'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

Beginning with the so-called reconstruction period of the late 1940s and early
1950s, there developed the collective memory of the hard-working Germans, the
Trümmerfrauen, who with their bare hands and nothing to sustain them were able
to scrimp and save, eventually beginning the Federal Republic‟s successful
economic recovery. This collective memory […] takes pride that no adversity,
regardless of its magnitude, could stop the Germans from once again picking
themselves up, like a „phoenix from the ashes,‟ to become the economic envy of
the world. (460)
However, Sanders-Brahms undermines these very optimistic iconographic images of
Trümmerfrauen with an off-screen voice-over comment that incorporates the adult
filmmaker‟s insights into the nature of this new beginning. In the voice-over the narrator
ruefully addresses her mother, saying:
Lene, was sollten wir vom Frieden erwarten? Am Anfang nach dem Krieg, das
Aufräumen machte noch Spaβ. Aber die Steine, die wir klopften, die wurden zu
Häusern zusammengesetzt, die noch schlimmer waren als die vorher. Lene, wenn
wir das gewuβt hätten. Lene, wenn wir das gewuβt hätten. (Sanders-Brahms,
Film-Erzählung 113) 52
This comment hinders the spectator‟s enjoyment of the cheerful scene, as it
foreshadows the idea that Lene‟s return to the domestic sphere will be a disillusioning
and traumatic experience. As Kosta suggests, in this scene, “documentary footage of the
famed Trümmerfrauen […] ironically dramatizes the women rebuilding the sites of their
own demise” (129).
52 “Lene, what should we have expected from peace? At first after the war cleaning up was still fun. But
the stones that we hammered were used to build houses that were worse than those before. Lene, if only
we had known that. Lene, if only we had known that” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 113).
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