Heimat (film series): Difference between revisions
→Schirmer family: Correction Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
→Wiegand family: DOB and of death shown on gravepost |
||
Line 74: | Line 74: | ||
** '''Gustav Wiegand''' (1897–1917), died as a World War I soldier. Not married; no children. |
** '''Gustav Wiegand''' (1897–1917), died as a World War I soldier. Not married; no children. |
||
** '''Wilfried Wiegand''' (1915–72), member of the [[SS]] during the war. Executed a downed British pilot under false pretenses. At a Schabbach party revealed that Jews were being sent "up the chimney" and in the vein of [[Himmler]] lamented how his SS comrades suffered from this unpleasant task. He became a farmer after the war and was also a member of the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]]. Did not marry and had no children. |
** '''Wilfried Wiegand''' (1915–72), member of the [[SS]] during the war. Executed a downed British pilot under false pretenses. At a Schabbach party revealed that Jews were being sent "up the chimney" and in the vein of [[Himmler]] lamented how his SS comrades suffered from this unpleasant task. He became a farmer after the war and was also a member of the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]]. Did not marry and had no children. |
||
** '''Maria Wiegand Simon''' ( |
** '''Maria Wiegand Simon''' (7 August, 1900–18 September, 1982), matriarch of the family after World War II. Married Paul Simon and gave birth to Anton and Ernst. Gave birth in 1940 to Hermann, with Otto Wohlleben (1902–44), a half-Jewish engineer who came to work on a new highway before the outbreak of war, and was killed defusing a bomb. |
||
*** '''Anton Simon''' (1923–95), owner of Simon Optical factory. Married to Martha Hanke (1924–1987). Had numerous children born 1945-53: Marlies, Hartmut, Dieter, Helga, and Gisela. Anton worked for a German Army propaganda unit during World War II and served on the Eastern front. There is one scene showing him filming single executions - these are almost certainly partisans given that the time is 1943 (and widespread executions in the field had ceased on the orders of Himmler) and also the fact that the machine gun crew carrying out the executions are German Army regulars and not Einsatzgruppen. After the German defeat and subsequent imprisonment in a Russian labor camp, Anton walked home to Germany in the late 1940. He arrived 10 May, 1947, after walking five-thousand kilometres. He founded Simon Optical with investment from father Paul. |
*** '''Anton Simon''' (1923–95), owner of Simon Optical factory. Married to Martha Hanke (1924–1987). Had numerous children born 1945-53: Marlies, Hartmut, Dieter, Helga, and Gisela. Anton worked for a German Army propaganda unit during World War II and served on the Eastern front. There is one scene showing him filming single executions - these are almost certainly partisans given that the time is 1943 (and widespread executions in the field had ceased on the orders of Himmler) and also the fact that the machine gun crew carrying out the executions are German Army regulars and not Einsatzgruppen. After the German defeat and subsequent imprisonment in a Russian labor camp, Anton walked home to Germany in the late 1940. He arrived 10 May, 1947, after walking five-thousand kilometres. He founded Simon Optical with investment from father Paul. |
||
*** '''Ernst Simon''' (1924–97), [[Luftwaffe|German Air Force]] pilot and construction business owner. He had an early aptitude for flying. After the war he attempted unsuccessfully to operate a helicopter business. In the 1960s he started a thriving home renovation business which destroyed the village's traditional architecture. |
*** '''Ernst Simon''' (1924–97), [[Luftwaffe|German Air Force]] pilot and construction business owner. He had an early aptitude for flying. After the war he attempted unsuccessfully to operate a helicopter business. In the 1960s he started a thriving home renovation business which destroyed the village's traditional architecture. |
Revision as of 16:45, 11 August 2017
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
Heimat | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edgar Reitz |
Written by | Edgar Reitz Peter F. Steinbach |
Produced by | Hans Kwiet Edgar Reitz |
Release date | 16 September 1984 — 13 October 2013 |
Running time | 3,205 mins |
Languages | German Hunsrückisch |
Heimat is the overall title of several series of films in 32 episodes written and directed by Edgar Reitz which view life in Germany between 1919 and 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland. Personal and domestic life is set against glimpses of wider social and political events. The combined length of the 32 films is 53 hours and 25 minutes, making it one of the longest series of feature-length films in cinema history.
