This is our village Schabbach, in the Hunsrück...
...on the left bank of the Rhine, Rheinisches Schiefergebirge...
...Germany, Europe, the world, the universe.
Despite the two World Wars...
...our village still looks like it did 100 years ago.
The war memorial was unveiled in 1920.
I was there. There I am, that's me!
That's the Simon family house. The smithy is to the right.
It was built around 1700.
And that's Mathias, the blacksmith. He is my grandfather.
He died in the winter of 1945, just before the Americans arrived.
That's his wife Katharina. She is our grandmother.
That's a nice photo.
Oh, that's our Pauline. How young she looks there.
That was before the war.
What a funny hat!
She married Rober Kröber, a clockmaker from Simmern.
She became a businesswoman.
Here, she heard that her husband was missing in Russia.
Who else have we got? Lanky Eduard.
They sent him to Berlin because of his lung trouble.
That's where he married Lucie.
They came back to the Hunsrück at the beginning of the Hitler era.
There, he's already in uniform.
They got themselves a huge car and a villa...
...built on credit.
But they don't have to pay the money back now...
...because the war is over.
What's that?
They tore it in two.
The Simon family and our Maria.
She married Mathias' other son, Paul...
...and they had two children, Anton and Ernst.
That's what Maria used to look like and that's how she looks today.
That's Anton, missing in Russia.
And to the left, that's Ernst. His plane was shot down over France.
There, Maria with her two sons.
That's the last photo of Paul. He cleared off in 1927.
We can only see him from behind.
Twelve years later Maria found out that he had become a rich American.
Otto Wohlleben.
He's dead now too.
He was blown up in the war...
...by a bomb he was trying to defuse.
That's him again with Maria.
They had a child, Hermann.
Look how happy Otto is with Hermann in his arms.
Today, he is seven years old.
That's a day I'll never forget as long as I live.
18th March 1945... when the Yanks arrived here.
For us, the war was over.
BERLlN END OF APRlL 1945
Rudolf, it worked, your message reached me.
They found me.
Yes, look at me. It really is me, Martina, I'm here.
To think you're in Berlin.
Did you want to see me so much?
Rudolf... in the middle of the fighting, you want to see me.
I thought you were still in Allenstein...
...but they are all retreating now.
Yesterday in East Prussia and today in the capital.
Well, give your Martina a smile.
It's really me. You're not laughing at all.
Nothing can happen to you here, with walls on each side...
...you're safe.
I've fixed it with Dr. Globirsch from Lietzenburger Strasse.
He's owed me a favour for years...
...and I've asked him to come here.
He'll come as soon as things calm down a bit outside.
He knows the address. He'll know what to do when he comes.
And now, wait.
I'll stay with you now, Rudolf.
Can you feel that? Can you feel my hand?
You can feel that, you must feel it.
Is that warm?
Do you feel it getting warm? Do you feel anything?
What can I do...
...if you can't feel anything?
Do you hear me, Rudolf?
If you can hear me and see me...
...then do nothing but look and listen and don't stop.
Just keep going, do you hear me? Here we go.
This is the all-German radio.
Dear soldiers, dear listeners at home...
...dear friends beyond our frontiers.
For the last time...
...the fanfare for the German army's request programme.
We're calling Rudolf Pollack.
He's slightly wounded...
...and lying in 13 Niehburstrasse in battle-torn Berlin.
Greetings from your comrades in that ducky bunker at 11 Monsenstrasse...
...and even personal greetings from our Führer.
Rudolf, he's not dead...
...he's alive, don't think he isn't.
Dear Comrade Pollack.
Contrary to all rumours...
...I can tell you I am alive.
Did you hear, Rudolf?
Dear Comrade Pollack.
We send our greetings...
...and make your wish come true...
...with llse Werner and her song "There'll be an Eternal Spring".
There'll be an eternal spring.
Full of fragrant flowers and sunshine.
When you come back to me and kiss me tenderly...
