Name: Siew Hui Hui Constance (A0101701E)

Module: GE2222

Date: 08.10.2014

Film: The Marriage of Maria Braun/ Die Ehe der Maria Braun

Essay Title: Die Ehe der Maria Braun: Narratives of Reconstruction in post -war Germany

Formatting: APA Sixth Edition

Word Count: Without Bibliography: 3180

With Bibliography: 3274

"A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard"

Billy Wilder

Introduction

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's production, Die Ehe der Maria Braun1 demonstrates brilliantly

the inextricability of the personal and the political2 in immediate post-war Germany, where

"Political Geschichte(history)" commingles with "Geschichten(stories)" in the film (Kaes,

1989, p. 29), to both reflect and critique the sociopolitical situation of the decade from 1944-

1954. Produced in 1978 in West Germany (Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation), the film

is a thematic part of Fassbinder's BRD3 Trilogy, which deals retrospectively with post-war

"challenges of occupation policy and open markets,... native debates over the content of a

democratic German culture and the agents of its control, and the redefinition of social (and

gender) identities" (Fehrenbach, 1995, p. 6).

This essay will analyse first the embodiment of gender relations, for it is through these

private interactions that symbolic commentaries are made about the state of post-war

Germany. Next, this essay will examine the producers' portrayal of and response to West

German interactions with the Allied Powers. Through both these private and public

interactions, the film then enacts the producers' perceptions of the state of supposed

democracy in Germany.

1. Of Gender Relations

Wartime Germany saw the transferral of a large bulk of German men to war zones, such that

by the time the Second World War was over, many of these German men ended up either as

1 Henceforth referred to as Die Ehe

2 "The Personal is Political" is a popular slogan used to "underscore the connections between personal

experience and larger social and political structures" (The personal is political, 2014) 3 Bundesrepublik Deutschlands, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany

casualties or prisoners of war (Fehrenbach, p. 95). German women in turn then 'outnumbered'

men by '7.3 million' in 1945 (Fehrenbach, p. 95). The culmination of social-psychological

effects of war and this dramatic demographic transformation had significant bearings on both

individual gender identities, as well as on inter-gender interaction.

1.1 Emasculation of the German Male

Multiple sociological studies have elucidated how the German man that did actually make it

back alive from the war was "often physically or psychologically scarred", "unwilling or

unable to work", where his countenance was complained to demonstrate a "frightening

paralysis of will" (Fehrenbach, p. 95). These were said to be rooted in feelings of "profound

dishonour and despair", given German defeat (Fehrenbach, p. 96).

This phenomenon, coined as the "emasculation" (Fehrenbach, p. 97) of the post-war German

man, is manifest variously in Die Ehe. The doctor examining the protagonist, Maria Braun, is

characterized as resigned and weak. He "lean[s] against the wall..as if he were ill", and

speaks forlornly of being "too old to live and too sad to forget" (Rheuban, 1986, pp. 57-59).

Dramatic non-diagetic music increases suddenly and rapidly in volume and he is framed by

large, looming shadows as he injects himself with drugs he has come to be dependent on, thus

indeed effectively portraying him pathetically as one who has morbidly given up on life.

Maria's grandfather is shown to be asleep half the time, hard of hearing, dressed in clothes

too big for him and adept only mostly at 'snitching food' (McCormick, 1980) and of beating

others to the use of the restroom- in short, a rather weasley, although harmless character. The

popular perception of the emasculated German man is further confirmed, when female

characters throughout the film sigh, for instance, of the "men still loo[king] like men then",

and of there being no "proper men anymore", in response to the appearance and behaviour of

the men. The enactment of the phenomenon of emasculation of the German man is also taken

up to a metaphorical level, where the Vaterland's dignity is undermined. The national

anthem, a piece glorifying the Vaterland, is played rather poorly on the black market by an

accordion player, and is shouted at disgruntledly to stop playing it. A possible symbolic

reading of this is that it has become embarrassing to hear of it, given the defeated state of

Germany. The accordion was also a deliberate artistic choice, as it was then seen as an

instrument of the commoners, rather than as an official instrument; therefore relegating its

value (Calvano, 2010). Furthermore, it was also chosen because of the specific melancholic

sound it produced (Calvano, 2010), thereby intensifying the feeling of pity for the once

mighty but now "half-devastated", "crippled" (Kaes, p. 83) Vaterland.

