In 200 years things never changed as much in Schabbach...
...as they did in the 10 years after the war.
There, you can really see it in me. Look how I've changed.
We had an economic miracle in the Hunsrück...
...the same as everywhere else.
But what Anton, Maria's eldest son, achieved was a real miracle.
There he's coming back from captivity.
Maria is amazed and happy that her favourite son is back.
Anton was always her favourite.
She bought him a camera and a film camera...
...she took him to Hamburg...
In the war he was a camera assistant in the propaganda division.
He was always interested in optics.
There he married by proxy.
And then he was captured by the Russians.
Anton walked 6,500 kilometres...
...across Turkey, Greece and the Tyrol...
...to get back home.
Just imagine how he longed to get home to the Hunsrück.
And here, he's sitting in the kitchen back home.
That was the time Anton was telling everyone...
...he had 27 patents in his head and was going to build a factory.
We all wondered whether he'd gone a bit mad in captivity.
This is Anton today.
And that's when "Simon Electric Detroit, USA, Post Box"...
...came on a visit with his black chauffeur and big car.
We'd never seen anything like it in the village before.
There he's saying goodbye to Maria.
There he's sitting in his posh car, the American.
Just before he left, his mother Katharina died.
We buried her after he'd gone.
Maria, proud of her boys she was.
That's Ernst, her second son, who was always keen on flying.
Then, he was shot down over France in his fighter-plane.
But he is still crazy about flying.
There's Maria again with the youngest, Little Hermann.
Her bastard child from Otto.
And in four years, on the meadow inherited from his grandfather...
...Anton actually built a factory.
"Without any capital"he always said. But we knew better.
Paul, his father in America, helped him out with dollars.
Maria's been very lucky with her sons.
Little Hermann, the youngest, as soon as he was old enough...
...she sent him to the school in Simmern...
...so he'd be the first one in the family to go to university.
LlTTLE HERMANN
- Hermann, how fast are we going? - 40 kph.
- My brother's house. - It looks like a castle.
They don't stand on ceremony there. Ernst is all right.
- Can we stay the night there? - I don't know yet.
My brother, Ernst Simon, lives here, doesn't he?
Of course.
He lives here, but he is not at home.
Can you tell me where to find him? We've come a long way.
He's in the forest.
Up there, where they cut the trees.
See those woods up there?
Right at the top.
The patch where they're felling timber.
How about that?
Is Herr Simon here?
He just took off with the helicopter.
- When will he be back? - In ten minutes.
Can we sleep at your place tonight?
- Have you been there? - They send us up here.
Look things over, but don't touch anything.
- That surprises you, eh, Hermann? - Is it yours?
- Of course. - It must have been expensive.
You bet. I paid out my whole Nibelungen hoard for it.
- Ready? - Yes.
That's the last toothpick for today.
You want to fly with me?
- My bike, my guitar... - Shove it in, we'll take it.
Ask your brother if we can come, too.
It won't work.
With the weight below, it's a bit much.
- Are we so heavy? - No.
Make yourself at home, Little Hermann.
Flying a helicopter is different from flying an aeroplane...
...even if the cockpit looks much the same.
The only thing...
...that's completely different is this.
But it's all-important.
In ordinary flying, keeping moving is half the battle.
Here it depends on the rotation, that's the whole battle.
When the rotation and pitch are correct...
...you can do what you want.
You can fly backwards, or stop in mid-flight...
...but you mustn't get out!
When I think of our ancestors...
...dragging timber laboriously from the forest, metre by metre.
War is the father of everything.
That's where we learned to overcome transport problems.
Transport today is everything.
I know what I'm talking about.
After the war I started with a bicycle.
With the timber underneath it's like handling raw eggs.
If you're sick, it'll cost you a crate of beer.
My father-in-law is the timber king of Trabach.
He owns the sawmills, the entire forest.
But the Sikorskie is mine.
It's one thing old Bausch can't interfere with.
Look! Your friends.
- The ground's pretty damp. - There's a row up there.
They could have let us sleep indoors, with such a big house.
Not too cold for you?
You're used to it.
- Need anything else, Hermann? - No.
I'd have liked to let you sleep indoors...
...but my in-laws are a bit awkward.
Will the gate be open in the morning?
- No, but go down the back steps. - We don't want to be locked in.
