Islänningen som mötte Hitler och DDR-vännen

The Icelandic writer Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889–1975), who wrote in Danish, and the Swedish pedagogue, literary scholar and politician Stellan Arvidson (1902–1997) exchanged letters for 50 years (their ca 350 letters are kept at the National Library of Iceland). Their political opinions diverged early on, however, which became particularly obvious in relation to Germany: Whereas the anti-Nazi Arvidson lost his position as lecturer in Swedish in Greifswald following the Machtübernahme in 1933, Gunnarsson was a frequent guest in Nazi-Germany where he received an honorary doctorate in Heidelberg in 1936; he is also known as the only Icelander to have met Hitler in person. During the Cold War, Gunnarsson sided strongly with the anti-communist camp, whereas Arvidson, although a social democrat, remained a true friend of the GDR (honorary doctorate in Rostock in 1969, professor in Greifs­wald in 1981) until the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. It is remarkable how Gunnarsson, because he had seen the “injustices” the Ver­sailles peace agreement had caused the Germans, tended to notice only the positive sides of the “national revival” in Germany of the 1930s. Arvidson, in contrast, had realised the danger of Nazism early on but for that very reason later became insen­sitive to the dark sides of the GDR. In spite of all these differences the two seem to have been genuinely good friends who enjoyed each other’s company. It appears, furthermore, that Gunnarsson, who often felt at odds with both the Danish and Icelandic literary scenes, found it easy to confide in Arvidson as a Swede. Add to this Arvidson’s never-failing zest in pro­moting Gunnarsson in Sweden (although the hopes of a Nobel Prize would not materialize), which remained the fundament for their lifelong friendship.