The emasculation of the German male is perhaps elucidated most starkly when Maria's

husband, Hermann, stumbles into a scene where Maria and an African-American soldier, Bill,

are in bed. Hermann responds firstly by pushing Maria non-chivalrously, pauses, and then

runs in an almost greedy, comical fashion to use Bill's cigarettes which he spots on the

bedside table. Bill gives him a look of contempt and later on calmly and comfortingly

embraces the frenetic Hermann. The phenomenon of the emasculated German man is thus

given an international layer of humiliation, whereby he, meaning the old Germany, is

portrayed as crestfallen and contemptible, in contrast to the gallant American. This

comparison was part of the zeitgeist reflected amongst the German masses, where youth

preferred to "[look] to Hollywood for a new model of male identity", one which boasted

"mach[ismo]" and "self-assurance" (Fehrenbach, pp. 166-167).

1.2 The Strong German Female

The emasculation of the German male cannot be understood fully without a tandem analysis

of the German woman. The war required the taking on of new roles by the German women,

where traditional roles such as wife and "helpmate" were "repudiated", having to acclimatize

themselves to the realities of "provid[ing] for themselves and their children, nightly bombing

raids, evacuations, epidemics...brutalization and rape" (Fehrenbach, p. 96). Many German

men were "shocked" upon their return at "finding not the young, amiable, and soft-spoken

wives ... but women rendered haggard, hardened and self-reliant as a result of the war on the

home front" (Fehrenbach, p. 96). The duality of a character of both self-reliant strength and

of a hardened spirit is very tellingly embodied in Maria Braun, who symbolizes war-torn

(West) Germany, the figure who must "pick herself up from the ashes of war and national

disgrace" (Rheuban, p. 215). Part of this recovery involved intensive subscription to the

Allies' imposed ideology of free-market capitalism, as demonstrated for instance in West

Germany's obligatory membership in the European Steel and Coal Community, the

enactment of the Marshall Plan and American-Allies attempts to liberalise the German film

industry and to flood it with ideology-infused West-friendly films, especially when Cold War

politics started to intensify (Fehrenbach, p. 69). Diagetic sound inclusions of American radio

broadcasts relaying such policies, like the Morgenthau Plan further reinforce the historical

confluence of Allied-administered recovery plans for West Germany.

Maria's engagement with capitalism is as such reflected multiply in her romantic

relationships with both the American Bill and the French-German bourgeoisie industrialist

Oswald. The element of capitalism is played out when she pursues her relationships with

these men largely for material gain, given her relative poverty after the war. This is especially

so in her relationship with Oswald, where she calls herself the "Mata Hari of the economic

miracle". This is a particularly pertinent reference, firstly considering how Mata Hari was a

woman who had French-German connections during World War I , secondly considering

how she relied on her powers of seduction to satisfy her needs, be they material or physical,

and thirdly on how she used "her men friends for her livelihood (Rennell, 2007). The second

trait is exhibited clearly in her purchase of a revealing, black dress on the black market, the

means by which she utilizes to enhance her attractiveness in both the pub occupied by the

Americans, and in the first-class cabin of the train in her encounter with Oswald. Maria's

engagement with capitalism is further manifest by her commanding presence and her ability

to converse in English in traditionally male-dominated spaces, for instance in the workplace

amidst discussions regarding hefty business deals. Her self-assuredness is unequivocal when

she responds with a sanguine "Good. I'll be the first" to Oswald's accountant, Senkenberg's

comment on there being no women in the top positions yet. Finally, by situating Maria's self-

proclamation as the Mata Hari of the "economic miracle", where the Wirtschaftswunder

denotes the rapid economic success of post-war West Germany, Fassbinder also confirms

Maria's symbolism as the New Germany who has engaged in multiple international

relationships to advance its path on free-market capitalism.

2. Of Post-war Ideologies and Reactions

2.1 Of Capitalism and Sovereignty Worries

The incursion of externally-imposed capitalism and foreign influence in spheres both

political4 and cultural

5 was pervasive to the extent where it became a pressing concern for

both the "native elites" and masses alike to "re-establish [both territorial and cultural] national

integrity" and "political sovereignty" (Fehrenbach, p. 6). These historical fears and concerns

regarding the need to maintain a certain national integrity are expressed once again through

Geschichten. A comparison of Maria's expressions towards her lovers Bill and Oswald in

relation to her husband Hermann makes this clear: She is "fond" of Bill and accepts the

material gifts he has for her, but she will not "marry" him; likewise, she initiates copulation

with Oswald and is in a relationship with him for the material benefits he can offer her, but

4Besides the splitting of post-war Germany into 4 foreign-administered spheres, American policies of military

occupation were also enacted unilaterally (Fehrenbach, p. 62). 5 These included Allied "screening of films based on political or ideological content and determination to trace

out national socialism" (Fehrenbach, 1995)

she insists that he has "no right[s]" over her, and rejects directly his offer of marriage too.

