Heroes like us

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Heroes Like Us is a 1995 published novel by Thomas Brussig .

Thomas Brussig's satire can be read as a novel of development - here, of course, in a parodic inversion - but it is also in the tradition of the picaresque novel . Heroes like us quickly became a bestseller, welcomed by the critics as a “long-awaited reversal novel”, was staged in a version directed by Peter Dehler in 1996 and had its premiere as a film of the same name on November 9, 1999, the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall .

content

The novel begins with an outrageous claim: the first-person narrator by the name of Klaus Uhlzscht claims that it was he alone who brought the Berlin Wall down on November 9, 1989 - with his “tail ". His client, a journalist for the “New York Times”, learns exactly how he managed this, but only as a fictitious listener in the last of the seven “tapes” (or chapters) discussed. Until then, the protagonist's first 21 years of life in the GDR are told, which symbolically coincide exactly with the 21 years of death of socialism , because his birth in "a political world" takes place on August 20, 1968, the day the Warsaw Pact invaded - States to Czechoslovakia for the violent suppression of the Prague Spring .

The hero grows up as an only child, whose parents could hardly be more different: the mother always attentive, caring, explaining everything, looking for balance - the father eternally dark, sullen, silent, confrontational. In their upbringing, however, they complement each other in a fatal way: Your son is always kept “small”, remains an outsider, feels like a failure. The most sensitive point of his inferiority complex is typical of adolescents - sexuality. In this respect, the intellectually superior protagonist experiences himself as hopelessly ignorant and retarded compared to his peers; most of all he suffers from the obsession of having too small a member. His inferiority complex has a downside - megalomania. Even little Klaus dreams of becoming famous. In addition to this egoistic motive, he is also driven by an altruistic one: He also wants to be needed. Both together make him susceptible to socialist propaganda and ultimately to an employee of the Stasi , whereby he follows in the footsteps of his father, even if it deeply contradicts his feelings and prolongs his immaturity. The banality of his new job does not prevent his easily irritable imagination from fooling him into unimagined possibilities, seduces him into even more extreme sexual perversions and generates a considerable amount of criminal energy in him, which is only turned over happily through the course of history. In the final chapter ("The healed dick") the sexual imagery of the novel is consistently continued. The outsider soars to become the leader of a crowd that seems to be struck with the taint he has overcome before her. The abolition of the German division, which was almost done in passing, is contrasted ironically with the paradigmatic novel about the implementation of the division ( The Divided Heaven ), whose author Christa Wolf caricatures the first-person narrator as the “mother of all” of GDR literature and the time of change.

Personality of Klaus Uhlzscht

Relationship with mother

The relationship with his mother is particularly important for Klaus' personal development. In childhood he was strongly influenced by their behavior and upbringing and shaped for his future life. Klaus' mother, Lucie Uhltzscht, had to break off her medical studies for her son, but still considers herself a doctor and works as a “hygiene inspector” (p. 26). She therefore attaches great importance to cleanliness, order and correct language. Of course, this has an impact on Klaus, as she B. refuses to go to kindergarten. Another example of their downright “hygiene craze” is that there is even an extra “red soap” for hand washing after using the toilet (p. 45). In her upbringing, Lucie Uhlzscht does not express any direct prohibitions, but suggests to her son indirectly what is good and bad (see p., “We want to give up that.”). Her actions are thus contrary to those of Klaus' father. Furthermore, she transfers her fears to her child, e.g. B. the fear of burglars or of “bolus death” (see p. 33). The result is that Klaus has little contact with other children due to all these fears and regulations. These are mainly limited to his experiences in various holiday camps. When he comes into contact with other children, Klaus behaves according to his mother's principles and consequently cannot integrate himself socially. The mother controls all actions and behavior of her son meticulously and thus leaves him little privacy, also with regard to his sexuality. As a result, Klaus is not informed until late in the camp and has the feeling of being ignorant of this topic towards his peers. According to Freud's theory of personality, the mother in the novel can thus be referred to together with the father as the personality-building factor of the super-ego. The oppression by his mother and the constant dissatisfaction of his parents ultimately lead to a pronounced inferiority complex, which he tries to compensate with good performance and later by joining the Stasi. He generally sets very high goals for a child in order to gain recognition and is eager to become a Nobel Prize winner in the future. He often thinks in picture headlines (e.g. BS 15) and imagines how the newspaper could report about him if he were famous. This also contributes to the fact that he considers himself to be something better than the other children and that he distinguishes himself socially. Not only Klaus' actions are determined by his mother, but she also dominates his thoughts. Therefore, in almost every situation, he acts as his mother would expect him to do. Ultimately, the upbringing and relationship between Klaus and his mother culminate in his mother's problems and complexes that he has to struggle with later in life. Klaus realizes this, which leads to the fact that, as a grown man, he still loves his mother, but on the other hand also condemns her because she is complicit in his own personality problems.

