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نموذج طفولة
عرفت الكاتبة الألمانية كريستا فولف، بروايتها 'تأملاتي حول كريستات' '1968' كما أثار كتابها 'مايبقي' جدلا واسعا عام 1990 بشأن علاقة المثقف بالسلطة¬ ،كما شكلت " نموذج طفولة " علامة فارقة في تاريخ الرواية الألمانية بما فيها من عمق نادر. تقول كريستا : الحياة اليومية تفتنني بشكل لايصدق، وانني أجده أمرا مثيرا للأسي، كون الانسان ينساها بصورة كاملة تقريبا اليوم حين أقرأ مذكراتي ألاحظ أنني أكاد ألا أعرف شيئا، فيما عدا الاحداث الشخصية البارزة وحتي هي أحيانا يتذكرها المرء بصورة خاطئة ولذا كان أساسيا بالنسبة لي أن أسجل هذا كله في 'يوم في السنة' أما في مذكراتي العادية فأكاد لا أكتب عن هذه الأشياء اليومية. هبه شريف استطاعت أن تفهم وتترجم هذا العمق الغريب النادر وهذا الصدق المطلق وهذه الدقة فى متابعة مراحل الذات وتطورها وفى علاقاتها مع نفسها ومع غيرها من البشر ومن مجتمعاتها المتعددة بتعدد التحولات السياسية التى مرت بها ألمانيا منذ النازية وحتى الآن .
413 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
36 people are currently reading
2,870 people want to read
About the author
Christa Wolf
163books446followersNovelist, short-story writer, essayist, critic, journalist, and film dramatist Christa Wolf was a citizen of East Germany and a committed socialist, and managed to keep a critical distance from the communist regime. Her best-known novels included “Der geteilte Himmel� (“Divided Heaven,� 1963), addressing the divisions of Germany, and “Kassandra� (“Cassandra,� 1983), which depicted the Trojan War.
She won awards in East Germany and West Germany for her work, including the Thomas Mann Prize in 2010. The jury praised her life’s work for “critically questioning the hopes and errors of her time, and portraying them with deep moral seriousness and narrative power.�
Christa Ihlenfeld was born March 18, 1929, in Landsberg an der Warthe, a part of Germany that is now in Poland. She moved to East Germany in 1945 and joined the Socialist Unity Party in 1949. She studied German literature in Jena and Leipzig and became a publisher and editor.
In 1951, she married Gerhard Wolf, an essayist. They had two children. Christa Wolf died in December 2011.
(Bloomberg News)
She won awards in East Germany and West Germany for her work, including the Thomas Mann Prize in 2010. The jury praised her life’s work for “critically questioning the hopes and errors of her time, and portraying them with deep moral seriousness and narrative power.�
Christa Ihlenfeld was born March 18, 1929, in Landsberg an der Warthe, a part of Germany that is now in Poland. She moved to East Germany in 1945 and joined the Socialist Unity Party in 1949. She studied German literature in Jena and Leipzig and became a publisher and editor.
In 1951, she married Gerhard Wolf, an essayist. They had two children. Christa Wolf died in December 2011.
(Bloomberg News)
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November 25, 2017
I cried while reading this novel. Tears just kept flowing silently, and there was nothing I could do about it.
If you want to know what totalitarian states do to children, this novel will tell you, - without sentimentality, without blame or anger, without self-pity.
For all those emotions are forbidden ground for a child who was taught the dogma of national socialism and Führer personality cult from the age of 4, who believed in the “truth� of what she was told in the same way a child taught the “truth� of Christianity will believe in it, trained to follow the rituals and the patterns, to embrace the cult and its accompanying actions without ever having any choice as no alternatives are presented or accepted.
Waking up from that dream at 16, and realising there are multiple truths in the world, and that the one she has been trained to worship has caused the complete destruction of her own society and immeasurable evil and suffering for millions of innocent people, the narrator loses herself. The words she uses on a daily basis receive a different meaning, the songs she sings are full of ominous hints that she never put into a wider context, her way to greet people with the “German greeting�, referring to Hitler, is not only insulting, it is dangerous as well. Her values turn into vices, but her memory is not adjusted to that. She still thinks in the category of “purity� when she sees a young man, then corrects her own thoughts in shame and confusion. “Purity�, what is that?
If you believe in the superiority of your own country, race, ideology and biology, if you know nothing outside the narrow path of obedience, if you learn to read and write using the party line as a framework, if you study biology with the ideas of racial distinctions, if you participate in sports events to steel your body and mind to honour the deified person who dominates news and dictates thought patterns, how will your personality be shaped?
As opposed to the parent generation, who knew an alternative to Hitler’s Third Reich, the protagonist Nelly grows up with no comparison until her world falls apart, drastically, suddenly, in her teenage years. What happens to a psyche that has been systematically indoctrinated to believe in a system, and then wakes up to learn that it was pure evil? What happens to childhood memories, filled with songs that make another kind of sense once they can be compared to the evidence of the Holocaust, to euthanasia programs, to total war, to destruction of unimaginable dimensions? What happens to a person who has to ask how it could happen that all those people with whom she grew up embraced evil knowingly, willingly and almost automatically?
What happens when fear and shame are the two most dominant ingredients in your emotional cocktail?
Nelly is a writer, and in 1974, with the backdrop of the Vietnam war and her guilt regarding the suffering that never ends in the world, she sets out to make an account of her childhood years in a part of Germany that later became part of Poland. A couple of years earlier, in 1971, she had taken her husband, her brother and her teenage daughter on a trip to revisit the town she left as a refugee in 1945, and her tale moves between the different times and places, reflecting on the child Nelly, who is “she� in the account, and the older visitor travelling down memory lane, reconstructing the past, who is addressed as “you�, and her current writing self, hardly present, but an implied “I�.
There are no bridges between the different layers of identity: before and after 1945 cannot be reconciled. Symptomatic for the complete break is a situation in 1946 when Nelly’s mother picks up her father from the train station. He is returning from a mine in Siberia - a broken man, almost starved to death. She doesn’t recognise him, and he doesn’t recognise her either. They walk past each other, as they are not familiar with the patterns of suffering that have left their marks on their respective bodies and minds.
After years of hoping for the return of the father, Nelly’s family finally welcomes a stranger. Nelly herself is a stranger as well, and has to learn that she lived unknowingly in a dictatorship which she thought of as absolute freedom. Meeting survivors from concentration camps means realising that her reality was a fragile illusion, bound to be destroyed at some point.
And it means never ever allowing oneself to mourn the loss of childhood patterns which turn into symbols of the evil regime she believed in wholeheartedly, but which the older self, the historically educated narrator, abhors and fears. Studying maps, reflecting on the geographical locations of the concentration camps, the narrator has slowly formed a new pattern for those years, one that must have existed simultaneously with her enthusiastic participation in the adolescent program of the local Hitlerjugend. Born a few years earlier, she would have been guilty. A few years younger, she wouldn’t have experienced it. A strange generation.
As a mother, a teacher and a person who grew up in West Germany when the Berlin Wall still stood as a monument for the German 20th century catastrophe, I could not read this book without feeling terrified. I was shaken by every single emotion the protagonist went through - most of all the feeling of being split in two. I imagine my own children growing up in an atmosphere of nationalism and hysterical belief in their own superiority, I imagine them having to submit to a pledge of allegiance to the flag every single morning, I imagine them singing patriotic songs excluding the rest of the world from their perfect home country, and I shiver. Children are impressionable and eager to learn. If I lived with them in a regime like that, would I exclude them from the mainstream cult, and thus put our family at risk?
Wouldn’t I think of my family, my job, my home, my life? Wouldn’t I explain away the worst? I don’t know. I do know that the Third Reich has left patterns in the childhoods of many generations long after the war itself was over. I know it because I can’t suffer the nationalist rhetoric that neo-fascist regimes around the world like to use to get crowds cheering. I know it because I can’t stand CROWDS at all. Mass meetings scare me. People who are moved by loud, populist speakers scare me. Symbols of exclusive clubs scare me. I carry the patterns of the childhoods of German children growing up under that evil flag, and I won’t let my children come near any institution that teaches exclusive rights to a special group of people.
Christa Wolf’s book explains that inherited pain. She talks about the identity crisis, the trauma, the split consciousness, and the fear. The GROWING fear.
It could happen to us, so it can happen to anyone - for we were just normal people - that is the message from the novel to the world. Don’t ever believe it can’t happen to you, because after the Second World War, we know that human beings are capable of anything if they are trained and brainwashed in a specific way.
We can even actively decide what to forget!
But patterns of childhood stick, regardless...
If you want to know what totalitarian states do to children, this novel will tell you, - without sentimentality, without blame or anger, without self-pity.
For all those emotions are forbidden ground for a child who was taught the dogma of national socialism and Führer personality cult from the age of 4, who believed in the “truth� of what she was told in the same way a child taught the “truth� of Christianity will believe in it, trained to follow the rituals and the patterns, to embrace the cult and its accompanying actions without ever having any choice as no alternatives are presented or accepted.
Waking up from that dream at 16, and realising there are multiple truths in the world, and that the one she has been trained to worship has caused the complete destruction of her own society and immeasurable evil and suffering for millions of innocent people, the narrator loses herself. The words she uses on a daily basis receive a different meaning, the songs she sings are full of ominous hints that she never put into a wider context, her way to greet people with the “German greeting�, referring to Hitler, is not only insulting, it is dangerous as well. Her values turn into vices, but her memory is not adjusted to that. She still thinks in the category of “purity� when she sees a young man, then corrects her own thoughts in shame and confusion. “Purity�, what is that?
