Boll holds up mirror to postwar Germany

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): A good author can act as an informal ambassador for his or her country, especially if conscience fuels the work in reflecting the truth, sometimes in a very vivid and veracious manner. As a German Nobel prize winner for literature in 1972, Heinrich Boll fits this category well in revealing postwar Germany to the world. The German Cultural Center, Goethe Institute Jakarta, has thrown a special exhibition, discussion and film session displaying his works in cooperation with the German Department, Faculty of Letters, University of Indonesia.

"He has influenced the way of thinking of many people in Germany, with his moral standard which he tried to apply to postwar German society," said Rudolph Barth, Director of the Goethe Institute.

"He has convinced many people that power is something which has to be viewed as suspicious," explained Barth.

Boll, who had served in World War II for six years and even experienced being a prisoner of war himself, died in 1985 at the age of 68.

Power is certainly an abundant source of inspiration for many extraordinary authors and Boll is not the only one who has offered a critical perspective through his literary work. His approach in capturing the changing psychology of the German nation after the war was very unique. He had enjoyed widespread success both in former communist and in Western nations.

The exhibition of Boll's work at the University of Indonesia ended last week. But the one at the Goethe Institute in East Jakarta runs through May 3. It is divided into six episodes related to his political ideas and activities. It shows photographs, pieces of work, posters, and other Boll memorabilia. Three films based on his three novels were also shown, both at the Goethe Institute and at the university. The first was Das Brot der frueheren Jahren (The Bread of Our Early Years) which explores the uneasy reality in the life of a mechanic. The second, Ansichten eines Clowns (The Clown), sets the significant question of the artist's responsibilities vis-a-vis society. The protagonist is portrayed as one who deteriorates through drinking, from being a well-paid entertainer to becoming a begging street musician. The third film is the most successful in terms of ringing the cash register and inviting controversy: Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum) whose director is a one-time Oscar winner for a foreign film, Volker Schloendorff.

Boll is well-known for his satirical and ironic novels in depicting German life during and after World War II. Not only did he criticize the formal power institutions such as the court, the parliament or certain individuals who held such social privileges, but also the church and even the conservative press.

"Most of his novels deal with the struggle of the hierarchy of the church, especially those in Western Germany, which at that time was dominated by the Catholic church," explained H. Schroedter-Albers, who presented his paper about Boll titled Von Lamm zum Wolf (From Lamb to Wolf) at a discussion session during the exhibition.

"It's an expression taken from the Bible which he often used in his novels to describe a group of innocent people as lambs. Sometimes he also used a wolf as a symbol of bad people. It's interesting how his action of attacking these wolves made himself a wolf, too. At least, to my understanding," said Albers.

Controversy was indeed a part of Boll's charm. While never failing to make it clear that he held on to the Christian faith wholeheartedly, Boll kept criticizing the German Catholic Church as a powerful institution in postwar West German society. He remained a believer in Catholic doctrine, yet he was against any tendency of the people being suppressed by the church that had nothing to do with original doctrine. Boll's thoughts have influenced public opinion -- even a Cologne archbishop once asked to meet him to discuss the matter further.

Pacifist

Even though he was a pacifist, he was once accused of giving support to a terrorist movement. He argued for the just treatment of German terrorists in the 1970s. Boll seemed fascinated by the anarchistic idea of having no power existing in a society. "He was definitely sympathetic to this idealistic utopia, but he never prescribed himself to violence," commented Barth. Instead, he had protested the Vietnam War with his antiviolence action, got involved in an antinuclear movement and also gave his support to two ex-Soviet author's descendants.

Boll never stopped alienating himself from various sectors of German society. His polemical novel, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, which shows the destruction of an innocent human being by journalistic slander, clearly states Boll's strongest attack against what he perceived as the most dangerous of modern Germany's hypocritical and immoral institutions.

From his early novels until the last one published after his death, The Woman in the Riverside, Boll consistently brought up postwar German society with its shadowy, Nazi past, and its postwar wonder economy.

"Boll's strength lies not in his artistic literary language, but in his ideas," said Albers, a German teacher. It is also his capability in transferring his ideas in the most modest and simple way. "His novels are so easy to understand and translate, which I think is what makes people easily comprehend what's going on in postwar German society," said Albers. His books have been the most translated of German novels compared to other significant German literary works after the war.

Arpani, a senior from Jakarta Teaching Institute (IKIP) who is majoring in German, is one of Heinrich Boll's fans. "He was so brave in presenting the societal problems of his time. He was also very creative," she said.

Interpreting his seemingly many facets -- a shrewd-minded author, a self-critical Catholic, a pacifist and finally an idea machine, raises the fundamental question, who was Heinrich Boll actually? Quoting an intriguing line expressed by one of his popular characters in his novel, The Clown, in response to the aforementioned question, perhaps it is Boll's own answer to the question. "I'm the clown. I collect moments." Only Boll has put more weight to historical moments of contemporary Germany, presenting them in a twisted and veracious way. He sketched the "new" Germany by unveiling crucial issues that underlie people's conscience. "It's a pity that he died only five years before German unification. By that time, no one in Germany dared to think that reunification would happen," commented Albers.