Discuss the portrayal of the issue of guilt in Wolfgang Borchert's "Draussen Vor Der Tur" Post-World War II Germany is often seen to be defined by a sense of overriding guilt, to such a broad extent that it extended to every German citizen and became a nationwide mindset. This was aptly conveyed in former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's words, "The memory of the National Socialist era, of war, genocide and infamy, has become part of our national identity. It has left us with an abiding moral and political duty" (1) . It would seem fitting therefore that a topical play written and set in the years immediately following World War II would carry this sense of ambivalent guilt, as is the case in Draussen Vor Der Tur. This play, written and published between late 1946 and 1947, is introduced with a claim that this is "a piece that no theatre will play, that no audience wants to see", an unusual laud that seems more of a promotional baiting mechanism than a cautionary note. We are given the impression that the subject matter may be difficult to consume for an audience trying to distance themselves from the recent past of their nation. Indeed, the list of characters and their description that follows indicates that this play won't be too far removed from the desolation that existed in the status quo of the target audience; they include an insignificant street sweeper, an undertaker, a crippled survivor of the war, another war survivor whose wive has forgotten him, etc.Characters as metaphors for different mindsets.. Beckmann=guilt; frau,commander,family=moving-on mindset.
It could be argued that the contrasting characters of Draussen Vor Der Tur are representative of the contrasting mindsets of postwar German citizens. Backmann, for example, is a visual reminder of the past to the other characters, his uniform and goggles cause repulsion among the people who are distancing themselves from the national sense of guilt that’s forever following them