Wer vorausschreibt, hat zurückgedacht.“ – Peter Härtling als Essayist und Publizist
“Writing forward means having thought backwards” – Peter Härtling as an Essayist and Publicist

Summary/Abstract: Whereas Peter HÄRTLING’s children’s books and books for adolescents, autobiographical texts and Künstlerromane (“artist’s novels”) are quite well known to a broader public, the essayist and publicist HÄRTLING is much less known. The article gives a critical survey of HÄRTLING’s essays from the beginnings to the present. Most of HÄRTLING’s essays and publicistic texts deal with history, politics, peace, ecology, writing and music. It can be stated that HÄRTLING’s essays and publicistic texts have developed in parallel with his fictional works, which are often based on personal life experiences. His style is quite cautious; nevertheless, he does not avoid concluding his texts with moralistic statements. The texts often transgress borders not only of the genre itself; he frequently writes several times on the same subjects in order to differentiate and develop his positions. The historical persons he is writing about are often outsiders; they serve as intermediates between past times and present. It can be concluded that HÄRTLING’s essays and publicistic texts cannot clearly be separated from his literary works; fictional and non-fictional works complement one another.

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