The Creation of an Avant-Garde Brand : Heiner Mueller’s Self-Presentation in the German Public Sphere

«Pohlmann’s study offers points of departure for scholarship on authorship, authenticity, and irony in the public sphere; anyone entering debates surrounding Christian Kracht''s tricky public persona, for example, would do well to read Pohlmann''s study first. All in all, Pohlmann’s book is a clear, readable, well-argued, succinct, and insightful work on an author who often invites dense, impenetrable scholarship.»

(Michael Wood, German Studies Review 47.3 (October 2024)

«All das ist erkennbar in dieses Buch mit eingegangen, das neben statistischen Grafiken zu Interviewpartnern und Kurven für Aufführungszahlen ein Paradox des immer noch geltenden Müller-Bilds zu erhellen versteht: Nämlich, dass der avantgardistische Autor mit seiner Kapitalismuskritik nicht nur Preisverleihungsgesellschaften verstörte, sondern auch zum begehrten Personal von Boulevardmedien werden konnte.»

(Thomas Irmer, Theater der Zeit, 05/2024)

«Pohlmann’s study of Müller’s media presence is one of the few English-language books on this important postwar dramatist in the past two decades. Embedded in a discussion of avant-garde aesthetics and ‘branding’ in capitalist market contexts, its nuanced focus examines Müller’s strategies for navigating the East-West divide prior to and after Germany’s unification in 1990.»

(Marc Silberman, Professor Emeritus of German, University of Wisconsin–Madison)

«The Creation of an Avant-Garde Brand is an impressive scholarly achievement that enlarges our understanding of postwar German culture in general and Heiner Müller in particular. Pohlmann convincingly demonstrates that Müller’s status as a leading figure of the avant-garde needs to be understood in light of his dynamic engagement with mass culture. Highly recommended.»

(Matthew W. Smith, Professor of German Studies and Theater & Performance Studies, Stanford University)

Branding became a crucial technique over the course of the twentieth century. It changed the way we perceive politics and goods, but also works of art and authors. This development has called into question the traditional idea of authenticity as well as the intention to resist capitalist marketing practices.

This book examines the extent to which an author like Heiner Müller adopted branding strategies to present himself in the public sphere, investigating the impact that this had on his public persona. By focusing on Müller, this study analyzes the self-presentation and promotion of an adversarial author who drew on the ideals of the avant-garde and the artistic critique of capitalism. Yet Müller also inserted himself into the mainstream public sphere and the media, arenas that are highly influenced by the laws of the market. Thus, the author asks whether Müller’s use of marketing methods and media environments undermined his outsider credibility and the integrity of his work, or, alternatively, how he may have been able to develop strategies to engage with marketing principles and the media in ways that allowed him to remain subversive nonetheless, perhaps working within the system and against it at the same time.