Well, if you've got everything, I'll go back up.
They're waiting for me.
- Will you go to the fair? - No, we're too tired. Thanks.
Well, take this anyway, for food.
I wouldn't like to be in his shoes.
He's henpecked; look at his old woman up there.
They're a bit short on domestic bliss.
To hell with all families!
It's strange to walk in the fog...
Lonely is every bush and stone...
Nobody knows the other...
Everyone's alone...
The curtain rises, the king enters.
Where are you, my noble damsel?
Here, Father, on the stage.
Why so pale, and yet so blushing?
Who between you legs has been rushing?
The page! The page!
Grab this arse! Crack his nuts!
All heard with stupefaction...
...the king's nutcrackers snap into action.
Pity! Pity! I only touched her titty!
Cheers, sweetie! You sticking with us?
- What horrible stuff. - It tastes like mothballs.
Another four glasses of mothballs.
What do you call it? Do you like it?
It's so nice and green.
That rump over there floats over the dance floor.
I can't keep my eyes off it.
They've never any ideals.
- Old cynic. - I'm an existentialist.
I exist, so I'm an existentialist, too.
Now comes the act of liberation.
She only tangos.
I only dance when I harmonize with the girl.
Want another?
- Ever kissed anyone? - Of course.
- I bet you haven't. - I have.
- Let's go outside. - I don't want to now.
Pay attention.
I always open my mouth and shut my eyes.
Tongue out...
Is that a torch in your trouser pocket...
...or do you really love me?
- You're just like all the others. - What do you mean?
The description of the eerie landscape...
...on the evening ride to Sesenheim...
...and the dissolving of the tension...
...into the exultation of love is enchanting.
The overwhelming experience of his love for Frederike...
...allows Goethe to find notes in his verse...
...which we've never heard...
...in the generally sugary poems of earlier periods.
May I just quote...
...from Welcome and Farewell, Strasbourg, 1771.
My heart beat fast; to horse, that's best!
It was no sooner thought than done.
The evening lulled the earth to rest and in the mountains night was hung.
Already cloaked in fog, the oak assumed a risen giant's size.
And from the bushes, darkness broke...
...and peered with hundred jet-black eyes.
Goethe wrote this poem in Strasbourg in 1771.
Can anyone tell me the year that Goethe was born?
17 49.
The first great excitement...
...of love for Brigitte von Sesenheim allows him to find, in his verse...
...new notes that up to now we have not known in him.
Hermann! Must you? You give me a seizure every time you come.
This is something for you. Gerhard, move over.
- Boss, we're behind schedule. - Never mind, let Hermann try it.
He's got the fingers of a real precision instrument craftsman.
Simon hands, you can see it at once. It's in his blood.
Right, Fritz? Are you surprised with your peasant's hands?
Look, what paws.
Look at Hermann's hands.
It takes three generations to get fingers like that.
Think so, Herr Simon?
I'll show you.
Hermann, if you feel like it when you finish school...
...you'll be welcome in the business; then I'll show you everything.
That won't get rid of your double chin.
You must keep saying "Hen's bottom."
Chick's arse!
Hermann, get out! You're embarrassing me.
You must go in and see this function...
...Simon Works guarantee of quality.
Cabaret, Magic show, Talent Contest.
The cabaret's over, but not the magic.
Come in! There are seats at the back and some food, too, on the firm.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a magician, too. Look here!
I said this morning we'd get rain.
Herr Simon's asked me to say a few words of introduction.
You've probably guessed why I've invited you.
Having a good time?
I'll explain in detail.
You know I was born here in Schabbach...
...and I think anyone can achieve things...
...if he's aware of the signs of the times.
The teacher says to the children, "Make up a sentence with 'dough"'.
And a kid stands up and says, "Teacher, what do you mean?
"Do you mean dough the baker makes bread with?
"Or do you mean doe, a wild animal?
"Or do you mean doh as in 'doh-re-me'?"
And now here's some real 'do-re-me' from another talented group.
I'd like to introduce "The Six lmmaculates".
Immaculates lenses, big and small, the firm of Simon makes them all.
Who's going to cry then, when one love affair is done?
When on the other corner stands another one
You say Auf Wiedersehen and as you drink your wine
You're thinking that the next girl will be just as fine
God, people are so sentimental...
