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This scientific article focuses on Ursula Ackrill’s novel ˮZeiden, im Januarˮ and its aim is to examine the specificity of present-day literature of the Transylvanian Saxons. Starting from the methodological considerations of Jan Assmann and Aleida Assmann, the concept of memorial culture will be exemplified and analyzed through relevant scenes of the novel, in close connection with Leontina Philippi’s approach of writing the chronicle of Codlea. Antonescu’s fascist dictatorship, the obligation for Saxon men to serve in the SS troops, the friendly collaboration between Antonescu and Hitler, the collaboration between German and Saxon military, the role of collaborators at that time, the Saxons’ customs and traditions, the portrait of the Jew of Lipscani street, Bucharest society during the rule of Ion Antonescu are just a few aspects of the novel which emphasize the intercultural character of this writing on the basis of communicative and cultural memory.
Regine Ziegler was a Transylvanian Saxon poet and writer, who by the turn of the century lived for some years in Berlin, where her brother Karl Ziegler (1866–1945) was a successful portrait painter. In 1913 she assessed that in her writings she aimed to present the Saxons in their whole complexity, wishing that in the future all Germans should know Transylvania and its German inhabitants. Contiguous to the Saxons she presented the „sultry and passionate” Romanians, the „primitive and impulsive” Gypsies and the „nationalistic” Hungarians, she all had known from her multiethnic village Arkeden/Archita. Regine Ziegler’s approach, although characteristic for the epoch of fierce nationalism, breathes great sympathy for all Transylvanian ethnic groups.
The following essay illustrates the extraordinary love story between Clemens Rescher and Rodica Neagoie. These key characters are representative figures for the nation they belong to. Clemens is a Transylvanian Saxon and Rodica a Romanian. Despite all contradictions, they fall in love, spend time together, travel to the Black Sea and plan their future. Even though they are bound to each other by strong feelings, this love cannot overcome all the preset cultural, ethnic and social obstacles. Clemens and Rodica become the victims of the world they live in.