German R5A
The Division of Rita and Manfred
Set in the period prior to and encompassing the building of the Berlin Wall, Divided Heaven tells the story of young Rita’s experiences between assimilation with and opposition to life in the GDR. The novel’s central conflict, however, revolves around her decision not to follow her lover, Manfred, to the West. As a chemist, Manfred is disappointed by what is not so much an oppressive system as an ineffective one. Rita and Manfred clearly portray rival societies. Rita, the naïve member of the younger generation, realizes the flaws of the GDR, but is eager to contribute. In contrast, Manfred is a cynical drop-out, disillusioned with the working conditions of the GDR, and longs to advance his career. The differences in Rita and Manfred’s beliefs, passions, and personalities ultimately lead to their emotional separation.
Rita represents the hopeful younger generation at a time of reconstruction in the GDR. Her fondness to the GDR is strengthened as a result of her work in a train-car factory, where she is drawn ever more deeply into the daily struggles of her brigade. Rita develops an optimistic outlook on life in her new role as a productive member of society. In addition, she is youthful, harboring sentiments comparable to that of a young girl. For example, when Rita first meets Manfred, the narrator states, “…she suddenly felt that all her nineteen years, all her wishes, actions, thoughts, and dreams, had had only one purpose- to prepare her for this moment, for this letter. She felt that she suddenly knew things which she had never learnt. She was certain that nobody before her had ever felt or could ever feel what she now felt.” Many of Rita’s thoughts, feelings, and actions can also be explained through her need for self-actualization. Rita longs to realize her own potential, goals, aspirations, and fulfillment as a complete person. For example, the narrator states, “[Rita] hoped to experience extraordinary thins, extraordinary joys and sorrows, extraordinary events; and the whole country was in fact in ferment, but this did not strike her as extraordinary, since she had grown up in the midst of it.” Once again, Rita represents the younger generation, who believe that work will simultaneously bring personal satisfaction, recognition, and benefit the objective progress of society. This generation argues that human beings create and define themselves through work, producing the world around them by investing their human effort into it. Under Socialism, the products of human labor are brought under the control of the people who produced them. As a result, these products become part of the process of human beings consciously and collectively creating their lives through history. To Rita, work was a means of self-fulfillment.