In order to address the questions I have posed, I will undertake a detailed textual analysis of the following four novels66 published after 1990, with a focus on their portrayal of Germans as perpetrators and/or victims:
• Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink; • Unscharfe Bilder by Ulla Hahn;
• Himmelskörper by Tanja Dückers; and • Flughunde by Marcel Beyer.
The choice of these particular four novels has been determined by the
following factors. The first is the level of public and critical attention that each of the novels and their authors has received in the public domain in Germany, a level of attention which itself suggests that literature forms an essential part of German debates about the past. Der Vorleser is without doubt the most widely known and read novel of this genre in the post-1990 period, not only in Germany, but also internationally. It has been translated into 51 languages, was turned into an Oscar-nominated film in 200867, and has featured in the German secondary school syllabus68. Schlink has received a number of
awards for the novel, including the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse in 2003. The novel has also been remarkable for the longevity of its popularity, with interest in the book peaking several times. The original hardback edition
66 The number of novels chosen for analysis has been dictated largely by
constraints of thesis length.
67 The Reader, director Stephen Daldry, writers David Hare and Bernhard
Schlink, performers Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, produced The Weinstein Company, 9. Babelsberg Film, 2008.
68 Mahlendorf, Ursula R “Trauma Narrated, Read and (Mis)understood:
Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader” Monatshefte 95.3 (2003): 458 - 481 at 458 – 459.
reached number 17 in the Spiegel bestseller list in 1996, but it was not until the novel was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club on 26 February 199969, followed by an appearance by Schlink on Oprah’s talk show on 30 March 1999, that the novel achieved international fame, reaching number 1 on the New York
Times bestseller list70. The international attention reignited German interest in the novel, and Der Vorleser climbed to number 2 on the Spiegel bestseller list in 2000. The release of the film version of the novel in 2008 gave rise to another wave of popularity, with the book again reaching number 2 on both the New York Times and Spiegel bestseller lists71. Der Vorleser has therefore had the unusual distinction of being at the top of both German and
international bestseller lists for over a decade.
Although not as well-known as Der Vorleser, the other three novels chosen for analysis have all sold well, and their authors are successful members of the German literary scene, indicating a capacity to influence thought on the relevant issues in German culture. Hahn, for example, was awarded the inaugural Deutscher Bücherpreis for her novel Das verborgene Wort72.
Dückers publishes widely as a journalist and has gained attention as a significant member of the younger generation of authors, particularly in
69 Oprah’s Book Club <http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/The-Reader-
by-Bernhard-Schlink> (accessed 11 April 2016).
70 Heigenmoser, Manfred Erläuterungen und Dokumente: Bernhard Schlink
Der Vorleser Stuttgart: Reclam, 2005 at 111 – 112.
71 See generally information from the publisher’s website: Diogenes
<http://diogenes.ch/leser/autoren/a-z/s/schlink_bernhard/biographie> (accessed 11 April 2016).
72 Hahn, Ulla Das verborgene Wort Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag,
2010. See generally information from the publisher’s website: Random House
<http://www.randomhouse.de/Autor/Ulla_Hahn/p160006.rhd?mid=2#tabbox>
relation to the theme of the Nazi past73. In 2006 she was named by the
Deutsches Historisches Museum as one of the 10 most important writers under 4074. Beyer has won numerous literary prizes for his work, including
both the Kleist Preis and the Oskar Pastior Preis in 201475. An early version of Flughunde was accepted as a contender in the Bachmann-Wettbewerb in 199176. The popularity of these novels and the critical attention they have
received indicate that these works have struck a chord with the public in terms of the way in which they deal with the Nazi past and can be regarded as representative of post-unification literary works which focus on
Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
The second reason for the choice of these particular texts is that they have been written by representatives of two different generations. Born in 1944 and 1946 respectively, Schlink and Hahn are writers of the second generation, whereas Dückers (born 1968) and Beyer (born 1965) belong to the third. Writers of both of these generations have been claimed to have particular generationally-based attitudes towards the Nazi past in the period following 1990. It is often considered that authors of the second generation have broken with their previous attitude of harsh condemnation towards the
perpetrator generation and that some of them have repented of their youthful rebellion and become more sympathetic towards their parents’ suffering,
73 Including in Der Spiegel: “Die Enkel wollen es wissen” and “Gesucht: die
eigene Herkunft”, both op cit.
