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Stefan Heym

Stefan Heym Quotes

Writer

Stefan Heym was a German Jewish writer born on April 10, 1913, and died on December 16, 2001. His works spanned various literary forms including novels, plays, and poetry, and are known for their profound social criticism and exploration of human nature.

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Famous Stefan Heym Quotes

“A foreman in the East wouldn't know how many workers he would have the next day, because part of his working force had left the system to go to West Germany.”

Knows Next Left Force Know How West Workers East Germany Next Day West Germany

Author:Stefan Heym

“A great number of people in the East German parts had been Nazis, so the change of mind was not altogether there.”

People Mind Numbers East Nazi Mind Changing

Author:Stefan Heym

“A Western writer came up to me and said, how come nobody at this demonstration spoke of German unity? I told him, because it isn't on the agenda. People were interested in having another, better GDR, another, better socialism.”

People Said Unity Western Socialism Agendas Spokes Demonstration

Author:Stefan Heym

“And also, of course, I knew that the German people, they're one, and would tend to consider themselves as one; and therefore they would consider the Wall as an enforced imprisonment. And I was right in thinking that way.”

People Thinking Way Courses Wall Imprisonment

Author:Stefan Heym

“And of course, in West Germany, they made every effort that people who came from the East would get jobs and would get a comfortable existence. That was part of the Cold War - and part of the winning side of the Cold War.”

People Made War Jobs Courses Winning Sides Effort Existence Cold Comfortable West East Germany Cold War West Germany

Author:Stefan Heym

“And one of the worst effects was that by suppressing critical thought, it also suppressed critical thought in the field of economics and hampered the development of economics - and the country would fall back further and further in the economic competition with the West.”

Country Fall Economic Worst Effects Fields Development Economics Competition West Critical Fall Back Suppressing Economic Competition

Author:Stefan Heym

“Even in West Germany in the beginning, people wanted a kind of socialism.”

People Kind Wanted West Socialism Germany West Germany

Author:Stefan Heym

“I certainly hoped that in the Eastern part of Germany, what was just beginning to be called the German Democratic Republic, you would develop a system of socialism with freedom and democracy.”

Democracy Democratic Socialism Germany Republic Eastern Democratic Republic

Author:Stefan Heym

“I defended myself at the first opportunity I had, which was a meeting of writers in which I proved that Honecker had based his whole attack.”

Firsts Whole Opportunity Meetings

Author:Stefan Heym

“I did not oppose unification, I knew unification would have to come, but not in the form in which it did come. There were two ways of doing it and they took it the radical way, the forceful way.”

Way Two Form Radical Two Ways Unification

Author:Stefan Heym

“I disapproved of the fact that the government here refused to adopt the few reforms that Gorbachev put over in the field of media and the field of culture.”

Facts Government Culture Media Fields Reform Gorbachev

Author:Stefan Heym

“I not only saw the possibility of nuclear war, I feared it very much. If they started a military conflagration, it would automatically lead to nuclear warfare.”

Ifs War Saws Military Possibility Nuclear Warfare Nuclear War

Author:Stefan Heym

“I was in psychological warfare in World War II, so I know psychological warfare when I see it.”

Knows World War Psychological War Of The Worlds World War Ii World War I Warfare Psychological Warfare

Author:Stefan Heym

“If we had had time and the occasion to develop a new socialism in the GDR, socialism with a human face, with democracy, this might have been an example also to West Germany. The development would have run the other way.”

Ifs Way Humans Has Beens Might Running Faces Democracy Example Development West Socialism Occasions Germany Might Have Been Human Faces West Germany

Author:Stefan Heym

“If you live in a system that is suppressive, you don't walk upright, you always go with your head down.”

Author:Stefan Heym

“In the question of peace, people spoke up and demonstrated for peace and against the threat of war, the threat of atomic war.”

People War Threat Spokes Atomic War

Author:Stefan Heym

“People in the East looked toward the West with longing. They would have liked to have the same comforts, the same goods, the same chances. They saw a system that demanded of them sacrifices with nothing but promises for the future.”

People Chance Saws Sacrifice Comfort Promise Longing West East Goods

Author:Stefan Heym

“People who were not active in the intellectual life of the country could go on without feeling restricted, except they could not go where they wanted. They could not cross the border to the West whenever they liked.”

People Country Feelings Wanted Goes On Intellectual Crosses West Active Borders Intellectual Life

Author:Stefan Heym

“Show me one place where a whole government is concerned with a book of a writer and is concerned enough to suppress it.”

Book Enough Whole Shows Government Concerned Show Me

Author:Stefan Heym

“The idea of a socialism with a human face was something that I absolutely could support, because it was my idea from the very first.”

Firsts Humans Ideas Faces Support Socialism Human Faces

Author:Stefan Heym

“The Wall was the actual symbol of a defeat, of inferiority.”

Wall Defeat Symbols Inferiority

Author:Stefan Heym

“These were the things that the government supplied you with - in turn, of course, demanding obedience. But you must not imagine that it was a constant feeling of outrage that was in the minds of people and the hearts of people.”

People Mind Heart Feelings Government Turns Courses Imagine Constant Obedience Imagine That Outrage

Author:Stefan Heym

“Today, when we live in a what is called Western democracy here... you're not taken seriously all the time. You can write what you want because nobody cares about it. But at that time, they cared very much about what you wrote, so that's an entirely different feeling.”

Want Writing Different Feelings Care Today Democracy Taken Western What You Want Nobody Cares Different Feelings

Author:Stefan Heym

“We certainly hoped perestroika would win out and that there would be changes. We knew all along that socialism could flourish only with a certain amount of freedom and democracy.”

Would Be Certain Winning Democracy Amount Socialism

Author:Stefan Heym

“You had censorship. If you brought a manuscript to the publisher, you knew he would suggest changes. If you wanted to write and speak what you thought had to be written and spoken, you had to act against all these suppressive rules.”

Ifs Writing Wanted Speak Written Censorship Publishers Manuscripts

Author:Stefan Heym

“You must have, if socialism was to succeed, a socialism with lots of democratic elements in it.”

Ifs Succeed Elements Democratic Socialism

Author:Stefan Heym

About the Author

Born: April 10, 1913
Died: December 16, 2001
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 26

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