...they let love drive them all mental.
Erich, tell me honestly.
Nobody told me I'd be an inventor...
...or manufacturer of optical instruments.
Yet I've taken a whole new road...
...and broken away from the Hunsrück traditions.
Because of that, you can all do it, too.
Above all, the young people who have their future before them.
Maybe your father or grandfather has told you that, once...
...the poor Hunsrück farmers couldn't feed their children.
We had to change.
A few years' apprenticeship with me and you've quite different hands.
I walked home 5,317 kilometres from a prisoner of war camp...
...and in that time I got these ideas for my business.
Not everyone's got a father in America who helps us.
The main thing is that you choose the right job.
And who does the farm work?
Should we sell out to your brother-in-law Wiegand?
I was born in Schabbach, just like you.
Here there are twelve farmers who work to survive.
The thirteenth is Wiegand, your brother-in-law.
He's my uncle, not my brother-in-law.
And you know what I think of him.
Conditions are changing everywhere.
It's nothing to do with Wiegand or me.
I see you're back again.
I've just been outside. The water's rising, like the tide of prosperity.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, here's a great song number.
Our much loved and respected chief secretary, Lotti...
...and from my department, Klärchen...
...with the assistance of the three graces from the despatch department.
Casanova, can you hear me?
Casanova...
...comfort me.
I know your heart at night...
...belongs to another.
I know that it lies when it swears to be true
Our staff, Glasisch.
Anton, can I sing, too?
Shine your light, Glasisch.
Maria's still awake.
Waiting for us with her rolling-pin.
No, it's Little Hermann.
- Still doing homework? - Yes. Latin.
Think we'll be in tomorrow's paper?
Know what I see? I'm lying in the bathtub...
...and all around me it's all lovely, warm pee.
What are you laughing about?
- Never mind, - lt's not for little boys.
He's not so little any more.
- Can't you be quiet? I can't sleep. - Don't be a killjoy.
Either in or out.
Shut the door.
- What's that? - Want a drop?
Welcome to the visitor's gap.
- No glasses? - We're drinking from the bottle.
Someone's here!
- Is your mother still awake? - I don't know.
We must make it darker here.
Whenever I drink champagne, I think it's New Year's Eve.
The champagne's got quite warm from us.
Like pee.
- You didn't spit in this? - Only a bit.
Every time I lower the bottle, it squirts.
I just can't drink out of a bottle.
You must leave an air gap.
You can't do it, either. You and your stupid air gap.
Pieritz always wanted to teach me.
Pieritz. He's a crafty one.
When I was wiping the floor yesterday...
...he started chatting me up.
But you just can't be angry with him.
No, you can't.
I've known him for so long.
Comical man.
Klärchen.
I saw behind the stage where the magician hid his doves.
Where?
I'm not telling. I'm going to practise doing it with our hens.
He's from...
I think it's Kassel.
No, he's from Düsseldorf, he's in a cabaret there.
Rubbish, he's on the radio.
He does his tricks on there.
I got a fright just now.
I thought Maria was at the door.
That would have been a catastrophe.
What would we have done?
I'd have held the door and not let her in.
Suppose she'd knocked and asked what we're doing.
I wouldn't have known what to say.
You'd have had to do it.
I'm pretty good with excuses.
Beforehand, I never know what to say, then suddenly something comes out.
I surprise myself.
But we've got away with it again.
We've been lucky again.
Where are you taking the bedding?
Come on, there's nothing to be ashamed of.
Now you can go.
You've overslept. lt's eight.
It's far too late now.
The train's gone.
What have you been up to?
What's the matter with you?
You're not your usual self this morning.
You've had no breakfast.
There's no point now, Hermann.
Marie-Goot, go inside.
It's thirty kilometres to Simmern. You'll never do it.
Hermann, last night, you know, you were very lovely.
Go now.
"The moon, shining white..."
Aren't you asleep yet?
- What have you there? - I've written something.
- In your diary? - Yes. I've translated something.
I thought you were asleep.
- Shall I read it to you? - Yes, softly.
The white moon in the forest shines.
Round each branch soon the light entwines
Beneath their cover, you're my lover.
Lovely. lt's French, isn't it?
That's a poem by Verlaine. I've tried to translate it.
But it's hard to say in German...