...and always will be mine.
Life will be like fairy-tales.
With you, my charming prince.
THE AMERlCAN
SCHABBACH. MAY, 1945.
Hermann, where are you going?
Hermann, what are you doing? Stay away from that.
Get off!
Did you hear me?
Mama, look what I've got.
What have you found now?
Lotti, look.
No! That's a finger!
You take that back at once!
The other way round, Hermann!
- Do you want to get us into trouble? - But, Mama, that's a German finger.
You come with me.
That's enough! Look at the state you're in.
Hermann, that's enough!
But, Mama, it's a German finger.
Lotti, breathe on me.
That smells good.
What's in their petrol...
...that it smells so nice when they drive by?
Marie-Goot, I'll tell you something, that's wealth.
Maria, news of Anton. He's alive!
I don't understand why, but the letter is from Turkey.
I can give you news, vouched for by my comrades...
...that your son Anton is in safety...
...and has reached Turkish soil.
I can't send you any more information this way, I'm afraid...
...but I'm sure you'll soon be hearing from your son yourself.
Martha!
Where did you get that?
I just can't get it out of my head.
I no longer know what Anton looks like.
Martha, we've all aged in the war.
SOMEWHERE lN FRANCE
Grandpa!
A policeman!
Don't be scared, he wants some more snails.
You haven't seen any German airmen?
No.
I'm homesick. Do you still remember...
...that spooky shrine in the hedge between Schabbach and Rhaunen?
At night you always tried to pass it quickly...
...you whistled aloud.
And in the hedge, the will-o'-the-wisps hovered.
Your brother Anton, who never wanted to fly...
...who kept his feet on the ground, he was never as scared as you.
You always got scared.
I was with you, Ernst...
...when you threw back your Messerschmidt cockpit-cover.
When you fell through the night with your parachute...
...a foreign, shadowy earth coming towards you...
And you didn't know...
...if it was a wood, a deep ravine or water.
Everything you feared most as a pilot.
Everything a pilot could crash into was rushing towards you.
I was with you at the moment...
...when something tore at your harness...
...with a jolt that went right through you.
And then you hung in that fir-tree...
...loosing consciousness...
...amid the smell of blood and resin...
Resin from the French tree where you'd landed...
For six weeks you've been on the run.
No power on earth can bring the Führer back to life.
13TH MAY, 1946. A MONDAY.
You're Paul.
Come here! lt's Paul Simon's car. He's come back.
He must have been the fine gentleman we saw.
Maria must be told the American is here.
Maria is in the forest, getting wood.
Mama, we're ready.
Then go back to the village and wait with Granny.
That boy had no childhood.
He's just starting to be a child now the war is over.
Maria, I know Robert is no longer alive.
Don't be silly, it all depends on you.
Look, I never stopped believing when there was no news from Paul.
But I believed.
Just as I believe now that Ernst and Anton are still alive.
Even if I have no news for ten years, I'll believe.
It's all we women can do.
I wonder if Lotti's Yank has brought her some real coffee.
Wouldn't it be nice to come home to a cup of real coffee?
Lotti is doing very nicely with the Americans.
They let her wind them round her little finger.
Just wait till she brings you home a little black bundle.
Guess what I've got?
Real coffee!
Take your paws off my laundry!
He's here in Schabbach.
- Horst, what are you saying? - Mama, the American is here!
Come up at once.
Do you still know the poem you had to learn by heart...
...back before the war...
...when Simon Electric Detroit was going to come the first time?
You still know it, don't you? Listen.
You don't know me...
You don't know me, I'm only wee, but all the same, I know your name.
Well, Horst, how does it go on?
Your mother wrote that especially for you.
I'm only wee doesn't fit now. I'm not small any more.
Horst, don't be so rebellious.
We can easily rewrite it for your present age.
You don't know me, but I know you.
No, that doesn't rhyme.
You went from here...
...a long time ago.
ago...
know...
wee.
