Remembering Liselotte Eder-Fassbinder on the 20th anniversary of her death
Liselotte Irmgard Pempeit, later divorced Fassbinder and widowed Eder, mother of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, was born on October 6, 1922 in Schmiede/Kowall in the municipality of Danzig. She was the second child of Agnes und Rudolf Pempeit. Following the birth of her brother, Kurt Pempeit, in 1925, she grew up with a childless uncle and his wife, presumably in part for economic reasons. Wilhelm Schröder was a customs officer and cared lovingly for the often sickly child, imparting to her above all the joy of learning and its necessity in order to become a person of intellect. Regardless of the National Socialist tendencies of his world view, he did everything he could to support the inquisitive child. Liselotte proved an extremely capable student and in March 1941 graduated from high school with the overall assessment “good.” After spending a year working for the Reich Labor Service, Liselotte Pempeit received a scholarship and, from May 1942, began studying German literature, philology and sport in Munich. In November 1943 she met the medical student Helmut Fassbinder, born 1918, while queuing for concert tickets at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University. Helmut Fassbinder describes Liselotte as “the love of my life,” whose enchanting countenance even appeared to him in the form of a luminous star above Munich’s Victory Gate. He was surely helped by a type of concentrated imagination, a form of the “world as will and representation,” a quality that his and Liselotte’s son Rainer Werner, who was born on May 31, 1945, later to a certain extent also applied to his mother and many others he shaped, finding in his mother’s combination of intellect and modesty the inspiration for the strong female characters he created.
Following her divorce from Helmut Fassbinder in 1951, Liselotte struggled with tuberculosis, which involved long stays in hospital. Rather than growing up in the care of the two families, her son spent his youth in different schools, boarding schools and children’s homes. Why this was so was something Liselotte often attempted to explain to herself. One reason was possibly the fact that in the early fifties it was still rare for a woman to divorce her husband and as a result she found herself socially ostracized. Rainer had serious difficulties at school and was forced to repeat grades three times. When in 1958 Liselotte Fassbinder met her second husband, the journalist Wolff Eder, she no doubt experienced this as a great boon for her emotional well-being. However, for her son it meant yet another loss. He later described the experience as follows: “She had to think of herself! She had to decide for a partner!” In a certain sense, this is a story like that in “The Marriage of Maria Braun,” whose tragedy is not only that of his mother but also a great many of the women of her generation.
From 1970 onwards Liselotte Eder worked on 25 of her son’s films while also working full-time in a university institute in Munich, initially as a programmer and later also on the institute’s works council. In addition she also used her free time to compile the previously neglected accounting records of the antiteater ensemble following its collapse, and to establish a book-keeping system for Tango-Film when in was founded in 1972. She never saw all this as constituting a significant achievement. For her, helping her son in his time of need was something that went without saying. Her involvement in her son’s financial matters began when he was declared liable by the taxation authorities for the fact that the antiteater had failed to keep accounting records, which, as a company under civil law, it was required to do. It was only Liselotte’s prompt action in reconstituting four years of accounts that saved her son from spending time in jail. Liselotte Eder later characterized this work for her son by referring to Thomas Mann’s phrase “professional-ethical worthiness,” finding it amusing that this form of learning had resulted from dealing with her son’s taxation difficulties.
At times she did find this work a burden, but certainly never saw it in terms of a “redress” for her possible failings or unavoidable absences during her son’s turbulent childhood. The fact that she also transcribed most of his text manuscripts and film scripts was something she regarded as one of her most enjoyable pastimes, because it helped her feel “less lonely” and gave her “enormous pleasure,” as she wrote in her diary. Liselotte Eder, who survived her son by 11 years, founded the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation (RWFF) in 1986 and died of cancer on May 7, 1993 in Oberaudorf, not far from Munich. In 1991 she had already transferred the RWFF to the charge of Juliane Lorenz, Fassbinder’s companion, long-term collaborator and editor, and made her sole heir to Fassbinder’s estate. Fassbinder’s films, theater works and writings continue to maintain a presence throughout the world. His work lives on.
Photos: © RWFF