Relationship with father

Klaus Uhlzscht's relationship with his father Eberhard Uhlzscht turns out to be difficult. Right at the beginning of the novel, the father is assigned an important role. Even after his death he is very present in Klaus' life. This presence affects Klaus in his actions and is decisive and decisive for his resume. Klaus sees his father as authoritarian, righteous (see pp. 9–11) and often sullen. The authority makes Klaus feel worthless, subordinate and intimidated. He does not dare to show his interests and needs to the father, and even if the father is not present, he cannot think about his wishes with a clear conscience, let alone live them out. With every decision that Klaus has to make, he thinks about whether his father would do the same and whether he would condemn it. As a result, he cannot make spontaneous decisions. In general, the father shows no interest and no love for Klaus. He does not mention his name, considers him a failure (see p. 43), does not talk to him in his presence, but rather about him and treats him as a defendant before the American jury (see p. 34). Despite all these circumstances, Klaus always tries to gain approval from his father. His feelings for the father, whom he also calls the “breadwinner” (p. 37), are contradictory. On the one hand he is uncomfortable and he doesn't like him, on the other hand he loves him and he is convinced that he has a good heart. For Klaus his father has something divine. It seems that he can do deeds that no one else can (see p. 38). He wants to make his father proud at all costs, but does not believe that he is capable of doing so, as he has the feeling that it is a shame and impertinence to have him as a son (see p. 41). To make his father proud, Klaus even goes to the Stasi, since his father was there too. Klaus can only guess at this fact, as he is never explicitly told about his father's job and the work is treated like a sealed book. For a long time there was even a lie about the job, namely that the father was in the Foreign Trade Ministry (see p. 83). In addition, in Klaus' eyes this can only be good, since everything his father does is good. Nevertheless, over the years Klaus noticed that he had completely different interests and a different character than his father. The constant feeling of not doing his father justice and of being a failure in the eyes of his father arouses in Klaus doubts whether he is really his biological son (see p. 218). Thomas Brussig makes it very clear that Klaus' father represents the “superego” according to Freud's personality theory, because Klaus is led away from his own interests by the fear of disappointing his father and cannot freely live out his instincts. Only when he is dead does Klaus gradually manage to do only what he feels like. Even after his father's death, Klaus knows nothing about his life. Klaus treats the corpse disrespectfully. Only now does he dare to defend himself against his father and show him his feelings. He does this by "squeezing his balls" and hoping that the father will see this. Because the father also symbolically "squeezed the balls" of Klaus by always giving him the feeling of being a failure and thus robbing him of his masculinity. This was a big step for the main character in the novel he is proud of. Over the years that his father still lived, Klaus always tries to see something good in his father. But now he can admit to himself that there was no soul in his father (see p. 268), that he did not have a good character trait. Klaus is relieved about death and it makes him freer, since he now never has to look up to him as a father again and he can therefore better live out his interests because he no longer has to fear that he will be seen as a failure in the eyes of the father could.