If you believe in the superiority of your own country, race, ideology and biology, if you know nothing outside the narrow path of obedience, if you learn to read and write using the party line as a framework, if you study biology with the ideas of racial distinctions, if you participate in sports events to steel your body and mind to honour the deified person who dominates news and dictates thought patterns, how will your personality be shaped?
As opposed to the parent generation, who knew an alternative to Hitler’s Third Reich, the protagonist Nelly grows up with no comparison until her world falls apart, drastically, suddenly, in her teenage years. What happens to a psyche that has been systematically indoctrinated to believe in a system, and then wakes up to learn that it was pure evil? What happens to childhood memories, filled with songs that make another kind of sense once they can be compared to the evidence of the Holocaust, to euthanasia programs, to total war, to destruction of unimaginable dimensions? What happens to a person who has to ask how it could happen that all those people with whom she grew up embraced evil knowingly, willingly and almost automatically?
What happens when fear and shame are the two most dominant ingredients in your emotional cocktail?
Nelly is a writer, and in 1974, with the backdrop of the Vietnam war and her guilt regarding the suffering that never ends in the world, she sets out to make an account of her childhood years in a part of Germany that later became part of Poland. A couple of years earlier, in 1971, she had taken her husband, her brother and her teenage daughter on a trip to revisit the town she left as a refugee in 1945, and her tale moves between the different times and places, reflecting on the child Nelly, who is “she� in the account, and the older visitor travelling down memory lane, reconstructing the past, who is addressed as “you�, and her current writing self, hardly present, but an implied “I�.
There are no bridges between the different layers of identity: before and after 1945 cannot be reconciled. Symptomatic for the complete break is a situation in 1946 when Nelly’s mother picks up her father from the train station. He is returning from a mine in Siberia - a broken man, almost starved to death. She doesn’t recognise him, and he doesn’t recognise her either. They walk past each other, as they are not familiar with the patterns of suffering that have left their marks on their respective bodies and minds.
After years of hoping for the return of the father, Nelly’s family finally welcomes a stranger. Nelly herself is a stranger as well, and has to learn that she lived unknowingly in a dictatorship which she thought of as absolute freedom. Meeting survivors from concentration camps means realising that her reality was a fragile illusion, bound to be destroyed at some point.
And it means never ever allowing oneself to mourn the loss of childhood patterns which turn into symbols of the evil regime she believed in wholeheartedly, but which the older self, the historically educated narrator, abhors and fears. Studying maps, reflecting on the geographical locations of the concentration camps, the narrator has slowly formed a new pattern for those years, one that must have existed simultaneously with her enthusiastic participation in the adolescent program of the local Hitlerjugend. Born a few years earlier, she would have been guilty. A few years younger, she wouldn’t have experienced it. A strange generation.
As a mother, a teacher and a person who grew up in West Germany when the Berlin Wall still stood as a monument for the German 20th century catastrophe, I could not read this book without feeling terrified. I was shaken by every single emotion the protagonist went through - most of all the feeling of being split in two. I imagine my own children growing up in an atmosphere of nationalism and hysterical belief in their own superiority, I imagine them having to submit to a pledge of allegiance to the flag every single morning, I imagine them singing patriotic songs excluding the rest of the world from their perfect home country, and I shiver. Children are impressionable and eager to learn. If I lived with them in a regime like that, would I exclude them from the mainstream cult, and thus put our family at risk?
Wouldn’t I think of my family, my job, my home, my life? Wouldn’t I explain away the worst? I don’t know. I do know that the Third Reich has left patterns in the childhoods of many generations long after the war itself was over. I know it because I can’t suffer the nationalist rhetoric that neo-fascist regimes around the world like to use to get crowds cheering. I know it because I can’t stand CROWDS at all. Mass meetings scare me. People who are moved by loud, populist speakers scare me. Symbols of exclusive clubs scare me. I carry the patterns of the childhoods of German children growing up under that evil flag, and I won’t let my children come near any institution that teaches exclusive rights to a special group of people.
Christa Wolf’s book explains that inherited pain. She talks about the identity crisis, the trauma, the split consciousness, and the fear. The GROWING fear.
It could happen to us, so it can happen to anyone - for we were just normal people - that is the message from the novel to the world. Don’t ever believe it can’t happen to you, because after the Second World War, we know that human beings are capable of anything if they are trained and brainwashed in a specific way.
We can even actively decide what to forget!
But patterns of childhood stick, regardless...
February 6, 2025
"Love and death, illness, health, fear and hope left a deep impression in your memory. Events that have been run through the filter of a consciousness that is not sure of itself - sieved, diluted, stripped of their reality - disappear almost without a trace. Years without memory which follow the beginning years. Years during which suspicion of sensory experience keeps growing. Only our contemporaries have had to forget so much in order to continue functioning."
I happened to pick up Christa Wolf's powerful and finely sustained novel in a used book store about a month ago. And it's condition was in a state of decay. Faded text, badly damaged spine, and discolouring throughout the pages. The book physically felt like a faded memory. So for this type of read, it kind of felt right. The prior reader/owner (or at least one of them) highlighted the above passage with a Neon orange marker pen. I probably would have done the same.
Coming to terms with Germany's past is something that was clearly playing in the heart and mind of Christa Wolf during the writing process of her book. This work is stripped of all elements that exist merely to give pleasure, as if she has refused the corrupt bourgeois palate and only has eyes to seek the most useful, nourishing of foods. There is a considerable harsh beauty that resounds throughout this book that makes one feel numb, and even though it's written as fiction, it still manages to blur the lines with non-fiction really well. Published under GDR rule Wolf's main concern is looking at the years before the Second World War, the actual war years, and the bigger picture of Nazism in Germany, how this impacted people's past, future life and the country overall. But the book is above all a memoir, an autobiographical piece, cleverly woven into the story of Nelly, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. As Wolf couldn't write in the first-person, she resorted to another one, of a different name. This gives her the distance much needed to be able to expose, describe and remember things accurately, though she can still also fail with that. Wolf cannot see herself in the flesh, as she would look when staring into the mirror. When wandering back through the years she now sees a young girl, that is her, no doubt, but seems so different with her innocence, ignorance, full of hope and nativity. How is she going to recognise herself into that girl? It is their past that brings them together, for that is one and the same.
The chain of internal monologues in the book are meant to show the inner quest for making sense of her own past which is part of the German people's past. But at the same time everything becomes connected with the present day, with the history she is living in, the history of Germany, after having started off another World War, consciously killing people en-mass and believing in an ideology that became self-destructive. Wolf constantly refers to her birthplace as 'former L that is now called G' (Landsberg / Gorzow Wielkopolski) and together with her younger brother Lutz, her husband, simply called H, and her daughter Lenka they embark a trip back to what used to be her hometown. The narrative swings back and forward from the years looking at Nelly's life and that of her family, to the now early seventies under GDR rule as Wolf travels bringing back the past, and it's done in way without the need for her to let the reader know. Like she is closing the gaps of the past with her the present self. All this looking back raises questions that she does not pose to anyone but herself. Reflecting on what the war did to her, her loves ones, and on how Nazism is viewed decades later by Germans who deny the knowledge of their mass extermination antics.
This is no doubt a complex and difficult read, with two journeys going on simultaneously, heavy with meanings, with deeper questions underneath statements. And even though the book came in at just over 400 pages long, for me it felt almost double that, because of the amount of details Wolf manages to cram in. Her writing style took some getting used to, and had me thinking of Herta Müller and even Elfriede Jelinek, although I found Wolf's subject matter far more interesting, moving, and just overall more engaging. The last hundred pages were immensely affecting, as Nelly and her family come to terms with the horrors around them.
However much I did struggle in places, this is still a quite extraordinary testament to not only the darkest days of the 20th century, but also to the power of literature. It is Wolf's vision of the fundamental strangeness of what seemed at the time simply an ordinary childhood in the loving surroundings of a normal family which makes her narrative so convincing and so pure. I pondered for a while whether to give this four or five stars. But felt it was worthy of a top rating.
January 31, 2021
Total War: Total Amnesia
Proust had his madeleine. Wolf’s Nelly has an infinity of objects ‘beyond the Oder�, in her pre-war Prussian homeland, to evoke memories of her childhood. But Proust had clarity, while Nelly’s memories are fragmentary and unreliable, reflecting a very un-Proustian ambiguity: “One could be there and not be there at the same time, the ghastly secret of human beings in this century.�
Nelly’s family is ‘unpolitical,� that is to say, unconcerned about government and its activities beyond the usual mendacity and corruption of the local council. Like most families, its main issues were Auntie Emmy’s embarrassing act as a gypsy witch and disputes over the invisible children’s territorial boundaries. Life wasn’t luxurious; but it wasn’t oppressive or unstable. People got along.