...because it has quite different sounds.
"For K".
For me?
I can feel you, Hermann.
It's lovely.
Don't say anything.
This is our secret. I'm going now.
I've done it for five minutes.
When I lie here and hold my breath, I hear a singing in my head...
...as if it were a machine factory, or an electricity works.
A music from all sounds at the same time.
It makes me think. A thought factory.
The electricity works thinks about itself.
And now it's thinking, l.
Who am l? I am.
Cogito, ergo sum.
Sum, sum, sum, in me it starts to hum.
You're a philistine.
The philosophy of the future, of anticipation.
The action is anticip.
But it can also be dissip...
...consumm, confirm, exhort.
And degrad.
If we clarify it, that's clarific - action.
That's something completely new.
When I really listen to a word, it becomes empty.
Like war, war, war...
In less than five minutes the word is dead, finished, gone.
Gym, gym, gym...
Teacher, teacher...
Factory, factory...
The philosophers' gym class, you pipsqueaks!
There'll be no philosophising here.
- No more war! - What does that mean, Simon?
- Think about it, Herr Öller. - Don't be cheeky, Simon.
- A healthy mind in a healthy body. - Quite right.
By the left, march! Healthy minds make me sick.
Can you imagine Hölderlin doing gymnastics?
- Don't make me laugh. - Sport lacks poetry.
If you don't join in, you'll get no marks. Remember that.
Now he's offended.
He's running bandy. He always does when he's offended.
Whither then l...
...mortals live on wages and work...
...alternating toil and rest.
Is everything cheerful?
Why then does the horn sleep only in my breast?
Rose - oh, pure contradiction.
The longing to be nobody's sleep beneath so many eyelids.
I like that music, Klärchen.
Is that the mambo?
Yes, Marie-Goot, that's the mambo.
Waggle your hips, you have to look like a rooster.
Look at the way they dance.
Right, Hermann. That's right.
Mind you don't tread on Lotti's feet. Girls don't like that.
You should have seen me dance when I was young.
Now leave Hermann in peace.
He'll learn that soon enough.
He can do the mambo now, and he does the rumba and samba already.
Our dance teacher says sambas and rumbas are feminine...
...mambos are masculine.
- Have you learnt your Latin? - Yes, Mother.
Lotti, now leave him alone...
...or it'll be so late he won't get up in the morning.
I always wake him now, since he overslept.
Hermann, study!
You're always so pale in the mornings, Hermann.
Sleepy, too.
- Don't you like going to school? - Of course I do.
I'm so proud of you.
You must go to university.
Your father, Otto...
...always wished he could study.
He only learned engineering at technical school.
You'll be a graduate engineer.
Everybody wants me to be an engineer. Anton... and you, too.
But my favourite subjects are German and music.
Can you remember your father, Hermann?
You sat there.
Yes, you sat there.
And wouldn't give him your hand.
I can still see it. Don't you remember?
You were four years old when Otto was here.
Don't you remember? He loved you so much.
Mother, I was only four.
Give me your Latin book.
What's "to entrust"?
"to request"?
Principal parts?
Was that correct?
Mother, I think that's enough. Let me go on studying maths.
I learn so many new things with you.
I'd like to be a mouse in your school and prick up my ears in class.
Mother, you think it's all fun.
You never tell me anything nowadays.
You always used to tell me all about your lessons.
About South America, about heredity...
...how things look on the bottom of the sea.
Remember, Hermann?
Mother, now we're doing trigonometry...
...if you know what that is.
You're all I've got left. Don't you understand that?
Yes, I know, Mother.
Let me go on learning.
Will you put your hand in my pocket?
- Do you like that? - Yes, a lot.
You've got a hole in your pocket.
It's all hot.
I can hardly keep on walking.
Recently I had a dream.
I saw you walking in the meadow with your trousers open...
...letting it hang out.
Then you moved towards me.
- Did you like what you saw? - Yes.
I could walk with you for hours through the night.
If we went through the village like this...
...you'd let your jacket cover it a bit...
...and nobody would guess what I have in my hand.
It's better if we walk in step.
Now we'll walk straight ahead towards the moon...
...until we're in space.
I'm a fantastic harpist.
You think I can't play with them.
Christian's in a class of his own.
Christian slipped a four page love letter...