Donelaitis viewed through rose-tinted glasses: did Johannes Bobrowski misread the Lithuanian bard?

ENIn his novella on German-Lithuanian relations, which is the theme of Litauische Claviere, the East German writer Johannes Bobrowski (1917-1965) attributes a proto-Marxist dialectic outlook to the Lithuanian national poet Kristijonas Donelaitis, in that Donelaitis is presented by Bobrowski as a harsh critic of the injustices of 18th century Lithuanian society seen through the prism of a class' struggle. As Bobrowski was writing at a time when writers were expected to conform to Party ideology, it is of interest to revisit the official interpretation of Donelaitis work during the Soviet era.