'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

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German women who are rendered “passive, victimized, silent and domesticated bourgeois housewives who carry out prewar rituals with chagrin in their living rooms” (Morewedge 235). The ending of the film is indeterminate, and appears to offer Lene no emancipation from her relegation to the private realm. After heeding Anna‟s pleas not to kill herself, Lene emerges from the bathroom. Sanders-Brahms asserts in the closing voice-over: “Aber sie ist immer noch da. Lene ist immer noch da” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 114). 83 Thus, Lene remains bound to the roles prescribed for mother and wife in the patriarchal “Wohnstuben” culture of the Adenauer era. While the role of the old woman as an indentured servant in the robber‟s house mirrors Lene‟s oppression in the domestic sphere, the two figures are also similar in their capacities as helpers of other women. As Mendelson has noted, “Der Räuberbräutigam” is one of the few Grimm fairy tales in which female characters work together in a supportive alliance (111-112). In this tale, the humanity of the wise old woman is emphasized when she warns the miller‟s daughter of her husband‟s murderous activities and decides to take pity on her. The elderly female figure assists the younger heroine in several different ways. First, she hides the girl behind a large barrel before the band of robbers enters the house. Next, she rescues the miller‟s daughter from discovery by discouraging a robber to search for the hacked-off finger which has landed in the lap of the terrified heroine. Further she drugs the men‟s wine with a sleeping draught, thereby permitting both herself and the miller‟s daughter to escape the robber‟s den. Hence, the wise old woman collaborates with the young heroine in order to secure their mutual safety. 83 “But she is still here. Lene is still here” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 114). 113
The old woman‟s constructive female alliance with the young maiden reflects and thus emphasizes the positive female symbiosis between Lene and her daughter Anna. Lene sustains Anna‟s life during the war years in myriad ways. For example, she carries Anna on her back throughout the war-torn country. Moreover, she breastfeeds her daughter past the age of one year because there is nothing else for the child to eat, even though she agrees with Hans when he warns her “Aber sie frißt dich auf” (Sanders- Brahms, Film-Erzählung 69). 84 Further, as previously discussed in Chapter 2, Lene reacts to her rape by two American soldiers in a detached and calm manner. She does not cry and or scream, but instead maintains her composure as she tells Anna, “Das ist das Recht des Siegers, kleines Mädchen. Man nimmt die Sachen, und die Frauen” (Sanders- Brahms, Film-Erzählung 79). 85 One explanation for Lene‟s stoic reaction is that she wanted to minimize the traumatic effect of the rape on Anna. In an interview with Peggy Parnass, Sanders-Brahms admitted that she would have behaved in the same way with her daughter in such a situation, because she would have somehow needed to explain the rape (36). When Parnass objects saying it would be better to comfort the child by telling it to be strong, Sanders-Brahms replies: Aber das ist doch stark sein. Und das Kind ist doch nicht in der Verfassung, daß es getröstet werden müßte. Es hat, halb entsetzt, halb interessiert zugeguckt bei einer Sache, die es nicht kannte und die es jetzt kennt und benannt haben will. […] Ich glaube, daß ich in so einer Situation so etwas sagen würde. Um mir zu helfen, um dem Kind zu helfen. Ich würde da unheimlich sachlich reagieren. Wohlgemerkt, im Krieg, in der Situation. (Quoted in Parnass 36) 86 84 “But she is eating you up” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 69). 85 “That‟s the right of the victor, little girl. He takes possessions and women” (Sanders-Brahms, Film- Erzählung 79). 86 “But that is being strong. And the child is not in a position that she needs to be comforted. Half horrified, half interested, she has witnessed a thing which she wasn‟t familiar with before and now is familiar with and wants to have named. I think that I would say something like that in such a situation. In order to help myself and to help the child. I would react in an incredibly matter-of-fact way. Mind you, in the war, in that situation” (quoted in Parnass 36). 114
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Storytelling and Survival in the
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Supervisory Committee Dr. Helga Tho
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3.1 Intergenerational Dialogue in D
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I would like to dedicate this thesi
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Sanders-Brahms describes a phenomen
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that Sanders-Brahms uses the fairy
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early 1980s by a wave of historical
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Deutschland, bleiche Mutter. Moreov
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audience. One of the most popular g
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1.1 The Oberhausen Manifesto and Ne
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audiences. This film movement of th
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e beholden to him, for only through
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political events that took place in
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Verdrängten eigentlich gar nicht g
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(Deutschland im Herbst n. pag.). 14
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in drei Jahrzehnten Nachkriegsgesch
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impact West Germans in such a drama
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If German films are to make use of
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1.4 Deutschland, bleiche Mutter as
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story must be hidden as much as pos
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Chapter 2: New Subjectivity and Wes
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Reich” opposes fascism, but who e
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direct and personal confrontation w
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context has only become part of the
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perpetrators are defined predominan
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Thus, Sanders-Brahms creates a coun
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In the birth sequence, Sanders-Brah
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ombs fall downward from the upper r
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narrator‟s sadness at the destruc
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essentialize men or women‟s exper
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image visually separates the runnin
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emotional connection between mother
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endurance and stoic acceptance of b
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texture which is both social and hi
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Page 71 and 72: y war. A final interesting point of
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Page 75 and 76: Why does Lene sing the Maikäferlie
Page 77 and 78: Beginning with the so-called recons
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Page 85 and 86: geworden” (Brecht, Werke 253). 55
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Page 119: traditional gender roles and emphas
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Page 167 and 168: irritated the critics terribly. It
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---. Brecht on Theater. Ed. and Tra
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Herbst, Philip. Wimmin, Wimps and W
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---. “Gender, Film, and German Hi
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Sander, Helke and Barbara Johr. Eds
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