The Negotiation of Collective Identities in German Cinema after Unification

In English This article analyses the negotiation of German identities in two films of the ‘newer German cinema’: Sonnenallee/Sun Alley (Haussmann 1999) and Schultze gets the blues (Schorr 2003). It argues that the former represents a defiant stance towards a dominant West German narrative which devalorizes the lived experiences of former GDR citizens. As a consequence, east and west are consolidated as relevant categories of identification. In contrast, the article argues that Schultze gets the blues represents a post-national tendency in newer German cinema, which dissolves the east-west axis and instead foregrounds regional and post-national identities.