They love them relentlessly until they shrink to monumental size and become unrecognizable. Recently, the Germans desire their poets to be engaged, but not too much. Günter Grass stands in a literary tradition and is always aware of his origins as a writer. When he engages intensively with fellow artists and bears witness to it, it is not just to "be grateful as a student to the teacher." The fruitful engagement with foreign works culminates in Grass's own literary production, as shown by "The Plebeians Are Rehearsing the Uprising," "The Meeting in Telgte," or "A Wide Field." Whether in poems, speeches, interviews, letters, laudations, or obituaries - it always becomes clear how much Günter Grass values his friendship with colleagues and publishers and how much he seeks critical dialogue with them.