But so little engagement in governmental politics didn’t mean a lack of politics tout court. The politics of daily existence were learned at the dinner table and in the school yard: “That obeying and being loved amount to one and the same thing... A misdeed without consequences is no longer a misdeed... To rejoice in undue praise... The difficult job of sparing the parents... The link between good deeds and well-being.� And perhaps the most important political precept of all: “Not to be normal is the worst thing by far.�
These are the politics exploited by governments everywhere to achieve their ends. Without these unseen, unremarked, ingrained, politics of the heart, government becomes impossible. So when government becomes insane, it is only by the cessation of routine daily politics that its insanity can be controlled. This is perhaps a lesson of acute relevance to the present-day citizens of the United States who seem to have fallen into one of the periodic faux pas of democratic societies, one not dissimilar to that of Germany in 1933.
Wolf suggests the signal for reconsidering the continuation of daily politics in the face of governmental insanity: “The feeling that overcomes any living being when the earth moves underfoot is fear.� This fear may be the sign to stop being normal, particularly within the family and its political mores. “A family is an agglomeration of people of different ages and sexes united to strictly conceal mutually shared embarrassing secrets.� To coin a phrase, good government begins at home and before the age of seven.
Knowing when it is necessary to suspend normal politics, to take to the streets in order to protect others at the expense of one’s own interests, should not be one of the secrets. If it is, then as Wolf says, “Total war: total amnesia.�
Proust had his madeleine. Wolf’s Nelly has an infinity of objects ‘beyond the Oder�, in her pre-war Prussian homeland, to evoke memories of her childhood. But Proust had clarity, while Nelly’s memories are fragmentary and unreliable, reflecting a very un-Proustian ambiguity: “One could be there and not be there at the same time, the ghastly secret of human beings in this century.�
Nelly’s family is ‘unpolitical,� that is to say, unconcerned about government and its activities beyond the usual mendacity and corruption of the local council. Like most families, its main issues were Auntie Emmy’s embarrassing act as a gypsy witch and disputes over the invisible children’s territorial boundaries. Life wasn’t luxurious; but it wasn’t oppressive or unstable. People got along.
But so little engagement in governmental politics didn’t mean a lack of politics tout court. The politics of daily existence were learned at the dinner table and in the school yard: “That obeying and being loved amount to one and the same thing... A misdeed without consequences is no longer a misdeed... To rejoice in undue praise... The difficult job of sparing the parents... The link between good deeds and well-being.� And perhaps the most important political precept of all: “Not to be normal is the worst thing by far.�
These are the politics exploited by governments everywhere to achieve their ends. Without these unseen, unremarked, ingrained, politics of the heart, government becomes impossible. So when government becomes insane, it is only by the cessation of routine daily politics that its insanity can be controlled. This is perhaps a lesson of acute relevance to the present-day citizens of the United States who seem to have fallen into one of the periodic faux pas of democratic societies, one not dissimilar to that of Germany in 1933.
Wolf suggests the signal for reconsidering the continuation of daily politics in the face of governmental insanity: “The feeling that overcomes any living being when the earth moves underfoot is fear.� This fear may be the sign to stop being normal, particularly within the family and its political mores. “A family is an agglomeration of people of different ages and sexes united to strictly conceal mutually shared embarrassing secrets.� To coin a phrase, good government begins at home and before the age of seven.
Knowing when it is necessary to suspend normal politics, to take to the streets in order to protect others at the expense of one’s own interests, should not be one of the secrets. If it is, then as Wolf says, “Total war: total amnesia.�
October 31, 2013
First thing First: A book of Great merit....
The Plot:
The whole story can be summarized in two lines: The person who had fled her hometown because of the war returns to it after 26 years. And as she goes through her old hometown she reminisces about those days - the past. This is the plot and summery of the book.
Or it can also be said as the effort to reconcile one's present self (the adult) to the past self (the child). It is very much visible from the poem of Pablo Neruda, that is quoted at the very beginning of the novel itself.
Let me quote the poem:
"Where is the child I used to be,
still within, or far away?
Does he know I never loved him,
or that he never loved me?
Why when we grew up together
did we later grow apart?
Why when my childhood years were dead
didn't each of us die too?
And if my soul fell from my body,
why does my skeleton remain?
When does the butterfly in flight
read what's written on its wings?"
But how does it become a great piece of literature?
1. The historical background: When a person realises that the historical backdrop is the WW II and the fact that the main protagonist was a 'normal' German of 'those times', the value of the book gets established. I have read many books on the WW II (and most of them written from the perspective of the victor or the victim). This is the first time I read a book by a German about those times, which we today divide them into pre-war situation, the war and the post war situation. All the historical facts that we know of the atrocities associated with the Nazism find their mention. Only that in this novel it is seen with a German eye.
2. The Literary technique: The narration jumps from past to present very casually. In the beginning the style can test you or try your patience. But if you are patient just for 2 chapters (50 pages) then it will seem very normal. And you will slowly realise that that was the technique purposefully adapted by Christa Wolf. For instance: a word or a discussion or an object or a news story of the present day transports her to the past and vice versa and at times ends with sparkling reflections.
Moreover, the narration is divided into two sections: the second person narrative and the third person narrative to correspond with the present state and the past state of the same person. This technique is purposefully adapted by the author because being the person of today she wants to understand her own person (childhood) of the past. And the reason was that both had different beliefs - the childhood self was a member of Hitler Youth and the present self is very critical of it.
3. Reflections on war, memory, past, guilt, fear, etc: In her attempts to reconcile her present self to the past she comes up with reflections that are very sharp. Specially her reflections on memory (the memory and the emotion of guilt did really haunt her to death) and guilt and the way they are expressed are frightening. For instance, there is a place where she makes a distinction between the 'surviving' and 'the living' and that makes you to cry for her.
Final Remarks:
1. There is a character named Charlotte Jordan whom I adored. I have heard many times from many of my friends that German women are strong in character and that was because it was them who ran the family when their husbands were far away fighting for their country. That is attested to by Christa Wolf in this book too through the character of Charlotte Jordan.
2. As one reads the book one will hate the war. (The more I read books on war the more I hate it). And in that sense, it is a must read for everyone.
I will most probably read all of Christa Wolf's books..........
The Plot:
The whole story can be summarized in two lines: The person who had fled her hometown because of the war returns to it after 26 years. And as she goes through her old hometown she reminisces about those days - the past. This is the plot and summery of the book.
Or it can also be said as the effort to reconcile one's present self (the adult) to the past self (the child). It is very much visible from the poem of Pablo Neruda, that is quoted at the very beginning of the novel itself.
Let me quote the poem:
"Where is the child I used to be,
still within, or far away?
Does he know I never loved him,
or that he never loved me?
Why when we grew up together
did we later grow apart?
Why when my childhood years were dead
didn't each of us die too?
And if my soul fell from my body,
why does my skeleton remain?
When does the butterfly in flight
read what's written on its wings?"
But how does it become a great piece of literature?
1. The historical background: When a person realises that the historical backdrop is the WW II and the fact that the main protagonist was a 'normal' German of 'those times', the value of the book gets established. I have read many books on the WW II (and most of them written from the perspective of the victor or the victim). This is the first time I read a book by a German about those times, which we today divide them into pre-war situation, the war and the post war situation. All the historical facts that we know of the atrocities associated with the Nazism find their mention. Only that in this novel it is seen with a German eye.
2. The Literary technique: The narration jumps from past to present very casually. In the beginning the style can test you or try your patience. But if you are patient just for 2 chapters (50 pages) then it will seem very normal. And you will slowly realise that that was the technique purposefully adapted by Christa Wolf. For instance: a word or a discussion or an object or a news story of the present day transports her to the past and vice versa and at times ends with sparkling reflections.
Moreover, the narration is divided into two sections: the second person narrative and the third person narrative to correspond with the present state and the past state of the same person. This technique is purposefully adapted by the author because being the person of today she wants to understand her own person (childhood) of the past. And the reason was that both had different beliefs - the childhood self was a member of Hitler Youth and the present self is very critical of it.
3. Reflections on war, memory, past, guilt, fear, etc: In her attempts to reconcile her present self to the past she comes up with reflections that are very sharp. Specially her reflections on memory (the memory and the emotion of guilt did really haunt her to death) and guilt and the way they are expressed are frightening. For instance, there is a place where she makes a distinction between the 'surviving' and 'the living' and that makes you to cry for her.
Final Remarks:
1. There is a character named Charlotte Jordan whom I adored. I have heard many times from many of my friends that German women are strong in character and that was because it was them who ran the family when their husbands were far away fighting for their country. That is attested to by Christa Wolf in this book too through the character of Charlotte Jordan.
2. As one reads the book one will hate the war. (The more I read books on war the more I hate it). And in that sense, it is a must read for everyone.
I will most probably read all of Christa Wolf's books..........
September 30, 2017
I feel pretty stupid to rate it only with 3 stars seen that it has several high ratings and praising reviews, but my rating reflects also how much I enjoyed the reading experience. Sadly, despite the interesting topic, I struggled really a lot to follow Wolf's writing style.
The book seems autobiographical and we read about the life of a common German family during Nazi Germany. We have the author that looks back to her life in a detached way, both when she was a child and a teen (and she talks about herself in the third person singular) and also when she, as an adult, went to visit her hometown (now in Poland) that she had to leave when the German army had been defeated by the Russian army (and she talks about herself in the second person singular).
I didn't dislike this detached way to talk about her life, because it shows also how difficult it is to look back to that time without wanting to judge or justify herself, her family and the common people. The author tries to be objectiv though it isn't that easy seen that, though she was only a teen, she grew up with feelings of guilt when she realized only later what really had been going on in Germany during that time.
