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When there are signs and wonders we expect that everything is going to change, but the big things generally arrive unnoticed. The day of the solar eclipse in August 1999 is such a sign, and a remarkable meeting takes place of people who in the rest of their lives can never be found in the same place. Gunnar, who travels in from Berlin to go to prison in Munich, Hermann and Clarissa, who are premiering an evening of songs together with the “Günderrode Songs“ in Munich, and Tillmann, the Saxon electrician, who, with his Hunsrück wife Moni is bringing an entire busload of members of the Sabbach amateur dramatic group, with the mayor and a visiting delegation of German Brazilians. Everyone looks in wonderment at this cosmic spectacle which is taking place in none other than the symbolic year of the millenium. Everyone feels a superhuman vastness and are touched with awe. Afterwards everything is as it was before.
Even Gunnar on his way to prison is amazed for a moment and damages his eyes by staring unprotected at the sun’s corona. His injury, however, gives him grounds for having his imprisonment deferred by a day, and he is able to visit his ex-wife Petra, who is living in Munich, and her husband Reinhold and above all his two daughters who meanwhile have turned into two charming teenagers. He arrives just as Petra and Reinhold are leaving to go to Hermann and Clarissa’s concert. Gunnar is therefore able to spend the evening alone with his daughters, and he discovers that the elder, Nadine, still loves him as her “real” father. Moved, he confesses to her how it is that he as to spend six months in prison. He cannot resist alcohol, and last year, after being at the Munich Oktoberfest, he had caused a serious road accident under the influence. He tries to minimise the affair, but Nadine seems to be able to understand him anyway. She cooks for him, gives him Reinhold’s wine to drink and persuades him to play a tune on the piano which she remembers from her childhood. When the girls‘ mother that night with Reinhold and the musicians are going to a restaurant, they run across the Hunsrück coach. Hermann learns that Lenchen, the wife of Rudi Scherer, the Schabbach innkeeper, has just died. He and Clarissa had often talked about Rudi and Lenchen, a devoted, almost archaic couple, and they are distressed that death has separated two people who seemed an emblem of eternal love. Coming after Clarissa’s illness, which now seems to be cured, Lenchen’s death is a brutal reminder of the ever-present threat to life and love. But before they can return to the Hunsrück to be with Rudi at Lenchen’s funeral, Clarissa’a mother turns up in Munich. She has fled in a panic from the Bavarian old people’s home which she had recently moved into. She does not want to be among “a whole lot of dying old people”. This is a fear that Clarissa can well understand. So she lets Hermann return to Schabbach alone to accompany her mother to Wasserburg, where Clarissa encounters similar emotions of coming home as Hermann had in the Hunsrück. Gunnar has gone into prison with an ambitious plan. From the prison he wants to organise a reunion to take place at the millennium on the spot which for him and, when he thinks about it, for all the others has been a turning-point in their lives – the "Günderrode House“ on the Rhine. Gunnar has been speculating on the stock market and can come up with the money for a memorable party. The only pre-requisite, however, is that the Bavarian justiciary will recognise his impeccable behaviour as a prisoner and release him in time for the millennium. But Gunnar is confident about this. Hermann’s journey to the Hunsrück ends in a field where he falls asleep not far from the village in the heavy midday heat, and in tormenting dreams sees his return to Schabbach as an endless series of nightmares which reveal to him that he has lost his home for ever. Even the “Miracle of Schabbach”, which he dreams about, is no help. When he finally appears at Lenchen’s funeral, he has realised that “his” Schabbach is now only a memory. But the earth of his homeland is not peaceful. On the same day an earthquake engulfs the subterranean hoard, Ernst’s art collection which, since his death in his aircraft, has remained in the slate mine. The remorseful community and discerning sponsors have still been wanting to realise Ernst’s plans for the museum under Lulu’s supervision. But the natural catastrophe foils even this last attempt to save the old values for the new millennium. Vast masses of water pour out of the earth and destroy everything. Lulu is just able to save her child, Lukas, and her Russian nursemaid. Lulu is the hero of the hour, but the “dragon’s hoard” has been lost for ever. But Gunnar finally has a success, because his New Year’s party goes extremely well. Everyone comes to the Hunsrück, his building mates from Leipzig and Dresden, guests from Berlin and Munich, Hermann and Clarissa of course, her mother and even Clarissa’s son Arnold travels in with his wife and children from Massachusetts. Hartmut is there and Galina and her new husband, with whom she is going to open a restaurant in St Petersburg. The party even takes on a global aspect when Tillmann reaches the amateur dramatics group on his mobile, who are just performing their play “The Miracle of Schabbach“ in Santa Catharina, a south Brazilian town founded by emigrants from the Hunsrück. Moni is there and is excited about the global village which she is now a part of. The party on the Rhine is as memorable as Gunnar planned it to be – except that he himself is not able to enjoy it. The Bavarian justiciary has no mercy and makes him enter the new millennium in his cell. Gunnar is, however, comforted. He receives a musical greeting from his daughter Nadine, whose love for her father is enduring. When Lulu returns on New Year’s morning from visiting Roland, a friend who has AIDS, and arrives at the "Günderrode House“ through the debris of the party and burnt out fireworks, she is greeted by the piano playing quietly. It is her six year old son Lukas who, away from the cheerful new year’s partying, has practised an entire Mozart sonatina. Perhaps the new millennium will belong to children like him. |
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