by Maxim Leo,
born 1970 in the former DDR{GDR}
living as a Journalist and author in Berlin with his family
winner of European book prize
Here we read the story of three generations of Maxim Leo's family.
By telling his grandparents, parents and his own stories and how different backgrounds shape their ideologies.
Werner, his paternal grandfather, a Nazi during the 3rd Reich and a POW, makes an rather impulsive decision at a tram stop about which work of line to pursue, teaching in a school or stage set painting. The first tram to arrive takes him east to a teacher training college in the Soviet zone, so he becomes a Communist by chance, for him the best way of getting on and reinventing himself as a model GDR citizen.
Gerhard, Maxim's maternal grandfather, and his jewish family had to flee Germany to live in France ,where he later joined the French resistance to fight Nazi Germany.
He opts for life in East Germany after the war because he is convinced that communism will create a fairer society.
Anne, Maxim's sensitive academic mother, suffers greatly from the petty restrictions and dual morality of the sinister idiocy of the communist regime. It takes her years of struggle to break free psychologically and to think for herself.
Wolf, Maxim's father, a very independent minded individual, a painter and artist, keeps testing the boundaries of the regime.
Between the couple there are many arguments as their beliefs differ so much.
Maxim himself clearly received a good deal of love and attention from his parents. He seems remarkably stable and unmarked by all the stress and restrictions brought on by a totalitarian regime. He just wanted to live in a “normal family”. It has to be said that theirs was not your average family in the GDR as they belonged to a rather bourgeois and intellectual circle.
We gain insight into how to manage your live in a suffocating, totalitarian regime which controls every aspect of people's lives. It shows the GDR itself struggling with opposing sets of ideals and getting more and more dysfunctional till the opening and the fall of the Berlin wall.
After the reunification each member of the family had to find their way in
the new world, which does not seem so easy and can feel like a loss of
identification.
All of our members agreed it was a very good read and an eye opener about many aspects about the GDR regime which we did not know.
Christa
This book opened a window onto a now (unfortunately?) almost forgotten times for those who had not lived them.
ReplyDeleteIt shows yet again how the communist or any other form of dictatorship manipulates and corrupts its subjects, no matter what their nationality or even race (China, North Korea), fear being the main instrument of power.
But the saddest thing is that the rulers find so many "ordinary" people who co-operate willingly and, hiding behind the leading ideology, are prepared to cause even more harm to others than is required for their own survival...
Just one more quote:
"The truth is that my life was mostly normal... Life was played at home, in the garden... at friends ´house, at a football pitch..." ).
Home and family were safe. For the rest you had to be on your guard constantly and it became a second nature from an early age.
(Paulette: when I was too little to understand the need for discretion and the conversation took a dangerous turn, my grandmother used to say : "pas devant la petite" and went on in French... And you were also right saying, that one needed to be lucky...)