SOURCE: Robinson, David W. “Hein's Historians: Fictions of Social Memory.” In Deconstructing East Germany: Christoph Hein's Literature of Dissent, edited by James Hardin, pp. 125–80. Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House, 1999.

In the following essay, Robinson analyzes Hein's theory that historical chronicle is a subjective record influenced by personal experience.

Ideology and History

While all of Christoph Hein's work reveals a fascination with the impact of history on individual experience, several of his most ambitious texts deal explicitly with history as an intellectual discipline and space for social engagement. The early story “Einladung zum Lever Bourgeois” (1980)¹ and the novels Horns Ende (1985) and Der Tangospieler (1989; translated into English as The Tango Player, 1992) explore the significance of history as material fact and social memory through fictive portrayals of historians: Racine is court historian to Louis XIV, Horn (along with Bürgermeister Kruschkatz and, in a different sense, Dr. Spodeck) is a professional...