Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum

The housekeeper Katharina Blum meets Ludwig Götten, who is wanted by the police, and falls in love with him. After spending the night together, she helps him escape and so falls into the hands of a newspaper smear campaign. In an attempt to restore her honour, she defends herself with an act of counter violence. Böll’s novel, published in 1974 in the context of his reflection on terrorism, takes up the theme of media witch-hunts against alleged terrorist sympathisers. In 1975, the novel was made into a film directed by Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlöndorff.

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