Everyone is born into a certain era. I wouldn't want to see anyone faced with the circumstances that prevailed at the time, when there were few or no alternatives.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the impact of one's era on individual choices and circumstances.
Gunter Grass highlights the idea that every individual is shaped by the historical context and societal conditions they are born into. He expresses a desire to shield people from the hardships and limitations present during challenging times, emphasizing the importance of recognizing how era-specific circumstances can influence personal opportunities and decisions.
In practice
In a speech about social change, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of historical context in shaping societal issues.
I wept when the muse Ulla bent over me. Blinded by tears I could not prevent her from kissing me, I could not prevent the Muse from giving me that terrible kiss. All of you who have ever been kissed by the Muse will surely understand that Oskar, once branded by that kiss, was condemned to take back the drum he had rejected years before, the drum he had buried in the sand of Sapse Cemetery.
Today I know that all things are watching, that nothing goes unseen, that even wallpaper has a better memory than human beings.
I did not volunteer for the Waffen SS, but was, as were thousands of my year group, conscripted. I did not then know as a 17-year-old that it was a criminal unit. I thought it was an elite unit.
Art is uncompromising, and life is full of compromises.
If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle - absolute busyness - then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy - and without consciousness.
I belonged to the generation that grew up under National Socialism, and was blinded and led astray - and allowed itself to be led astray.
In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow men, not knowing what they do.
Maybe I am becoming a hermit, opening the door for only a few special animals? Maybe my skull is too crowded and it has no opening through which to feed it soup?
Today, in American imperialism, the commodity has reached its most grandiose historical manifestation.
Landmines distinguish themselves because once they have been sown, once the soldier walks away from the weapon, the landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal.
The people who pretend that dying is rather like strolling into the next room always leave me unconvinced. Death, like birth, must be a tremendous event.
A battering ram can knock down a city wall, but it cannot stop a hole. Different things have different uses.
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