'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

Contrastingly, in the middle and last sections of Deutschland, bleiche Mutter, the
film mirrors “Der Räuberbräutigam” in that the domestic realm comes to represent the
sphere of women‟s oppression and discontent. Midway through the film, Lene and
Anna‟s home is reduced to a pile of rubble in an Allied bombing raid. Lene identifies the
pile of rubble that was the former family home and Lene calmly assesses the situation
saying, “Hier war unser Haus” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 58). 79 When she finds
a panel of mirror protruding from the rubble she looks in it. Lene assesses her changed
identity saying to herself, “Und das war ich mal” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung
58). 80 This is the second time the mirror appears in the film and the unity promised by
the first image has long been disrupted by Hans‟ absence, and the family home, the
physical locus symbolizing that togetherness, has been destroyed (McCormick, Politics
190). While forced outside of her home by circumstances beyond her control, Lene is at
the same time freed from the confining constraints of an established order and able to
create a new identity. Although she has nowhere to live and has lost almost everything
she possesses, she experiences a sense of liberation. This joyful feeling of freedom is
underscored by the director‟s voice-over address to Lene, “Nach dem Ende der
Wohnstuben wurdest du fidel. Da ging‟s uns erst richtig gut, als alles hin war” (Sanders-
Brahms, Film-Erzählung 113). 81
The destruction of the domestic sphere signifies that Lene is no longer chained to
those duties and expectation that define not only her roles as a wife and as a mother, but
also her very identity (Cook 115-16). Lene‟s story in this middle section of the film
79 “Here was our house” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 58).
80 “And that was once me” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 58).
81 “After the end of the living rooms you became merry. That‟s when things first started to go really well
for us, when everything was gone” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 113).
110