Gunter Grass extends his political commitment beyond his literary work. Using his fame in what he considers the best interests of his nation, he speaks out on all current issues, and fights, in a country without deeply rooted democratic traditions, for the processes of parliamentary democracy. He sees German democracy threatened by postwar developments in a divided Germany and by the rise of extremists on the right and the left.
Grass entered the political arena in 1965, when he delivered fifty-two election speeches throughout Germany in praise of democracy, the Social Democratic Party, and Willy Brandt. In this stirring collection, which includes two election speeches, speeches on student violence and on the Czechoslovakian crisis, open letters to political figures, and political commentaries, Grass the writer appears as Grass the citizen, motivated both by deep concern and by outrage.