That's not bad at all. Wee.
What do you think, Eduard?
- Well, say something. - Don't shout like that.
Has he really come?
I'd like to see my brother.
But you're not mobile, yet.
No, no, Horst and l...
...we'll go to Schabbach and invite him to our house.
I've still got a whole film in it.
I've been waiting for this since 1938.
I've had it since before the war.
To think that the Holy Mother Maria...
...in this dreadful time, gives us this.
Good thing I hid the lkoflex.
Oh, that's a stroke of luck.
Paul will be so pleased if I take photos.
Since the war ended...
...since I've known what the Yanks are like...
...they're better than us in everything.
It wasn't only their wealth that defeated us.
No, it's something quite different.
That they can go where they like...
...and aren't stuck here in the Hunsrück.
That's the big world, Eduard...
...that's living.
Do you know that we fit into America two thousand times?
- No, I don't believe that. - Well, it's true, though.
Come, Horst, let's get changed.
Drive straight ahead! Not so fast! Watch out!
We can go right.
Where is Simon Electric Detroit?
Drive up to the Simons', they've gone there.
We're coming, too.
This is Lucie, Eduard's wife.
How nice of you to introduce us, Mother.
I'm sorry but Eduard can't travel.
Paul, the boy has got lung trouble again.
Paul, your brother Eduard, I mean my husband and l...
...we own the wonderful big villa that's the headquarters now.
We'd be awfully glad, since Eduard can't travel...
...well, we'd be glad if you... may I call you Paul?
You'd do better to tidy the place.
You know, Paul...
...in 1934 you didn't mean very much to us...
...if I may express it like that.
We had Rosenberg, Frick and Ley...
...for four hours in our house.
We all had no idea what murderers they were...
...what criminals sat on our chairs.
Isn't that true?
We had absolutely no idea...
...what beasts we were shaking hands with.
Right, Mother? We didn't know, did we?
Lucie, Paul doesn't understand any of that.
He was in America.
Come, Paul, sit down. Move up, Hermann.
I do understand, Mother.
The Nazi leaders, the Nuremberg trial.
You see, he understands that.
Our Sergeant says, too...
...it was in all the American papers...
...who they were, Rosenberg, Frick and Ley.
They were the very highest of us.
They were like gods, they were.
Now I thank the Lord God in Heaven that he saved us from them.
Imagine, Paul, if they'd taken to coming and going in my house.
I'd never get a wink of sleep nowadays.
To think you're standing here before me in person.
He's sitting.
He's not standing, Lucie, he's sitting.
My brother Eduard, who always went looking for gold...
...what did he do during that time?
It must be said, Eduard was too good, he had no taste at all for all that.
No, he didn't.
And I'll say one thing...
...although things went the way they did.
We have no enemies today...
...Eduard and l.
Maria, is that him? He hasn't changed a bit.
Paul, remember me?
You've got a black chauffeur and you still remember me.
Marlies is really a little sweetheart.
Anton's daughter, your grand-daughter.
Your grand-daughter.
Yes, Marlies.
Can we take a look, Maria?
I think it is Paul.
- Who are you? - Klärchen Sisse, I'm from Herne.
Ernst gave me your address. Are you his mother?
- But he's missing in France. - Yes, but he is on his way back.
- He's coming back? - Yes... I mean no.
Well... I came here to wait for him.
Just slow down a moment.
My son Ernst has sent you.
- And there's no mistake? - No, he gave me your address.
The Simon family in Schabbach, Bernkastel District, house 49.
And best wishes to his mother.
And his grandmother and grandfather.
And to his brother Anton, if he's back yet.
Our Ernst, Grandma.
Paul, Ernst is alive.
- That's your son. - Anton's brother.
Ernst must get his discharge papers from Hamburg...
...then go to Schleswig-Holstein.
Then he'll come home.
He said I'd be in good hands with you.
How am I to manage this?
Where do I put this young woman up?