The title Heimat (pronounced [ˈhaɪmat]) is a German word meaning "homeland" or "home place." Usage has come to include that of an ironic reference to the film genre known as Heimatfilm which was popular in Germany in the 1950s. Heimat films were characterized by rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality.
Aesthetically, all three series are notable for their frequent switching between color and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states.
Background
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/HunsrueckLage.png/220px-HunsrueckLage.png)
Tales from the Hunsrück Villages
Before creating the Heimat series Reitz produced a documentary from 1980–81 about people from his home region, the Hunsrück, in which he later set the Heimat series. In Geschichten aus den Hunsrückdörfern ("Tales from the Hunsrück Villages") he showed people who hadn't left the region. This documentary is not considered to be part of the core Heimat series but set the stage for the work to come a few years later. It is further interesting because the documentary is about staying in the region, staying home, while the later series is about leaving home.
Autobiographical elements
Berkeley Film and Media Professor, Anton Kaes (1989) argued that auteur film-maker Edgar Reitz's trilogy was autobiographical. Reitz and Paul Simon, his fictional character in Heimat had fathers who were skilled craftsmen. Edgar Reitz was born in 1932 and Paul Simon in 1898 in Hunsrück. They grew up there, then left when they were in their twenties and returned in their fifties.[1] Like Hermann Simon, in the 1950s, Reitz left rural life for the world of German urban avant-garde arts and intelligentsia. Reitz worked at the Institute of Film Design in Ulm, while Hermann became a celebrated conductor in Munich. Wealthy American entrepreneur Paul Simon returned to Hunsrück only briefly when the war ended, but Hermann Simon's return was more permanent. He and his lover Clarissa restored a house overlooking the Rhine that lay in ruins, eventually composing music for representing and celebrating his relationship to heimat. Both Hermann and Reitz 'dramatized the tensions between staying home, leaving and returning (Kaes 1989:164)', Hermann through music and Reitz through film.
Plot
Heimat
Heimat, the original series, premiered in 1984 and follows the life of Maria Simon (Marita Breuer), a woman living in the fictional village of Schabbach (the village of Woppenroth in Rhein-Hunsrück, a very rural region of Germany to the west of the Rhine, was used for filming). The film spans the years 1919 to 1982. Subtitled Eine Deutsche Chronik — A German Chronicle, it consists of 11 episodes running in total to 15 hours 24 minutes of screen time and depicts how the events of German history affected the Simon family and the community in which they lived.
Die zweite Heimat (Leaving Home)
Die zweite Heimat (literally "The Second Heimat", and called, in the English version, Leaving Home) (subtitled Chronik einer Jugend — Chronicle of a Youth) followed in 1992. It tells the story of how Maria's youngest son Hermann leaves his rural home and makes a new life for himself as a composer in Munich during the socially turbulent years of the 1960s.
Hermann is a musical prodigy whose teenage romance in 1955 with 26-year-old soul mate Klärchen was considered scandalous by his conservative home village. It resulted in her being expelled and coerced not to contact him ever again. Hermann was crushed and vowed never to love again and to leave his wicked village forever. He arrives in Munich at age 19, overwhelmed and with no place to stay. He finds a private room opening in a month, leaving the deposit with a flamboyant Hungarian woman. His friend Renate, a law student, allows Hermann to sleep on her floor but he is put off by her sexual advances. He finally rooms with Clemens, a fellow Hunsrücker who plays jazz drums in Munich's clubs. Hermann is accepted into the music conservatory, where he meets the incredibly talented Juan from Chile, whose school application is rejected on the grounds his marimbas are "folklore". Hermann and Juan network with the avant-garde culture surrounding the conservatory, including film students, while Hermann takes on odd jobs and Juan works as a gymnast teacher. Both Juan and Hermann have a brief fling with the beautiful cellist Clarissa, who fears intimacy but is drawn to those who fear it too. The students are gradually drawn to the Foxhole, a mansion headed by a wealthy art patroness said to be a "collector of artists".
