More books

[mothwing]

53.

Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Or: how violence develops and where it can lead), by Heinrich Böll.
Independent divorcée Katharina Blum meets a bankrobber, falls in love, has an affair in the Germany of the seventies. The most influential tabloid react with a very intrusive smear campaign claiming that she's knowingly harboured a criminal and slept around a lot which destroys her reputation, causes several threatening and molesting phone calls and eventually leads to her shooting the journalist heading the campaign when he molests her.
I like Heinrich Böll, I liked this book. What disconcerted me in the lessons I've visited that were about this book is how much they tend to downplay the sexual violence, which was frustrating to watch.

54.

Die Feuerzangenbowle, by Heinrich Spoerl and Hans Reimann.
Distinguished writer Dr. Hans Pfeiffer attends a party at which a lot of the title drink is consumed and his equally distinguished friends reminisce and share nostalgic stories about their school days and the tricks they played on their teachers. This causes him to lament the fact that he has never attended a school and a drunk plan is hatched for him to attend school. He does and gets to experience this indispensible chapter in life, play tricks on teachers, and otherwise experience school life first-hand.
Though it does have some serious issues I love both this book (the inscription! "Dieser Roman ist ein Loblied auf die Schule, aber es ist möglich, dass die Schule es nicht merkt" - roughly, "This novel is an encomium on school education, but it is possible that school educators will not notice this") and also the 1944 movie, in spite even of the Nazi overtones and the chilling circumstances of the production. I consider both book and movie essential for an understanding of contemporary German culture because of all the issues this touches, which is why I find it odd that it hasn't been translated.

Comments

[krakelwok.livejournal.com]

I'm no particular fan of the movie Feuerzangenbowle and I know Rühmann's attitude toward the regime was questionable in that it wasn't outright defiance. Still, I guess you could say in his favour that he made the movie in spite of Goebbel's reservations and managed to spare the pupils' actors some months of pointless slaughter in the trenches by keeping them in Germany during the filming.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Rühmann's views are so hard to gauge (having been personally affected, neither a strong supporter OR opponent he seems so incredibly aloof and detached at times) it makes it difficult to pinpoint the Feuerzangenbowle and its political aim in some areas - it's not a light-hearted affair by any means, but precisely the overshadowed circumstances of its creation in the context of the time and its not unproblematic unreflected cult-status today make the movie so interesting and lovable for me.

[krakelwok.livejournal.com]

It's true, Rühmann's work and influence are hard to judge. I'd like to believe he stayed in Nazi Germany to do what he did best, make the people forget for a while about their hardships. I don't think Rühmann can be accused just for staying. Erich Kästner did the same thing and he wrote the script for 1941's Münchhausen. Of course, Kästner made clear what he thought about the Nazis, why he stayed in Germany and he undoubtedly had a much harder time working in his profession than Rühmann who wasn't above shooting stuff like Quax der Bruchpilot which definitely had regime-friendly undertones.
So I'm mostly OK with Rühmann but a bit of doubt remains ...