It's typical of Ernst.
Lotti, Martha, I'm sorry, but you'll have to share a room now.
Martha, come here.
Take the girl upstairs.
I'm worn out.
Ernst said you'd look after me.
Yes, you are being looked after.
- I'm Lotti. - I'm Martha.
Was Ernst in the war, too?
I never thought the boys would be in the war.
- And where is Anton? - We must wait, Paul.
As we've waited all these years for you.
Have you got chocolate for me?
Of course I have some chocolate for you.
Then there was suddenly the smell of real coffee.
We needed it for Hamburg, for the discharge papers...
...so he had lots of it.
- lsn't that dangerous? - I'll say it is!
Then everything went dark in the train.
And I heard him telling about all his aerial battles...
...how he was shot down and how he made his way through France...
...and I got shivers up my spine.
May I take another slice?
And I was dozing off, I heard him telling people where he was from...
...and that his family were farmers living in the Hunsrück.
Schabbach, Bernkastel District.
I'll never forget that.
- Did Ernst really send you here? - Of course! What an idea!
Where would I have got the address otherwise?
- Do you bake the bread yourself? - Yes, in our oven.
You're in good hands here.
That was our house, Rothenbühl, number seven.
That's what it was like afterwards, on 12th January 1945.
These were our neighbours who rescued the injured...
...but my mother was dead.
Is that you?
No, I wasn't there. I was away on war service.
That's my mother.
I feel a bit better now.
There we were in Cologne.
And where is Ernst?
If that man would move his bicycle, you could see him.
He's behind him.
But they are black-marketeers.
Is Ernst doing that in Cologne?
He got me some silk stockings from that man there...
...because I needed them.
- That was in Cologne, too. - It looks like Bochum.
- Just like Hamburg. - Those are relatives of ours.
That's Hans Söhnker, the film star, but he's not related to us.
A handsome man.
My father.
He's in Russia, a prisoner-of-war.
Here we're in Duisburg, the big station.
We waited six hours there.
Who's that?
That's my little sister, but she's dead.
Where is our Ernst now, then?
I don't know. Whatever happens, I'm to wait for him here.
That's typical of our Ernst.
Ernst, why don't we visit your family? We're very near.
Oh, not today.
Why not?
Tomorrow we'll be somewhere farther away.
They just wouldn't understand...
...if I bob up after such a long time...
...then push off again immediately.
Or is there a woman waiting there for you?
I don't think so.
I don't see how this route of yours will get us to Wiesbaden.
Frigga, I know every stone here, every blade of grass.
Do you like it?
Now recite your poem.
You went from here a long time ago, but we're with you in joy and woe.
But that's not true.
What are you doing here?
- You're Paul. - And you're Eduard.
I saw your car outside.
Paul, let me look at you.
"Old boy". That's good.
Now recite it, Horst.
See, Katharina, now you've got all three home. lt's like a miracle.
I can't believe it.
Horst, that's your uncle now.
Dear people of Schabbach.
Dear people of the Hunsrück.
Dear family.
The speech I am going to make today...
...is the one I wanted to make in 1939.
I knew the words by heart then.
But then came the war, and I've forgotten them.
The music that was just played...
...is a greeting to you from the United States and abroad...
...so you also have something to laugh about.
The grocery store cost me a few dollars.
And I had to get an old friend...
...in the Air Force out of bed tonight...
...and he cursed and asked, "Won't tomorrow do?".
"No, General", I said.
That made you look up, Glasisch.
"Tomorrow won't do...
"...because today is Saturday and my people can't sleep it off...
"...and I want my Schabbach to be happy today."
The older ones among you will remember...
...that in 1923, I was the first person, far and wide...
...to build a radio.
And it worked. And that was the beginning.
In the United States...
...like everyone else I washed dishes for years...
...until in 1934...
...I set up my own factory.
But don't think it was very big.
At first it was tiny...
...no bigger than father's forge here in Schabbach.
