"Denn fühlen die Mächtigen sich bedroht, so schlagen sie die Gerechten": Looking at History in König David Bericht by Stefan Heym

The contribution aims to analyse Stefan Heym’s novel Der König David Bericht (1971) in the context of the broader reflection on the critical role of literature in the years of the Cold War. Particular attention is given to the ways in which, in the novel, the setting in the Israel of the Davidic monarchy masks a radical critique of the liturgies of power and the forced mechanisms of consensus in the GDR. Due consideration is also given to the reconstruction of Stefan Heym’s path as a dissident intellectual and his further literary production.