'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

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of memory, she opens up an intergenerational dialogue through three specific cinematic techniques: a dramatic reading of a Brecht poem by the poet‟s daughter, using voice-over narration to carry on a dialogue with her mother‟s life, and having her own daughter play a role in the film. I also consider how the mother‟s retelling of the Grimms‟ fairy tale, “Der Räuberbräutigam,” (“The Robber Bridegroom”) becomes a story which is layered within the story of the filmic narrative. This is followed by a brief summary of the fairy tale and a discussion of Sanders-Brahms‟ use of the tale as a narrative locus in which she allegorically remembers the horrors of the Holocaust. Chapter 4 explores how the roles of each of the three female characters in the Grimms‟ fairy tale “Der Räuberbräutigam” reflect different aspects of the mother figure‟s attitudes and actions at different points in the film, with particular emphasis on her involvement in the crimes of the “Third Reich.” I examine how the behaviour of the miller‟s daughter, the old woman, and the murdered maiden in the Grimms‟ tale underscores and thus emphasizes how the mother figure reacts to hardship and the deportation of the Jews during the Nazi era, and to men‟s oppression of women during the Economic Miracle. Moreover, I theorize that the wider implications of this paralleling technique are that non-Jewish German women‟s roles in German fascism were not clearly-defined and static but were instead complex and dynamic as women adapted to their constantly changing situations. In this section, I also consider the issue of women‟s survival in patriarchal societies and how finding one‟s voice through telling one‟s tale can sometime ensure female survival. In the conclusion to this thesis, I contrast the mother‟s voicelessness in the film narrative with the coming to speech of Sanders-Brahms through the creation of 7
Deutschland, bleiche Mutter. Moreover, I investigate a motif of “Der Räuberbräutigam” that involves the importance of providing physical evidence to prove the truth of one‟s story. I also consider how this theme can be applied to various aspects of the film and to the creation of the film itself. The conclusion is followed by an appendix containing a transcript of my personal interview with Helma Sanders-Brahms. Steven Taubeneck has characterized Sanders-Brahms‟ unique film language as a “distinctive kind of fantastic realism that combines Brecht and Pasolini with a more feminist yet personal, highly cultured yet critical, aesthetic” (Buitenhuis, Plessis, and Taubeneck 67). He goes on to state that it is not only Sanders-Brahms‟ selection of themes, but also the way that she presents her material that adds what he defines as “a personal and feminist edge” to her work (67). My study is, I believe, of particular importance because it merges an analysis of the formal cinematic and narrative techniques Sanders-Brahms employs in her film with an exploration of the highly individual story told in Deutschland, bleiche Mutter as seen through the theoretical lenses of oral history, Neue Subjektivität, and fairy tale studies. Finally, my thesis is significant because it is through such studies of Geschichten or personal stories that the concept of Geschichte or of a master narrative of history and of a single authoritative record of the past is deconstructed. 8
Page 1 and 2: Storytelling and Survival in the
Page 3 and 4: Supervisory Committee Dr. Helga Tho
Page 5 and 6: 3.1 Intergenerational Dialogue in D
Page 7 and 8: I would like to dedicate this thesi
Page 9 and 10: Sanders-Brahms describes a phenomen
Page 11 and 12: that Sanders-Brahms uses the fairy
Page 13: early 1980s by a wave of historical
Page 17 and 18: audience. One of the most popular g
Page 19 and 20: 1.1 The Oberhausen Manifesto and Ne
Page 21 and 22: audiences. This film movement of th
Page 23 and 24: e beholden to him, for only through
Page 25 and 26: political events that took place in
Page 27 and 28: Verdrängten eigentlich gar nicht g
Page 29 and 30: (Deutschland im Herbst n. pag.). 14
Page 31 and 32: in drei Jahrzehnten Nachkriegsgesch
Page 33 and 34: impact West Germans in such a drama
Page 35 and 36: If German films are to make use of
Page 37 and 38: 1.4 Deutschland, bleiche Mutter as
Page 39 and 40: story must be hidden as much as pos
Page 41 and 42: Chapter 2: New Subjectivity and Wes
Page 43 and 44: Reich” opposes fascism, but who e
Page 45 and 46: direct and personal confrontation w
Page 47 and 48: context has only become part of the
Page 49 and 50: perpetrators are defined predominan
Page 51 and 52: Thus, Sanders-Brahms creates a coun
Page 53 and 54: In the birth sequence, Sanders-Brah
Page 55 and 56: ombs fall downward from the upper r
Page 57 and 58: narrator‟s sadness at the destruc
Page 59 and 60: essentialize men or women‟s exper
Page 61 and 62: image visually separates the runnin
Page 63 and 64: emotional connection between mother
Page 65 and 66:
endurance and stoic acceptance of b
Page 67 and 68:
texture which is both social and hi
Page 69 and 70:
ombings terrorized civilian populat
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y war. A final interesting point of
Page 73 and 74:
Maikäfer flieg. dein Vater ist im
Page 75 and 76:
Why does Lene sing the Maikäferlie
Page 77 and 78:
Beginning with the so-called recons
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elationship. Through its subjective
Page 81 and 82:
a series of forty-one volumes publi
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3.1 Intergenerational Dialogue in D
Page 85 and 86:
geworden” (Brecht, Werke 253). 55
Page 87 and 88:
Eure Unarmung kann ich mir nicht de
Page 89 and 90:
3.2 Retelling a Grimm Tale: Voice a
Page 91 and 92:
and springs into the lap of the hid
Page 93 and 94:
apes were collectively perceived as
Page 95 and 96:
3.4 “Der Räuberbräutigam,” Po
Page 97 and 98:
with its ironic “Arbeit macht fre
Page 99 and 100:
Further, the absence or presence at
Page 101 and 102:
can imagine the chimney blowing out
Page 103 and 104:
Chapter 4: Three Images of Woman in
Page 105 and 106:
Moreover she demonstrates insight a
Page 107 and 108:
victimization of another through he
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in an effort to help, Lene quickly
Page 111 and 112:
Liebe, Ehe, ein Kind” (Sanders-Br
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knowingly or unknowingly, to make p
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passively complicit in the crimes o
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Contrastingly, in the middle and la
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traditional gender roles and emphas
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The old woman‟s constructive fema
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the severed finger at the tale‟s
Page 125 and 126:
and calm camera movements. In contr
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The dentist and Hans completely ove
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4.4 Summarizing Remarks Sanders-Bra
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Chapter 5: Conclusion Mother’s Vo
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forced back into the oppressive dep
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daughter in what becomes an interge
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authentic documentary footage of th
Page 139 and 140:
evocation of the Holocaust through
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Brahms articulates represents an ac
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H.S.-B.: Well, one answer to this q
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H.S.-B.: There is a very small baby
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only when you forget about scientif
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R.R.: So an example of that would b
Page 151 and 152:
political context of the fictional
Page 153 and 154:
was a wonderful image, like the May
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H.S.-B.: Yes, you‟re right, it‟
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R.R.: Some critics say that she is
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They just appeared during shooting.
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film represent the woman who respon
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R.R.: So, by telling your story, yo
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H.S.-B.: This happened to my mother
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irritated the critics terribly. It
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opening up, but actually, the strug
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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
Page 177:
Sander, Helke and Barbara Johr. Eds
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'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

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