Then it kept getting bigger and bigger...
...and then I thought of you.
And I said to myself...
..."One day, when I've made it rich...
"...then I'll go home and say to you all...
..."Here I am."
Maria... Mother.
We had some difficult hours back in August 1939.
Paul has already started.
When I was on the ship in Hamburg...
...and had to wait three days and four nights.
They wouldn't let me land.
Your Hitler didn't want me, he wasn't from the Hunsrück.
Then we sailed to Le Havre...
...but the same thing happened in France.
They wouldn't let us land, either.
And when I went back to the United States...
...I couldn't imagine all this here any more, on the ship.
Seven years have passed since then.
And in those seven years I've kept on thinking...
...about standing here before you like this.
So, people, open up the cans.
Let everyone eat, drink and smoke.
And maybe one of you can make some coffee.
I'm telling you, with the Yanks...
...with the Yanks, we'll get out of this whole mess.
The dream of my declining years is to visit America.
The Wild West, that's living.
Or to New York, and spit from the top of a skyscraper.
And look into the distance.
Up there, one is closer to God.
What are the names of the forty-eight states?
Pauline, what's the matter?
Eduard, I just thought of Robert and that he'll never come home again.
But Pauline, you don't know that.
As a woman, you feel it.
No, Eduard, he'll never come back.
Maria, will you dance with me?
Shall we have a dance, too, Lucie?
Isn't that blasphemy, so soon after the war?
No, not today.
You like this, don't you, Paul?
A homecoming after 20 years, paying everything with dollars.
A pretty daughter-in-law.
A car with a chauffeur.
And everybody applauding.
Paul, this is better than in peace-time.
What's the matter, Paul?
I'm so cold.
It's summer, Paul.
Just feel.
Your fingers really are cold.
You're not to feel cold, Paul.
But you shouldn't get any ideas either.
Is Otto between us?
Otto has been dead a long time.
What is it, then?
Twenty years, Paul.
You can't dispel them just by being cold.
Warm today, isn't it? Where is Jakoby's carpenter's shop?
On the left. See the door?
Lt. Ernst Simon, 3rd Fighter Squadron Bitburg, reporting back from action.
My plane was a write-off.
Here are the keys and the logbook.
Simon! Man. You're trying to take the piss out of me.
- Stand easy, man. - Colonel.
Simon, the hunt is over. What do you want here?
I wanted to bring you the logbook and the keys, and report back.
No stories. You used to be quite smart.
Now stop this rubbish.
For me the war is not over until I've reported back to you, Colonel.
What plans have you now?
I've got by for 18 months, from France to here.
I've seen that all a heart could desire still exists...
...only not where it's needed.
It's just a transport problem.
Colonel, I want to fly again.
The air is no longer ours.
You must get used to that.
But we can't crawl around on the ground.
How about applying to the Tommies for work as airmail pilots?
Colonel...
...I thought you and I might...
Simon, I was a soldier, and as a result...
...I'm now a carpenter's apprentice.
And for the next 99 years...
...we, as Germans, won't be allowed to fly.
Paul, were you never homesick in America?
Yes, Mother, often.
What did you do...
...when you had worries and there was nobody to advise you?
No father, no mother, no brother, no sister.
I had to learn to help myself, Mother.
In that cold country, where they all know what they want...
...isn't that terrible?
But now you're home again.
Come to the kitchen. I've made a hayseed infusion for you.
Inhaling that always helped your father when he was ill.
Remember, Paul, when you were so ill as a child?
You had diphtheria and whooping cough all at once, do you remember?
As I remember, you almost died.
That was on my birthday.
Yes, you were just seven and you were taken ill.
Doctor Dörr sat by your bed for four hours...
...and he had the surgical instruments all lying ready...
...because we all thought you'd choke, do you remember?
I didn't know about all that.
And then you suddenly said...
..."Now I'm seven years old and I must die."
That's when Doctor Dörr's eyes filled with tears, Paul.
