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Fantasies of escaping my squalor

Kathleen Harman is a firm subscriber to the belief that it is a dull woman who keeps a tidy house. But lack of space, time and money doesn’t stop people having aspirations for their living spaces, she finds.

Published: 5 October 2007 13:48 CEST

Tipping Point

Quentin Crisp, the eccentric British writer, wrote in his autobiography,’ Don’t do housework. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse.’

I can’t help but think that old Quentin would have found himself very much at home in my apartment as I gaze around the debris and detritus that make up my office cum kitchen cum living room. There are some days when I feel as if I am in some war of domestic attrition when faced with the relentless barrage of Lego and stray socks that assaults me on a continuous basis. I then have to pause and remember that it is a dull woman who keeps a tidy house.

However, by applying this adage to my own situation, I realise that I must be one of the most interesting people I know and this is slightly worrying, given that some my favourite friends keep homes that are so chaotic that they regularly need to physically clear a space for me to sit when I visit.

Contrary to all those books on Swedish social integration, I am delighted to report that most people here are actually no more or less houseproud than anywhere else I have lived. Paranoia about my neighbours rearranging their recycling bins according to the Dewey decimal system has been entirely unfounded and those few friends who live in large, spotless apartments invariably have a Polish cleaner-pimp’s number on speed dial.

Despite minimalism being such an aspirational ideal, many Stockholmers live in really quite small apartments, making said ideal fairly unattainable. Relatively high real estate prices mean that those on the property market often make do with less space as a trade off for living in the city.

Others lucky enough to have secured a first hand lease, whereby they are guaranteed a reasonable rental contract in perpetuity, are loathe to relinquish this. This means that you can go from being an unattached, carefree tenant in a comfortable 54 square metre apartment, to being an attached, careworn and uncomfortable tenant when sharing the same space with a partner, two children, a large aquarium and half a dozen guinea pigs a few years on.

Add into the mix the fact that many people run strange businesses like independent post production companies from home, and you begin to get a fairly accurate picture of a tiny living room stuffed with television studio equipment and small rodents.

But lack of space, time and money doesn’t stop people having aspirations for their living spaces and if you want to see your dream made reality, you need to make a visit to Casa Cor, the interior design exhibition now on in the centre of Stockholm that everyone is talking about.

What is particularly interesting about this exhibition is that it uses an actual house, well maybe not a house as most mortals would think of it, given that it comprises of thirty five rooms in a 1500 square metre area in one of the most exclusive areas of town, but all the same it offers an entirely different show case concept to the normal cavernous exhibition hall locations that one usually associates with this type of thing.

Each of the rooms has had its own set of Swedish designers allocated to it and these range from established architectural firms such as Sandellsandberg, through to an industrial design student from Lund.

The results, as you would expect, are diverse and disparate, ranging from the rather weirdly conceptual, to the downright gorgeous. But these fantastical set ups are not actually inhabited by real people, not real small people who would smear all manner of gunk over the gorgeous black lacquer furniture or tread their dinners into the luxurious shag pile rugs so I can’t take the designs seriously, although they really are fabulous to look at.

And the great thing about the exhibition is that many of the items are going to be auctioned off at the end with part of the proceeds going to charity, giving us plebeians the opportunity to own a piece of loveliness to add to the television studio equipment and rodent ensemble, a room concept that was conspicuous by its absence, I would have to say.

But for those of us who have seen Casa Cor and returned to the mire that typifies our own domestic environment, good old Quentin has this salient advice, ‘Don’t keep up with the Jones’s, just drag them down to your level.’

And with this in mind, I am wondering if I need a return visit, this time armed with a couple of toddlers, a few over ripe bananas and a bag of potato chips for good measure.

Casa Cor – Det Passionerade Hemmet, Engelbrektsplan 1, Stockholm until 14 October 2007

See website for opening times and admission fee :www.casacor.se

See Also: A sleek home for a dysfunctional family

FILM

Five films that shaped the GDR’s legacy – and what east Germans think of them today

Nearing the 30 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we explore how five films compare to the real East Germany and how east Germans feel about these portrayals of their former state.

Published: 25 September 2019 15:49 CEST
Five films that shaped the GDR's legacy - and what east Germans think of them today
In 2017, 'Goodbye Lenin' was screened in Berlin living rooms "ostalgically" designed to look like those in the GDR. Photo: DPA

A generation ago, the East Germans led a peaceful revolution as the Berlin Wall collapsed, and shaping Germany into the country it is today. With the reunification of Germany came the end of the GDR, along with all of its horrors and all of its unique charms.

For the majority of the world, the main means of accessing GDR history and the unique experiences of its population is through art. More specifically: film. 

GDR themed films make up a large chunk of Germany’s most internationally renowned films. The Local spoke with Dr Jochen Staat, a political scientist and GDR specialist at Free University in Berlin, about how these films are thought of in former East German.. 

Goodbye Lenin 

Wolfgang Becker’s ‘tragicomedy’ follows Alex Kerner, a young East Berliner who tries to conceal the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the GDR from his staunch communist mother after she wakes up from a coma in order to prevent the shock of the news causing her a second heart attack.

Goodbye Lenin is arguably one of the most iconic German films, with almost every German language student watching the film at least once, or studying it in class. It’s a César winner and it’s both Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated.