It is a very interesting book but I had several problems with the writing style. I struggled so much that despite the interesting topic, the book wasn't able to hold my interest. Sadly I don't have a lot of patience with such writing styles.
The book seems autobiographical and we read about the life of a common German family during Nazi Germany. We have the author that looks back to her life in a detached way, both when she was a child and a teen (and she talks about herself in the third person singular) and also when she, as an adult, went to visit her hometown (now in Poland) that she had to leave when the German army had been defeated by the Russian army (and she talks about herself in the second person singular).
I didn't dislike this detached way to talk about her life, because it shows also how difficult it is to look back to that time without wanting to judge or justify herself, her family and the common people. The author tries to be objectiv though it isn't that easy seen that, though she was only a teen, she grew up with feelings of guilt when she realized only later what really had been going on in Germany during that time.
It is a very interesting book but I had several problems with the writing style. I struggled so much that despite the interesting topic, the book wasn't able to hold my interest. Sadly I don't have a lot of patience with such writing styles.
May 30, 2014
How was it for an ordinary German family to have lived during Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany?
Probably semi-autobiographical, at least, although the author had written a disclaimer that all the characters here "are the invention of the narrator" and that "none is identical with any person living or dead," the episodes described not coinciding with actual events.
Christa Wolf and the narrator in this novel named "Nelly" were both born in Landsberg, Warthe in 1929 when it was still a part of Germany. This book was originally published in German in 1976, just about the time when Nelly starts narrating, memories of her childhood pushed forward when she, together with her daughter and older brother, revisits Landsberg (now part of Poland) and other nearby places of her young years. She narrates not in the first person but in the second and third persons as she seemingly converses to her old self, going back and forth from the present to the past and vice-verza like a pendulum.
A great novel is said to be one where it can take you to some other places and times you've never been and this one did precisely that to me. I met the girl Nelly, and her family, who all believed in Hitler. Her father joined the Nazi party and she herself joined Nazi youth organizations as was expected of young German children during those days when indoctrination on the Nazi ideology and the cult of the Fuhrer was an integral part of formal schooling. She was a young teenager when the war ended and when the entire family had to flee from the conquering Russian forces. Her father was captured during the latter stages of the fighting and after they had long thought him to be dead he suddenly reappeared, emaciated and much older-looking after years of starvation. Aged too by worries, her mother's appearance changed a lot too so that when her father showed up the couple failed to recognize each other. Much later, they would learn that her aunt, touched in the head, whom they had thought to have died of illness while in a mental asylum, most likely was murdered--one of the many victims of the state-sponsored program of getting rid of Germany's misfits and inferior genes.
But this in no Diary of Anne Frank. For though Nelly's family was not spared from the horrors of war, neither were they completely immersed in it. What stands out from this memoir-like novel, for me, is how it showed the commonplace and ordinary during those turbulent times. They have lived through unfortunate times but they were just like us, with our daily mundane concerns, with the same dreams, and would have lived the same uneventful lives had it not been for the accident of Hitler and the world war he had started.
Probably semi-autobiographical, at least, although the author had written a disclaimer that all the characters here "are the invention of the narrator" and that "none is identical with any person living or dead," the episodes described not coinciding with actual events.
Christa Wolf and the narrator in this novel named "Nelly" were both born in Landsberg, Warthe in 1929 when it was still a part of Germany. This book was originally published in German in 1976, just about the time when Nelly starts narrating, memories of her childhood pushed forward when she, together with her daughter and older brother, revisits Landsberg (now part of Poland) and other nearby places of her young years. She narrates not in the first person but in the second and third persons as she seemingly converses to her old self, going back and forth from the present to the past and vice-verza like a pendulum.
A great novel is said to be one where it can take you to some other places and times you've never been and this one did precisely that to me. I met the girl Nelly, and her family, who all believed in Hitler. Her father joined the Nazi party and she herself joined Nazi youth organizations as was expected of young German children during those days when indoctrination on the Nazi ideology and the cult of the Fuhrer was an integral part of formal schooling. She was a young teenager when the war ended and when the entire family had to flee from the conquering Russian forces. Her father was captured during the latter stages of the fighting and after they had long thought him to be dead he suddenly reappeared, emaciated and much older-looking after years of starvation. Aged too by worries, her mother's appearance changed a lot too so that when her father showed up the couple failed to recognize each other. Much later, they would learn that her aunt, touched in the head, whom they had thought to have died of illness while in a mental asylum, most likely was murdered--one of the many victims of the state-sponsored program of getting rid of Germany's misfits and inferior genes.
But this in no Diary of Anne Frank. For though Nelly's family was not spared from the horrors of war, neither were they completely immersed in it. What stands out from this memoir-like novel, for me, is how it showed the commonplace and ordinary during those turbulent times. They have lived through unfortunate times but they were just like us, with our daily mundane concerns, with the same dreams, and would have lived the same uneventful lives had it not been for the accident of Hitler and the world war he had started.
February 14, 2025
Chi poteva sapere che, guardandosi indietro, non si sarebbe diventati statue di sale, di pietra.
Dopo tanti anni, una donna nella Germania comunista fa i conti con la sua infanzia nella Germania nazista.
E� sorprendente che, sulle cose che ci riguardano, o mentiamo in modo romanzesco oppure parliamo stentatamente, con voce velata.
Mediare scrivendo tra il presente e il passato, porsi nel mezzo. Significa: conciliare? Mitigare? Attutire? Oppure: Avvicinare l’uno all’altro? Rendere possibile l’incontro tra la persona di oggi e quella del passato per mezzo della parola scritta?
La madre si scusò della zuppa acquosa. Ah, buona donna, disse lui, noi non siamo schizzinosi. Era la priva volta che Nelly sentiva qualcuno chiamare sua madre “buona donna� e parlarle con un simile tono di superiorità. Lei, come se quel tono fosse naturale, disse: schizzinosi no, lo credo bene. Le hanno giocato un brutto tiro. Se non è un segreto: di che cosa la accusavano?
Sono comunista, disse il prigioniero del lager.
Quel giorno Nelly doveva sentire ogni sorta di frasi nuove. Che cos’erano i fuochi che ardevano impunemente nel buio al confronto di quell’uomo che si accusava apertamente di essere comunista?
Ah, ecco, disse la madre. Ma mica si finiva in campo di concentramento solo per questo.
Nelly non poté fare a meno di sorprendersi, perché il viso dell’uomo era ancora in grado di trasformarsi. Certo, non poteva più mostrare ira, o sbalordimento, o anche solo stupore. Gli restavano solo le sfumature più intense della stanchezza. Come rivolto a se stesso disse, senza rimprovero, senza un’intonazione particolare: ma dove siete vissuti tutti quanti.
Dopo tanti anni, una donna nella Germania comunista fa i conti con la sua infanzia nella Germania nazista.
E� sorprendente che, sulle cose che ci riguardano, o mentiamo in modo romanzesco oppure parliamo stentatamente, con voce velata.
Mediare scrivendo tra il presente e il passato, porsi nel mezzo. Significa: conciliare? Mitigare? Attutire? Oppure: Avvicinare l’uno all’altro? Rendere possibile l’incontro tra la persona di oggi e quella del passato per mezzo della parola scritta?
La madre si scusò della zuppa acquosa. Ah, buona donna, disse lui, noi non siamo schizzinosi. Era la priva volta che Nelly sentiva qualcuno chiamare sua madre “buona donna� e parlarle con un simile tono di superiorità. Lei, come se quel tono fosse naturale, disse: schizzinosi no, lo credo bene. Le hanno giocato un brutto tiro. Se non è un segreto: di che cosa la accusavano?
Sono comunista, disse il prigioniero del lager.
Quel giorno Nelly doveva sentire ogni sorta di frasi nuove. Che cos’erano i fuochi che ardevano impunemente nel buio al confronto di quell’uomo che si accusava apertamente di essere comunista?
Ah, ecco, disse la madre. Ma mica si finiva in campo di concentramento solo per questo.
Nelly non poté fare a meno di sorprendersi, perché il viso dell’uomo era ancora in grado di trasformarsi. Certo, non poteva più mostrare ira, o sbalordimento, o anche solo stupore. Gli restavano solo le sfumature più intense della stanchezza. Come rivolto a se stesso disse, senza rimprovero, senza un’intonazione particolare: ma dove siete vissuti tutti quanti.
November 30, 2018
Dieses Werk von Chista Wolf polarisiert offensichtlich sehr stark zwischen völliger Begeisterung und totaler Ernüchterung und ehrlich gesagt konnte ich persönlich beide Positionen gleichermaßen nachvollziehen, wodurch sich meine Beurteilung konkret in der Mitte manifestiert.
Stilistisch und erzähltechnisch war es extrem mühsam, so indirekt, so verkopft, so verklausuliert durch die vielen fiktiven Figuren, Rückblenden und auch durch die massiven Gedankensprünge. Am schlimmsten habe ich die Plotkonstruktion empfunden, diese fiktive Biografie dieser Abstand zu den Figuren diese Selbstanalyse (sowas kann ich gar nicht ausstehen) und diese 3-5 Zeitebenen in fast jedem Absatz (Krieg, 74 und dazwischen).