I didn't know that.
Come down to the kitchen.
We've got a factory, too, to make barley coffee.
Those are hayseed from last year.
When we brought them home, the whole room was full of Americans.
That was a hot summer when the war was over.
Tell us something about America, Paul.
Is it true there is so much to eat in America, and so many cars?
Yes, that's no problem.
You were always such a serious, pale child...
...and you wouldn't drink your milk.
I'll put hot water in it.
It's got to be as hot as you can bear.
Is your factory in Detroit really as big as it looks on the letter?
And you have 800 workers? And you're their boss?
Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.
At Christmas, Paul, do you all sing Silent Night, Holy Night...
...as we do here?
I can't understand it. It's almost unbelievable.
Paul, have you got a woman in America?
I mean, one that looks after you if you're ill.
But Paul is married.
Marie-Goot, this doesn't concern you.
If you say so.
Paul, have you a woman?
See, Marie-Goot, Paul is a normal, healthy man.
The chicks.
- What's the matter with Paul? - He's ill.
Has he tried hot potatoes?
Glasisch, go to church, it's Sunday.
Helga, look at these lovely eggs.
Better times will come...
...then the farmers will come to us, and get nothing.
No luck here, we'll try this way.
Blonde or brunette, sweet nothing here you'll get.
Black hair or gold, I'd like you all to hold.
Here comes Glasisch.
He's worked thirty years in my fields...
...with the cows, too.
He gets his food and I give him a few marks.
He's a poor devil nowadays.
He's got a nose like a rotten potato.
Wiegand, your place looks like a French castle.
Remember?
Gobelin tapestries on the walls, and a mirror on the floor.
What mirror? Just think, Glasisch...
...I got this ring for two sacks of potatoes.
Good swap. From those townspeople?
Watch out, you idiot. You'll break it.
Alois, won't you go to the Simons to see Paul? He is your son-in-law.
As long as Wilfried is in their jail I'm not going to the American.
That's not Paul's fault.
When a man renounces Germany, he's no son-in-law of mine.
Yank, go home!
No corned beef!
No chocolate! No women!
No cigarettes! Go home across the water!
They have my Wilfried on their conscience.
But Wiegand, that's not Paul's doing.
When Wifried comes home, things will be cleared up.
What's Wilfried going to clear up?
For instance, the German cities all lying in ruins.
- Wilfried is going to clear them up. - German diligence is invincible.
Pack it in, we know those slogans.
Marie-Goot, what are you doing? Put that outside the window.
She's over-roasted the barley coffee.
Further out or it will blow back in.
Herr Pieritz.
How did you get here?
Good day, Frau Simon...
...I thought your radio would have the old dial...
...and I've got a new one with AFN on it...
...so as I was in the district...
I'm sorry just to turn up like this, but Grandma was so pleased.
Hermann, come, I've got another chocolate for you.
You know, Paul, Herr Pieritz was here during the war.
No, earlier, when they built the highway, with Maria's Otto.
He's come from the East Zone.
If you ask me, he's come to get something to eat...
...or he wouldn't have bothered.
To think you're still alive, Herr Pieritz.
I knew my way around the house, as if I'd just come down the stairs.
I'd prefer if you'd leave.
But, Maria, you can't talk to Herr Pieritz like that.
It's all getting too much for me, Grandma.
Look what we've got!
What's going on?
A. PlERlTZ. RADlO DlALS AND lNSTALLATlONS.
Do you know where you want to go?
That will sort itself out, but certainly not back to Leipzig.
- But your family? - There's none left.
I'd better wear my beret, it makes things easier in the French zone.
What's that, then?
Frau Simon, the clever man plans ahead.
That's for Day X.
Then we'll really do big business.
Oh, it's always only the others who do big business.
No, Frau Simon.
This time, we'll be part of it.
I'm through with theoretical training.
- What do you mean? - Everything will sort itself out.
Say goodbye to Maria for me.
