At the shorter end of the Sonnenallee

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At the shorter end of Sonnenallee is the third novel by Thomas Brussig , published in 1999 . It is set in East Berlin in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The setting is Sonnenallee in the Baumschulenweg district , where people live in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin Wall . Death strips and shooting orders separate this street of Berlin into a longer western part and a shorter eastern part, and thus the GDR from West Berlin . Today this street connects the two districts of Berlin-Neukölln and Baumschulenweg again.

history

The story of how the novel came about is unusual as it is not the basis for the film. Rather, Brussig wrote the script for the film Sonnenallee together with Leander Haußmann in 1999 and only afterwards wrote the novel, because after working on the script he had the feeling that he had to include numerous other ideas. The book was published by Volk und Welt in 1999 and later in several languages, including Slovak, Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, Swedish and Spanish.

Content and structure of the novel

The protagonist of the novel is the young person Michael Kuppisch. Like most GDR citizens, he lives with his family, consisting of his parents and siblings (Sabine and Bernd), in an apartment that is too small. That's why he meets his clique, the potential, on the street. The ABV ( Section Representative ) catches her listening to illegal music. Although they can convince the ABV that they have not listened to prohibited music under any circumstances, Micha's tape is still confiscated. The ABV was soon demoted to sergeant, although he said he should become a sub-lieutenant. Since Micha is harassed by the ABV from this point on, he imagines the story of how the ABV is publicly demoted because he enthusiastically played Micha's tape to his superiors.

Even in the further course of the action, the clique, especially Micha and Mario, shows humor when it comes to meeting the representatives of the system and its absurdities. The novel consists of several episodes, whereby the love story with a happy ending between Micha and Miriam, the most adored girl far and wide, is most likely to have the character of a main plot. Micha's shy and clumsy attempts at conquest run like a red thread through the book. The various subplots, which often revolve around coping with grotesque everyday situations, are linked not only through the setting, but above all through the love story.

Only the music-obsessed Wuschel and Micha's best friend Mario Kontur gain from the potential. Wuschel's obsessive search for the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street takes on grotesque traits. At the end of the novel, he owes his life to the record during an "incident" at the wall. The rebellious Mario, on the other hand, turns out to be a "revolutionary" in the course of the novel, even if this is again broken satirically. His “system-endangering” actions do not lead to any change, but clarify the meaning of the term potential. The East-West conflict dominates the depicted reality only marginally, for example when Micha and Mario play starving GDR citizens in front of a bus occupied by tourists from the West. In doing so, they show that they have mastered the playful handling of common Eastern stereotypes. West German ignorance embodies Uncle Heinz, the Kuppisch family's western relatives. Uncle Heinz criticizes the East, but tries to improve the family's situation through alleged smuggling operations. In the end, he dies of lung cancer. And Frau Kuppisch accomplishes Heinz's last smuggling operation by bringing him / his ashes in a can of coffee across the border.

Style and language

The language of the novel is paratactic and the author deliberately avoids complicated nested sentences . He cleverly uses various language and style features such as: B. the GDR vocabulary , which creates local color and linguistically revives the GDR. The novel appears authentic through youth and colloquial language, whereas the Berlin dialect reinforces the humorous aspect. The mutilated language of Bernd after joining the military shows the influence of the system down to the private sphere.

particularities

Brussig's novel is at first sight an adolescent novel, as it depicts the world and experiences of a clique of young people around the age of seventeen. But it is also a piece of mentality history , because the author reconstructs the past on the basis of subjective memories by creating the microcosm Sonnenallee according to his understanding of biographical continuity . In the Sonnenallee microcosm there is a strong sense of belonging. Against this background, the novel belongs in the discussion about GDR nostalgia. He was accused of portraying the GDR as a harmless fairytale land and of having made an unacceptable peace with the past in a silly and conciliatory manner.

Narrative perspective

The narrative process is authorial , the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of his characters and overlooks the past, present and future. Sometimes he evaluates the absurd behavior of the characters. However, it is not a distanced narrator. Rather, he often speaks in the first person plural with "we", which identifies him as an insider . The reader gets the impression that the narrator was there. At the end of the novel, however, the narrator addresses his unreliability, which results from his nostalgia. The episodic structure of the novel is similar to the process of remembering: associatively, “ purrs ” are strung together.

characters

Constellation of people on the "Sonnenallee"

Michael Kuppisch

Micha is the main character in the book, the aim of which is to win Miriam's heart. He has to assert himself against many competitors, such as West Berliners or the ABV, against whom he hardly seems to have a chance. He is smart and resourceful because he has well thought out plans for how to conquer Miriam. His mother tries to raise Micha loyal to the regime so that she can send him to the “ Red Monastery ” and thus enable him to have a better future. Although Micha is by no means brave, he does everything to win Miriam over.