Aber so mühsam ich mich durchquälte, muss ich der Autorin schon den Verdienst lassen, dass dieser unsägliche Stil nicht (ausschließlich) dazu da wäre, den Leser böse zu quälen, sondern auch eindeutig eine Botschaft vermittelt: die Zerrissenheit, die Verdrängung und die Schizophrenie dieser Generation. Dadurch zieht sie auch einen Bogen von der Kriegsgeneration bis in die Jahre von 1975.
Wenn das ganze Werk jetzt auch noch intellektuell eitel wäre, indem es diesen Stil vermittelt, hätte ich die Autorin eh schon böse abgestraft, aber ich nehme Christa Wolf zudem ab, dass sie eben als Kind dieser Zeit so kompliziert ist und mir das authentisch präsentiert.
Ja so schätze ich ihren Roman ein: intellektuell spröde, verschachtelt, ein Werk, in dem man das Gefühl hat, im Hirn bzw der Imagination der Frau Wolf zuerst Tonnen von Masken, Schichten und Spinnweben wegzuräumen, bis man zu Pudels Kern kommt. Und das ist auch das, was sie mir von dieser Generation mitgegeben hat. Einen Ausbund an Verdrängungmechanismen, die erst durch einen Schlagbohrer entfernt werden mussten, um die Essenz der Protagonistin - beziehungsweise, da sie ja so umfassend Personal einführte - die Essenz des des gesamten Deutschen Volkes freizuschrammen. Und das macht sie schmerzhaft mit jeder einzelnen verdammten Stimmung: Begeisterung, Sportsgeist, Heldenverehrung, Lehrerverehrung, Hitlerverehrung, Corpsgeist, Abwertung von anderen, Umwandlung von Angst in Hass, Verrohung und Herabsetzung von Ausländern, Armen und kranken Menschen, Flüchtlingen ... . Im Prinzip wird in einem Rundumschlag eine jede Gefühlsregung des Deutschtums seziert, auseinandergenommen und auf die Familie der Protagonistin übertragen. Dies gibt mir als Leserin auf sehr beschwerliche Weise ein tiefes Verständnis des Deutschtums und wie so etwas passieren konnte.
Ob sich die Mühe gelohnt hat, ist nun der Knackpunkt, und da bleibe ich bei fivty-fivty. Ein bisschen zu lang hat mir die Anstrengung schon gedauert, wenn ich einen Monat für ein Buch brauche und dann auch noch eine kleine Pause dazwischen, weil ich es nicht mehr aushalte. Lesen sollte zwar nicht nur Vergnügen bereiten, aber nur Qual ist auch ein bisschen zu viel. Ich gehöre nicht zu den Literaturflagellanten.
Fazit: Die Botschaft des Romans ist gut und bei mir angekommen. Der Weg über den Dachboden des Geistes und der Imagination der Protagonistin und der Autorin war mir aber ein bisschen zu staubig.
P.S.: Ach ja dann habe ich auch noch einen kapitalen intellektuellen Schnitzer in dem so auf intellektuell getrimmten Werk gefunden. "Im Jahr der Olympiade", ein Oxymoron, wo es doch 4 Jahre sind. Erwischt Frau Wolf, erwischt Surkamp Lektorat!😂
Stilistisch und erzähltechnisch war es extrem mühsam, so indirekt, so verkopft, so verklausuliert durch die vielen fiktiven Figuren, Rückblenden und auch durch die massiven Gedankensprünge. Am schlimmsten habe ich die Plotkonstruktion empfunden, diese fiktive Biografie dieser Abstand zu den Figuren diese Selbstanalyse (sowas kann ich gar nicht ausstehen) und diese 3-5 Zeitebenen in fast jedem Absatz (Krieg, 74 und dazwischen).
Aber so mühsam ich mich durchquälte, muss ich der Autorin schon den Verdienst lassen, dass dieser unsägliche Stil nicht (ausschließlich) dazu da wäre, den Leser böse zu quälen, sondern auch eindeutig eine Botschaft vermittelt: die Zerrissenheit, die Verdrängung und die Schizophrenie dieser Generation. Dadurch zieht sie auch einen Bogen von der Kriegsgeneration bis in die Jahre von 1975.
Wenn das ganze Werk jetzt auch noch intellektuell eitel wäre, indem es diesen Stil vermittelt, hätte ich die Autorin eh schon böse abgestraft, aber ich nehme Christa Wolf zudem ab, dass sie eben als Kind dieser Zeit so kompliziert ist und mir das authentisch präsentiert.
Ja so schätze ich ihren Roman ein: intellektuell spröde, verschachtelt, ein Werk, in dem man das Gefühl hat, im Hirn bzw der Imagination der Frau Wolf zuerst Tonnen von Masken, Schichten und Spinnweben wegzuräumen, bis man zu Pudels Kern kommt. Und das ist auch das, was sie mir von dieser Generation mitgegeben hat. Einen Ausbund an Verdrängungmechanismen, die erst durch einen Schlagbohrer entfernt werden mussten, um die Essenz der Protagonistin - beziehungsweise, da sie ja so umfassend Personal einführte - die Essenz des des gesamten Deutschen Volkes freizuschrammen. Und das macht sie schmerzhaft mit jeder einzelnen verdammten Stimmung: Begeisterung, Sportsgeist, Heldenverehrung, Lehrerverehrung, Hitlerverehrung, Corpsgeist, Abwertung von anderen, Umwandlung von Angst in Hass, Verrohung und Herabsetzung von Ausländern, Armen und kranken Menschen, Flüchtlingen ... . Im Prinzip wird in einem Rundumschlag eine jede Gefühlsregung des Deutschtums seziert, auseinandergenommen und auf die Familie der Protagonistin übertragen. Dies gibt mir als Leserin auf sehr beschwerliche Weise ein tiefes Verständnis des Deutschtums und wie so etwas passieren konnte.
Ob sich die Mühe gelohnt hat, ist nun der Knackpunkt, und da bleibe ich bei fivty-fivty. Ein bisschen zu lang hat mir die Anstrengung schon gedauert, wenn ich einen Monat für ein Buch brauche und dann auch noch eine kleine Pause dazwischen, weil ich es nicht mehr aushalte. Lesen sollte zwar nicht nur Vergnügen bereiten, aber nur Qual ist auch ein bisschen zu viel. Ich gehöre nicht zu den Literaturflagellanten.
Fazit: Die Botschaft des Romans ist gut und bei mir angekommen. Der Weg über den Dachboden des Geistes und der Imagination der Protagonistin und der Autorin war mir aber ein bisschen zu staubig.
P.S.: Ach ja dann habe ich auch noch einen kapitalen intellektuellen Schnitzer in dem so auf intellektuell getrimmten Werk gefunden. "Im Jahr der Olympiade", ein Oxymoron, wo es doch 4 Jahre sind. Erwischt Frau Wolf, erwischt Surkamp Lektorat!😂
August 20, 2011
This novel is Christa Wolf's fictionalized account of growing up in Nazi Germany. This is a story about war, history, memory, and learning from our mistakes. It is positively gripping. The author manages, as another reviewer noted, to show that the tyranny of the Nazi regime was difficult for non-Jews as well as Jews, without in any way minimizing the horror of the Holocaust. I literally couldn't put this book down in parts.. it is that powerful. Wolf doesn't sentimentalize the story. She makes all the people in the book seem real. The descriptions of events were so real that felt as though I was there. I have been forever changed by this book. It has given me new insight not only into WWII, but also into myself, because it's given me a way to look into my own past. As Wolf writes, "What is past is not dead; it is not even past. We cut ourselves off from it; we pretend to be strangers." Ultimately, this passage sums up the theme of the movel, and, as a result, it broadens the scope of the book so that it has a message for everyone, even beyond its obvious messages about war and Nazism.
Those interested in history, or psychology, or who like character driven novels, will likely love this book. I know that it is not easily available. Despite that, I urge you to try to find a copy, be it through your local library or through a used book store.
Those interested in history, or psychology, or who like character driven novels, will likely love this book. I know that it is not easily available. Despite that, I urge you to try to find a copy, be it through your local library or through a used book store.
March 19, 2019
In the spring of 1971, Christa Wolf travelled with her brother, husband and youngest daughter to the places of her childhood in what is now Poland. She wrote A MODEL CHILDHOOD in 1972-5.
Three spaces are interwoven in this novelistic memoir: the past of childhood, the past of the journey and the ongoing present of the writing process.
The narration shifts constantly between Nelly (Wolf's alter ego), who inhabits the childhood space and the adult author in search of her childhood. She alternates between third-, second- and first- person narration and an interior monologue interspersed with reflections on narration and memory.
"The model childhood" referred to in the title is life under Hitler: how, at eleven, Nelly learned to hate and fear the Jews; how a gentle, retarded aunt was exterminated during the Nazi euthanasia program (and no one in the family talked about this); her enthusiastic participation in a Hitler-Youth camp; how her family fled the Russians on a cart at war's end and met starved, desperate concentration camp inmates on the road.
In the end, Nelly merges into the identity of the author, who then explains that the child is somewhat inaccessible to the adult reconstructor: "You’re not only separated from her by 40 years; you are hampered by your unreliable memory. You abandoned the child, after all". All this is very clever, but quite confusing for the reader.
The temporal and geographical search for the Nazi past in this novel is intricate and sometimes baffling, however, the strong point is the detailed rendering of painful and uncomfortable memories. It is not a perfect novel nor easy reading material, but it is an unforgettable book.
