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 19441954. 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

"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
2

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 selfproclamation 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 cultural5 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
4

Besides 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 deeprooted 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,

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.

Bibliography
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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/#
Rennell, T. (10 08, 2007). Mata Hari was only interested in one thing - and it wasn't espionage.
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Rheuban, J. (1986). The Continuity Script. Rutgers, The State University.
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