The dissertation examines from a non-German and politically independent position the view of Hölderlin in the literary productive reception in the Federal Republic and the GDR during the years 1949-1981, given the assumption of a Hölderlin renaissance at the end of the 1960s and during the 1970s. From a comprehensive reception-aesthetical perspective which regards reception as a dialogue between a classic and a contemporary author, the questions are asked, In which significant connections is Hölderlin topical? and How has interest for him been reflected in literary works about him?

The reception of Hölderlin from the Goethe Period up to and including the present as well as the emergence and growth of a socialistic conception of Hölderlin are sketched in a historical retrospect. Against the background of the view in both German states of the classical German heritage and Hölderlin's position in it, the factors which in the 1970s led to a topicalization as well as a changed horizon of expectation vis-a-vis the poet are described. An interpretation of selected examples of the productive reception - Peter Härtling, Stephan Hermlin, Peter Weiss, Gerhard Wolf and several lyricists - shows how the picture of Hölderlin in literature develops and how this picture reflects the spirit of the times in today's divided Germany. In the Federal Republic during the 1950s the view of Hölderlin was traditionally laudatory. This was replaced during the the '60s by a questioning and social-critical reception. This tendency continued during the '70s when the poet was seen both as a revolutionary sympathizer and as a medium for self-understanding during a time of political resignation. In the GDR the sparse literary reception of Hölderlin during the ‘50s and the ‘60s was principally approving and apolitical. From 1970 onwards the reception followed two lines: the official, state authorized view according to which Hölderlin’s revolutionary visions have been realized in the GDR and an unofficial view which regard him as a confrère and as a polemic medium for system criticism.

The interest for Hölderlin in both of the German states has two dimensions. On the one hand, there is an affirmative component which seeks to preserve the traditionally promulgated view of him; on the other hand, there is an emancipative component which seeks to crush it and assert a changed, social-critical and identificational conception of him. A synchronic analysis shows how during the ‘70s the conceptions of Hölderlin in the West and East (educated bourgeois, legitimistic, identificational-intermediary and formal-aesthetic) both coexist and succeed each other.

Beyond the ideologically conditioned divergencies in the views of Hölderlin in the divided Germany, it is possible to discern a set of unifying areas of agreement. Besides the poet’s literary mastery, the common denominator in these points of accord is the personal appreciation of Hölderlin both as a hope-giving paragon of artistic self-understanding and as a symbol of failure in the embodiment of an outsider.