'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

echoes that of the old woman in the fairy tale in that both characters experience liberation
from their confinement in domestic realms where they are expected to serve men.
However, while the old woman disappears from the fairy tale after her exit from the
robbers‟ house, Lene, upon being forced out of her home, gains strength outside the
domestic sphere that she had not known she possessed when it was intact. Moreover,
Lene experiences newfound strengths and skills when she enters the “public” realm by
taking on jobs originally meant for men such as rebuilding the city out of rubble or
conducting trade on the black market (Hyams 42). Yet, the invigorating independence
Lene experiences while outside of the domestic realm during the war is short-lived.
In the last section of the Deutschland, bleiche Mutter the private sphere becomes
a locus of disillusionment and spiritual death. As discussed earlier in Chapter 2, Sanders-
Brahms‟ emphasizes this idea with a scene in which documentary footage of the famed
Trümmerfrauen ironically dramatizes women rebuilding the sites of their own demise
(Kosta 129). With the post-war restoration of the home and nuclear family in the last part
of the film, Lene once again finds herself enmeshed in gender hierarchies and roles,
which had existed before the war and which deny her the kind of emancipation she had
experienced during the years of conflict. When Hans returns, he reassumes the role of
provider for the family, a role that he performs in stark contrast to the way Lene carried
out the same function during the war years. As head of the family, Hans asserts his
authority over his daughter, by commanding her to “Schreib sauber!” (Sanders-Brahms,
Film-Erzählung 85). 82 For her part, Lene is expected to take up her former subordinate
position within the family by reassuming her identity as a homemaker. The first scene
marking Lene‟s re-entry into the home during the post-war era shows her acting out
82 “Write neatly!” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 85).
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