Goodbye Lenin: German Reunification and Everyday Culture

Introduction: History and the Cinematic Wake-Up Device

One of the oldest and least believable cinematic clichés is that of the "dream sequence," or worse, that of the protagonist who awakes from a long-standing coma to find that everything has changed. Rip Van Winkle, of Washington Irving fame, is perhaps the most familiar example of this trope, but Goodbye Lenin, a 2003 German film directed by Wolfgang Becker, shows that the cinematic uses of this humorous device need not seem trite to modern viewers when addressing contemporary issues. The conceit of Rip Van Winkle, of course, is that a man falls asleep when England still rules America and awakes to find that saying "God save the King" in the new nation is no longer patriotic — as it had not been for some time. The march of historical events is often faster than the ability of human nature to shift perceptions, tastes, and preferences.

In Goodbye Lenin, set in East Berlin during the final days of Soviet bloc domination, a sickly, lonely woman named Christiane is nearly killed by the shock of seeing her son Alex beaten on television during the rioting that has taken over the streets of her city. The film implies that Christiane is not simply worried her son will be harmed, but also disturbed because he is rioting against the regime she supports. After her husband left her for a woman Christiane believed was an "enemy of the state" — a Westerner — she threw all of her energies into raising her children and into her devotion to communism.

Christiane's Coma and the Collapse of the GDR

Alex is now demanding the fall of the Berlin Wall, going against everything his mother believes in, while she still holds to the ideals of communism long after most of her fellow East Germans have seen through its lies. Shaken with horror, Christiane falls into a coma — and soon, swift historical shocks shake the formerly communist nation, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Christiane's daughter Ariane drops out of school, which had largely taught her outdated political clichés about communism, and takes a job at Burger King instead. The land fills with images of commercialism and capitalism: Burger King, Coca-Cola, large shiny vehicles arriving from West Germany. The whole country changes, seemingly in the blink of an eye. The furniture, food, and consumer goods all improve, and the old, dreary culture of Pioneers, state songs, and state media is swept away.

When Christiane finally awakes, she remains very fragile — emotionally and physically — and doctors fear that the slightest shock could kill her. To protect her, her children decide to shield her from what has just happened to their nation, a nation that is, of course, no more, as the Eastern bloc is absorbed into the West. Alex orchestrates the effort, despite having previously rioted in support of the overthrow of East Germany. Perhaps Alex takes the helm partly out of guilt: after all, it was the sight of him rioting against the East German police that caused his mother's coma. Although he hates communism, he loves his mother, and he knows she sacrificed a great deal for him and his sister. She is also the only parent he has, since Alex's father effectively abandoned the family for the allure of the West and a Western woman.

While Alex and his sister know that Christiane is a loyal communist — a lonely woman whose entire life revolved around the regime — the rest of society does not care, and does not wait for her. Christiane had believed in the ideals of nobility and self-sacrifice, and she was willing to give up material comforts for the chance to feel she was part of something larger than herself, something that meant more than mere consumerism. She was also told, by the media and all of the cultural influences around her, that this was how a good person acted. This is something the film implies has been lost in the newly unified Germany, even though there was much to despise about the old regime — its tyranny, its shoddy goods, and its totalitarian mindset. Christiane's zealotry and love for her children is portrayed as admirable, even while her admiration of communism is not.

Alex's Deception and the Reconstruction of the East

When Christiane wakes, Alex tells her that Erich Honecker is still in office, that consumer shortages remain rife, and he "protects" her from the new influx of Western goods filling the shelves. He even shows her old television broadcasts in which state television still sings the praises of the regime. Gradually, maintaining this deception becomes more difficult. Alex resorts to searching garbage bins and dumpsters for old GDR-era goods, and he fills old jars bearing communist-era labels with new food.

This shows how quickly things change: goods are no longer scarce, except for the very shoddy goods of East Germany itself. But it is also a striking illustration of how hearts and minds — especially among the elderly — can be slower to change than the historical process itself. This is not unique to East Germany, of course. Everyone has an older relative who resists change and grows irritable even when things improve, like the grandparent who refuses to switch from cassettes to CDs because it all seems too confusing, too much of a shock.

As Alex tries to shield his mother from an entire world-change, not merely some consumer goods, his deceptions spawn more deceptions, and his efforts grow increasingly difficult to sustain — despite the fact that Christiane has been in a coma for only a few months. The old and decaying architecture is being replaced by images of consumerism as fast as workers can assemble the goods. Trabants — the poorly made, tiny communist cars that Christiane once dreamed of owning — are rapidly vanishing from the streets. There are no more border guards marching with rifles.

For a while, this does not stop Alex. He acquires a Trabant to take his mother on a picnic, dresses up children as Young Pioneers, and recruits others to go along with the ruse. His mother is mystified that he managed to obtain a car so quickly, given the usual three-year waiting period, and is charmed by the patriotic songs the hired Pioneers perform. His ruses grow ever more elaborate. Going beyond old footage, Alex produces fake newscasts that mimic the old regime, and when Christiane spots advertisements for Coca-Cola and other Western products outside, he tells her that an East German firm has taken control of the American company following a patent dispute. He even enlists a retired cosmonaut to appear in one of his fabricated videos.

While Christiane convalesces in the apartment, the deception is somewhat easier to maintain because she is bedridden; Alex simply reverts the furniture in her room to its old arrangement, unlike everyone else in the surrounding apartment blocks who has eagerly updated their interiors. It is one thing to feed her products with familiar state-supermarket labels — inventing plausible stories for any new goods, such as Coca-Cola — and quite another to take her out into a world where he cannot lie fast enough to keep pace with the changes.

Conclusion: Moving Forward After Reunification

What is real, and what is false? Can genuine love, or genuine feeling, produce lies? The unity of East and West forces Germans to confront their collective past and the incomplete nature of both of their systems. Capitalism has a false and shallow side, as did communism. Neither system is entirely true or life-sustaining on its own. However, the imperfectly reconstructed family at the film's end — and the fact that every member is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths — suggests that there is hope for Germany's future. But to truly move forward and build something stronger and better than before, everyone must relinquish their fixation on the material goods and ideological certainties of the past, whether Trabants, estranged spouses, or even Coca-Cola.