Travelling Poets, Travelling Ideas: Oskar Pastior and Intermediation during the Cold War

In my talk I will present in what kind of ways during the Cold War, Western and East European cultural forums exerted influence on the Transylvanian-Saxon writer Oskar Pastior in an effort to pursue their own cultural policies. Of special interest is the cooperation between Austria and the U.S. because this cooperation made it possible for Pastior to embark on a book tour to Austria and Germany; a book tour from which he never returned to Romania.

The special fascination that Pastior holds for a scholarly inquiry arises from the fact that his case intertwines the Austrian cultural claims going back to the days of the Habsburg Empire and the cultural policies of the U.S. during the Cold War. Furthermore, continuities of post-Habsburg channels of cultural transfer and intermediation can be found, which played a crucial role in the East-West Competition of the Cold War.

Therefore, I will take into account that institutions from countries of the former Eastern bloc also exerted influence on Transylvanian Saxon writers: for example, the GDR clearly competed with Austria and the FRG regarding the support of German-language authors in Romania, and the Romanian secret service took advantage of such Western invitations for foreign espionage. The story of Pastior’s escape provides plenty of evidence for that because it is documented that the Romanian Securitate sent him off to Vienna with very concrete espionage assignments.