Kairos

Does the novel take a position on socialism as a political system? Is this position embodied in either of its central characters, or in the tension between them?

How do you interpret Katharina’s dream at the end of the novel? Do the elements of the dream resonate with the narrative threads, thematic questions, or with Katharina’s character concerns? Cite specific elements of the dream to make your claim.

Compare and contrast the characters of Katharina and Ludwig. How do the family dynamics in Hans and Katharina’s families inform their differences? How do these differences inform Katharina’s relationship to Hans? How do they set it apart from Ludwig’s relationship to his father?

Through most of his life, Hans agrees with the GDR’s view that criticism of the state is counterproductive to the strategies of revolutionary socialism. However, the rehabilitation of artists and intellectuals who had been punished for their criticism of the state suggests to Hans that the criticism was valid and possibly necessary after all. What does this suggest about the state’s own capacity for error and transgression against its people?

The trip to Moscow is an important turning point in Hans and Katharina’s relationship. How do their differing reactions illustrate the preoccupations of their respective characters? Do these reactions signal development from their characters at the start of the novel, or do they reflect inelastic personality traits?

Katharina asserts that she wants to be fully known by Hans, even as Hans’s attempts to know her turn to surveillance and psychological abuse. How does the novel explore the relationship love, knowledge, and power?

The symbolism of the boxes speaks to the power of material reality to concretize abstract concepts like love and relationships. Contrast this against the material weakness of the Ganymede and the parts of East Berlin that are being demolished or redeveloped to make way for new developments. What does this contrast suggest about the dynamics between material and abstract reality?

Katharina cannot help sharing her relationship with Hans with her friends and family, despite Hans’s insistence on discretion. On the other hand, when Katharina enters a relationship with Rosa, she is discreet to the point that Rosa believes she is embarrassed of her. What does this contrast suggest about Katharina’s behavior in the early days of her relationship with Hans? What was she seeking by sharing it so openly?