The career of German screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase spanned the entire history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Not content with that, Kohlhaase has continued working into the 21st century.
Kohlhaase's visit to Bowdoin this week focuses on one of his most recent triumphs, 2001's The Legend of Rita. The film, directed by Oscar-winner Volker Schl?ndorff (The Tin Drum) is presented by the Bowdoin Film Society at 7:00 p.m. tonight in Smith Auditorium. Kohlhaase will personally introduce the film, which will be followed by a discussion.
Kohlhaase also gave a talk on the film last night in the Beam classroom. Entitled "The Legend of Rita?A Special Chapter of German Terrorism," the talk focused on the film's historical background. The Rita of the title is involved in terrorism in West Germany in the 1970s. She eventually flees the country and is able to lead a normal life under a new identity in the socialist German Democratic Republic. However, when the Wall comes down, she finds she cannot run from her past forever. Rita's situation is based on that of 10 terrorists who "started over" in the GDR.
In his talk, Kohlhaase, a native Berliner who lived in the GDR, outlined the terrorism situation. 1968 was the start, with a "clash of generations" both in Europe and in America as the Vietnam War was fought. There was fighting in the streets of Paris. In the '70s an armed movement emerged in West Germany with the Red Army Faction.
"They had high conceptions. They were very German because it was all theory," said Kohlhaase. He characterized the RAF's philosophy as "a mix of young Marx, old Mao, and homemade arrogance."
Violence escalated from clashes between student demonstrators and police. When the Baader-Meinhof gang, leaders of the movement, was imprisoned, the terrorists focused on freeing them and took hostages. The deaths of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof in prison were not accepted as suicide by followers, but many of these followers dispersed. The ones who fled to the GDR were helped by the East German secret police, the Stasi. They were generally able to lead normal lives, but when the socialist government collapsed, they were left to fend for themselves, and had to serve prison terms in the reunited Germany.
Kohlhaase and Schl?ndorff wanted to do a film in the wake of reunification that wouldn't fall into clichés, and decided that the terrorism was "a story which shouldn't be forgotten."
Kohlhaase has worked in the movie business since joining the East German film studio DEFA in 1950. Among Kohlhaase's other films are Berlin?Ecke Sch?nhauser (1957), Solo Sunny (1980), and three films with East German director Frank Beyer, who visited Bowdoin two years ago. But as German Department chair Professor Steve Cerf noted in his introduction, Kohlhaase has written all his life and worked in several media. Kohlhaase will discuss his short story "Invention of Language" today with students in Cerf's class "The Literary Imagination and the Holocaust." Kohlhaase also visited Professor Helen Cafferty's "Post-1945 Literature and Culture" class.
Kohlhaase is visiting the United States for a 3-day conference in Philadelphia, The Long Shadow of the Berlin Wall. He also visited Connecticut College and will visit Amherst College, home of the DEFA film archive. He recently completed a film with the young German director Andreas Dresen, Sommer vorm Balkon, about two women who share a building in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg and compete for the love of a trucker. It will be released in next spring.
Kohlhaase cited I Was 19 (1968) and Solo Sunny, both directed by Konrad Wolf, as his favorite of his films.