A lecture which reveiws the effect of the loss of the Eastern Territories on German families through the fil The Tin Drum

1. Die Blechtommel
Icon: The Lost East
Richard McKenzie
10 May 2012 © University of Reading 2006 www.reading.ac.uk

2. The Lost East
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3. The Lost East
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4. The Lost East
The Potsdam Accords
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5. The Lost East
• Approx 11,329,676
Heimatvertriebene
recorded in 1950
• Lived in emergency
accommodation around
Germany
• Umsiedler –
E Germany
• Heimatvertriebene –W
Germany
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6. The Lost East
• Strong political force in W Germany
– Held 27 seats in Bundestag in 1953
• Presented as the heart of German suffering
• East presented as idyll
• Approx 10 films made about the flight of eastern
territories
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7. Die Blechtrommel
• W German
• 1979
• Oscar Winner
• Volker Schlöndorff
b1939
• Günter Grass b1927
• Novel 1958
• Set in Danzig
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8. Die Blechtrommel
• A sexualised German fairy tale without a happy ending
• Sex used to show conflict and attraction between
cultures
• Sex used to mark changes in time
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9. Die Blechtrommel
The mythical lost East or the wild East ?
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10. Die Blechtrommel
The mythical lost East or the wild East ?
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11. Die Blechtrommel
A Hymn to Danzig
• Kashubian
• Polish
• German
• Jews
• Free?
• Live in confused
harmony
• Forced to choose by
Nazis
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12. Die Blechtrommel
The Ridiculous Nazis
• Grotesque
• Vicious
• Seductive
• Destructive
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13. Die Blechtrommel
The Terrible Choice
• Jan Bronski
– Polish
• Alfred Matzerath
– Nazi
• Agnes Matzerath
– Can’t choose
• Grandmother
– Kashubian
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14. Die Blechtrommel
Victims
• Jews
• Markus
• Bronksi
• Poles
• Matzerath
• Maria
• Oskar’s
Grandmother
• Danzig
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15. The Soviets
• Liberators or Perpetrators?
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16. Die Blechtrommel
The East-Paradise Lost ?
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17. Conclusion
• Lost eastern territories a confused mix of cultures
• Ridiculous Nazi’s seduced Danzig and the people paid
the price for seduction with lives
• Germans, Jews, culture victims
• Now a paradise lost
• Soviet perpetrators not liberators
• East gone for ever
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