Heimat 3
Heimat 3 (subtitled Chronik einer Zeitenwende — Chronicle of a Changing Time) premiered in 2004. It picks up Hermann's story in 1989 as he returns to Schabbach and depicts the events of the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall until 2000. The cinema version consists of six episodes running to 11 hours 29 minutes, although controversially the version broadcast on the German ARD television network in December 2004 was edited to six ninety-minute episodes[2] and it is this shortened version which was released on DVD.
Heimat-Fragmente (Heimat Fragments)
Heimat-Fragmente (English title Heimat Fragments), subtitled Die Frauen — The Women, was released on cinema in 2006 and focuses on the women of the Simon family at the turn of the millennium, and in the 1960s.
Die andere Heimat (Home from Home)
In April 2012 Reitz started filming a prequel to the series: Die andere Heimat (literally "The other Heimat" but it was given the English title Home from Home), with the subtitle Chronik einer Sehnsucht — Chronicle of a Vision. The film takes place between 1840 and 1844 and centres around two brothers, their families and love relations from the Hunsrück area and their decision whether to flee hunger and poverty by emigrating to Brazil.[3] Principal filming was completed in August 2012. It was screened at the Venice Film Festival in September 2013. The film was awarded a score of 70 on critical aggeagator website Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews.[3]
Characters
Simon family
- Matthias Simon (11 June, 1872–23 January, 1945), blacksmith. Married to Katharina Schirmer (1875–1947). Parents of Eduard, Pauline, and Paul.
- Eduard Simon (1897–1967), mayor of Rhaunen. He always had trouble with his lungs, and during treatment in Berlin, he met and later married Lucie Hardtke (1906–1978), a brothel madam who embraced life in the Hunsrück. Early in his life Eduard was convinced that there was gold in the Hunsrück streams. They had a child, Horst Simon (1934–1948), who was killed at an early age, after discovering a landmine in the forest.
- Paul Simon (1898–1984), owner of Simon Electric. Married Maria Wiegand in 1922 and fathered Anton and Ernst (see Maria Wiegand below). After returning from World War I fighting, Paul felt claustrophobic in Hunsrück society and ran away to the U.S. in 1928 to start Simon Electric in Detroit, Michigan. He arrived back in 1945, with visits until 1947. He left again on the day after his mothers death, and day of her funeral.
- Pauline Simon (1904–75), assistant jewelry shop owner. Married watchmaker Robert Kröber (1897–1944). Both became modestly wealthy during the 1930s. Parents of Gabi (1935- ) and Robert (1937- ).
Wiegand family
- Alois Wiegand (1870–1965), mayor of Schabbach. Married Martha Wiegand (1878–1945). Parents of Wilfried and Maria. Alois was an abrasive, wealthy man who embraced status symbols, and later became a Nazi supporter. With his SS son Wilfried he oversaw the village's allegiance to Hitler during World War II.
- Gustav Wiegand (1897–1917), died as a World War I soldier. Not married; no children.
- Wilfried Wiegand (1915–72), member of the SS during the war. Executed a downed British pilot under false pretenses. At a Schabbach party revealed that Jews were being sent "up the chimney" and in the vein of Himmler lamented how his SS comrades suffered from this unpleasant task. He became a farmer after the war and was also a member of the Christian Democratic Union. Did not marry and had no children.
- Maria Wiegand Simon (7 August, 1900–18 September, 1982), matriarch of the family after World War II. Married Paul Simon and gave birth to Anton and Ernst. Gave birth in 1940 to Hermann, with Otto Wohlleben (1902–44), a half-Jewish engineer who came to work on a new highway before the outbreak of war, and was killed defusing a bomb.
