Using my brother's example
Using my brother's example, there is an autobiographical story by the German writer Uwe Timm from 2003. The author reports on his family and how they dealt with the death of Timm's 16-year-old brother, who participated in the Second World War as a member of the Waffen SS . Personal experience becomes the starting point for the question of how the Nazi past was generally dealt with in the post-war period .
content
The Timm family lived in Hamburg during the Second World War . They have three children: a daughter named Hanne Lore, Karl-Heinz, who is two years younger, and Uwe, who is 18 years younger than his sister. When Karl-Heinz turned 18, he volunteered for the SS in 1942 and joined their elite unit, the Totenkopf Division . When he was sent to the Eastern Front , he illegally kept a diary there in which he recorded his experiences. After six months in the war, he was seriously wounded and died a month later in October 1943.
The father had in World War I served as a soldier after the war, a volunteer corps connected and fought in the Baltics. Through the mother, who cannot forget her son, and the father, who does not want to forget him, the simultaneously present and absent brother Uwe Timm overshadows his childhood. After the death of his parents and sister, Timm tries to get closer to his brother through the diary and stored field post letters. By starting to write about him, Timm seeks answers to his questions.
motto
The motto of the book is two lines from the poem to Mark Anthony in Heaven by William Carlos Williams from 1913.
intention
Uwe Timm deals intensively with the question of why the brother did not wait for his draft notice like the other men of his year, but volunteered. He tries to find out how much guilt he took on as a member of the Waffen SS, whether he was a man of conviction or just an opportunist , and why his father kept presenting him as a role model to his younger brother.
By working through his brother's story, he also devotes himself to the role of his parents and grapples with the guilt of their generation. For example, he writes: “The generation of fathers, the generation of perpetrators, lived from storytelling or keeping quiet.” Similar to Schlink's novel Der Vorleser , the conflict between the youth and the parents, who were unable to critically deal with their past, is an important one Motif of the book and is particularly evident through Timm's cool relationship with his father.
expenditure
- Uwe Timm: Using my brother's example . Cologne, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2003, ISBN 3-462-03320-4 .
- Using my brother's example , audio book , full edition, speaker Gert Heidenreich , Random House Audio, ISBN 978-3-89830-653-9
literature
- Bellmann, Mirjam: Key to reading: Uwe Timm. Using the example of my brother , Stuttgart: Reclam 2011. ( Reclam's Universal Library . No. 15415) ISBN 978-3-15-015415-1
- Bernhardt, Rüdiger: Using my brother's example. Hollfeld: C. Bange 2008 ( King's Explanations / Materials , Vol. 475). ISBN 3-8044-1879-1
- Gockel, Heinz: Using my brother's example. Text and comment. Bamberg: C. C. Buchner 2006 (Buchner's modern school library, vol. 26). ISBN 3-7661-3976-2
- Kammler, Clemens: Using my brother's example. Interpretations. Berlin: Oldenbourg Schulbuchverlag 2006 (Oldenbourg Interpretations, Vol. 107). ISBN 3-486-00107-8