Klaus as an adult

Klaus' childhood is marked by the strict upbringing of the mother and the disregard for the father. He grows up separated from other children of his age, which causes great deficits in his social behavior. It is difficult for him to get to know people and many normal everyday situations are completely alien to him (p. 22, lines 21-26): “When I heard my mother say on the phone I don't really want to send Klaus to kindergarten, I was terrible upset because I thought the kindergarten was a garden to which today's Hansel and Gretel are sent. ”Klaus has believed he was special since he was a child. He wants to achieve something in life, to prove his independence to the mother, to win the father's respect and to satisfy his own self-doubts. At the holiday camp, Klaus is confronted with the forbidden topic of sexuality for the first time. Although this is a deterrent to him at first, his curiosity is aroused. Klaus begins to explore his own sexual preferences and experiences for the first time what it is like to feel masculine and recognized. In connection with his megalomania, his healthy curiosity about his sexuality develops into extreme perversions (p. 239, lines 15-18): “With this in mind, I bought a broiler at home at home and sexually without consulting my department abused. ". With this, Klaus tried to come to terms with his inferiority complexes and his social isolation. Persecuted by constant remorse caused by his mother's comments, Klaus develops an inner conflict. On the one hand, he is confirmed by his disturbed sexual behavior, on the other hand, his upbringing makes him doubt his actions (p. 193, lines 28-29): “Mama, Papa please! Before you scold, remember that I only masturbate to avoid rape! ”. In contact with his fellow human beings, however, Klaus encounters the limits of his perversion. When he fell in love for the first time and his partner offered him the opportunity to live out the masochistic sexual practices, Klaus was deterred and withdrew (p. 237, lines 9-14): “And then she said what she shouldn't have said , those three fateful words, no not the three words; she whispered: “hurt me!” Oh dear, that was too much for me, you understand I would have resigned myself to fucking an angel, but that I should hurt her when I theoretically had to prove my love for her - no that was really too much for me. ”. At this moment Klaus shows a different side of his character, he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone and is completely himself.

Stasi in the novel

People and methods

Klaus Uhlzscht is assigned three employees at the beginning of his work. These are called Martin Eulert (first lieutenant), Harald Wunderlich (major) and Gerd Grabs (captain). The Stasi is portrayed in the novel through these colleagues and their methods. All three have their own idiosyncrasies that are mostly inexplicable to others. Martin Eulert, hobby philosopher, interprets all things that are incomprehensible to him through the “negation of negation”. Harald Wunderlich always lists three ways of proceeding with A, B and C. And finally Gerd Grabs, who is fanatically looking for monosyllabic first names with “G”. These habits and the everyday office routine, pretzel sticks always have to be in stock (p. 150), appear bizarre to the reader. The Stasi’s approach to house searches and surveillance is described in the novel in a realistic manner. During searches, objects are only rearranged, destroyed or taken away, mostly accidentally or because the investigators benefit from them, and not so much to serve the Stasi (p. 155). But this is exactly what spreads fear among those affected. Furthermore, observations are carried out during which none of the four employees knows what purpose they are serving. Aliases for secrecy and protocols for control appear ridiculous and useless as they are hardly usable (p. 180).

Uhlzscht's personal point of view

In his childhood, Klaus made the Stasi his secret enemy. He sits for hours in his room and observes the main building of the Stasi and records his “results” (p. 75). So he unintentionally behaves like a Stasi employee. When his father finds out and forbids this, Klaus stops his observation, but the Stasi still attributes only bad qualities. For a long time he did not know that his father was working for the Stasi because his father was cold and kept the principles of the Stasi even in his own family. When his father offers him to come to the Stasi with the words “Tell me, you start with us too?” (P. 91), Klaus sees his chance to please his father. Despite his knowledge that his father works for the Stasi and this has offered him to work for him, Klaus is never sure that he really is with the Stasi (p. 152 “Was I really with the Stasi now, with the right one , real, legendary Stasi? "). He sees his work as disgusting and calls himself scum (pp. 230–231 “I kidnapped a child, I sniffed around in strangers' letters, I stared at strangers for weeks, I scared, paralyzed, mocked others. I make the world worse than it is anyway. I found pleasure in making an eight-year-old girl cry ... "" I sat in my escape-proof one and a half room mezzanine apartment, counted myself as scraps and watched TV ... "). He only continues his work thinking he is destined for something greater. The cooperation with his foolish colleagues and the senseless observations are only a test to see whether he is suitable for a more important job (p. 168). He sees himself as much more intelligent and capable than his colleagues.

