"The Wall Jumper," A Short Musing

Wall as Obstacle

We were given the chance to read a short fictional story about "wall-torn" Germany as part of the study abroad class. In this, we've been asked to fulfill a short analysis/argument of the stories herein. The Book is titled "The Wall Jumper" by Peter Schneider.

"The Wall Jumper" book cover (1983)

Understanding what happened those twenty-one years ago in Berlin will most certainly help you understand the current conditions of the city in today's iteration. The city was defined by its wall, and so are the stories in this book. The narrator is nameless, and the stories within which he tells are somewhat nameless too. That is, they are fictional folklore about the wall, something used by the virtual prisoners of the time (on both sides of the wall) to help raise hope and or awareness that something may be getting done and that they as a unified people (or not) could be working towards something better outside the bounds of the wall itself. My opinions stem forth from an idea raised early in the book about a man who makes it his mission to jump the wall as often as he can get away with. The story treated as folklore beguiles me in a way I don't understand. Why such a story would be bothered to be passed around as truth and looked on as hope doesn't quite "fit the bill" in my opinion for the many other folklore stories you'd find throughout the rest of the book.

Garnered on in this manner and even split amongst the other stories within the book, the fellow, "Kabe" who is even captured at one point and eventually released, continues jumping the wall. His reason, when speculated on by the narrator is only concluded as a derangement, or extreme fascination of the wall, which might have very well been a real case for a good deal many peoples at the time. This I must give merit for; the extreme fascination with the wall could have risen up out of fear of being bounded. For some, the wall was merely an obstacle waiting to be crossed and for the character Kabe I surmise, his crossings were most likely an issue of defiance. The wall at large was a system designed to keep those in the eastern part of Berlin out of the western part, and indeed to keep the whole of Germany out of West Berlin too; West Berlin for all intents and purposes was the only democratic oasis in all of communistic Germany. The wall completely surrounded West Berlin making it like a small island of democracy, yet those within weren't looking to escape (though some did), but most beyond that wall in the greater Germany, were looking to get in away from an oppressive tyranny. It was a wall designed to keep people out, and Kabe, as strange a case it may be, made his way in, and back out again on multiple occasions.

Last I figured, those wanting to get into West Berlin stayed there, not wanting to cross back. This story as folklore, or at least treated like a real event leads me to believe it was simply a fabrication of the author and perhaps not a real folklore myth. It is missing a few elements of myth-making. There are four functions of myths that I'd like to outline: (1) Mystical, -or serving somehow to make one appreciate the fact one participates in the same issues that the myth brings up. (2) Explanatory, -the myth needs to be able to address something grounded in the real, in this case the wall serves this function. (3) Normative, -this means a valid reason to support the myth; the myth needs to be self contained so that it makes sense. Kabe is jumping the wall because others cannot. And finally, (4) guidance, -This is where this myth falls short in my opinion. The guidance requirement of myths is there to "show you the way," but in this case, "the way" is a bit inaccessible for more interested persons, and is very much a fatal experience or accident just waiting to happen. If this story really did get passed along, I much infer that people didn't seriously consider it, not out of contempt against it, but simply because it made a joke out of something people dealt with seriously every day. Why would a crazed mad man jump the wall and then return, over fourteen times! That's not something I want to even try or participate in; that's crazy! Therefore I have no problem dismissing it, and so too I think others did the same.