Fritz Rudolf Fries' Narrative of his Travels to Spain: «Mein spanisches Brevier» (1979) in GDR Travel Literature

Abstract

This article explores the function and significance of travel literature in a country whose legislation restricted the free movement of its citizens and even made it a criminal act to ‘illegally cross the border’ to the West without government permission. When Fritz Rudolf Fries travelled to Spain, i.e., to the capitalist West, in 1976 and 1977, he had the full support for his visit from the authorities, through the Ministry of State Security. The withdrawal of Wolf Biermann’s East German citizenship and the transition to democracy in Spain coincided in those years. Excluding the final epilogue, in the 24 chapters of Mein spanisches Brevier (Rostock, 1979) Fritz Rudolf Fries revisits his personal, historical and literary roots, going from Madrid to the Basque Country, with stopovers in Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo and Santiago de Compostela, while recalling the Civil War and witnessing post-Franco Spain.