presentation

Thomas Brussig shows the reader in a funny way how strict and scary the Stasi was in the GDR era. Due to the chaotic presentation of the employees and methods, he gives the reader no other option than to make fun of the authority (pp. 154–155 “... which surprised the cultural attaché very much, but Grabs and I had orders for that evening anyway confuse and unsettle. "). Random and accidental, embarrassing incidents are part of everyday life for the four colleagues, but are always interpreted in favor of the Stasi. This shows that the Stasi was disorganized, but still served its purpose. The employees seem silly and not to be taken seriously, but it is precisely these people that characterize the Stasi in the novel. Above all, the protagonist Klaus Uhlzscht makes the confused and naive thinking of the Stasi employees clear. Since Uhlzscht himself amazes and makes fun of his colleagues, the effect of the whole is supported (pp. 153–154 “... But Wunderlich said the statistics up and down! Then he wanted to be admired for his fabulous memory! What am I here for? I kept asking myself. What am I doing here? I want to make it big, […] - why in the world do I have to watch my superior, proud as a six-year-old, pray down sports statistics? "). The Stasi is also typified by Uhlzschts father. He works for the Stasi, but keeps it so secret that his own son doesn't know for a long time. Brussig therefore uses the “happy reappraisal” throughout the novel. He describes the events of the GDR in a funny way and helps the victims to laugh at the perpetrators and thus to process what happened.

End of the GDR in the novel

According to Klaus Uhlzscht's character, the fall of the Wall is depicted in a highly self-centered and subjective manner, which means that the depiction does not correspond to reality. In the following section, the fictional and actual events are compared.

Right at the beginning of the novel, Klaus Uhlzscht brags that he played a major role in the fall of the Berlin Wall, but he only explains more detailed connections later, after he has reported on his life. Klaus Uhlzscht is characterized by his strict upbringing according to the norms of the GDR. His constant efforts to meet the demands of his father lead to the fact that he finally goes to the Stasi and follows in his footsteps. His distorted perception is clearly evident in various situations such as the serious confusion between figure skating coach Jutta Müller and Christa Wolf, the well-known writer, in her speech on November 4th 1989 ("Close enough to see who was speaking: Jutta Müller, the figure skating coach, my mother's idol ”(p. 285, lines 24-26)). Due to his exaggerated self-focus, he is of the opinion that he must put an end to the anti-stasi speech ("I wanted to rush to the microphone, I wanted to beat myself on the truck bed to put an end to this socialism hocus-pocus, me, the Stasifresse, the perverse, Honecker's little trumpeter, wanted to present me to three quarters of a million people as a chilling example of socialism messy "(p. 288, lines 14-20)). He stumbles over a cardboard sign and falls down the stairs, "injuring his head and genitals [...]" (p. 291, lines 29-30) and has to be operated on. These events turn his revolutionary views. So it happens that after escaping from the hospital, he happens to pass the wall. In the novel it is shown that the wall is opened due to the oversized genitals of the protagonist Klaus Uhlzscht, which he owes to the operation. This scene shows the true megalomania of Klaus Uhlzscht, who is of the opinion that he alone brought the wall to the "collapse".

