The Cultural Memory of German Victimhood in Post-1990 Popular German Literature and Television
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Commons@Wayne State University Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2010 The ulturC al Memory Of German Victimhood In Post-1990 Popular German Literature And Television Pauline Ebert Wayne State University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the German Literature Commons Recommended Citation Ebert, Pauline, "The ulturC al Memory Of German Victimhood In Post-1990 Popular German Literature And Television" (2010). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 12. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF GERMAN VICTIMHOOD IN POST-1990 POPULAR GERMAN LITERATURE AND TELEVISION by ANJA PAULINE EBERT DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2010 MAJOR: MODERN LANGUAGES Approved by: ________________________________________ Advisor Date ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY ANJA PAULINE EBERT 2010 All Rights Reserved Dedication I dedicate this dissertation … to Axel for his support, patience and understanding; to my parents for their help in financial straits; to Tanja and Vera for listening; to my Omalin, Hilla Ebert, whom I love deeply. ii Acknowledgements In the first place I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Anne Rothe. Her excellent guidance, insightful comments, and constructive criticisms at different stages of my research were thought-provoking and helped me focus my ideas. Her patience and advice helped me greatly finish my graduate studies. I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Professor Donald Haase, Professor Guy Stern, and Professor Roslyn Schindler, who have generously given their time and expertise to comment on my work. I thank them for their contribution and their support. I am particularly thankful to Professor Roslyn Schindler for not only carefully proof- reading and commenting on this manuscript and for encouraging the use of consistent notation in my writing, but also for many stylistic suggestions to help me improve my arguments. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Graduate Director of Ph.D. Programs of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Professor Michael Giordano, who encouraged me in many ways during my graduate studies, for his guidance and supervision. Last but certainly not least, I thank Professor Lisabeth Hock who has advised me in many different situations during the course of my graduate studies. Professor Hock’s invaluable help and mentoring has not only inspired my growth as an academic but also and especially as a teacher. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Theories of Collective Memory ................................................................................................ 10 Memory Studies ................................................................................................................ 10 Individual Memory ........................................................................................................... 13 Communicative Memory and Cultural Memory............................................................... 14 Postmemory ...................................................................................................................... 18 Memory Artifacts .............................................................................................................. 19 Wulf Kansteiner’s Critique of Memory Studies ............................................................... 23 Cultural Memory as Theoretical Framework .................................................................... 26 2. Locating the Opferdebatte : The Intellectual History of German Collective Memory .............. 29 The War Generation and the Postwar Silence .................................................................. 29 The Second Generation: The Postwar Era Is Over ........................................................... 33 The Third Generation: The Kohl Era ................................................................................ 39 From the Wende to the Opferdebatte ................................................................................ 44 German Wartime Suffering in Literature, Film, and Television ...................................... 50 3. Remembering German Women as Rape Victims in Anonyma’s Eine Frau in Berlin ............. 55 Feminist Discourse on Women in the Third Reich ........................................................... 55 Rape and War .................................................................................................................... 58 The Rape of German Women at the End of World War Two .......................................... 59 Anonyma’s Diary .............................................................................................................. 62 iv Official Reception: Eine Frau in Berlin in the Media ...................................................... 65 The Anonyma Controversy ............................................................................................... 68 Vernacular Reception: Reader Reviews and Comments .................................................. 74 The Film Adaptation of Eine Frau in Berlin .................................................................... 82 The Official Reception in Newspaper Reviews ................................................................ 89 The Vernacular Reception in Viewer Responses .............................................................. 97 Official and Vernacular Reception in the Context of the Opferdebatte ......................... 104 Online Viewer Discussions of the Film .......................................................................... 108 The Film in the Classroom .............................................................................................. 115 4. Transforming Germans from Perpetrators into Victims in Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser 131 Hanna’s and Michael’s Victimhood in the Novel........................................................... 133 The Official Reception in Newspaper Reviews .............................................................. 144 The Vernacular Reception in Reader Responses ............................................................ 150 Reader Responses to the Feuilleton Debate .................................................................... 151 The Novel in the Classroom ........................................................................................... 154 The American Film Adaptation of Der Vorleser ............................................................ 166 The Official Reception in Newspaper Reviews .............................................................. 171 The Vernacular Reception in Viewer Responses ............................................................ 181 The Film in the Classroom .............................................................................................. 191 Der Vorleser and German Collective Memory ............................................................... 196 5. Depicting Germans as Bombing Victims in Roland Suso Richter’s Dresden ........................ 198 teamWorx and TV-Event Movies .................................................................................... 198 The Bombing of Dresden as a Televisual Event ............................................................. 204 v Germans as Victims in Dresden ..................................................................................... 207 The Official Reception in Newspaper Reviews .............................................................. 222 The Vernacular Reception in Viewer Responses ............................................................ 231 The Film in the Classroom .............................................................................................. 239 Transforming German National Identity from Bystanders into Victims ........................ 245 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 248 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 259 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 294 Autobiographical Statement.......................................................................................................