GERMAN INTERMARRIAGE 
TESTIMONIALS

First, I would like to take issue with Konrad Weiss (though I agree with

much of what he says otherwise): whatever the exact wording at the

beginning of the film, Margarethe von Trotta does claim

authenticity--otherwise she would not be stating that the events actually

happened. In fact, any historical film makes this claim to some degree, by

simply taking up historical events or situating the action in a

recognizably historical context. This does not mean we can't treat

historical events in a fictional way, it simply places a special

responsibility on a filmmaker not to depart too far from the historical

record.

 

More important, I see the film as one of a recent series of cultural

productions which memorialize the Third Reich more and more as a time when

Germans were either victims or heroes--not perpetrators, and as a time when

Jews, if mentioned at all, are seen as merely adding to the German's

problems. (My thinking here is strongly influenced by Omer Bartov's essay

"Seit die Juden Weg sind", printed most recently in his book _Germany's War

and the Holocaust: Disputed Histories._)  In von Trotta's film Jews are

almost just a part of the scenery; they serve to demonstrate the nobility

of the Aryan Germans, they disrupt the lives of their German spouses (by

being arrested) and they add a bit of exoticism with their curious burial

customs, but the main story of the film does quite well without them. The

real heroes are Aryan German women (and one, crippled Aryan man....), who

are also victims of (in first instance) men (including Jewish men) and

(secondly) of cliches in SS uniform who are to one-dimensional to be

considered real people. This leaves the film with the simple message that

(female) Germans were heroes in opposing the Nazis and continuing life under

 

the burdens of war--which burdens were made worse by having to look after

weak and helpless Jews. (I found Beate Meyer's remarks particularly helpful

here.)

 

But I would go a step further and argue that Rosenstrasse really argues for

kind of integralist or fundamentalist identity politics: what ultimately

defines people is an integral identity which cannot be denied or overcome:

Aryans are Aryans, Jews are Jews, women and women, and anyone who attempts

to combine or deny one of these fundamental identities will sooner or later

suffer the consequences or return to the fold: thus Ruth insists on

mourning her husband in the strict orthodox tradition, and her daughter

Hannah goes to Germany in search of her Jewish identity. Though von Trotta

may seem on the surface to be arguing for a "humanistic" or "non-political

anti-fascism", I think the real logic of her film is quite different. This

is only intensified by the melodramatic character of the film and by its

heavy use of stereotypes, which contributes to its ultimately conservative,

even reactionary message.

 

Bruce Campbell

Dept. Of Modern Languages and Literatures, the College of William and Mary