Mrs. Kuppisch

Micha's mother is an intimidated woman. However, she wants to enable her son to have a good life. Her fear of the state is expressed by the fact that she regularly reprimands her husband when he says something against the Soviet Union or tries to persuade him to behave like a Russian. She wants to persuade him to read the ND instead of the Berliner Zeitung, as this gives a better public image of the family. With success in the end.

Mr. Kuppisch

Mr. Kuppisch is Micha's father. His job is a tram driver , which is why Michael doesn't know when his father is off. He suspects that his neighbors are with the State Security because they have a phone. Mr. Kuppisch always wants to write an entry, but never does. Only in the chapter "How Germany Wasn't Quartered" did he write a petition because Micha was kicked out by the director on the first day in the Red Monastery. Mr. Kuppisch's request has an effect, so that Micha can go back to the Red Monastery from the state, but he prevents this through his appearance when the family is together in the director's office.

Miriam

Miriam also lives with her mother and brother at the shorter end of Sonnenallee. Her mother separated from her father and moved to Sonnenallee with her children to be safe from her psychopathic ex-husband's pursuits. Miriam is the girl all boys fell in love with. She is referred to as a "strange, beautiful and enigmatic woman". But she describes glasses as a "normally deformed child of divorce - discreet, aimless and pessimistic" (p. 18). Her many relationships with Westerners are her way of rebelling against the GDR and escaping the ever-present oppression of individuality by the state. After going to the cinema with Micha, she sees a martial military parade, whereupon she collapses and falls into apathy for many days. Only when Micha reads her from his forged diaries does she come to and gain confidence. She has regained new courage to face life.

glasses

Glasses read a lot, which is why he can form very long sentences. He gets his nickname because, firstly, he wears glasses and, secondly, he is very intelligent. In the Je t'aime chapter he kisses the “shrapnel”. He and Mario are looking for a non-political course of study.

Mario

Mario does a lot of nonsense at school, which is why he is thrown out of school later. Once he changed one of Lenin's slogans : THE PARTY IS THE PREVENTION OF THE WORKING CLASS! Mario wants to do his Abitur or at least an apprenticeship as a car mechanic. He goes with an existentialist named Elisabeth. Mario is later arrested because he is considered a refugee, but then released. In the last chapter he becomes a father.

"The thick"

You don't learn much about “The Fat One” except that his most sought-after correspondence chess partners are Brazilians and Canadians.

Wuschel

Wuschel is a friend of Micha who has only one goal: to finally get Exile on Main Street . When he finally got it, something unexpected happened. The Exile on Main Street saves his life. There is a power outage in the border area and a border guard shoots Wuschel, assuming he wants to flee to Germany. When he comes to, he pulls the tattered Exile on Main Street out of his jacket and bursts into tears.

expenditure

  • Thomas Brussig: At the shorter end of Sonnenallee . Volk und Welt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-353-01168-4 .
  • Thomas Brussig: At the shorter end of Sonnenallee . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-14847-2 .

Reviews

  • Claus-Ulrich Bielefeld: The wall - a moral history . Süddeutsche Zeitung , 4./5. September 1999
  • Ulrike Grohmer: Looking back in peace? New Germany , August 31, 1999
  • Volker Hage: The West kisses differently . Der Spiegel , September 6, 1999
  • Elmar Krekeler: The legend of Micha and Miriam . Die Welt , August 28, 1999
  • Mechthild Küpper: Seven empty cartridges at the end of the night . FAZ , October 12, 1999
  • Andreas Nentwich: Tender poetry of resistance . Die Zeit , September 23, 1999
  • Tobias Rüther: In the middle of life surrounded by state power . Online on server: Literaturkritik, No. 12, 1999
  • Thomas Schuldt: Zoni makes a wink . Rheinischer Merkur , September 24, 1999
  • Ute Stempel: No culture of remembrance whatsoever. Thomas Brussig's silly, conciliatory 'wall comedy' . Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 8, 2000 online
  • Anke Westphal: The GDR as a hippie republic . The daily newspaper , 28./29. August 1999
    • this .: hole in the heart. Stone on the chest . The daily newspaper, November 9, 1999
  • Inge Zenker-Baltes: The miracle Russian with the birthmark . Der Tagesspiegel , August 30, 1999

literature

Web links

notes

  1. ↑ Reviews without an attached link here or on the server of the respective newspaper.
  2. ↑ since 2012 e-book as .pdf ISBN 978-3-8044-5929-8 .