Grass at the Roots

In their political campaigns, the Germans prefer the blitzkrieg to the protracted siege. Thus, though Bundestag elections are scheduled for Sept. 28, it was not until two weeks ago that West German politicians began to hit the hustings. When they did, they often found that a determined besieger had got there before them. For 20 weeks, Author Guenter Grass, Germany's best-known living novelist, has been conducting a one-man political expedition that has already covered 14,250 miles and 92 cities.

The droop-mustached Grass is carrying on his highly personalized crusade on behalf of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He is not a member of the party, but nonetheless feels closely linked to it because of leftist leanings and his personal friendship with SPD Leader Willy Brandt. On the stump, Grass has also been spreading a nonpartisan gospel of his own. Germans, he maintains, must shake off their ingrained submission to authority and tradition and participate more actively in government affairs. "People leave too much to the parties," he says. "What we need in this country is a more active citizenship." Grass's solution is something called voter initiative, or grass-roots activity by people who do not necessarily belong to parties. Brandt last week hailed voter initiative as "part of the modern Germany we want to create."

In his novels, particularly The Tin Drum and Dog Years. Grass has also sought to prod Germans out of their complacency about the nation's Nazi past and materialistic present. Still, Grass downgrades his role as a social or political critic. "The idea that writers are the conscience of the nation is pure nonsense," he says. Others disagree. Professor Wilhelm Johannes Schwarz of Quebec's Laval University, who has written a literary critique of Grass, calls the novelist "the direct descendant of Walther von der Vogelweide," a poet who in the 13th century stumped the German dukedoms in support of Kaiser Friedrich II's struggle to become Holy Roman Emperor. "Grass," says Schwarz, "is the only great German writer in 700 years to take such a direct part in politics, laying aside the pen in favor of straight participation."

Left and Right. Grass travels in a green-and-white Volkswagen bus decorated with a Social Democratic rooster crowing "Es-Pe-De." He usually heads for an area in which the SPD either won narrowly or, in losing, drew at least 20% of the vote. Bundestag seats are figured on winning local votes and also on the basis of party percentage of the total vote; Grass's aim is to increase the Socialist national percentage and thereby secure more seats for the party.

The crowds that Grass draws include both old people in Lederhosen and shawls and young people in beards and sandals. There are usually hecklers from either the far left or the far right. The New Left calls Grass a "liberal crap-head" and a "traitor to socialism." The right-wing National Democratic Party derides Grass as a "porno," because his works are peppered with four-letter words. Grass treats extremists from both sides with contempt, reminding audiences that "socialism when coupled with anarchism leads to fascism."

No Political Aspiration. In his speeches. Grass advocates East-West disarmament, renunciation of German claims to territory lost in World War II ("That's the price of war"), revaluation of the mark, and negotiations with Walter Ulbricht's East Germany. Occasionally, while deliberating about a question, he will roll a cigarette of coarse, black "Schwarzer Krauser No. 1." Even after speeches are over, Grass goes on talking, holding forth in local taverns over foaming steins of beer.

Detractors claim that Grass has turned to politics because he is burned out as a writer. His latest novel, Ortllch Betaeubt (rouehly translated. "Locally Anesthetized"), is on top of the bestseller list, but it received decidedly mixed reviews. Grass is frequently asked whether he aspires for office himself. He insists that he does not and is happy to continue as an unofficial catalyst of political action. His activities seem to be getting results. Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger's CDU is favored over Brandt's SPD, but polls show that the two parties are remarkably close in voter preference. For some of its showing, certainly, the SPD can thank voter initiative and Guenter Grass.

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