A Night Divided

Gerta’s older brother is the deuteragonist of the novel, and he becomes her closest friend and confidante. In their restricted environment, they become fellow dissenters and plot their rebellion together. Though they disagree at times, Gerta is admiring of her older brother and he is protective of her. While Fritz is mostly a static character, resistant to the East German regime, his character’s conflict is more perilous than anyone else in his family as he faces the looming threat of choosing between military service and, possibly, his life. He therefore represents the threat that the East German state posed to the hopes and futures of young adults.

One of Fritz’s defining characteristics is his recognition of The Necessity of Freedom of Speech. He loves The Beatles’s lyrics and the liberty for which he believes that they stand. He also comes up with the idea of passing notes in the house when it is bugged, providing a subtle form of resistance to the state’s limitations on his speech. His struggles with restrictions to his speech, and therefore his ideas, convey the novel’s message that freedom of speech is essential to quality of life.

Amid Fritz’s struggles, he is coming of age in his adolescence. The subplot with his girlfriend, Claudia, conveys that people experiencing political upheaval are also attempting to go through conventional rites of passage and develop romantic lives. Since information about Claudia is filtered through Gerta’s perspective, it is limited, suggesting Fritz’s maturity in contrast to the younger Gerta. What is clear is that Claudia’s family’s loyalty to East Germany prevents them from being together, portraying the more subtle emotional consequences of oppression. By the novel’s end, Fritz part ways with his love interest, who does not want to come to West Germany, and barely avoids compulsory East German military service.

Aldous is Gerta’s father. Gerta doesn’t know much about her father’s political life at the opening of the story. She knows that he is friendly with their neighbor, who has some controversial ideas, but not much more than that. As the story unfolds, she learns all about her father’s political connections, his critique of the current communist government, and his work as a freedom fighter. At first, Gerta is disturbed, believing that what he did was too dangerous. In time, she realizes that he is fighting the right fight and admires him for it.

Aldous is physically absent for most of the novel, but he is a significant plot device because he provides most of his family’s motivations for wanting to leave East Germany. It is their separation that alerts Gerta that she should resist the propaganda at school. Furthermore, Gerta’s mother does not majorly resist the East German state until they suggest that she should divorce Aldous. He therefore represents protection and hope for a better life, and this comes to fruition at the end of the novel when he helps them reach West Berlin.

Gerta’s mother, who goes unnamed in the novel, lacks Aldous’s courage at first. She suffered during World War II and is still traumatized by the experience of poverty and hunger. She wants safety for herself and her family. She therefore plays a partially antagonistic role for part of the novel since she opposes Fritz and Gerta’s views, though she remains a sympathetic character throughout who is attempting to live amid trauma and political upheaval. It is not until the very end of the novel, when she is demoted at work because she will not divorce her spouse, that she realizes she really must leave and go west. She gains her family’s freedom by bribing one of Fritz’s friends with the family car.

Gerta’s next-door neighbor is too controversial, according to Gerta’s mother. He is critical of the government and runs a printing press from his home. His character represents The Necessity of Freedom of Speech since he attempts to write and deliver information to others and dies in his attempt. He is taken away by the secret police and tortured. This doesn’t stop him. He is murdered by the government because he will not stop his work.