Three spaces are interwoven in this novelistic memoir: the past of childhood, the past of the journey and the ongoing present of the writing process.
The narration shifts constantly between Nelly (Wolf's alter ego), who inhabits the childhood space and the adult author in search of her childhood. She alternates between third-, second- and first- person narration and an interior monologue interspersed with reflections on narration and memory.
"The model childhood" referred to in the title is life under Hitler: how, at eleven, Nelly learned to hate and fear the Jews; how a gentle, retarded aunt was exterminated during the Nazi euthanasia program (and no one in the family talked about this); her enthusiastic participation in a Hitler-Youth camp; how her family fled the Russians on a cart at war's end and met starved, desperate concentration camp inmates on the road.
In the end, Nelly merges into the identity of the author, who then explains that the child is somewhat inaccessible to the adult reconstructor: "You’re not only separated from her by 40 years; you are hampered by your unreliable memory. You abandoned the child, after all". All this is very clever, but quite confusing for the reader.
The temporal and geographical search for the Nazi past in this novel is intricate and sometimes baffling, however, the strong point is the detailed rendering of painful and uncomfortable memories. It is not a perfect novel nor easy reading material, but it is an unforgettable book.
February 13, 2013
What an impressive personal experiment in writing on the boundaries of fiction and memoir. The novel has an intricate structure. A narrator describes, addresses and admonishes her adult self in the second person while detailing the writing process over several years in the early 1970s, including political and private occurrences. Along with her brother, husband and daughter, she visits the village where she grew up under the Nazis, now in Poland. And this visit is interspersed with the narrative of her childhood, which is told in the third person.
It's magnificently and beautifully done; Wolf's "Nelly" is subtly infused with Nazi ideology while her narrator feels only horror for what her childish self believed. And the narrator struggles to find the right way to tell Nelly's story without finding excuses for her and her family, and also to confront the fear and other emotions she felt after the end of the war.
The deliberately distanced perspective makes Kindheitsmuster a fascinating read, which tells us a great deal about the Third Reich but also about the GDR - and also about the difficulties of writing about the self without romanticising. I think she succeeded.
It's magnificently and beautifully done; Wolf's "Nelly" is subtly infused with Nazi ideology while her narrator feels only horror for what her childish self believed. And the narrator struggles to find the right way to tell Nelly's story without finding excuses for her and her family, and also to confront the fear and other emotions she felt after the end of the war.
The deliberately distanced perspective makes Kindheitsmuster a fascinating read, which tells us a great deal about the Third Reich but also about the GDR - and also about the difficulties of writing about the self without romanticising. I think she succeeded.
May 13, 2023
Il ritorno a casa della Hitler Mädel
Questo è un indiscutibile capolavoro in cui Wolf mette in campo la propria storia personale per condurre una riflessione onesta e spietata sulla memoria e sulla letteratura.
Attraverso l'artificio stilistico di scindere il punto di vista di una voce narrante che racconta di un "tu" (l'autrice nel presente) e una "lei" (l'autrice nel passato pre-1945), si rende in modo magistrale il dramma tragico della totale scissione dell'identità di una donna, ragazza hitleriana e giovane comunista.
Nessuna autobiografia a cuore aperto può rappresentare con la stessa potenza la totale devastazione frantumazione psicologica di chi deve allontanarsi da sè stessa per poter sopravvivere.
(da notare che questo metodo di narrazione divisa tra un "tu" presente e un "lui" passato è stato usato anche da Gao Xinjiang per raccontare del proprio passato nella Rivoluzione Culturale).
Wolf è scrittrice di grandissimo talento, quindi questo sistema non pregiudica per nulla la comprensione del testo e i continui passaggi e salti da passato e presente. A volte il testo diviene quasi un flusso di coscienza anche frammentario che passa attraverso associazioni di idee - un sistema molto espressivo, ma sempre agile che non inficia la comprensione dei passaggi e, anzi, avvince proprio perché è un modo di pensare umano.
Di grande interesse anche alcuni parti in cui Wolf narra delle reazioni dei lettori a letture pubbliche dei capitoli precedenti: non ricordo in altri testi incisi metaletterari dove il testo si genera sulla base su parti dello stesso già presente.
Si comprende bene l'idea di letteratura di Wolf: una finzione che può servire (forse) ad affrontare metastasi storiche, ma non certo ad "espiare" o "riparare" - anche solo parlare di "colpa" di una ragazzina immersa nell'era hitleriana porta a stasi e aporie: è colpevole? se sì, cosa poteva fare di diverso? se no, allora chi non sapeva è assolto? Non si può uscire da discussioni del genere, dato che è inutile ed impossibile distribuire colpe ed assoluzioni - solo, forse, si può (tentare di) ricordare e narrare, sapendo però che
sulle cose che ci riguardano, o mentiamo in modo romanzesco oppure parliamo stentatamente, con voce velata.
la memoria non è un blocco compatto che se ne sta immutabile nel nostro cervello; ma piuttosto, ammesso che si possano usare grandi parole, un atto morale che si ripete
com'è noto, può trasmettere alle proprie spalle istruzioni efficaci alla memoria, per esempio questa: non pensarci più. Istruzioni che saranno fedelmente seguite per anni. Evitare determinati ricordi. Non parlarne
La memoria esteriore di Nelly conservò quella scena, come l'ambra conserva le mosche: morte. La sua memoria interiore, cui spetta fornire i giudizi che si traggono dagli avvenimenti, non poteva permettersi più alcun movimento. Restò muta.
E come se Wolf si chiedesse se è possibile l'incontro tra la persona di oggi e quella del passato per mezzo della parola scritta - la risposta non c'è, nemmeno nella conclusione in cui un "io" potrebbe unire il "tu" e la "lei" così lontane e scisse. La parola finale è forse lasciata al lettore, perchè Wolf rimane dubbiosa e perplessa sull'effettiva capacità della letteratura di fare cesura.
Forma come possibilità di prendere le distanze. Le forme, mai casuali, mai fortuite, del distanziamento.
Un'opera meravigliosa, da porre tra i grandi libri che affrontano i temi della memoria e della colpa
Questo è un indiscutibile capolavoro in cui Wolf mette in campo la propria storia personale per condurre una riflessione onesta e spietata sulla memoria e sulla letteratura.
Attraverso l'artificio stilistico di scindere il punto di vista di una voce narrante che racconta di un "tu" (l'autrice nel presente) e una "lei" (l'autrice nel passato pre-1945), si rende in modo magistrale il dramma tragico della totale scissione dell'identità di una donna, ragazza hitleriana e giovane comunista.
Nessuna autobiografia a cuore aperto può rappresentare con la stessa potenza la totale devastazione frantumazione psicologica di chi deve allontanarsi da sè stessa per poter sopravvivere.
(da notare che questo metodo di narrazione divisa tra un "tu" presente e un "lui" passato è stato usato anche da Gao Xinjiang per raccontare del proprio passato nella Rivoluzione Culturale).
Wolf è scrittrice di grandissimo talento, quindi questo sistema non pregiudica per nulla la comprensione del testo e i continui passaggi e salti da passato e presente. A volte il testo diviene quasi un flusso di coscienza anche frammentario che passa attraverso associazioni di idee - un sistema molto espressivo, ma sempre agile che non inficia la comprensione dei passaggi e, anzi, avvince proprio perché è un modo di pensare umano.
Di grande interesse anche alcuni parti in cui Wolf narra delle reazioni dei lettori a letture pubbliche dei capitoli precedenti: non ricordo in altri testi incisi metaletterari dove il testo si genera sulla base su parti dello stesso già presente.
Si comprende bene l'idea di letteratura di Wolf: una finzione che può servire (forse) ad affrontare metastasi storiche, ma non certo ad "espiare" o "riparare" - anche solo parlare di "colpa" di una ragazzina immersa nell'era hitleriana porta a stasi e aporie: è colpevole? se sì, cosa poteva fare di diverso? se no, allora chi non sapeva è assolto? Non si può uscire da discussioni del genere, dato che è inutile ed impossibile distribuire colpe ed assoluzioni - solo, forse, si può (tentare di) ricordare e narrare, sapendo però che
sulle cose che ci riguardano, o mentiamo in modo romanzesco oppure parliamo stentatamente, con voce velata.
la memoria non è un blocco compatto che se ne sta immutabile nel nostro cervello; ma piuttosto, ammesso che si possano usare grandi parole, un atto morale che si ripete
com'è noto, può trasmettere alle proprie spalle istruzioni efficaci alla memoria, per esempio questa: non pensarci più. Istruzioni che saranno fedelmente seguite per anni. Evitare determinati ricordi. Non parlarne
La memoria esteriore di Nelly conservò quella scena, come l'ambra conserva le mosche: morte. La sua memoria interiore, cui spetta fornire i giudizi che si traggono dagli avvenimenti, non poteva permettersi più alcun movimento. Restò muta.
E come se Wolf si chiedesse se è possibile l'incontro tra la persona di oggi e quella del passato per mezzo della parola scritta - la risposta non c'è, nemmeno nella conclusione in cui un "io" potrebbe unire il "tu" e la "lei" così lontane e scisse. La parola finale è forse lasciata al lettore, perchè Wolf rimane dubbiosa e perplessa sull'effettiva capacità della letteratura di fare cesura.
Forma come possibilità di prendere le distanze. Le forme, mai casuali, mai fortuite, del distanziamento.
