Der Sturz des Dädalus: Wolf Biermanns Rezeption des Mythos von Dädalus und Ikarus

Abstract

In the long history of the reception and transformation of the story about Daedalus and Icarus it was the fall of Icarus that more and more became the center of the artistic attention, whereas Daedalus was almost completely sidelined. This also holds true for the reception of the myth in art and literature of the German Democratic Republic. An interesting exception is the poet and song writer Wolf Biermann, who in a famous ballad stylized himself as Prussian Icarus, but after his expatriation from the GDR in 1976 identified himself with Dädalus.