The Wall Jumper: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Wall Jumper" explores the complex dynamics of life in Berlin during the Cold War, focusing on a cast of characters who navigate the physical and psychological barriers imposed by the division of East and West Berlin. The narrator, an author residing in West Berlin, reflects on his observations of those who attempt to breach the wall, known as "wall jumpers," while contemplating the governments' influence on individual thought and behavior. Key characters include Robert, a poet from East Berlin who embodies a deep skepticism towards authority, and Lena, the narrator’s former girlfriend, whose journey of migration reveals her conflicting emotions about identity and belonging.
Pommerer, an East Berlin author, shares stories of border violators, while Gerhard Schalter, the narrator's landlord, grapples with personal relationships and the allure of East Berlin's simpler life. The character of Mr. Kabe stands out as a persistent jumper, repeatedly risking imprisonment to cross the wall, illustrating the absurdity and despair of the situation. Other characters, like the teenage boys Willy Wacholt and Lutz, highlight youthful curiosity and the tensions of living in a divided city. Ultimately, the narrative emphasizes the profound impact of division on personal lives and relationships, showcasing the diverse perspectives of those affected by the wall's existence.
The Wall Jumper: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Peter Schneider
First published: Der Mauerspringer, 1982 (English translation, 1983)
Genre: Novel
Locale: West Berlin and East Berlin
Plot: Social realism
Time: The 1980's
The narrator, an author who has lived in West Berlin for the last twenty years. Fascinated by the divisions and similarities between the two Berlins, he decides to write about someone who breaks the barrier separating East and West Berlin, a “wall jumper.” He moves back and forth between the two cities, visiting friends and hearing their stories of such jumpers, which he blends into various fantasies. He discovers that each government molds the thought processes of its inhabitants to suit its peculiar social system. In the end, he finds that he cannot jump the wall inside his own mind.
Robert, a poet who has immigrated to West Berlin from East Berlin. A neighbor and friend of the narrator, he adapts quickly to life in his new home precisely because he is a Berliner. He has a cynical distrust of authority, finding a subtext in every act and a plan behind what seems to the narrator to be simple chance. He tells the narrator the stories of Mr. Kabe and Walter Bolle.
Lena, a former girlfriend of the narrator. She immigrated to West Berlin from East Berlin in 1961. During her relationship with the narrator, she was suspicious of his absences and eventually became suspicious of everyone. He accompanied her on her first return visit to her family and realized she needed the security she had left on the other side of the wall. She meets with the narrator briefly in the present but talks mainly to Robert. The narrator is left to fantasize a one-sided conversation with her after she leaves.
Pommerer, an author living in East Berlin. He tells the narrator the stories of the three teenage cinema-goers and of Michael Gartenschläger. After signing a letter protesting a fine levied on a fellow author, he discovers that his telephone is often out of order and begins to think about leaving East Germany.
Gerhard Schalter, the narrator's first landlord in West Berlin. He claims that he is involved with a West German television correspondent based in Africa who wants to take her child and live with him but is prevented from doing so by her husband. As he loses hope in the future of that relationship, his appearance grows shabbier. He takes trips to East Berlin, where he discovers cheaper goods and friendlier people. Finally, he moves there.
Mr. Kabe, a welfare recipient in his mid-forties who becomes famous as a “border violator.” Using a pile of rubble as a staircase up the wall on the West Berlin side, he jumped into East Berlin. He was imprisoned for three months and then returned to his home. After a vacation in Paris, paid for by the three months of welfare checks waiting for him, he returned and jumped again. The process was repeated. Following a failed attempt by the West German government to institutionalize him, he went on to jump the wall fifteen times.
Willy Wacholt, Willy Walz, and Lutz, three teenage boys who live close to the wall in East Berlin and jump it to see motion pictures in West Berlin. They love Westerns but not the West, at least not enough to emigrate during their twelve visits. The two Willys are apprehended at school after authorities read a West Berlin news account of their travels. By chance, Lutz escapes when a showing of High Noon in an East Berlin suburb is canceled and he goes to a late show in West Berlin. Wacholt is put in the army and Walz into a labor camp; Lutz becomes a lumberjack.
Walter Bolle, a border violator and spy. After being imprisoned for seven years for illegal border crossings, he was ransomed by West Germany in 1973 for fifty thousand marks. Motivated by a desire to avenge himself on East Germany and to destroy the wall, he becomes a spy for the West against the East. Later, to magnify his revenge by means of disinformation, he also becomes a spy for the East against the West.
Michael Gartenschläger, a radical wall jumper who defaced the wall soon after its erection and burned property in East Berlin in protest of the wall. His freedom was purchased by the West German government after he spent ten years in prison. He helped many people escape, but his greatest coup was dismantling two self-triggering robots that sprayed shrapnel at wall jumpers. While attempting to dismantle a third, he was shot by East German border guards.
Dora, the narrator's aunt in Dresden, a small, vivacious woman who lives in privileged, upper-middle-class surroundings. In telling the family history, she provides a link and a contrast between the old and new Germanys.