Un'opera meravigliosa, da porre tra i grandi libri che affrontano i temi della memoria e della colpa
March 27, 2025
A woman who goes back over events in her life in search of answers and meaning. For this reader the novel was this initially difficult to get into (found the delivery to be static at times). An intense story that has parallels to the world today.
June 4, 2012
Thought provoking book. Wolf looks back on her own childhood in east germany before, during and in the aftermath of the second world war from the pov of the adult she is. The book starts in 1932, but is written in the 1970's with the adult returning to her home town for a visit, a town now in Poland and known by a different name.
Wolf doesn't make excuses for the child she was, but is very critical of herself, her family and those around her. The discussion with her sixteen year old daughter about the war, concentration camps etc is interesting and enlightening. The text book that her daugter is reading for that period of history seems to make no mention of Eichman or the final solution, Wolf goes on to talk about the events of that time, the talk on the radio and the rumours.
A book which deserves to be on the 1001 list.
Wolf doesn't make excuses for the child she was, but is very critical of herself, her family and those around her. The discussion with her sixteen year old daughter about the war, concentration camps etc is interesting and enlightening. The text book that her daugter is reading for that period of history seems to make no mention of Eichman or the final solution, Wolf goes on to talk about the events of that time, the talk on the radio and the rumours.
A book which deserves to be on the 1001 list.
February 16, 2018
This is primarily the story of Nelly Jordan, growing up in the town of L., Germany in the years 1933-45, at the end of which period she is 16 years old. In concentrating exclusively on the inhabitants of and events in L. during these years, Wolf presents the history of the Third Reich in microcosm. The main events are here, presented on a small scale: the cult of the Führer, the euthanasia of the ”feeble minded�, Kristallnacht, the mobilization for war. These events are presented in a kind of double vision: primarily from the viewpoint of Nelly who, knowing no other existence, sees all this in terms of the National Socialist viewpoint in which she is educated by school and society, but the reader, informed by both maturity and history, can understand the reality behind the external events and understand the words and reactions of adults which are often misunderstood or discounted by Nelly. Not that the adults are necessarily significantly less naive than Nelly. Wolf writes of the family:
The telling of the events of 1933-45 is inspired and structured by a July 1971 weekend trip the author (the adult Nelly, never explicitly identified as Wolf herself) makes with her husband, younger brother, and teenage daughter back to L., her first visit since the war. L. is now G., a town in Poland � here the past is literally a foreign country. The narrative follows the group around G. over two days, place becomes memory, and the author recounts the events of her childhood.
On top of the events of the Third Reich and 1971, Wolf further layers the years 1973-75 and the actual writing of the novel we are reading. These layers of time and narrative are not mere meta-fictional games, but convey the idea that there is no place outside of history from which to contemplate and document historical events; the thing we are being told about is also the environment in which it is told. I took this in part as a coded statement by the author that, in a novel written and published in East Germany in the 1970s, the entire truth about the events of 1945 could not be explicitly told.
Note: As I finished writing this review, I saw the following on Twitter:
Their ignorance allowed them to feel lukewarm. They were also lucky. No Jewish or Communist relatives or friends, no hereditary or mental diseases in the family (Aunt Dottie, Lucie Menzel's sister, will be mentioned later), no ties to any foreign country, practically no knowledge of any foreign language, absolutely no leanings toward subversive thought or, worse, toward decadent or any other form of art. Cast in ill-fitting roles, they were required only to remain nobodies. And that seems to have come easily to us. Ignore, overlook, neglect, deny, unlearn, obliterate, forget.As that portentous mention of Aunt Dottie indicates, Wolf doesn't pull surprises in this narrative; practically all major events, deaths, or survivals, are mentioned in advance, so that the reader does not share the characters' suspense when the events are narrated. Finally, in the cold winter of January 1945, the always victorious German armies are somehow in hasty retreat and the population of L., including Nelly and her extended family abandons home and property to flee westward. That the family's naivety is deeply entrenched is shown in a later scene, when Nelly's mother, encamped with her family and a vast number of other refugees in an open field in 1945, shares a meal with a concentration-camp survivor. The mother speaks first:
They obviously put you through hell. In case it's no secret, what did they accuse you of?
I'm a Communist, said the concentration-camp inmate.
Nelly was to hear all kinds of new sentences that day. How important were the fires burning in the dark with impunity compared to this man who openly accused himself of being a Communist?
I see, her mother was saying. But that wasn't reason enough to put you in a concentration camp.
Nelly was surprised to see that the man's face was able to change expression. Although he was no longer able to show anger, or perplexity, or mere astonishment. Deeper shadings of fatigue were all that remained accessible to him. He said, as though to himself, without reproach, without special emphasis: Where on earth have you been living?
Of course Nelly didn't forget his sentence, but only later, years later, did it become some kind of motto for her.
The telling of the events of 1933-45 is inspired and structured by a July 1971 weekend trip the author (the adult Nelly, never explicitly identified as Wolf herself) makes with her husband, younger brother, and teenage daughter back to L., her first visit since the war. L. is now G., a town in Poland � here the past is literally a foreign country. The narrative follows the group around G. over two days, place becomes memory, and the author recounts the events of her childhood.
On top of the events of the Third Reich and 1971, Wolf further layers the years 1973-75 and the actual writing of the novel we are reading. These layers of time and narrative are not mere meta-fictional games, but convey the idea that there is no place outside of history from which to contemplate and document historical events; the thing we are being told about is also the environment in which it is told. I took this in part as a coded statement by the author that, in a novel written and published in East Germany in the 1970s, the entire truth about the events of 1945 could not be explicitly told.
Note: As I finished writing this review, I saw the following on Twitter:
Today in #History: 3 October 1990, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik ceases to exist...
August 31, 2023
Jedes Wort, das Christa Wolf schreibt, gibt mir Gänsehaut und ich liebe es.
November 9, 2023
Questo è un libro impegnativo, che va letto lentamente e con attenzione. È un romanzo autobiografico: non, quindi, un romanzo d’invenzione, non un’autobiografia, ma qualcosa che si pone in mezzo fra queste due possibilità. Un romanzo sulla memoria, che mi ha fatto molto riflettere.
È la rievocazione che una donna fa, poco più che quarantenne (come Christa Wolf stessa al momento della stesura), della propria infanzia, in occasione di un viaggio nella sua città natale.
Una donna che è stata bambina e poi adolescente nel periodo nazista (Christa Wolf è del 1929, come Nelly, la protagonista), vivendo così come normali e quotidiane tutte le manifestazioni proprie del nazionalsocialismo: dai canti patriottico-nazionalisti al saluto nazista alla celebrazione del compleanno di Hitler, fino agli incendi delle sinagoghe, alla militanza nel gruppo giovanile delle , all’annuncio sul General-Anzeiger, il 21 marzo 1933, dell’istituzione del campo di concentramento di Dachau:
Un’infanzia, quindi, indissolubilmente legata alle vicende di quegli anni � inevitabilmente. Vicende, però, vissute come ciechi, come dormienti, che non vedono ciò che non vogliono e non possono vedere, che sanno ma dimenticano di sapere, che fanno «finta di non sentire, di non vedere, trascurare, negare, disimparare, cancellare, dimenticare.»
Ed è estremamente interessante poter leggere nelle pieghe dell’animo di una rappresentante di quella generazione di uomini e donne che non sono mai stati giovani, poter scrutare il punto di vista � contraddittorio, lacerato, pregno di senso di colpa � di coloro che, attraverso la propria cecità, hanno permesso che tutto ciò che conosciamo accadesse.
Oltre alla "trama d’infanzia" in sé, mi è parso molto interessante il modo in cui Wolf ha deciso di raccontare tutto questo (stile che avevo già avuto modo di apprezzare in � testo, però, totalmente diverso).
Ci sono due piani paralleli, che tali sembrano destinati a restare, senza possibilità di intersecarsi: c’� il piano del presente, rappresentato dal momento in cui la protagonista scrive, caratterizzato dall’uso della seconda persona singolare (la scrittrice-protagonista parla a se stessa dandosi del "tu"), e c’� il piano del passato, della memoria, con l’uso della terza persona singolare, come se Nelly fosse una persona altra da chi scrive. Non c’� nessun io in questo romanzo, e leggendo vi accorgerete di quanto questo sia peculiare, dato che autore (fittizio?) e narratore coincidono senza ombra di dubbio.
È interessante, inoltre, il carattere metanarrativo del romanzo: nel corso di tutto il libro veniamo spesso e volentieri posti di fronte al processo di scrittura nel suo divenire.
Per concludere, cito i due autorevoli pareri riportati nel retro di copertina, con i quali concordo pienamente:
«Pochi e poche raccontano in questo modo». (Rossana Rossanda, L’Indice)
«Questo libro di Christa Wolf è tra i pochi che meriterebbero di essere letti e riletti anche in ambito pedagogico, dovrebbe essere lo strumento fondamentale di un corso universitario, per poterne spremere le risorse innumerevoli e gli infiniti ragguagli di cui letteralmente vibra». (Antonio Faeti, L’Unità)
È la rievocazione che una donna fa, poco più che quarantenne (come Christa Wolf stessa al momento della stesura), della propria infanzia, in occasione di un viaggio nella sua città natale.