74 See author’s own website: Dückers, Tanja
<http://www.tanjadueckers.de/preise/> (accessed 11 April 2016).
75 See generally information from the publisher’s website: Suhrkamp
<http://www.suhrkamp.de/autoren/marcel_beyer_369.html> (accessed 11
April 2016).
76 Beyer, Marcel “Flughunde” in Felsbach, Heinz and Metelko, Siegbert
Klagenfurter Texte Ingeborg-Bachmann-Wettbewerb 1991 Munich: Piper,
seeking to reconcile with them in their old age77. This has been seen as
leading to a tendency in literature to depict the first generation as victims, constituting a significant break with the perpetrator-focused portrayals typical of the Väterliteratur of the 1970s and 1980s. Of the third generation, it has been said that their distance in time from the events of the Third Reich and lower level of personal and emotional involvement with members of the first generation allows them to take a more balanced view of the past, enabling them to produce more nuanced perpetrator portrayals78. Choosing authors
from both generations for my analysis will allow me to ascertain whether there are differences in the approaches of these generations to the past and also to identify cross-generational patterns.
Thirdly, the publication dates of these four novels span the beginning and end of a period during which public discussion of the Nazi past in Germany swung between viewing Germans primarily as perpetrators and a concentration on Germans as victims. Around the time of publication of both Der Vorleser and
Flughunde in 1995 there was a significant concentration in the public arena on
Germans as perpetrators, sparked by events such as the opening of the
77 Welzer, Harald “Schön unscharf. Über die Konjunktur der Familien- und
Generationenromane” Mittelweg 36 13.1 (2004): 53 - 64.
78 Lensen, for example, sees “nuance, objectivity, integration” as the
watchwords of third generation authors: Lensen, Jan “Perpetrators and Victims: Third-generation Perspectives on the Second World War in Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde and Erwin Mortier’s Marcel” Comparative Literature 65.4 (2013): 450 at 464 – 465. Ganeva surveys early responses to third generation authors writing about the past, in which they were described as having an “uninhibited”, “easy-going” and “relaxed” attitude towards their family history: Ganeva, Mila op cit at 152. Dückers herself has commented that her
generation is the first “die einen nüchternen Blick auf dieses Thema wagen
kann” because, unlike earlier generations, they were not emotionally tied up in
their own memories of the war or their generational conflict with their parents: Partouche, Rebecca “Der nüchterne Blick der Enkel: Wie begegnen junge Autoren der Kriegsgeneration? Ein Gespräch mit Tanja Dückers” Die Zeit 30 April 2003.
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht exhibition in 1995 and the Goldhagen debate of
1996. By around the time Unscharfe Bilder and Himmelskörper were
published in 2003, the pendulum appeared to have swung back in the other direction. The concentration on German suffering resulting from Allied bombings, flight and expulsion inspired by Friedrich’s Der Brand, Sebald’s
Luftkrieg und Literatur, and Grass’ Im Krebsgang, as well as the various Spiegel series and Knopp television productions at a more popular level had
given rise to an impression that the image of Germans as victims had won the memory contest. Choosing texts from both ends of this period facilitates an analysis of whether portrayals of Third Reich Germans in literature have mirrored these changing positions in the perpetrator/victim dichotomy in the wider public discourse about the past.
Finally, these four novels have been selected because they represent a range of literary approaches towards the theme of dealing with the Nazi past. For example, whereas Der Vorleser and Unscharfe Bilder both focus their thematisation of the past on the relationship between first and second generation characters, the consideration of the Nazi past in Himmelskörper involves three generations and is set in the context of a broader coming of age story. Flughunde is significantly different from the other three novels, in that it is set primarily during the period of the Third Reich and related chiefly from a first generation perspective. Another difference in literary style between the novels can be seen in the open or closed nature of each text. Whereas Der Vorleser and Flughunde display a textual openness which allows for a higher degree of reader involvement in the creation of meaning in the text, both Unscharfe Bilder and Himmelskörper are relatively closed texts
in which reader response is significantly guided by literary features such as highly functionalised characters and overtly constructed conversations. Further differences between the novels will become apparent in the analyses which follow. The relative dissimilarity of the novels in terms of style and plot means that they are better suited to testing the emergence of broader
patterns in the portrayal of Germans as perpetrators or victims in
contemporary German literature. Similarities of portrayal in similar novels are to be expected. Such similarities in dissimilar novels, however, are of greater significance, in that they indicate that broader cultural influences are at play79.