Germany's Hell-of-a Honeymoon

The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun)

Let me begin by stating the obvious, The Marriage of Maria Braun is an epic entertainment piece—laughs included—demonstrating the trauma of Hitler’s collapsing Germany. I feel this film succeeds as a theatrical brilliance by successfully combining both a comedic and traumatic tone (not to mention Fassbinder’s plethora of death, money and sex!). The film clearly represents Germany’s ‘desire for a deeper historical understanding of West Germany’s repressed past’ around the late 1970s when events concerning Hitler’s rule began resurfacing through terroristic deaths/kidnappings (The Oxford History of World Cinema). Rainer Werner Fassbinder digs deep into the late1940s Germany through Maria—an emotionless newly-wed whom eventually trades in her morality for economic wealth and then proceeds to lose it all at the peak of her power. The dynamics of her character are extreme and effectively represents Germany’s attempt at wealth and growth by any means necessary. Maria grows apart from everything and everyone she has ever known, shoving it in the past without looking back. The readings are easily comparable with the film as Maria demonstrates a desperate Germany attempting to reconstruct by merely forgetting the agonizing events of the past. Material wealth is meaningless without the true presence of happiness. Both meet their undeniable fate. Germany’s disregard to explore and accept psychological and physical debt brings overwhelming consequences later when the past can no longer be suppressed. Maria is constantly focused on nothing more than her materialistic image; she eventually forgets even the simplest tasks such as turning off the stove. Artificial confidence ultimately provokes a preventable ‘explosion’, exposing the weakness of a failed identity.