In contrast to Klaus Uhlzscht's variant of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the events are actually based on a misunderstanding within the GDR leadership, in which Günter Schabowski approved the immediate departure from the GDR. The border guards were not prepared for the short-term change and therefore could not hold back the crowd at the border crossing. (See Wende (GDR) ). The comic situation arises from the fact that Klaus Uhlzscht is firmly convinced that he was personally responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall. In spite of his very stasis-oriented upbringing, he is of the opinion that he brought the wall down and consequently brought the GDR down as well.

Language of the novel

The omnipresent irony, which is complemented by Brussig's recourse to sexual metaphors and fecal language, is characteristic of the linguistic design of the novel. Klaus Uhltzscht, the egocentric first-person narrator of the story, persecuted by inferiority complexes, falls into a wide variety of rhetorical patterns, taking into account gradually his actual psychological state is revealed. The element of irony gains in importance in stories of his childhood - and thus in his relationship with his parents - which is also reflected in the typography of the novel, for example in italics , which, depending on the context, refer to quotations, emphasize and thus have a more ironic effect or also represent fictional conversations, some of which are based on Klaus' fear fantasies. Just like the numerous hyperbolic excesses of articulation ("per-sonal-identification") that Brussig puts in his protagonist's mouth, the italic parts described above expose his compulsive engagement with language, which can be traced back to a disturbed perception of his environment, which results from the upbringing of his mother, the hygiene goddess. Maximum grammatical correctness and flawless articulation reflect the intrusive work of his mother and represent an implicit reproach that is also discussed on the meta-level in the course of the novel, for example Klaus' thoughts on his actually spontaneous formulation "most correct" (p. 214, Z. 11f.), Which noticeably illustrates his neurotic nature for him too. Through a playful division of different words into their individual syllables, the narrator succeeds in creating new meanings, which in turn can be linked to the relationship to his parents, such as “gender”, which in the further conversation reveals the sexual inadequacy of his parents ! -Bad! "Becomes.

Brussig's omnipresent recourse to faecal language elements serve a similar purpose as youth language in general: It is part of Klaus' socialization, his belated profiling and emancipation from his mother, who, as the goddess of hygiene, also appears "sterile" on a linguistic and emotional level. The emotionalization of language ("scheißtraurig", p. 214, line 22) forms the contrast to the rationalization that he experienced through his parents and the regime. In addition, it refers to Klaus' self-portrayal as a “multipervers”, which comes from his disturbed relationship to sexuality. The only noteworthy described love affair with a woman named Yvonne that Klaus experiences, however, reveals a sensitive, insecure side that he presents of himself when he gets the chance to live actual perversion. Her metaphorical description as a “butterfly painter” (p. 214, 215) testifies to a loving naivety that does not require any further emotionalization in this excerpt and thus manages entirely without the otherwise usual excrement and sexual metaphors. Syntactically, Klaus unconsciously seems to stretch his narrative through rows ("and"), possibly also to maintain a memory of Yvonne (p. 219, lines 11f.)

The stasis language

It is Klaus Uhlzscht's great wish to belong to the Stasi. When he is instructed to report to his office, he is filled with transfigured ideas of what happens at the Stasi. Since he refrains from asking questions, he lets everything sink in and develops his own imaginative pictures. It is quickly explained to him that all IM ( unofficial employees ) are given an alias (see p. 182, line 6). Each individual employee is anonymized by these aliases. The human being as an individual takes a back seat, rather only his task becomes important (p. 162). Uhlzscht thinks the use of aliases is perfectly fine, as this approach is part of the Stasi myth. Not only Stasi employees, but also "normal people" are given aliases. Through these aliases of people, the individuality of people disappears. In the eyes of the Stasi, they are degraded to "animals" that have to be kept apart as easily as possible. This approach is strongly reminiscent of the Nazi dictatorship, where names were replaced by numbers and humans "disappear" and only one creature remains to be cataloged. Klaus shows ingenuity when discussing how to avoid leaflets, and Uhlzscht after his suggestion not to sell large quantities of paper, says: "Every blank page is a potential leaflet"! Everything else is a truth based only on one ideology, presented as objective and factual logic. This mindset only makes it clear that the East feels constantly under attack and believes that the class enemies want to destroy the country. He also tells everyone that everything must be done to prevent this. It shows the fear of the enemy and at the same time the belief that one can only survive against the capitalist enemy with socialist strength and faith. The fear of the enemy can be clearly heard and only standing together and fighting "shoulder to shoulder" can avert the evil. The language of the Stasi employees is also significant, with the exception of Uhlzscht, for example new meanings are assigned to words, an example of which is post-structuralism, which is assigned the importance of post-structural espionage. The largely failed existences at the Stasi try to give importance to their lives and do not admit their inability to themselves and therefore talk big with their neologisms and their stasis language. For Klaus, the consequences of working for the Stasi are that he becomes more and more paranoid and also feels more and more important, which you can see from the fact that he thinks he is only being prepared for a special assignment , namely the “ micro-fish ” of the Stealing NATO Secretary General, which unfortunately only happens in his imagination.

