The formula was unbeatable: You mix a very intelligent and
very well read and knowledgeable Jewish holocaust survivor, whose family was
murdered by the Germans and who chose to come in and live in post-War Germany,
with drawn to authority Germans, grateful to Jewish intellectuals who settle in
their country and you get a success story. Marcel Reich-Ranicki, a Polish Jew
who moved to Germany in 1956 and became the country foremost literary critic
died yesterday, at the ripe old age of 93. Germany is in mourning.
For years, Germans referred to the man as their Literaturpabst, their pope for matters
literary. What tantrums of jealousy the man at the Vatican must have had
because of the total deference this Jewish –of all things – so-called literary
pope enjoyed. Reich-Ranicki instructed the Germans what was right and what was
wrong, which book is good and which is not. On a regular basis, in his TV programmes and in his newspaper
columns, he told them – often in the most abusive language - and shouted (his
version of hell?) at them when disobeyed. They adored this Jew who shouted at
them. Talk of role reversal.
