UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Estranged Bedfellows: German-Jewish Love Stories in Contemporary German Literature and Film A dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies at the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Department of German Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences 2008 by Aine K. Zimmerman Master of Arts, University of Washington, 2000 Bachelor of Arts, University of Cincinnati, 1997 Committee Chair: Professor Katharina Gerstenberger Abstract This dissertation is a survey and analysis of German-Jewish love stories, defined as romantic entanglements between Jewish and non-Jewish German characters, in German literature and film from the 1980s to the 21st century. Breaking a long-standing taboo on German-Jewish relationships since the Holocaust, there is a spate of such love stories from the late 1980s onward. These works bring together members of these estranged groups to spin out the consequences, and this project investigates them as case studies that imagine and comment on German-Jewish relations today. Post-Holocaust relations between Jews and non-Jewish Germans have often been described as a negative symbiosis. The works in Chapter One (Rubinsteins Versteigerung, “Aus Dresden ein Brief,” Eine Liebe aus nichts, and Abschied von Jerusalem) reinforce this description, as the German-Jewish couples are connected yet divided by the legacy of the Holocaust. Similarly, Die Haut retten and “Die Beschneidung” (Chapter Two) reflect doubt about the ability for Jews and non-Jewish Germans to connect, but introduce non-Jewish German protagonists who disassociate themselves from Nazism and/or a negative German identity. The films of Chapter Three (Comedian Harmonists, Aimeé & Jaguar, Viehjude Levi, Rosenstrasse) seek to bridge the divide between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans. They portray individual German exceptions to Nazism through sympathetic female German partners romantically involved with Jews. Works in Chapter Four (Das jüdische Begräbnis, Schalom meine Liebe, Eduards Heimkehr) likewise disassociate German lovers from perpetration. These works suggest that positive German-Jewish relationships are possible by finding exceptions to perpetration. In Chapter Five, texts (“Harlem Holocaust,” “Finkelsteins Finger,” Deutsche Einheit) revolve ii around sexual encounters in which both partners manipulate the Holocaust legacy, indicating unfinished business between the two groups. German and Jewish characters’ self-serving behaviors alike are parodied, and this evenly balanced and satirical treatment shifts the focus away from “good” or “guilty” characters toward criticism of the unproductive roles the Holocaust legacy has spawned. This dissertation traces the development of German-Jewish relationship from estranged bedfellows to complicated companions after the Holocaust. It links these changes to gender and normalization discourses, arguing that more “normalized” relations mainly occur between female non-Jewish German and male Jewish characters. iii © Copyright 2008 Zimmerman, Aine K. All rights reserved. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Katharina Gerstenberger, for her guidance, professionalism and encouragement. Her help was invaluable at every step of the dissertation process, and her comments and our conversations about my work always gave me the resources and mental boost to take the project to the next level. I appreciate all of the time and hard work she invested in helping me to become a better scholar. Dr. Anke Biendarra has graciously balanced being a friend and a mentor since I was at the University of Washington. She deserves special thanks for the extensive feedback she provided on this project, as well as her personal support and perspective throughout the dissertation process. I would also like to thank Dr. Todd Herzog, in particular for his help formulating the subject of my research during its beginning stages, and Dr. Sara Friedrichsmeyer for her willingness to support this project as a member of my committee. Colleagues at various conferences, as well as at Miami University and Allegheny College, helped me to reflect on and refine my ideas, and while too numerous to mention, I am grateful to them all. To Kimberly Hamlin and Val Gilman, thank you for your advice and encouragement when it was most needed I deeply appreciate the support my family and friends have shown me throughout the years I was working on my dissertation. My partner, Zara Lawler, and my mother, Ginny Zimmerman, in particular, both deserve particular thanks for their unending patience, unconditional love, and willingness to listen (and proofread!). Their friendship means the world to me. Also, to my father, brothers, sister-in-law Nikki and grandmother: thank you for your unfailing belief in me. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: Contemporary German-Jewish Love Stories in Context ......................................................... 1 German-Jewish Love Stories After Auschwitz ........................................................................................... 1 The German-Jewish Love Affair: the Negative Symbiosis and Beyond ................................................... 11 The History of Jews and non-Jewish Germans in Germany after the Holocaust .................................... 17 Contemporary Literature in Context: the Debates of the 1980s and 1990s .......................................... 21 Legacy, Literature, and Generations ....................................................................................................... 25 Project Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter One: Sleeping with (the descendants of) the Enemy: ................................................................... 36 Connected Yet Divided by the Holocaust Legacy ........................................................................................ 36 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Barbara Honigmann’s novel Eine Liebe aus nichts (1991) ...................................................................... 42 Anna Mitgutsch’s novel Abschied von Jerusalem (1995) ........................................................................ 48 Rafael Seligmann’s novel Rubinsteins Versteigerung (1989) .................................................................. 54 Maxim Biller’s short story “Aus Dresden ein Brief” from Land der Väter und Verräter (1994) .............. 61 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter Two: Breaking Away From the Past: ............................................................................................. 70 The Individualization of German Identity ................................................................................................... 70 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 70 Irene Dische’s short story “Eine Jüdin für Charles Allen” (1989) ............................................................ 76 Bernhard Schlink’s short story “Die Beschneidung” from Liebesfluchten (2000) ................................... 79 Anja Tuckermann’s novel Die Haut retten (2000) ................................................................................... 89 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter Three: Gendered Normalization: ................................................................................................ 103 The “Good” German Woman in Films of the 1990s and Beyond ............................................................. 103 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 103 Agnieszka Holland’s Hitlerjunge Salomon (1990) ................................................................................. 111 vi Joseph Vilsmaier’s Comedian Harmonists (1997) ................................................................................. 114 Didi Danquart’s Viehjude Levi (1999) .................................................................................................... 120 Max Färberböck’s Aimée & Jaguar