BRD Trilogy - Unifying Elements

Unifying Elements

Aside from Fassbinder's original intentions of making films about West Germany after World War II and during the "economic miracle," there are other threads that tie these three distinct films together.

One common thread is the issue of "forgetting the past for the sake of moving to a brighter future." All the main characters in the three films are trying to overcome their present circumstances, largely created by past experiences. This is a criticism by Fassbinder of West Germany in the 1950s and afterward for "forgetting" its Nazi period (i.e. allowing former Nazi officials to function in society, even holding positions of political power) and moving ahead as a country (i.e. regaining international respectability and prestige). The painful past is neither acknowledged nor confronted in the historical amnesia.

A second parallel is the question of who exactly benefited from West Germany's economic progress. Fassbinder's view was clearly that some Germans advanced during the "economic miracle," but others fell. For everyone who has a better life (more wealth, security, and peace), someone else suffers and loses. Veronika Voss is an example of someone who does not benefit in Germany after the war because her acting career was most prominent during the Third Reich. Maria Braun is someone who takes a strong initiative to advance economically for the sake of herself and her husband, but she hurts others in the process and in the end is emotionally distant from her husband and her family. Lola tries to take advantage of economic progress and uses her position for advancement, but others who surround her try to achieve the same end with mixed results.

An additional commonality is the inclusion of African-American soldiers in all three films. In The Marriage of Maria Braun there are two, a gentlemanly soldier who becomes Maria's lover and another who drunkenly accosts her on a train. The latter character is played by Günther Kaufmann, who also plays African-American soldiers in the other two films. It is unclear if the soldier is supposed to be the same person in all three films. The soldier can be taken as a representation of the influence of the American occupation on post-war Germany, though the fact that he is African-American could have other implications.

Each of the films employs a very distinctive style (especially in its cinematography) to better reflect the characters. The Marriage of Maria Braun appears with much of its color drained. Veronika Voss uses a very rich black and white, similar to film noir or German Expressionist films of the 1920s. Lola is influenced by Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and uses very bold colors in a manner similar to Technicolor.