The Marriage of Maria Braun

Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) became one of the most accessible films that director Rainer Werner Fassbinder ever made, lending itself to showings and film festivals around the world as part of a his FRG-Trilogy about the conditions of postwar Germany.

As was the case with Fassbinder’s Angst essen Seele auf (1974), Fassbinder began this project on a small budget with the intention of filling in a gap in his schedule. He had five months and constant struggles with the producers ensued due, at least in part, to Fassbinder’s drug and alcohol abuse. Five months was not quite enough time and his next project Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) was postponed for almost a year.

With Die Ehe der Maria Braun, Fassbinder picks up a familiar theme in German film – the postwar reconstruction of the country. Although the original screenplay was written by Peter Marthesheimer and Pea Frolich, Fassbinder receives a lot of credit for adding to the dialogue and bringing the story to life, discussing the rebuilding of Germany through the metaphor of one young girl’s life. The film’s protagonist, Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla) is a high-spirited, morally flexible character, driven to achieve her own financial success, but she continually falls victim to her own lack of caring and recklessness.

As the story goes, Maria marries Hermann Braun (Klaus Lowitsch) a private in the army. While the two exchange vows, air raids boom over the registrar’s office. When the window shatters, people flee and the couple has to chase the registrar to make him sign their marriage certificate. They tackle him to the ground outside and, in a hilarious scene, they force him to sign it as the city crumbles around them. It was a scene that film critic Vincent Canby called “Armageddon as screwball comedy.”

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