Come back again some time.
The whole time you've been here I was determined not to ask you...
...but now I must.
Why did you leave us, Paul?
The children were so lovely.
And me...
Didn't you like me, Paul?
I didn't understand it.
I tried to, but I simply didn't understand it.
Sometimes I used to think, "He's not right in the head."
Tell me now, Paul.
I'm not silly. I just want to know.
Or did it have something to do with a woman?
I just want to understand.
How am I to explain to you? At that time, here...
You needn't explain anything to me. Forget it, Paul.
I don't know, Maria. I really don't know.
Perhaps only that I'm here now and can help you all.
We don't need any help, Paul.
I don't understand this Germany any more.
When I see you standing there...
...I'm sure your workers respect you very much.
And they need me, too.
You can hear the tyres singing.
It's wonderful here in the Hunsrück.
Checkpoint, Paul.
- Those are French. - They won't do anything to us.
What's he doing with that woman?
They check everything.
If I hold my hearing aid out, I might understand them.
French. Yes, they're speaking French.
That's from my factory. Simon Electric Tone.
With very small valves inside.
Ours are much bigger, at least this big.
- Say something into it. - Then you'll burst an eardrum.
Do you understand me, Eduard?
On this very spot where you're standing...
...Lucie stood when we came from Berlin.
And I sat here...
...and I couldn't tell her how poor we were in Schabbach.
Do you understand?
It's a very nice place here.
That's Boppard down there.
I often went there on my bike to buy parts for my first radio.
In the middle of the inflation, with Wiegand's dollars.
And then I went along the Rhine, as far as the "German corner".
It's as though no time had passed at all.
Koblenz is completely destroyed, ruins everywhere you look.
It's even worse than Frankfurt or Cologne.
It's terrible, the war.
Maria has become like a stranger to me.
Mother hasn't changed at all.
But all the others are like strangers.
I'd forgotten how loudly they all speak.
The kitchen is always crowded...
...and the house is much smaller than I remembered.
And everyone is accepted by them...
...everyone who comes in is accepted by them, just like me.
I understood very well why you left the village, Paul.
We had nothing.
But now, you've got a beautiful big house. Really.
Lucie wanted it that way, before the war.
The house means everything to Lucie.
The American headquarters will be moved out.
The Major promised me.
Why don't we two take a drive along the Mosel...
...or to Wiesbaden in the American Zone...
...and spend a few dollars?
We'll get through all the checkpoints because you're an American.
You did the right thing, better than all of us.
Let them say what they like at home.
You simply cleared off. To think you did that.
Shall we drive on a bit?
Frigga, stop looking across at those two civilians at the bar.
Ernst, do you know them?
One of them is an uncle of mine.
And the other one, the fatter one?
I don't know him. But don't look over there.
She's asked where you're from.
What do they want from us?
Don't let on you're from the Hunsrück.
- You're from the Hunsrück? - I'm from Detroit.
What are you drinking?
Paul, I like it here.
- lt's like peace-time, in Berlin. - Were you in such bars there?
- That's where I met Lucie. - You went dancing with her.
To think there are still such places as this, when everything is gone.
Paul, are you staying a few more weeks?
You know, when I'm away from Detroit for any length of time...
...I start to worry.
They need me there.
And I thought you'd stay at home with us.
Eduard, life in America...
So you will stay a bit?
Look, Frigga, I'll show you something.
- Are they real? - Surprised, eh?
That's my Nibelungen hoard.
This lot took seventeen months to accumulate.
- What will you do with them? - That's my treasure for peace-time.
In 99 years, I'll buy a plane and fly away.
Are you crazy?
Don't look across. I don't want them to see me.
You're funny. Everybody wants into the countryside, except you.
Where is Beromünster? Is it in the Tirol?
10TH MAY, 1947. A SATURDAY.
That's my Papa.
Martha, eat something, too. Anton won't run away.
He'll stay here now, won't you, Anton?
