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Staging the Border: National Identity and the Critical Geopolitics of West German Film

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14650040590946656

1557-3028

Inga Scharf,

Geopolitical readings of films have so far largely focused on the latter's ideological function. Yet, as is argued here, such a narrow view of film is not entirely justified. Thus, it is the declared aim of the paper to challenge this still prevalent position. In proposing a critical understanding of film, an analysis of three West German 'border narratives' demonstrates how these can be usefully understood in terms of a 'critical geopolitics'. Their representations of West German national identity show a people deeply affected by the geopolitical changes that occurred after the Second World War. More precisely, as the Berlin Wall became the national symbol for West Germany, filmic portrayals of men and women close to the German-German border take centre stage in these productions. As we encounter their stories we watch them divided between the desire for 'home' and the reality of 'homelessness'. Notes M. Gilmartin and E. Kofman, 'Geopolitics, Empire and Imperialism', in L. Staeheli, E. Kofman and L. Peake (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography (New York: Routledge 2004) pp.1–13. Of course, one could also examine films from the former GDR and USA. However, this would be beyond the scope of the article which will concentrate upon West German representations of itself. G. Ó Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press 1996). J.P. Sharp, 'Hegemony, Popular Culture and Geopolitics: The Reader's Digest and the Construction of Danger', Political Geography 15/6–7 (1996) p.557. G. Ó Tuathail, Rethinking Geopolitics (London: Routledge 1998) p.3. Ibid. Ibid. pp.4–5. Ibid. pp.5–6. Gilmartin and Kofman (note 1). Ó Tuathail, Rethinking Geopolitics (note 5) pp.6–7. T. Elsaesser, New German Cinema – A History (London: Macmillan.1989) p.280. C.S. Gray and G. Sloan (eds), Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy (London, OR: Frank Cass 1999) p.5. During my research for this essay I came across two articles which chose a geopolitical perspective to analyse German matters in what seems to me a symptomatic way of addressing the question. These are K. Hörschelmann, 'Breaking Ground – Marginality and Resistance in (Post) Unification Germany', Political Geography 20/8 (2001) pp.981–1004; W. Natter, 'Geopolitics in Germany, 1919–45', in J. Agnew, K. Mitchell and G. Toal (eds), A Companion to Political Geography (Oxford, Blackwell 2003) pp.187–203. Yet there was no publication concerned with either of the two Germanies, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) or the German Democratic Republic (GDR), between 1945 and 1989. GoGwilt 1998 p.56. Ibid., p.50. Gilmartin and Kofman (note 1), K. Dodds, Geopolitics in a Changing World (Harlow: Pearson Education 2000); G. Ó Tuathail, (Dis)placing Geopolitics: Writing on the Maps of Global Politics', Society and Space 12 (1994) pp.525–46. Hereby Dodds largely focuses on production and reception issues, supplying facts and figures to support his argument, yet, only hints at the content of the films he refers to. Ó Tuathail, '(Dis)placing Geopolitics' (note 16) p.540. Ibid. p.541. Steve Bell is the popular satirical cartoonist in the Guardian newspaper, commenting on geopolitical issues. Ó Tuathail, Rethinking Geopolitics (note 5) p.11. Dodds (note 16) p.84. Elsaesser (note 11); T. Corrigan, New German Cinema – The Displaced Image (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press 1983); S. Hake,National Cinema (London: Routledge 2002); H.G. Pflaum and H.H. Prinzler, Film in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Der neue deutsche Film von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: Hanser 1992); J. Sandford, The New German Cinema (London: Oswald Wolff 1980); J. Franklin, New German Cinema: From Oberhausen to Hamburg (London: Columbus Books 1983); A. Kaes, From Hitler to Heimat – The Return of History as Film (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1989); K. Phillips, New German Filmmakers – From Oberhausen through the 1970s (New York: Frederick Ungar 1984). Elsaesser (note 11) p.216. During the Third Reich 'Heimat' became appropriated by Nazi geopolitics through the concept of 'Lebensraum' which proposes the form of a 'pure' imagined community. For a further discussion of 'Heimat' in relation to film, please see below. Pflaum and Prinzler (note 23). From the two NGC films set in Berlin and concerned with border issues Sander's Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers (Redupers, 1977) was chosen in favour of Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire, 1987) for two reasons. First, it adds a crucial female perspective to the investigation of the NGC's 'critical geopolitics' and thus enables the latter to explore the gendered nature of geopolitics in NGC productions. Secondly, Wender's famous film has been the object of so many analyses (see, for example, R. Bromley, From Alice to Buena Vista: The Films of Wim Wenders (Westport, CT: Praeger 2001)) that it seemed more appropriate to include a less known, yet in terms of this paper's geopolitics discussion at least equally valuable film. Unless otherwise noted, all translations into English are my own. Ó Tuathail, Rethinking Geopolitics (note 5) p.11. Dodds (note 16) p.84. Another, subsidiary aim was to counter the aforementioned theoretical/historical approaches centred around a set group of acclaimed filmmakers and their work through a close analysis of productions (by less known NGC directors) which, since scarcely commented on, provide new insights into geopolitical as well as filmic issues. To substantiate the latter argument, this body of film literature was scrutinised accordingly, and the result corresponds with the thematic absence of 'border' related concerns. Thus in