Talk:List of East German authors

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Hi there,

I initiated this list on the basis of the German Wiki page Liste von Schriftstellern der DDR

It includes authors who have spent at least part of their lives in East Germany and whose literary work is at least in part about East Germany (give or take a few).

TheaKantorska (talk) 08:29, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Re: Proposed deletion
Before agreeing with the proposing user that the list could benefit from formal additions, such as a reference, I do ask him to first

- acquaint himself with the German-language list of East German authors, on which this list proposed for deletion is based

- respect notability checked and established in other Wikipedias

- explain why a list of about 300 authors (from a nation of 18 million) gives reason for presuming non-notability per se

- read in the section above what a definition of the term 'East German Author' might look like

- enlighten as to how the expression 'cease to be' can be applied to a term in a meaningful way

I do not ask the proposing user to remove his proposal for deletion. That will be his decision to make, or not to make.

Quote: "There are no qualifying inclusion criteria for this list, a list full of presumed non notable people. A definition of how an author is included might help, but substantially tighter definition is required for membership criteria. What is an East German Author, and when did this term come into being and cease to be? Content must be pruned to those who are inherently notable. WIthout these two items the list cannot remain here. There are also no references. Those must also exist"

TheaKantorska (talk) 06:07, 3 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Please see WP:BURDEN and work with that and its logical extension. It is up to you to ensure that the article remains and to define within it the inclusion criteria with an accuracy that removes all doubt. Anyone may remove the PROD notice, but doing so requires sound rationale. Fiddle   Faddle  08:31, 3 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I am letting it ride. But please be so kind as to spare the five or six dozen lists of writers on the English Wikipedia which by logical extension should be served a deletion notice. Cheers TheaKantorska (talk) 11:39, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

Redlinked names, citations
I'm concerned that there is a huge quantity of redlinked names on this list WP:WTAF applies when the ratio of redlinks to articles is so high. Equally we have no citations at all in the article. Even a list needs citations. Fiddle  Faddle  14:39, 3 August 2013 (UTC)


 * As to WP:WTAF: The article List of English writers corresponds to English Literature, the article List of East German Authors corresponds to Literature of East Germany, written first. As to the high incidence of red links: I am concerned, too. Charm of, and challenge by, an evolving encyclopedia. TheaKantorska (talk) 16:56, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

What is an 'East German author'?
My expansion of the first version of the introduction provided by Fiddle  tries to cover all cases: Bertolt Brecht who kept his Austrian passport until his death as an escape hatch (according to international law he was therefore not even 'German'); as well as Uwe Johnson (West German passport since 1959) whose first, and more than notable, work Mutmaßungen über Jakob was not published in East Germany but 1959 in West Germany (and as Speculations about Jakob 1963 in the U.S). Yet, both are undeniably 'East German', whatever that means. Chequered history, chequered careers. Chequered definition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheaKantorska (talk • contribs) 18:50, 16 August 2013 (UTC)