Elisabeth as Joan of Arc

Remember at the end of Ehe im Schatten, after Elisabeth drank her coffee and started going on about rainbows?

It sounded too much like a reference for me to let it go, so I looked into it. The quote is from play Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans) by Friedrich von Schiller, the same playwright who wrote Intrigue and Love, acted out in the beginning of the film. The quote is as such:

Seht ihr den Regenbogen in der Luft? Der Himmel öffnet seine goldnen Tore, im Chor der Engel steht sie glänzend da, sie hält den ew'gen Sohn an ihrer Brust, die Arme streckt sie lächelnd mir entgegen. Wie wird mir? Leichte Wolken heben mich - der schwere Panzer wird zum Flügelkleie. Hinauf - hinauf - Die Erde flieht zurück. Kurz ist der Schmerz, und ewig ist die Freude.

Spoken by the character Johanna (Joan of Arc), it roughly translates to:

Do you see the rainbow in the sky? The heavens open their golden gates, in the choir of angels she stands so shiny, she holds the eternal Son in her bosom, she stretches her arms toward me, smiling. How will I? Light clouds lift me - the heavy armor becomes the winged dress. Up - up - the earth flies back. Short is the pain, and eternal joy.

In Schiller's play, this quote comes after "Joan prays that she be granted strength like Samson to break her bonds and destroy her enemies, and her prayers are granted: she tears her heavy chains apart and rushes forth to join the fighting. Her intervention in the battle turns the tide decisively in favour of the French, but she pays the price of this triumph with her life. She rouses momentarily, long enough to recognize Charles and the banners of France; she calls for her own banner, and is granted a final, ecstatic vision of her patroness, the Virgin Mary" (Kerry's Friedrich Schiller: Playwright, Poet, Philosopher, Historian, p281).

I don't even have to stretch to find parallels between this scene and the final scene of Ehe im Schatten. Both women are being persecuted and punished, yet both manage to die in an ecstatic state. Neither has abandoned her country: Joan is granted a flag for her loyalty, but Elisabeth's loyalty gives her only a sense of "decency." And both women pay the price of this loyalty with their lives.

Casting the character of Elisabeth as a "Joan of Arc"-esque heroine seems to clash with Kracauer's statment that no German was decent enough. Elisabeth was, after all, a German. And what could be more decent than a hero?

What do you guys think?