These marital rejections are rooted in her love for and marriage with Hermann. Hence, when

one considers the common biblical assertion that marriage constitutes the union of two such

that they become one, Maria's insistence on her maintenance of marital fidelity with her

German husband Hermann and her symbolism as the new Germany thus reflects the deep-

rooted compulsion for the safeguarding of a national integrity. Temporary, non-binding

relationships are acceptable, so long as they contribute only to the rebuilding of an assured

future for Germany (collectively Maria and Hermann), for it is for the purpose of having a

comfortable future together that Maria/New Germany engages in relationships with her

lovers. Understood in its metaphorical context, post-war West Germany thus maintains a

delicate balance, just as federal officials "carefully cultivated their stage..with an eye toward

promoting the sovereignty of their Germany, in a way that flaunted their new Western

political orientation", thus " establishing a careful balance" politically necessary in the

immediate post-war context (Fehrenbach, p. 235).

2.2 Fassbinder's Critique of Capitalism : Dehumanization of Society

Despite the material advancements availed to West Germany, Fassbinder makes his damning

opinion of post-war West-German free-market capitalism very clear, through the character

development of Maria. The start of Maria's engagement in profit-driven behaviour is when

she undergoes a makeover by her friend, and they sing of not "shed[ding] tears". Although

this is sung amidst genuine laughter, this hardening of the personality is seen to compound as

Maria increases in wealth. Maria's mother reacts in a mixture of shock and disbelief when

Maria speaks emotionlessly about her father's death and of how she herself has replaced his

socioeconomic role as provider. Her mother exclaims that she has "changed so much" that

she is "like a stranger", with Maria quipping disinterestedly, almost sarcastically in response

"and [I'm] [also] cold, right"? The lover of Maria's mother however responds that "that's

nothing unusual these days", thus reflecting a certain common identification with the stoic

behaviour characteristic of one familiar with capitalistic behaviour. The harshness with which

Maria increasingly berates Oswald and the impassive confidence she exhibits when she talks

knowingly of Oswald's bequeathment to her in his will furthers Fassbinder's point on the

dehumanizing effect of capitalism, where feelings can be "purchased" (Rheuban, p. 221),

manipulated in the interest of material gain. The unfeeling effect of capitalism on the

individual is however epitomized most clearly when Maria snaps at the delivery-man, that

she would "rather pay than say thanks", where monetary transaction substitutes human

relations. The scene of Maria's near-irrational losing of her temper with the delivery-man

shows her framed tightly behind the solid window grills of her grandiose new house also

further reinforces Maria's mother's exasperated accusation that she lives like she "were in

prison". The artful use of misc-en-scene is thus especially effective in underscoring

Fassbinder's condemnation of a dogged, ruthless capitalism and its materialistic values,

denouncing it as being "ultimately destructive" (Calvano, p. 6) for the individual and thereby,

post-war German society at large.

2.3 Of a Collective Amnesia

Fassbinder's critique of capitalism within post-war West Germany is given an even more

ominous slant when one reads into the sociopolitical mood of the immediate post-war period.

Capitalism was seen to function as a coping mechanism for the Germans, where "repressed

political and psychological energies" were "rechanneled into the physical reconstruction of

Germany" (Kaes, p. 14). Political apathy was seen to abound, as the immediate burden of the

past became a "taboo" subject, with the older generation "consciously or unconsciously"

forbidding "all questions" about it (Kaes, p. 76). This apathy is enacted most visibly in the

domestic space of the home in Die Ehe, where the characters are seen to focus their energies

and excitement totally on their food and material topics, such as getting a house. They are

shown to be oblivious to the background sounds of their radio, broadcasting Adenauer's

fervent opposition of the Federal Republic's rearmament (Kaes, p. 82). The volume of the

radio, a diagetic sound, has been deliberately tuned by the producers to be louder than it

should be, deliberately grabbing the watcher's attention. The contrast in the lack of attention

paid to it by the characters themselves thus reflects Fassbinder's point, on the "deficient

political awareness of most Germans during the reconstruction period", where "practical

survival..take[s] precedence over the work of memory and mourning." (Kaes, p. 82)

This "collective amnesia" (Kaes, p. 19) in the era of the Wirtschaftswunder constituted more

layers, in the form of Heimatfilme and of repressive governmental action. The Heimatfilm

was a genre of film popularized in Germany in the 1950s, where it provided a means of

psychological escape from both the trauma of the past and the economic difficulties of the

present, focusing on a romanticisation of a "historical cultural heritage grounded in affective

ties of matrimony, family and community", portraying nature scenes of "visual excess" and

thus allowing indulgence in "nostalgia" of a preferred, untainted past (Fehrenbach, p. 152).

