Divided Heaven

Divided Heaven is a 1963 short story by Christa Wolf, which was filmed in 1964 by Konrad Wolf.

Content

Action

The story is about the 19 -year-old Rita Seidel and her boyfriend Manfred Herrfurth and plays just before the Midsummer of 1961, shortly before the Wall was built.

Rita and Manfred fundamentally different - she from the country, he out of town, she rapturously, he technically - rational -, meet at the village dance and become a couple. Then you are living together with his parents in hall, Manfred works as a chemist and Rita visited the teacher training college and works as part of their training in a Socialist Brigade of the wagon structure Ammendorf.

Manfred grew up in a fractious family. He loses faith in the socialist economic system after one of its developments is rejected by the economic officials of the GDR. Therefore, he goes over Berlin (East) in the West. Rita travels after him and tried to persuade him to return, but he wants to stay. Rita but feels strange in the west and goes back to Halle. Shortly afterwards, the Berlin Wall is built and separates the two final. Rita tried to kill herself and is thereby passed out. When she wakes up later, she is in the hospital. From the perspective of just awakened patient, she tells her story in retrospect with Manfred.

Style

The whole story takes place on two levels. The first level takes place in the hospital (after the accident ) and of Rita in the omniscient narrator speech ( authorial ) says. It is described in the present tense, as her life in hospital runs ( conversations with visitors, etc.). Consequently, this level is the now.

In the second level, the whole plot is described, everything that is in the content summary. This level is described in the past tense, but also with direct speech by a third party. This person is not from the story, it is simply the narrator, who also has more information than Rita itself Often these levels are separated by chapter, but such a change occurs not infrequently from one paragraph to another.

Christa Wolf's use of direct speech is strongly reminiscent of the by Eveline Hasler (Anna Göldin ). Just like her does not necessarily have to be in quotes direct speech. Apart from the narrative is but a language easily understandable. Much more than the basic vocabulary is not used; for Wolf sets but requires historical knowledge concerning the GDR before the Wall was built mainly.

Rita

Initially, Rita is a young, inexperienced girl in a small village in eastern Germany. Her childhood has been certainly not the lightest, she grew up without a father and the school has had to quit early due to lack of money. However, she gets a job at the local insurance office. This work, however she does not like much. The great turning point comes with the arrival of Manfred and Schwarzenbach. When she gets from Schwarzenbach the opportunity to change their lives, they therefore do not hesitate to take their chance true. From now on, they are largely on their own feet, because their new surroundings, their new acquaintances you are still foreign. She manages very well to organize their lives in the city, especially through the help of their work colleagues, especially to Meternagel.

By the time she is more mature and increasingly true even decisions by moving to the city, for example. She is also a very important person for Manfred. So they listened to him often patiently while this tells her his worries. And often it is him with good advice. Seen it also takes on the role of parents, for which Manfred harbors no very intimate feelings and he would therefore never ask for help in this regard. But conversely, it is similar. Manfred must also appear frequently as a comforter for Rita.

In conclusion, one can say that Rita has become an independent, mature woman who can cope with life and even after several blows of fate ( death of his father, separation from Manfred, ...) gets up again and carries on.

Reference to the historical reality

Christa Wolf avoids typical content of socialist propaganda literature by simply and directly addresses the situation of the economy and the reasons for the lack of material needs of the population - nothing more. At the end always outweighs the positive confident thought, and so the requirements of the socialist regime in the literature are fulfilled anyway.

Wolf paints a realistic picture of the development of the GDR of a pre-communist society starting to slow lead to socialism of the early sixties. Rita and Manfred represent the two rival forms of society of that time. Manfred sees as the only way against the arbitrary and inability of the political leadership in the GDR, the flight to Germany. Although Rita, however, recognizes the defects of the socialist system, but is willing to take a loss in material, to contribute their share to the improvement process of the socialist idea.

Film

Konrad Wolf filmed 1964 novel for DEFA with the same title. The Divided Heaven was intensively discussed and controversial because of its content and also because of the formal implementation in the Academy of Arts of the GDR. On the other hand, it has been internationally several times rated very appreciative. He was released in 1999 on DVD and 2009 new in the film Edition Suhrkamp, coupled with a further Christa Wolf adaptation ( self- test ) by Peter Vogel from the year 1989.

Theater

On January 19, 2013 had a stage version of the story at the Dresden State Theatre premiere. The first performance was for the stage set up by Felicitas Zurich and Tilmann Köhler in collaboration with the ensemble. Directed by Tilmann Köhler.

First edition

Means German Publisher 1963

Publisher editions

• Berlin -Schöneberg: White 1964 ( first Western edition).
• Munich: German Taschenbuch Verlag 1973.
• Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag 2008 ( Suhrkamp base library - working texts for school and studies, vol 87). ISBN 9783518188873

Secondary literature

• Reso, Martin ( ed. ): "The Divided Sky " and its critics. Documentation with an afterword by the editor. Halle / Saale: Medium German publisher in 1965.
• Bernhardt, Rüdiger: Christa Wolf: The Divided Heaven. King's Notes and Materials (Vol. 426 ). Hollfeld: Bange Verlag 2004, ISBN 978-3-8044-1812-7.