Patterns of Childhood

This novel is Christa Wolf's fictionalized account of growing up in Nazi Germany. This is a story about war, history, memory, and learning from our mistakes. It is positively gripping. The author manages, as another reviewer noted, to show that the tyranny of the Nazi regime was difficult for non-Jews as well as Jews, without in any way minimizing the horror of the Holocaust. I literally couldn't put this book down in parts.. it is that powerful. Wolf doesn't sentimentalize the story. She makes all the people in the book seem real. The descriptions of events were so real that felt as though I was there. I have been forever changed by this book. It has given me new insight not only into WWII, but also into myself, because it's given me a way to look into my own past. As Wolf writes, "What is past is not dead; it is not even past. We cut ourselves off from it; we pretend to be strangers." Ultimately, this passage sums up the theme of the movel, and, as a result, it broadens the scope of the book so that it has a message for everyone, even beyond its obvious messages about war and Nazism. Those interested in history, or psychology, or who like character driven novels, will likely love this book. I know that it is not easily available. Despite that, I urge you to try to find a copy, be it through your local library or through a used book store.

I used this book with students to consider German responses to the Hitler years. Wolf writes in a way that does not allow the reader to remain passive (which upset some students who wanted the author to do all the work) nor does she allow the Hitler years to become an object of the past (which would allow contemporary readers to remain uncritical of their present society). She wants the reader to consider current issues by using her particular childhood as springboard for thought. Wolf places German suffering in its proper context. She acknowledges that many Germans suffered but she never allows the reader to forget the greater suffering of the Jews and other victims of Nazi hatred. Most remarkable of all, Wolf does not paint herself as a childhood hero bur rather as a typical German young person of the time. She reminds Germans that Germany was responsibility for the war. She also makes it clear (by quoting articles from the local newspaper) that Germans knew far more about the horrible events than they later admitted. This essential book needs to be available again. I have a Ph.D. in German literature and read Wolf in German, but those without German must have this work too.

As a in the 80es upgrown German I know very much about the Nazi time in Germany from school. This book added the feelings of young people living and growing up in Germany in that time. I lerned why and how they became as they did. By the way you have to know that the author lived in that time herself and some pieces may be autobiographic... Please read the other books of Christa Wolf, too.

A reconstruction of Nelly's childhood experience, A Model Childhood helps me, a Taiwan reader, understand the psychological mechanism of people who lived in the Nazi Germany. After reading it, I become more aware of the subversive possibility of emotional independence in an authoritarian society. It also pushes me to think about the points of divergence between the official history and personal memory. To sum up, reading this novel offers me much to think about and reflect upon.