I know, Maria.
Marlies, let Papa eat.
Just think. Anton walked 5,000 kilometres.
That's as far as Paul is going on the ship.
Another new age.
There was one after the Great War...
...and then after the inflation, and then 1933.
And when they built the Hunsrück highway in 1938...
...that was a new age, as new as the road.
And then 1945, they called that Year Zero...
...and now they write in the papers about Day X.
Grandma.
There will be a new currency any day now.
- I got it from a reliable source. - Did the captain tell you that?
Every time we expect it to be better.
There is no end to these new ages.
Six times in my life, there's been a new age for me.
Well, it couldn't go on like this.
Then off it goes again, on tick.
But the main thing is that Anton is back home.
I'm so tired, I'm going to lie down for a while.
Maria, when the coffee is ready, call me.
The coffee is ready.
You know, Joseph, in Koblenz you must see the "German corner".
It's all destroyed.
Then in Cologne, the cathedral.
And in Remagen, the bridge is destroyed, you can't cross it.
You must go to Holland, then right.
Joseph, can't you take me with you to America?
Why does everything has to happen at the same time?
Robertchen, your uncle is going back to America now.
- We may never see him again. - Why is he leaving?
He was just here on a visit.
Are you sad, Mama?
No, I'm just thinking of Papa.
Paul, it's not right to leave when we haven't yet buried your mother.
I've explained.
There isn't another ship for six weeks and my permit has expired.
What has expired?
Marie-Goot, my residence permit has expired.
Oh, I see. And you're going now?
So you have to go.
Leave Paul alone, Marie-Goot. He knows what he's doing.
We'll get Grandma buried on our own.
I can help you more from over there than if I stayed here.
Don't say things like that.
Better say goodbye to Anton again.
Pauline, I wish you all the best.
I'll be ten days on the boat and I'll be thinking of you.
Now you're leaving properly, not secretly like before.
I hope things go well for you in Detroit.
I'll write often.
Robertchen, later on you'll get a big car, too.
Wouldn't you like that?
Where is Anton, Martha? Did he go up there?
- No, I think he went there. - Martha, see if Anton is all right.
You're all upset. What's the matter?
Anton knows what he's doing.
You must trust him a bit.
He only came home yesterday...
...after 5,000 kilometres on foot.
You've got to realise what he's been through.
Martha, do me a favour and look what he's doing.
Do it for me, or I'll have no peace.
- I'm going to set up a factory. - What are you saying, Anton?
You're setting up a factory?
What with? For that you need capital.
I've got that.
With that thought I left the camp and it brought me all the way home.
Here in my head, I've my capital and the decisive idea.
When we were retreating near Odessa...
...just before I was captured...
...I first hit on the idea, my invention.
Martha, you probably don't understand much about optics.
True.
But what's this got to do with optics?
Why didn't you speak to your father about it?
It was too soon.
And you can take out a patent on it?
You build a ring of patents around it to stop anyone getting at my process.
Twenty or thirty patents are required.
I worked it out as I tramped.
For every idea, I set myself a destination.
At the Turkish border, I was on to Patent Sixteen.
At the Golden Horn, I was having difficulties with Nineteen.
I went back over half a day's walk until I had the solution.
And, Martha, the most important thing I noticed when I got here...
...Hunsrück air.
Have you ever consciously breathed it in?
You're scaring me.
In the next few months, more people will think I'm crazy.
No, everybody understands.
You've only just come back from a prisoner-of-war camp.
You think I'm crazy?
Right now, the world is being divided up anew.
Whoever has the imagination to acquire a kingdom...
...he'll get it, too.
I can't follow this.
What has this to do with the Hunsrück air?
Nothing at all.
It's free of dust, ideal for optical manufacturing.
And what's more, it's rich in oxygen, because of the forests.
A kingdom.
Anton, I'm a bit frightened.
Martha, stick with me, then the good years will come.
THE AMERlCAN