An Idealized East Germany in Becker’s Good Bye Lenin!

Good Bye Lenin! is the coming of age story of a young man as he struggles with his own psychological and moral growth while trying to protect his ill mother from the shock of learning that the Berlin wall has fallen. The movie was released in 2003, but is set from October 1989 to roughly a year later highlighting the time period just before the fall of the wall and the social, political, and economic changes that happened in Germany as a result of unification. Good Bye Lenin! is set in East Berlin, and was filmed mainly at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Eastern Berlin, and in an apartment building near Alexanderplatz. The film’s subject matter is portrayed through the juxtaposition of dramatic and sad moments against moments of comedy and satire which makes the genre classification of ‘tragicomedy’ the most appropriate. The story of Good Bye Lenin! focuses on the life and growth of a young man, Alex (played by Daniel Brühl) as he, his girlfriend Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), and his sister Ariane (Maria Simon) attempt to shield their mother (Katrin Saß) from learning that the East German state has dissolved. It is in this context that Alex must come to terms not only with his mother’s failing health, but also with his own identity in a rapidly changing space. In order to protect his mother Alex re-creates the GDR for her, but his portrayal does not exactly depict the ideals of the former socialist state. Instead, this ‘new’ GDR reflects Alex’s own personal beliefs and opinions of how he wants the state to be. Therefore, the parallel universe Alex creates in Good Bye Lenin! is an idealized representation of East Germany created in order to protect himself from the tragedy of losing his mother and to help him come to terms with a new world orde...

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...ex seeks the comfort of a timeless present by idealizing the socialist state of his childhood, which in his mind will prolong the inevitability of his mother’s death. In the end of the film Alex’s final goodbye is both a tribute to his mother and to his country. He creates one final broadcast that ‘describes German unification as a collective show of support for socialism rather than capitalism’ (Doughty, 38). Alex realizes that the GDR he created for his mother is the one he wished to have. Through this realization Alex is able to let go of the space he has created for himself to protect his identity because he understands that letting for of this state and moving forward does not mean he has to forget everything in his past. He now understands that he can maintain a link to his personal past, and his mother, but is still able to move forward in a unified Germany.