This had the effect of depoliticizing the past as a whole, evading the burden of the recent

past, allowing the community to collectively move on as a whole. This phenomenon is

cleverly manifest in the characterisation of the doctor, who, symbolising the feeble

masculinity of defeated Germany, speaks of having "learned to forget", and of his plans to

move to the "Black Forest", the latter itself a very common trope in Heimatfilme.

Fassbinder's work itself was also a response to a state-administered amnesia. The Autumn of

1977 in Germany saw the responses of a strong West German state in response to multiple

acts of terrorism, in the forms of "intensified security measures" which "restricted freedom of

expression", "news blackout[s]" and heavily edited "official versions[s] of events" (Kaes, pp.

24-25). This provoked members of the New German Cinema, Fassbinder included, to

"concern [them]selves with the images of [their] country", even if it were to appear "in its

most inhuman form" as part of Germany's collective "struggle" to "come to terms with its

own past" (Kaes, p. 34).

2.4 Of Political Implications on German Democracy

The pervasiveness of this collective amnesia is cinematically argued by Fassbinder to allow a

continuation of the evils of the past, of a "particularly subtle and sophisticated form of

totalitarianism", not dissimilar to the "Hitler regime" (Kaes, p. 25). Of particular exigency for

Fassbinder is Adenauer's policy of West German rearmament where for him this signified a

renewal of the "old order" with the "financial aid and military support of from its new

American partners" (Rheuban, p. 8). Die Ehe includes diagetically the radio broadcasts of

two of Adenauer speeches, firstly of his passionate disavowal of the rearmament of West

Germany, that there have been "enough killed". A later scene however broadcasts a complete

switch in position in 1954 declaring belligerently Germany's "right to rearm", "as much as

we can, as much as we want" (Rheuban, p. 145). For Fassbinder then, post-war Germany was

not so much a Stunde Null6, where "everything seemed possible" and there was "the chance to

found a state that could have been the most humane and freest ever" (Kaes, p. 79), but rather

merely a sinister continuation of the past. This was in line with the thought of several

intellectuals like Hannah Arendt and Hans Enzensberger, who feared the "end of the second

Germany Democracy" (Kaes, p. 100). Maria's killing of Bill in her perceived bid to protect

Hermann from the former can thus be symbolically read as the failure of American-imposed

democracy in Germany, where new Germany prefers to hark back to the past, obliterating

democracy in the process. This ominousness is further confirmed stylistically in Die Ehe,

6 Stunde Null literally translates to Zero Hour, and it was a reference to the perceived sociopolitical restart of

Germany after the war (Kaes, 1989).

where the film starts with a portrait of Hitler, and ends with a string of portraits of the various

subsequent German chancellors. The use of film negatives for the latter creates a heightened

feeling of eeriness and thus supplements Fassbinder's dystopic view of Germany's political

future, where the "soil that nourished anti-Semitism [still] [is] fertile" (Kaes, p. 94). The

effects of such an evolution are manifest in the figure of Maria, who vomits violently after

Adenauer's second speech is broadcasted. Geschichte then "breaks" into Geschichten (Kaes,

p. 83), where Maria's incapacitation becomes metaphor for the political sickness which

Fassbinder foresees Germany descending into.

Conclusion

Die Ehe thus cleverly incorporates an understanding of Geschichte through Geschichten,

where concurrent strands of ideologies and events of multiple types- political, economic,

demographic, social, psychological, emotional- intersect each other at multiple scales,

revealing through these private stories the variegated development of West Germany after the

Second World War. The multiple upheavals in the wake of the war and the fears, hopes, joys

and weaknesses of a recovering nation, as perceived by the producers, are expressed in

gendered bodies and their interactions. Above all, the continuities of history are stressed,

where the film itself serves both as one of the multiple mirrors existent in the period and as a

pertinent warning, against the complacency and the willed amnesia of the German people, by

demonstrating that their very own Geschichten will play a part in what will one day be their

people's Geschichte.

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BRAUN von Rainer Werner Fassbinder und Peer Raben. Kieler Beitrge zur

Filmmusikforschung, 1-13.

Fehrenbach, H. (1995). Introduction. The University of North Carolina Press.

Kaes, A. (1989). Images of History. London: Harvard University Press.

McCormick, R. (1980). The Marriage of Maria Braun by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Peter

Marthesheimer;Pia Frhlich. Cineaste, 34-36.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved 07 10, 2014, from

http://www.fassbinderfoundation.de/movies/die-ehe-der-maria-braun/#

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