Searching for a New German Identity: Heiner Müller and the Geschichtsdrama (review)

Almost two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Theresa M. Ganter picks up the hotly debated topic of German identity and argues that the East German playwright and intellectual Heiner Müller (1929–1995) was searching all his life for a new German identity. She believes his Geschichtsdramen investigate the questions: " 'Who were the Germans in ages past?'; 'Who are they at the moment?'; and 'Who might they become in the future?' " (14). In addition to the frequently used (and criticized) categorization of Müller's plays into "production plays," "antiquity plays," "German history plays," and "revolution plays," she claims to have discovered a fifth category—taking the two dramas with the word "Germania" in the title (Germania Death in Berlin and Germania 3 Ghosts at Dead Man) out of the third category and labeling them "German identity plays" (44).

Ganter offers short, but sufficient introductions both to Müller's biography (Chapter One) and to the genesis of the German Geschichtsdrama (part of Chapter Two), before delving into the analysis of those two aforementioned plays in the main chapters (Three and Four). Unfortunately, the structure of her book is somewhat chaotic; dealing with more topics than the table of contents indicates, she jumps back and forth. For instance, in Chapter Two, a sub-chapter entitled "The development of Germania Tod in Berlin: form and style" contains another sub-chapter, "Form and style," in which she briefly lists Müller's techniques of montage, collage, intertextual references and parallel scenes on three pages (73–75), before returning to the historical background of the divided post-war Germany; the other "Form and style"-sub-sub-chapter on Germania 3 is two pages long, only one of which deals with formal aspects of the play. Generally speaking, the first 80 pages are an introduction to 20^th-century German history and Müller's writing—and as such are valuable for a reader not familiar with both issues.

Chapters Three and Four deal extensively with the two plays and make for the strongest parts of the book. The chapter on Germania Tod in Berlin (1956/71/77) is especially rich in analysis of central characters and themes. Ganter competently presents and judges the most important existing interpretations and complements them with her own analysis including meticulously researched explanations of textual references. Aside from the occasional unfortunate choice of formulations, e.g. about Hitler abusing the German "national character" (113) or being (single-handedly?) responsible for World War II and guilty of the deaths of countless individuals through "his" concentration camps (127), this chapter supplies the reader with interesting insights, as does the chapter on Germania 3 Gespenster am Toten Mann (1995/96). The book must be commended additionally for its detailed bibliography of English secondary literature on Müller.

However, Ganter makes some factual mistakes, such as: Müller's father was a member of the SPD, not the KPD (18); she calls the SPD the "Socialist Party of Germany"/"Sozialistische Partei Deutschlands," rather than "Social Democratic," similarly, she translates the "sozialdemokratisch" in USPD into "socialist" and smuggles an "e" into the Christlich(e) Demokratische Union (all 11); some quotes in the appendix contain misspellings (e.g. 413). These errors might be seen as forgivable considering the large compilation of information, interpretation, and historical background.

Much more unfortunate is the fact that Ganter's work loses strength whenever she makes general arguments: Her opening and ending chapters contain both repetitive and trivial statements (such as: the future is based on the present which in turn is based on the past, 15), as well as questionable claims (Eichinger's film Der Untergang is said to be "cinematic testimony to Müller's theatrical presentations," 346). What is more, her overall tone is often optimistic in a way that resembles official political statements and is at odds with Müller's texts, such as: "contemporary Germans now had the...