günter grass turned 80 on the 16th of october. the famous german nobel prize-winning writer, who was born in the free city of danzig (now gdansk, poland) was celebrated in göttingen, danzig, lübeck and hamburg for days on end. he was supposed to witness the uncovering of a bronze monument of himself. at least, that’s what the mayor of gdansk had thought of in honour of the star-writer. yet grass said, he’d rather have the authorities replace the old shithouse in the yard of his birth house with modern toilets. “and should you then want them to be called grass-toilets, i would feel honored!”, he said. the guy has humour. and practical sense.
and now to the less funny but immensely ironic part of the celebrations. in his latest novel, peeling the onion (2006), grass stated that he had been a member of the waffen-ss in WWII. so here he was, sitting at a table organized by the goethe-institute in gdansk, next to lech walesa, former polish president, whose father was killed by the Germans in WWII and richard von weizsäcker, former german president, who had participated in the invasion of Poland on the 1st of september 1939 as a foot soldier, talking about the german-polish relations!!! at the end of the televised show, grass received a pipe made of amber, big as a shower head. a peace pipe, that is…