When dealing with language within the novel, the rhetorical means of the Stasi, which Klaus reproduced in his activity report as IM, must be mentioned as a separate sub-item. The anonymization of its victims by renaming the people is characteristic of the work of the totalitarian regime (p. 224, line 8). The creation of code names serves to distance the informants and those who are being monitored and to avoid an emotional confrontation, which reduces the inhibition to betrayal and extradition to the organization and thus ensures the existence of the regime. The satirical side of Brussig's “heroes like us” is expressed more intensely through the empty phrases of the State Security employees, which formerly had a meaningful origin, but have been completely alienated over the years, for example the “belittling of the enemy” (p. 224 , Line 5), which the men's group around Uhlzscht and his colleagues discussed passionately. The numerous duplicate phrases of the shadowers have a similar satirical function, so the formulation "encrypted messages are encrypted" (p. 221, line 16), which stems from a paranoid idea of ​​the IM. The Grotesque of the Stasi is also illustrated by a series of neologisms that arise in disputes between the men about their work, such as an “apolitical romanticism” (p. 217, line 31), whose meaning also for all fictitious participants through the The confusion of the argument hardly seems comprehensible. Another element of the comedy is the listing of the most diverse ideas by employees in alphabetical points, which are continuously interspersed within the novel and are based on the utopian idea of ​​order and efficiency of the Stasi, which, however, becomes obsolete due to the arbitrary use of this form of organization (cf. 221) . The lack of intelligence of the Stasi characters in Brussig's novel is revealed by their use of innumerable unsuccessful examples, which in the true sense serve to underpin the institution's raison d'etre, but are revised by the failure of the characters. Of enormous importance for the work of an organization, especially within a totalitarian regime, is the linguistically implemented formation of so-called in and out groups, the creation of a sense of togetherness and thus the establishment of an identity by the Stasi. The differentiation into "we", i.e. H. the Stasi employees on the one hand and “they” or “you”, addressing a different group because they think outside the box, on the other, favors the IM's elitist sense of self, which is particularly attractive to an insecure protagonist like Klaus Uhlzscht. Knowing that they are taking on an inferior group as one, the willingness of the participants to consistently implement the methods of the Stasi grows. Military influences too, i. H. War metaphors or technical terms such as the "status quo of the situation" or the division and thus hierarchy below the IM by ranks (p. 148) organize the work of the group, the ambition to rise in the ranking and the mirroring of harmony. Klaus Uhlzscht's attitude towards the Stasi is not a positive one, which he also proves in retrospect. On the linguistic level, his negative vote turns out to be clear, since he always differentiates between the “correct Stasi” and his unit. In his assessment, his group and thus experience cannot correspond to the myth of the brutal and above all competent Stasi, which on the one hand illustrates the real picture of the authority within the GDR at the time, and on the other hand exaggerates the reality, namely the basis of the state security, which consists of Average citizens with trivial interests and mediocre intelligence. "Stasi-typical mistrust" implicitly degrades Klaus Uhlzscht as a human being, as does the quality he acquired at the time, "after catching the hook" (p. 212, lines 4–5), which gives an animalistic impression. which reveals the inhuman work of the Stasi through the protagonist himself.

