The exile returns as conquering soldier: Collisions of past and future in Konrad Wolf’s Ich war neunzehn and Axel Corti’s Welcome in Vienna

Abstract

A young exile from fascist Germany returns to his homeland with the conquering army in 1945 and must grapple with questions of identity, belonging, conscience and ideology. This is the premise of both Konrad Wolf’s East German film Ich war neunzehn (1968) and Axel Corti’s Austrian production Welcome in Vienna (1986). The differences between the two films are, however, striking. Wolf’s protagonist Gregor returns with the Soviet forces, while Corti’s Freddy is an American GI; however this is merely the starting point. This article probes the narratives as well as the production and reception contexts that determine this stark contrast and examines the two films in terms of aesthetics, national politics and as ideological statements by their directors and documents of the Cold War.