- Anton Simon (1923–95), owner of Simon Optical factory. Married to Martha Hanke (1924–1987). Had numerous children born 1945-53: Marlies, Hartmut, Dieter, Helga, and Gisela. Anton worked for a German Army propaganda unit during World War II and served on the Eastern front. There is one scene showing him filming single executions - these are almost certainly partisans given that the time is 1943 (and widespread executions in the field had ceased on the orders of Himmler) and also the fact that the machine gun crew carrying out the executions are German Army regulars and not Einsatzgruppen. After the German defeat and subsequent imprisonment in a Russian labor camp, Anton walked home to Germany in the late 1940. He arrived 10 May, 1947, after walking five-thousand kilometres. He founded Simon Optical with investment from father Paul.
- Ernst Simon (1924–97), German Air Force pilot and construction business owner. He had an early aptitude for flying. After the war he attempted unsuccessfully to operate a helicopter business. In the 1960s he started a thriving home renovation business which destroyed the village's traditional architecture.
- Hermann Simon (1940- ), conductor and composer. At age 15 he was in love with Klärchen Sisse, 26, who left the area after their affair was discovered. Moved away from the Hunsrück at age 18 to study music in Munich.
Schirmer family
- Katharina Schirmer (10 November, 1875–10 May, 1947), matriarch of the family before World War II. Married to Matthias Simon (see Matthias Simon above).
- Marie-Goot Schirmer (1882–1960), sister of Katharina Simon, married to Mäthes-Pat (1869–1949). Marie-Goot was characterized as a gossipy neighbor.
- Karl Glasisch (1900–82), son of Marie-Goot. Mäthes-Pat is not his father. Throughout the film he was Schabbach's friendly, good-natured drunk, dissociated from village life but seeing all. He served as the story narrator.
- Hans Schirmer (20 April, 1873–1943), lived in Bochum. Father of Fritz and brother of Katharina. Was remembered for having the same birthday as Hitler.
- Fritz Schirmer (1903–37), young Communist sympathizer who lived in Bochum. Married Alice (1902–45). Parents of Lotti and Ursel. Fritz was sent to a concentration camp, but he was later released on condition he stayed out of any political activity.
- Lotti Schirmer (1923- ), chief secretary of Simon Optical. Came from Bochum with Katherina after her father was arrested. After World War II she was a carefree single girl, was a friend of Klärchen Sisse, and in later life she married Sepp Vilsmeier (1920- ). Adopted Vietnamese children Hoa (1973- ) and Hou (1975- ).
- Ursel Schirmer (1936–45). Died during an air raid
- Walter Schirmer (1899–1943), of Bochum, married Lilli (1901–1969). No children.
- Fritz Schirmer (1903–37), young Communist sympathizer who lived in Bochum. Married Alice (1902–45). Parents of Lotti and Ursel. Fritz was sent to a concentration camp, but he was later released on condition he stayed out of any political activity.
Other characters
- Klärchen Sisse (1929- ), worked at Simon Optik and was a friend of Lotti Schirmer. She enters the story in 1945, as a 16-yr-old refugee from elsewhere in Germany who has been advised by Ernst to go his mother's house in Schabbach, where she will be 'looked after'. Just as he says, Klärchen is accepted into the Simon household and effectively treated as one of the family, eventually gaining a position with Simon Optik. A 1956 love affair with Hermann Simon, who is 11 years her junior, results in her becoming pregnant, leaving the village and having an abortion.
- Apollonia (c. 1900-?), brief love interest for Paul Simon c. 1920. Was ostracized in Schabbach for her dark complexion. Had a child by a Frenchman and moved to France, never to be seen again.
- Martina (c. 1910 - 1945), a prostitute from Berlin and friend of Lucie Hardtke who attempted to bring her trade to the Hunsrück. Was in love with Pollak (1910–45), both died in Berlin.
- Hänschen Betz (c. 1908-15 January, 1944), son of the Schabbach basketmaker, had an injured eye from childhood. With the encouragement of soldiers he became a sharpshooter. Died on the Russian Front during World War II, for which Eduard felt some responsibility having encouraged Hänschen's shooting practice when young.
