'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

3.4 “Der Räuberbräutigam,” Postmemory, and German History
While the previous section summarizes “Der Räuberbräutigam,” and discusses
similarities and differences between the tale and the filmic narrative, this section
discusses the tale as a narrative locus for the crimes of the Holocaust. The narration of
“Der Räuberbräutigam” is one of the most haunting and compelling sequences of
Deutschland, bleiche Mutter. It is remarkable and uncanny that this particular Grimms‟
fairy tale, recorded over a century before Hitler‟s ascension to power, appears, in
retrospect, to symbolically foreshadow the history of Germany under Nazism and alludes
to “the house of murderers” which Germany was to become (Naughton n. pag.).
Sanders-Brahms corroborates this idea that the fairy tale recalls events in German history.
While she calls the fairy tale “dies verrückte Ungetüm mitten im Film,” she also states
that “das Märchen leistet eine Menge – es beschreibt ziemlich präzise Lenes Geschichte
und die deutsche Geschichte in einer sehr durchsichtigen Metapher” (Sanders-Brahms,
Film-Erzählung 116). 64
But how does the fairy tale act as a narrative locus in which to depict the horrors
of the National Socialist genocide of German Jews and other victims? The Nazis‟
program of extermination and terror is depicted in this segment of the film through the
concurrent presentation of narrative events in the fairy tale and certain images that have
come to represent the Holocaust in public consciousness. As Lene and Anna wander
through the German countryside, they come upon an abandoned factory with a tall
64 While Sanders-Brahms calls the fairy tale “the mad monstrosity in the middle of the film” she also claims
that “the fairy tale accomplishes a lot – it describes quite precisely Lene‟s story and German history in a
very transparent metaphor” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 116).
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