Boll holds up mirror to postwar Germany

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.