Lecture 9: Böll discussion; The Berlin Wall Goes Up

1. Preliminary
   • ROOM CHANGE for film tonight and Wednesday: GIRVETZ 1119
     need set-up person tonight:
     • What reasons did people have for going along with the East German state?
     • Do you see any evidence of "socialism with a human face"? Where?
     • Pay attention to Konrad's brother-in-law (the dissident in the Church).
       How does his behavior differ from Konrad's, when faced with hard choices?
     • Note the character of the stasi "Betreuer" (literally care-taker)
   • DATE and ROOM CHANGE for next film: Feb. 22 & 23, also Girv. 1119
   • Journals due Thursday; paper proposals next week
   • Balancing lecture, questions, and discussion
2. Böll discussion: What alternative paths are open to West Germany in 1958 (according to B.)?
   • The abbey as a metaphor for the German state
   • The three generations of German women (Johanna Kilb, Edith Schrella, Ruth Faehmel)
   • The three generations of German men (Heinrich, b. 1878; Robert, b. 1905; Joseph, b. 1936)
   • billiards as a metaphor for life
   • issues: renazification, anticommunism, rearmament/NATO, materialism/consumerism
3. Summary of East-West comparison for 1950s (from last time)
   • East at its best in 1959: 1958 plan to have consumer goods outpace west during 1960s
     introduction of polytechnical schools; Soviets winning space race
   • third wave of agricultural collectivization (1945, 1952-53): 1959, for smaller landowners
   • Emigration from East Germany: 1959: 144,000; 1960: 199,000; ½ of 1961: 155,000
     1961 figures included: 688 doctors, 296 dentists, 2648 engineers
   • West: economic boom-at what international and domestic political costs?
4. The Berlin Wall
   • compare Eisenhower to Adenauer (July 1953) vs. Khrushchev to Kennedy (June 1961)
5. Film clips
   • 1970s "documentary": Khrushchev in Vienna (July 1961) to Kennedy in Berlin (June 1963)
   • 1966 clip "Barrikade": 2:20 minute evocation of the human costs of the wall