The film captures East Germany through the lens of Ostalgie (nostalgia for the GDR) and shows the audience how becoming part of a capitalist Germany wasn’t as easy as putting up Coca Cola banners and opening a Burger King.

According to Staat, Goodbye Lenin was widely well-received by those in the former East Germany because it cleverly creates its own unique world. We don’t see the real East Germany, but rather we see Alex’s East Germany, the country he imagined and dreamed of as a child.

Through the opposing perspectives of Alex and his mother Christiane, we are offered an insight into the differing perceptions of the GDR according to generation, granting an East German audience multiple avenues to connect with Becker’s characters.

Sonnenallee (Sun Alley)

Sonnenallee is a coming of age comedy, released in 1999, about growing up in East Germany. For these “Eastie Boys”, illegal music from the West is an essential aspect of teenage rebellion. 

The question of whether Sonnenalle, a comedy, does justice to the brutality of the East German regime has been up for debate for 20 years. In a review for

Der Spiegel, Marianne Wellershoff stated that the film glorified the GDR and played down the negative aspects of life in East Germany under Erich Honecker.

READ ALSO: Honeckers: the most powerful family in former East Germany. What happened to them?

However, Staat pointed out that the film was well-received by East German viewers, and it is set towards the latter period of the GDR, when the regime was losing control over the population. 

He notes that the character Wuchsel, who lives and (almost) dies by the Rolling Stones, is particularly relatable for a generation of former East Germans, who like him would scour the black market to find copies of records from the West.

Despite its lighthearted approach, there are moments in Sonnenallee that reminds the audience that life in the GDR isn’t all rock music and house parties, such as when Mario, another of the boys, is forced to sign up for military service in order to support his family.

And, when Wuchsel is shot by a border guard, surviving only because the bullet gets lodged in his Rolling Stones LP, it highlights how music really was lifeline for some East German youth.

READ ALSO: How the Stasi failed to silence Rolling Stones fans in East Germany

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

Das Leben der Anderen focuses on the imposing presence of the Stasi in 1980s GDR, as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) spies on a playwright before he becomes increasingly sympathetic to his struggle.

In Western eyes, a film about the horrors of the Stasi and the suffering that took place across East Germany would probably seem more historically accurate than comedies such as Goodbye Lenin and Sonnenallee.

However, Staadt, emphasises that every perception of the GDR is subjective and former East Germans would connect with films that most accurately reflect their experience.

For those who were teenagers when the Wall came down, and lived as the Regime lost its grip on the public, a comedy would potentially be more relatable. However for those who suffered at the hands of the Stasi and experienced the Regime during its earlier and tougher days, Das Leben der Anderen would probably be a harrowing watch that is uncomfortably close to home.

Staat stated that because they are an “easier” watch, it is generally the comedies that are most widely viewed in the former GDR.

Deutschland ’83

Though not a film, Deutschland ’83 is the first German language series to air on a US network and is the most popular foreign language drama in the history of British television. The internationally successful series tells the story of a young East German, Martin Rauch, who is sent to West Germany to spy on behalf of the Stasi’s foreign intelligence agency.

Unlike the other films in this list, Deutschland ’83 doesn't focus particularly on East German life, rather dedicates equal amounts of airtime to both the Western and Eastern sides of the Wall.

Not only does this grant the audience access to both sides of a divided Germany, Staat highlights that viewers also experience varying levels of conflict through the drama. He explained this was key to the programme becoming a “sleeper hit” with viewers across Germany.

Whilst the series is based around political conflict on a wider scale, small-scale familial and personal conflicts plays a large role in the storylines. For example, the AIDS crisis and infidelity are just two of many personal issues to affect the politically-charged characters in the series.

Barbara 

In the 2012 film Barbara, life in rural East Germany is depicted, rather than city life in East Berlin. The title character is a doctor who formerly worked in the prestigious Charité hospital in East Berlin, but is transferred to a rural hospital by the Baltic Sea as a punishment from the State after applying to leave for the West. She is still monitored by the Stasi, even in this small town.

Staat highlights that Barbara’s situation wasn’t unusual for former East Germans, and its one that many from the former East Germany can relate to.

It was an ongoing and increasing problem for the GDR’s economy across its existence that many of its skilled workers were lost to the more-attractive seeming West, if they were willing to go through the tedious but possible process of an “Ausreiseantrag” (an application to leave the GDR).

For those applying to leave, they’d typically face social exclusion and denunciation, much like in Barbara’s experience, both as a punishment and as a deterrent to others. 

What does the future look like for GDR focused films?

By remembering the GDR through iconic, classic films such as Goodbye Lenin, Das Leben der Anderen and Sonnenallee, Staat stated, it means we focus on the latter period of the GDR, the late 70s and 80s when the films were set.

A possible explanation for the tendency to set films in the late GDR is the this is the GDR that directors remember. The directors of these three films either weren’t alive, or were children, during the earlier half of the GDR in the 50s and 60s, when the regime was stricter and life was harder.

Whilst these iconic films are a means of accessing the history of a country that no longer exists, it’s important that we don’t forget the earlier history of the GDR.

There are newer films about the GDR, such as Der Zukunft Zugewandt (Facing the Future), set in 1952, about a woman’s arrival into the young GDR from a Soviet labour camp. Films such as these are bringing the GDR’s earlier days to greater international attention, and could well play a significant role in the future of German cinema. 

 
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