{{Short description|Bimonthly literary and cultural magazine in Berlin, Germany}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox magazine | logo = Logo sinn und form.gif | image_file = Literaturzeitschrift Sinn und Form 1974.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Cover page dated 1974 | editor = Matthias Weichelt | editor_title = Editor-in-chief | previous_editor = | frequency = Bimonthly | circulation = | category = {{ubl|Literary magazine |Cultural magazine}} | company = | founder = {{ubl|Johannes R. Becher | Paul Wiegler}} | publisher = Akademie der Künste | firstdate = 1949 | country = Germany | based = Berlin | language = German | website = {{URL|https://sinn-und-form.de/}} | issn = 0037-5756 | oclc = 1371069324 }} '''''Sinn und Form''''' ({{langx|de|Sense and Form}}) is a bimonthly literary and cultural magazine. It was launched in East Berlin, East Germany, in 1949 and is still in circulation. The magazine describes itself as one of the definitive cultural journals in Germany.<ref name=matt>{{cite journal|author=Matthew Philpotts|title=Through Thick and Thin: On the Typology and Agency of Literary Journals |journal=The International Journal of the Book|year=2010|volume=7|issue=4|pages=57,61|doi=10.18848/1447-9516/CGP/v07i04/36838}}</ref>
==History and profile== The magazine was established by Johannes R. Becher and Paul Wiegler in 1949.<ref name=adk/><ref name=auto>{{cite web|title=Sinn und Form|url=https://www.autorenwelt.de/organisation/sinn-und-form|publisher=Autorenwelt|access-date=10 October 2021|language=de}}</ref> The original title was ''Maß und Wert'' (German: ''Measure and Value'').<ref>{{cite news|title=Schilderungen als Revolte|work=Deutschlandfunk|date=31 January 2018|url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/literaturzeitschrift-sinn-und-form-schilderungen-als-revolte.700.de.html?dram:article_id=409674|access-date=10 October 2021|language=de}}</ref> When it was published in the East Germany, the magazine was employed by the ruling party, Socialist Unity Party, as a media outlet for its cultural policy.<ref name=dasbun>{{cite web|title=Die Literaturzeitschrift "Sinn und Form"|url=https://www.stasi-unterlagen-archiv.de/informationen-zur-stasi/publikationen/publikation/die-literaturzeitschrift-sinn-und-form/|publisher=Das Bundesarchiv|language=de}}</ref> However, the magazine was not enthusiastic about this relationship.<ref name=dasbun/> Because since its start it has had a unique style which is apolitical.<ref name=auto/> It covers articles on poetry and philosophy, anthropology and theology and the relations between art and science.<ref name=auto/> It provides essays, poems, stories, diaries, letters and conversations on these topics.<ref name=auto/>
In 1975 a novel by Volker Braun entitled ''Unvollendete Geschicht'' was published in the magazine, but the novel was not published as a book in East Germany and appeared as a print book only in 1998.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Diana Alberghini|title=Helga konigsdorf's evolving identities: an eastern german author's responses to an era of personal and political upheaval (1978-1998)|location=University of Bath|page=12|id={{ProQuest|301568923}}|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/301568923|isbn=9781073266982|degree=PhD|year=2000}}</ref>
''Sinn und Form'' is published by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin on a bimonthly basis.<ref name=adk>{{cite web|title=Sinn und Form Beiträge zur Literatur|url=https://www.adk.de/de/akademie/publikationen/sinn-und-form.htm|publisher=Akademie der Künste|language=de}}</ref> The magazine has been the subject of the scholarly analysis, and at least two books were published about the magazine.<ref name=tages/><ref>{{cite book |author1=Stephen Parker|author2=Matthew Philpotts|title="Sinn und Form". The Anatomy of a Literary Journal|year=2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin; New York|isbn=978-3110217858|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110217865|doi=10.1515/9783110217865}}</ref>
===Editors and contributors=== The editors-in-chief of the magazine include the following:<ref name=profil>{{cite magazine|title=Profil|url=https://sinn-und-form.de/?kat_id=1|access-date=10 October 2021|magazine=Sinn und Form}}</ref>
* Peter Huchel (1949–1962) * Bodo Uhse (1963) * Wilhelm Girnus (1964–1981) * Paul Wiens (1982) * Max Walter Schulz (1983–1990) * Sebastian Kleinschmidt (1991–2013) * Matthias Weichelt (2013–)
Notable contributors of ''Sinn und Form'' are Miguel Ángel Asturias, Imre Kertész, Halldór Laxness, Czeslaw Milosz, Pablo Neruda, Romain Rolland, Jürgen Habermas, Nelly Sachs, Heiner Müller, Ernst Jünger, Hilde Domin, Volker Braun, Peter Härtling, Durs Grünbein, and Jürgen Becker.<ref name=matt/><ref>{{cite journal|author=Barbara F.H. Allen |title=German studies: journals and magazines|doi=10.1108/01604950110388699|journal=Collection Building|year=2001|volume=20|issue=2|pages=54–73}}</ref> During the editorship of Peter Huchel the magazine featured the work by German and international non-Communist writers, and unpublished works by Bertolt Brecht were published in two special issues of the magazine.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Michael Hamburger|author2=Marin Sorescu|author3=Peter Huchel|title=Notes on Marin Sorescu (Romania) and Peter Huchel (East Germany)|journal=The Crane Bag|year=1983|volume=7 |issue=1|page=53|jstor=30060545}}</ref> Robert Havemann, chemist and later dissident, published articles in the magazine criticizing modern socialism and revisionist works of the Western authors.<ref>{{cite book|author=A. James McAdams|title=East Germany and Detente. Building Authority after the Wall|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-521-26835-6|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511521874 |page=44|location=Cambridge}}</ref>
The founding editor-in-chief Peter Huchel was forced by the East German authorities to resign from the post.<ref name=tages>{{cite news |author=Gregor Dotzauer|title=Vom Bestellen des Feldes|access-date=10 October 2021|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/70-jahre-zeitschrift-sinn-und-form-vom-bestellen-des-feldes/23831524.html|work=Der Tagesspiegel|date=8 January 2019|language=de}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Official website|https://sinn-und-form.de/}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinn und Form}} Category:1949 establishments in East Germany Category:Bi-monthly magazines published in Germany Category:Cultural magazines published in Germany Category:Former state media Category:Magazines published in East Germany Category:German-language magazines Category:Literary magazines published in Germany Category:Magazines established in 1949 Category:Magazines published in Berlin