'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

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film and contains a transcription of the film‟s dialogue, Sander states that prior to her film, there had been virtually no research on the subject. She also claims that each document brought to light during the course of the research done by herself and her collaborator, Barbara Johr, was often the result of months of searching (Sander and Johr 11). Sander‟s difficulty finding research and historical documentation on rapes of German women by Allied soldiers at the end of the war suggests that the rapes had been a taboo subject in Germany for several decades after the conflict. Atina Grossman also emphasizes the silence surrounding the rapes, stating: …the topic [of the mass rapes] was suppressed, not as too shameful for women to discuss, but as too humiliating for German men and too risky for women who feared (with much justification, given the reports of estrangement and even murder) the reactions of their menfolk. (61) I maintain that in her film, Deutschland, bleiche Mutter, Sanders-Brahms uses Lene‟s stoic reaction to being raped as a critique of the silence and historical marginalization in post-war German culture of German women‟s rapes by Allied soldiers at the end of the Second World War. 42 In my opinion, the filmmaker intended Lene‟s reiteration to her daughter of the saying, “To the victor the spoils” and her subsequent shaking off of the incident to function as an ironic commentary on the way post-war German society expected German women to suppress the trauma of rape, to shrug it off, and to simply carry on as if nothing of great importance had happened to them. This view is contrary to that of some feminist scholars who are outraged at Lene‟s passive Hulmut Kossodo, 1959). It had been published first in English in 1954 under the title A Woman in Berlin, trans. James Stern (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1954). 42 Sanders-Brahms critiques this silence in post-war West German culture surrounding the rapes of German women in light of the German atrocities that took place during the war. As will be shown, she depicts Lene as a bystander of the crimes of the Nazi regime against Jewish Germans. 57
endurance and stoic acceptance of being raped, and who suggest that the character‟s reaction shows that she has internalized patriarchal rape myths. As Smith explains: Lene‟s response [to being raped] is astonishing: apparently unshaken, she is presented as maintaining her composure, keeping her nerve […] The viewer is confronted with an outrageous scene that seems designed for emotional effect […] It seems to suggest that Lene has internalized patriarchal rape myths, as she states that the chaos of war gives men the license to rape enemy women […] Lene passes on to Anna the lesson that the victors in war have the right to rape enemy women. This highly problematic gesture […] reflects, of course, a rather disturbing self-image. It allows Lene to regard herself as Kreigsbeute [“war booty”]. (241-42) I agree with Smith that Sanders-Brahms intended Lene‟s reaction to her rape to shock the viewer. However, I feel that Sanders-Brahms employs Lene‟s shocking response as a Brechtian distanciation technique. This approach serves to alienate the viewer from the action and to make him/her reflect critically on the attitude of post-war German society towards German women‟s rapes as an episode in history that should be forgotten and ignored. However, the problem with Sanders-Brahms‟ approach is that many non-German viewers of her film may not have been aware of the taboo in German society surrounding wartime rapes and thus would not have understood her critique of the cultural repercussion of this episode in German history. 58
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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
Page 13 and 14: early 1980s by a wave of historical
Page 15 and 16: Deutschland, bleiche Mutter. Moreov
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: emotional connection between mother
Page 67 and 68: texture which is both social and hi
Page 69 and 70: ombings terrorized civilian populat
Page 71 and 72: 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
Page 79 and 80: elationship. Through its subjective
Page 81 and 82: a series of forty-one volumes publi
Page 83 and 84: 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
Page 109 and 110: in an effort to help, Lene quickly
Page 111 and 112: Liebe, Ehe, ein Kind” (Sanders-Br
Page 113 and 114: 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
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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
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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
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political context of the fictional
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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
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Sander, Helke and Barbara Johr. Eds
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'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

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