Sandford (note 23), Franklin (note 23), Kaes (note 23), and Phillips' (note 23) works the three films are not mentioned at all. In the film historical accounts of Elsaesser (note 11), Hake (note 23), as well as Pflaum and Prinzler (note 23) the films are briefly referred to as part of the NGC's body of films. Only in Corrigan's book does one find a chapter on Sander's Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers (1977). Far from dealing with geopolitical questions, however, the author describes the film as a landmark of women's cinema in West Germany and celebrates it as 'perhaps the most internationally acclaimed feminist film of the New German Cinema'; Corrigan (note 23) p.111. Regarding this, the 'critical geopolitics' of the narrative is sidestepped, which allows for the latter's original study together with N. Schilling, Der Willi Busch Report(The Willi Busch Report, 1979) and P. Schneider, Der Mann auf der Mauer (The Man on the Wall1982) within the analytical part of this essay. C. Seidl, Der deutsche Film der fünfziger Jahre (Munich: Wilhelm Heine Verlag 1987). B. Westermann, Nationale Identität im Spielfilm der fünfziger Jahre (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 1990) p.57. See for example E. Boa and R. Palfreyman, Heimat: A German Dream – Regional Loyalties and National Identity in German Culture 1890–1990 (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000). D. Morley and K. Robins, 'No Place Like Heimat: Images of Home(land) in European Culture', in E. Carter, J. Donald and J. Squires (eds), Space and Place: Theories of Identity and Location (London: Lawrence and Wishart 1993) p.7. E. Santner, Stranded Objects: Mourning, Memory, and Film in Post-war Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1990). Morley and Robbins (note 34) p.17. The italicised headings are not part of the voiceover but structuring and analytical devices inserted by the author. L. Mulvey, 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', in C. Penley (ed), Feminism and Film Theory (London, BFI 1998) pp.62–3. This theme reappears in Der Mann auf der Mauer, where it is broadened however, to incorporate an objectified and feminised view of both East and West Germany, depending upon the relative perspective of the protagonist at the time, as he constantly crosses the border. Further, this theme can be seen in the most famous of German 'border films' Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire, Wenders 1987), where the Berlin wall can be read as a border between the spiritual life of Bruno Ganz's angel and the earthly existence of the woman he silently observes then falls in love with. Here her character can be read as the traditional (or biblical) female paradigm, in which feminine virtues are earthly, physical and thus sexualised. This being in opposition to the masculine and 'spiritual' character of the angel. The title of the film suggests an East–West dialogue: 'Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit' (the wholly reduced personality), in short Redupers, is a reference and inversion of the GDR's flowery phrase 'Die allseitig verwirklichte sozialistische Persönlichkeit' (the wholly fulfilled socialist personality). This concept, introduced by J. Butler, Gender Trouble (London: Routledge 1990), describes the relationship between discourse and the materiality of bodies/things as being indissoluble. Thus the author defines the 'performative' as 'that discursive practice which enacts or produces that which it names' (p.13). Certain groups of people, i.e. pensioners and children, were allowed to move (relatively) freely between East and West Germany since the risk of them not returning was seen as relatively small by officials. In this vein, the 'Willi' version of 'popular geopolitics' seems to still contain certain 'traditional' residues, focusing on the white male, while the 'Edda' version of 'popular geopolitics' appears to be much more overtly 'critical', taking the perspective of a single mother in a patriarchal society. However, even though this is the case to some extent both films, too, offer a critique of solely 'traditional geopolitical' approaches by transgressing the male/active/powerful vs female/passive/powerless binaries. Because of the latter and by acknowledging and illustrating the gendered nature of geopolitics both narratives can be ultimately associated with the concept of 'critical geopolitics'. This can be read as a call for 'decolonising' Germany, addressing the issue that until today the latter hosts a large number of American and British soldiers in various army bases all over the country. This refers to the NATO (for West Germany) and the Warsaw Pact (for East Germany). Besides his promotion of Germany's 'physical decolonisation' Arnulf here programmatically formulates the idea of 'decolonising the (German) mind' which ultimately means to erase the existing national, 'traditional geopolitical' imagination in order to be able to picture a new German way of being-in-the-world; Ó Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics (note 3) p.256. J.P. Sharp, Condensing Communism: The Reader's Digest and American Identity 1922–1994 (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minneapolis Press 2000); idem, 'Remasculinising Geo-politics? Comments on Gearoid O'Tuathail's Critical Geopolitics', Political Geography 19/3 (2000) pp.361–4; in Gilmartin and Kofman (note 1). P. Routledge, 'Introduction to Anti-Geopolitics', in G. Ó Tuathail, S. Dalby and P. Routledge (eds), The Geopolitics Reader (London: Routledge 1998) p.245. P. Routledge, 'Anti-Geopolitics', in J. Agnew, K. Mitchell and G. Ó Tuathail (eds), A Companion to Political Geography (Oxford: Blackwell 2003) p.236. Ibid. p.237. Morley and Robins (note 34) p.17. Ibid. p.5. Rose, G. 'Place and Identity: A Sense of Place', in D. Massey, P. Jess (eds), A Place in the World: Places Cultures and Globalization (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995) pp.96–7.