smaller publications. He was invited to readings in churches and church institutions. He was also a guest at the church seminary in Potsdam. A couple who were friends with Rathenow said about this event that a teacher diligently wrote down what the lecturer said. Everyone assumed that the educator would need his notes for the lesson. But looking at the Stasi file after 1989, it became clear to the couple that the teacher was a Stasi informer.
Lutz Rathenow was under constant observation. Still, he didn’t lose his optimism and continued to smile defiantly. After reunification, he was able to publish again and accepted a position as state commissioner for the processing of Stasi files in Saxony. In the new book, Lutz Rathenow reviews his life. But he doesn’t see it as an autobiography, but “it’s something made up of nothing but smaller prose puzzle pieces.”