Una donna che è stata bambina e poi adolescente nel periodo nazista (Christa Wolf è del 1929, come Nelly, la protagonista), vivendo così come normali e quotidiane tutte le manifestazioni proprie del nazionalsocialismo: dai canti patriottico-nazionalisti al saluto nazista alla celebrazione del compleanno di Hitler, fino agli incendi delle sinagoghe, alla militanza nel gruppo giovanile delle , all’annuncio sul General-Anzeiger, il 21 marzo 1933, dell’istituzione del campo di concentramento di Dachau:
Coloro che in seguito sostennero di non aver mai saputo niente del campo di concentramento, avevano totalmente dimenticato che la notizia della sua istituzione stava sul giornale. (Sospetto che turba: l’avevano davvero totalmente dimenticato. Guerra totale. Amnesia totale.)
Un’infanzia, quindi, indissolubilmente legata alle vicende di quegli anni � inevitabilmente. Vicende, però, vissute come ciechi, come dormienti, che non vedono ciò che non vogliono e non possono vedere, che sanno ma dimenticano di sapere, che fanno «finta di non sentire, di non vedere, trascurare, negare, disimparare, cancellare, dimenticare.»
Ed è estremamente interessante poter leggere nelle pieghe dell’animo di una rappresentante di quella generazione di uomini e donne che non sono mai stati giovani, poter scrutare il punto di vista � contraddittorio, lacerato, pregno di senso di colpa � di coloro che, attraverso la propria cecità, hanno permesso che tutto ciò che conosciamo accadesse.
Oltre alla "trama d’infanzia" in sé, mi è parso molto interessante il modo in cui Wolf ha deciso di raccontare tutto questo (stile che avevo già avuto modo di apprezzare in � testo, però, totalmente diverso).
Ci sono due piani paralleli, che tali sembrano destinati a restare, senza possibilità di intersecarsi: c’� il piano del presente, rappresentato dal momento in cui la protagonista scrive, caratterizzato dall’uso della seconda persona singolare (la scrittrice-protagonista parla a se stessa dandosi del "tu"), e c’� il piano del passato, della memoria, con l’uso della terza persona singolare, come se Nelly fosse una persona altra da chi scrive. Non c’� nessun io in questo romanzo, e leggendo vi accorgerete di quanto questo sia peculiare, dato che autore (fittizio?) e narratore coincidono senza ombra di dubbio.
È interessante, inoltre, il carattere metanarrativo del romanzo: nel corso di tutto il libro veniamo spesso e volentieri posti di fronte al processo di scrittura nel suo divenire.
Per concludere, cito i due autorevoli pareri riportati nel retro di copertina, con i quali concordo pienamente:
«Pochi e poche raccontano in questo modo». (Rossana Rossanda, L’Indice)
«Questo libro di Christa Wolf è tra i pochi che meriterebbero di essere letti e riletti anche in ambito pedagogico, dovrebbe essere lo strumento fondamentale di un corso universitario, per poterne spremere le risorse innumerevoli e gli infiniti ragguagli di cui letteralmente vibra». (Antonio Faeti, L’Unità)
March 16, 2016
One of my favourite books ever! A fascinating study on memory, responsibility, regret, and what it is to be an unwitting pawn in human history. Wolf's use of second and third person is stunning.
September 9, 2011
Powerful account of a German girl growing up during the years of the Third Reich, reappraising those years as she visits her hometown after many years. The story is told slowly and introspectively, as it should be, allowing the memories to come back, so as to make some sense of her life and times.
It's also a novel about memory and making sense of a divided self. She begins by writing What is past is not dead; it is not even past. We cut ourselves off from it; we pretend to be strangers.
Another quote from late in the book: And the question cannot be: How can they live with their conscience?, but: What kind of circumstances are those that cause a collective loss of conscience?
It's also a novel about memory and making sense of a divided self. She begins by writing What is past is not dead; it is not even past. We cut ourselves off from it; we pretend to be strangers.
Another quote from late in the book: And the question cannot be: How can they live with their conscience?, but: What kind of circumstances are those that cause a collective loss of conscience?
August 13, 2016
One of the hardest books I've ever read - hard in so many different way. And just: wow.
November 30, 2019
It was fascinating to read of the experiences of German civilians, and of the protagonist Nelly in particular, during World War 2 in this coming-of age novel written by a woman who was there. "Group Portrait with Lady" by Boll has much in common with it, with his somewhat older girl, Leni, and I also recommend that.
There were times when I felt I didn't grasp what Wolf was telling me when she analyzed the characters' relationships and feelings, but the other 97 percent I thought was excellent. Reading it also increased my awareness that the losses of American lives were much smaller than those of Germany, Poland, and Russia.
There were times when I felt I didn't grasp what Wolf was telling me when she analyzed the characters' relationships and feelings, but the other 97 percent I thought was excellent. Reading it also increased my awareness that the losses of American lives were much smaller than those of Germany, Poland, and Russia.
February 15, 2012
Through her alter ego, Nelly, Christa Wolf describe growing up in the NS Zeit. A rambling, intimate, ultimately positive excursion through schooldays, flight and refugee time and postwar East Germany. Wolf's portraits of her family and those she encounters on her journey are fascinating and evocative. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading her auf Deutsch.
August 13, 2012
A haunting, semi-autobiographical account of Wolf's childhood in Germany in the 1930s and 40s woven into an introspective exploration of human memory. I found this to be a challenging but rewarding read.
December 31, 2007
I read this one as well as others, and now I fear my review for Christa T. may in fact be about this book. How tragic. I am aging. Still, I recommed this author highly.
Shelved as 'not-finished-to-read-maybe-someday'
September 12, 2017After have read the first chapter (40 pages) I need to switch to the Italian edition. Wolf's books are never easy, and I have seen that reading it in German I would miss too much.
April 4, 2022
Lettura che richiede parecchia concentrazione (di cui, al momento, sono piuttosto carente, lo ammetto).
Ricostruzione attraverso diversi piani temporali (e spesso si salta dall'uno all'altro con poco o nullo preavviso) dell'infanzia e adolescenza di immaginata (ma - diciamolo pure -molto autobiografica) bambina/ragazza negli anni del Nazismo e dopo quegli anni.
Devo dire che non avevo ancora letto un libro che mi desse anche questa visuale su quel periodo: quella di qualcuno che ci è vissuto dentro suo malgrado, che non si è mai posto troppe domande perchè decisamente non in età per farlo e decisamente circondato da un mondo che diverso non sembrava poter essere.
Anche gli adulti sembrano però vittime dello stesso incantesimo, e quelli che sotto l'incantesimo non ci volevano stare, beh, ci staranno comunque.
Lo stile un po' difficilotto da seguire (per me, sempre per il problema di concentrazione di cui sopra) me l'hanno reso in alcuni punti un po' ostico, a volte anche un pelo noioso, ma tant'è.
Nel complesso lo s'è apprezzato.
Ricostruzione attraverso diversi piani temporali (e spesso si salta dall'uno all'altro con poco o nullo preavviso) dell'infanzia e adolescenza di immaginata (ma - diciamolo pure -molto autobiografica) bambina/ragazza negli anni del Nazismo e dopo quegli anni.
Devo dire che non avevo ancora letto un libro che mi desse anche questa visuale su quel periodo: quella di qualcuno che ci è vissuto dentro suo malgrado, che non si è mai posto troppe domande perchè decisamente non in età per farlo e decisamente circondato da un mondo che diverso non sembrava poter essere.
Anche gli adulti sembrano però vittime dello stesso incantesimo, e quelli che sotto l'incantesimo non ci volevano stare, beh, ci staranno comunque.
Lo stile un po' difficilotto da seguire (per me, sempre per il problema di concentrazione di cui sopra) me l'hanno reso in alcuni punti un po' ostico, a volte anche un pelo noioso, ma tant'è.
Nel complesso lo s'è apprezzato.
February 13, 2016
When I started reading this book, I realized that it is more than a well-written narrative, it's literature. It is about many things, starting with what it was like to grow up in Hitler's journey. It is also about memory, how untrustworthy it can be, how fragmented, how difficult it is to confront when one has willfully suppressed it for so long. It is also about transformations of ordinary, decent people without much self-awareness or sophisticated language in a society like Germany in the 30's and 40's, a subject that has always interested me.
February 24, 2016
Wieder lesen nach langer Zeit bring so einiges zurueck. Interessant. Toller Stil und dennoch kein einfaches Lesen. Wolf ist immer irgendwo anspruchsvoll.
Am Ende bleibt eine gewisse Frustration: und was war zwischen 1939 und 1945?? Die Kriegszeit ist weitgehend ausgelassen. Dabei war das genau die Zeit, ueber die ich unbedingt mehr erfahren wollte. Schade.
Am Ende bleibt eine gewisse Frustration: und was war zwischen 1939 und 1945?? Die Kriegszeit ist weitgehend ausgelassen. Dabei war das genau die Zeit, ueber die ich unbedingt mehr erfahren wollte. Schade.
July 19, 2008
It's an intriguing insight into what Nazi Germany would look like through the eyes of a child growing up. But it also asks questions about the validity of memory and the nature of identity. Are we really the same person as the child who became us?
May 28, 2019
A woman searches to understand the girl she was growing up in Nazi Germany from 1932-45 ages 3-16 as she is indoctrinated into tyranny and a town is pulled along by fascism. I found it quite disturbing and powerful. A good book to read at any time but especially today.
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