Heroes like us - a satire

In summary, the novel contains many parodic, grotesque and satirizing elements that create a relationship between the absurd events of the novel and the real GDR. The GDR context is retained, but the state is replaced by a parenting couple who bring up the protagonist in a comparable extreme form. Both father and mother influence and suppress Klaus and convey their worldview to him, which he also accepts. Klaus Uhlzscht is therefore the child of a perfect mother and a perfect father. And because of him alone, this flawless world of his parents collapses, beginning with the extremely unhygienic conception, through his birth on a dirty table to the fact that his mother gives up her job for him and her complete composure (p. 24, line 10) loses. Ideologies and practices are parodied in exactly the same way: the protagonist, a pervert, caught between his wishes and his values, discovers a way out: as soon as he researches his perversion for currencies, as it were for socialism against socialist values, they become legitimate. At this point the GDR makes itself ridiculous. The main grotesque elements are the many misunderstandings in which the hero puts things in a completely new context, out of sheer lack of understanding. Other authors are particularly intertextual, such as B. Christa Wolf's divided sky caricatured. The grotesque, however, consists in the fact that the GDR distorts itself, because the stimulus arises from the distortion in which the caricatured and real are logically linked with something completely different and absurd. The most important thing about the distortion, however, is that, following an internal logic, it does not exist at all. Ironically, this inner logic, the Klaus Uhlzscht logic, is precisely the GDR logic that Klaus Uhlzscht has taken unaltered into himself. The protagonist is thus the missing link (p. 323, line 16) of the GDR and its own ridiculousness, and symbolically it is also the connecting link between the GDR and its own disintegration.

literature

  • Moritz Baßler: The German Pop Novel. The new archivists. Munich 2002. ISBN 978-3406476143 .
  • Elke Brüns: After the fall of the wall - a literary history of the delimitation. Munich 2006. ISBN 9783770543373 .
  • Christoph Dieckmann : Klaus and how he saw the world. The young East Berlin author Thomas Brussig wrote the long-awaited reversible novel . In: Die Zeit , September 8, 1995 (also online)
  • Mirjam Gebauer: Descriptions of the milieu of two crazy monologists. Philip Roth's “Portnoy's Complaint” as a model for Brussig's “Heroes Like Us” In: Orbis Litterarum 3, 2002, pp. 222–240.
  • Mirjam Gebauer: Crises of transition. The picaro in the German novel of the 1990s. Trier 2006. ISBN 978-3884768129 .
  • Sven Glawion: Heterogenesis. Masculinity in German narrative texts 1968 - 2000. Darmstadt 2012. ISBN 978-3941310278 .
  • Heide Hollmer, Albert Meier : “How I got that with the wall”. November 9, 1989 in Brussig's “Heroes Like Us” and in Thomas Hettches “Nox”. In: German Academy for Language and Poetry , Ed .: Yearbook 1999. Darmstadt 2000, pp. 112–131. ISBN 978-3892443766 .
  • Cornelia Walther: Thomas Brussig: Heroes like us. König's explanations and materials , 413. Bange, Hollfeld 2002. ISBN 978-3-8044-1764-9
  • Oliver Igel: Did the GDR really exist? The depiction of the SED state in comical prose about the “Wende”. Tönning, Lübeck 2005. ISBN 389959312X .
  • Peter Paul Schwarz: “'Take and read'” - The 'East German' as a reception phenomenon. In: Viviane Chilese, Matteo Galli (Ed.): Does the sun rise in the east? Trends in recent East German literature. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8260-5395-5 , pp. 29–45.

notes

  1. since 2012 also e-book online as .pdf file ISBN 9783804457645