Katharina Blum: Violence and the Exploitation of Sexuality

Katharina Blum: Violence and the Exploitation of Sexuality Charlotte Ärmster In 1974, Heinrich Boll's then recent novel Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum was serialized in the V?est German magazine Der Spiegel. The appearance of the novel in the news magazine was notable, as it marked the first time that Spiegel published a literary work in its entirety. The novel's literary merit was not, however, the reason the editors chose to make an exception to their usual policies regarding what they print. Instead, Boll's short novel was viewed as having actual news value in that it possessed a direct tie to immediate political events in Germany. In Spiegel's own words: "Eine denkwürdige publizistische Affäre - Bölls Kontroverse mit 'Bild' über dessen Baader-Meinhof-Berichte hat ein aktuelles belletristisches Nachspiel: In einer Erzählung mit dem Titel Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann attakiert der Kölner Literatur-Nobelpreisträger 'gewisse journalistische Praktiken' . . . ."! To Spiegel editors, the publication of Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum was seen as the continuation of a bitter public confrontation between Boll and the Springer-controlled press. In January 1972, Boll had written an article for Per Spiegel entitled "Will Ulrike Meinhof Gnade oder freies Geleit?" It was in part a response to an earlier story in the Bild, and its main point was to call into question the role which the Springer press had in escalating the violence exhibited by both the German police and such radical groups as Baader-Meinhof. BiId, and similar publications such as Quick, immediately targeted Boll for public vilification . In their pages he was repeatedly denounced and accused of latent and intellectual complicity with terrorist groups. The stories had an effect. On June 1, 1972 the police surrounded and searched Boll's country house in the Eifel region, believing it to be a possible hide-out for Ulrike Meinhof.2 83 Other news articles, including ones in Pie Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung, tended to stress the political aspects of the novel.3 Böll himself, within the structure of the novel, seemed to invite interpretations which concentrated attention on the relationship between his narrative content and actual political events. "Sollten sich bei dieser Schilderung gewisser journalistischen Praktiken Ähnlichkeiten mit den Praktiken der 'BiId'Zeitung ergeben haben," reads in part an ironic disclaimer at the beginning of the novel, "so sind diese Ähnlichkeiten weder beabsichtigt noch zufällig, sondern unvermeidlich." With these words, a comparison between the fictional world of the novel and Boll's actual experiences with the Springer press became inevitable. In light of the political climate at the time, it is not surprising that many initial interpretations of Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum were primarily concerned with obvious connections to the external world. Such an approach, however, obscured the sexual exploitation depicted in the novel (which is integral to the entire plot development) and concentrated almost solely on the political reality of West Germany. This is most readily apparent in the fact that these interpretations emphasized the importance of the subtitle: "How violence develops and where it can lead"—and neglected the importance of the primary title: "The lost honor of Katharina Blum." The sexual nature of "lost honor" and its connection to violence, as implied by the interplay between title and subtitle, was simply overlooked. In the few early interpretations where sexual aspects of the novel's structure were noted, their significance was completely downplayed. Rainer Nägele, for example, criticized the ambiguity of Katharina's use of her vulgar word bumsen with the argument: Offenbar wollte Böll hier den Zusammenhang von Wort und Gewalt in Wortspiel zur Unmittelbarkeit verdichten. Pas ist ihm einerseits zwar gelungen, jedoch mit bedenklichen Kosten: denn was das Wortspiel symbolisch verdichtet, löst es im Kontext der Handlung auf, indem es die Motivation verwirrt und den Schuß zur Reaktion auf eine sexuelle Attacke macht, womit die von der Recherche mühsam aufgebauten Motivationszusammenhänge gefährlich in Frage gestellt werden.4 84 In fact, the motivation for killing Tötges is not confused in the sense that Nägele believes. From the...