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On 8th June it is ready. The “Günderrode House“, faithfully renovated, can be handed over for its purpose at a happy summer’s eve party with the family, colleagues and the Saxon building workers. The house’s beauty can even be made out from the little Cessna in which Ernst, Hermann’s elder brother is making his landing approach across the Rhine valley. Ernst the collector is jubilant because the hauls which he can now get for a few D Marks in the East had only once before been possible in his lifetime, in the years after the war when he was able to start his magnificent art collection with the “cigarette currency” which was used at that time. With Tobi, whom he has taken to, he is able to increase his collection of the Expressionists every day with a few small pieces.
To Clarissa her house is like a haven in which one can take refuge, but can also leave to make one’s fortune. Guests at the house-warming are Hermann’s eldest brother Anton, founder and director of the “Simon Optical Works“, with his son and daughter-in-law, and along with a few other people from Schabbach there are of course the lads from Saxony, celebrating their departure after six months‘ work. But the party never gets properly into swing because on this very evening the World Cup opens with the game between Argentina and Cameroon. The lads crowd around the television while Hermann and Clarissa show their older guests around the house. Many of Clarissa’s visions have been realised, the romantic rooms, the terrace with its view of vineyards and the river, the peace and guests beside an open fire. The conversations are livelier than before because the country is still in the delirium of reunification and everything seems to be succeeding. Unexpectedly Gunnar’s wife Petra also appears with their daughters. She and Reinhold, her new husband, have just come back from their first holiday together in Brittany. Gunnar – still deeply hurt – looks for support from his colleagues, who only tease their deserted comrade. Even the football match, which ends with the victory of Cameroon, cannot cheer Gunnar up. After a heated argument with Petra, who wants to stop him seeing his daughters, he packs up his “magic chisel” and sets off for Berlin. The turbulent end of the housewarming acts like an explosion, sending everyone flying off in different directions. Tobi, the most independent of the young East Germans, a nonconformist and latter-day hippie, prefers to stay with Ernst. The pair get along well, and Ernst easily persuades him to join him on a flight to Russia, where he intends to carry off valuable icons and paintings cheap. They take off in the Cessna and fly unimpeded across GDR territory. Below them are the places of Tobi’s youth which awaken both good and bad memories. In Marxwalde not far from Berlin, an airfield of the GDR airforce which is being run down, Ernst fills his tanks while Tobi sets out to settle an old score. It was here that, as a conscientious objector in the GDR times he had been beaten and humiliated. With a new self-confidence Tobi confronts his old tormentor, a captain in the NVA. He remembers that at the time a statue of Lenin had been the silent witness of his misfortune. With the help of a military crane, Tobi lowers the heavy statue under cover of darkness onto the captain’s garage roof. But this comic revenge does not free Tobi from the past. The bronze symbol of a dying age is returned to him that same night by the pensioned-off captain and left outside his hotel window. The old hierarchies and power structures still seem to be functioning. Ernst dismisses Tobi’s warnings about flying on and takes off for Russia without his friend. Meanwhile Tobi drives in a military truck with Lenin’s statute back to his home town of Dresden. Here he is at home, and in the last months everything has changed here. At last he can help his friends, civil rightists and latter-day hippies, in their start of a new life. Gunnar’s life in Berlin goes like a dream, and it is later said of it that it was one of the most flagrantly exaggerated legends of the period. Seduced by his chisel, whose cost he somehow wants to justify, Gunnar joins the Berlin Wall woodpeckers. Like other poor devils he stands among the hawkers along the Ku’damm and is discovered by a manager of the Warner Bros company. He gets a contract to supply the company’s branches with 500,000 pieces of the Wall, gift-wrapped as typical Berlin Christmas presents at 3 Marks each. This job changes his life. Gunnar turns into the caricature of the small businessman, half-lame with chiselling and too miserly to pay for anything personal with the million Marks he has earned. His plan to win back Petra with his money turns out to be an illusion. Petra really does love Reinhold and has already packed up all her belongings in their old Leipzig flat when Gunnar stands in front of her with his suitcase full of money. Hermann and Clarissa are not able to enjoy their first summer in their new house because of their professional commitments. They have to plan a year’s break and put their careers on hold to carry out their “love after the happy ending“. On top of that a stray goat turns up and they feel responsible for looking after it. Their dealings with the animal are as stressful to the two artists as the housework. Life in the midst of nature and beauty has to be worked at. The currency union and the World Cup final put a temporary end to all the confusion. Udo, Jana and their sons are desperate to see the final in Rome. This is to be the Easterners first visit to Italy. It is like falling in love for the first time – unforgettable, even if it turns out badly. They miss the German team’s victory in the stadium – because their tickets were forgeries – and have to hear the commentary in front of the gates. Tobi still does not know what to do with his statue of Lenin. The symbolic figure seems to have attached itself to him. When he tries to leave it with Ernst in the Hunsrück he discovers to his dismay that his art collector friend has still not returned from his flight to Russia. Tobi is seriously worried about the foolhardy aviator. |
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