- Fritz Pieritz (c. 1902-?), good-natured assistant to Otto Wohlleben, later worked for Anton Simon at Simon Optik.
- Denise de Gallimasch (c. 1900-?), a French horse rider of debatable nobility en route from Paris to Berlin.
Reception
Heimat was one of director Stanley Kubrick's favourite films.[4] It is ranked #59 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[5] It also finished in 6th place when BBC Two ran a 40th birthday poll celebrating the station's greatest programmes and was 10th in Channel 4's 50 Greatest TV Dramas.[6]
Heimat has faced some criticism for its selective interpretation of German history, with some writers noting that there is limited treatment of the hyperinflationary spiral of the 1920s, the Great Depression, or certain aspects of Nazi history such as the Holocaust of World War II.[7][8] Writing in The New York Review of Books in 1985, Timothy Garton Ash said:
When you show the 1930s as a golden age of prosperity and excitement in the German countryside, when you are shown the Germans as victims of the war, then you inevitably find yourself asking: But what about the other side? What about Auschwitz? Where is the director's moral judgment? To which the color filters insistently reply: 'Remember, remember, this is a film about what Germans remember. Some things they remember in full color. Some in sepia. Others they prefer to forget. Memory is selective. Memory is partial. Memory is amoral.'[9][10]
Heimat's themes of decadent American values and Western corporate greed rising up against the innocent simplicity of the Hunsrück have been seen as "resurrecting a discourse that prevailed in the nineteenth century about the modernization of Germany's society and economy ... no compromises or delicate balances are possible".[11]
Barbara Gabriel argued that the series was part of a larger movement of national memory work in Germany, provoked in part by the American television series Holocaust. As European art in general and German art in particular resurged in the 1960s, artists like Günter Grass and Edgar Reitz captured international attention as they grappled with issues of identity in a divided, post-Holocaust Germany.[12]
See also
- The Village (2013 TV series) set in England and inspired by the series.
References
- ^ Kaes, Anton (1989). "Germany as Memory: Edgar Reitz's Heimat". From Hitler to Heimat : the return of history as film. Cambridge, Mass/London, UK: Harvard University Press. p. 164.
- ^ "Heimat". Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^ a b "Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision, critic reviews". metacritic.com. September 10, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- ^ Stanley Kubrick exhibition website, Newsletter No.17, April 2005
- ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema – 59. Heimat". Empire.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Kaes, Anton (1989). "Germany as Memory: History-Made in Germany". From Hitler to Heimat : the return of history as film. Cambridge, Mass/London, UK: Harvard University Press. pp. 182–192.
- ^ Timothy Garton Ash (19 December 1985). "The Life of Death". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ Alan Andres. "Die Zweite Heimat: Published reviews: Reception in the United States". Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ Timothy Garton Ash (19 December 1985). "The Life of Death". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ Barkin, Kenneth (October 1991). "Heimat: Eine deutsche Chronik (Film)". American Historical Review. 96 (4): 1124, 3. doi:10.2307/2165003.
- ^ Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror. New York: New York University Press.
External links
- Alan Andres (November 1994). "The Music of Heimat". Film Score Monthly (51). Retrieved June 23, 2012.
- Template:De icon Heimat script
- Template:De icon The Second Heimat script
- Heimat at IMDb
- The Second Heimat at IMDb
- Heimat 3 at IMDb
- Long article about Reitz and Heimat by Carole Angier, from Sight and Sound, 1991
- Episode guides for all three series at bbc.co.uk
- heimat123.net – an English-language fansite with an introduction to and discussion about each episode
- Template:De icon (with some English) heimat123.de – a very comprehensive German fansite
- Template:De icon Photos of Heimat und Heimat3 film locations at Hunsrück, Germany
- Template:De icon Heimat-Fanpage.de - a German fansite with lots of multimedial elements (musik, video, archive etc.)
- 1980s drama films
- German drama films
- German epic films
- West German films
- German-language films
- German-language television programming
- Films directed by Edgar Reitz
- Films set in Germany
- German television miniseries
- 1980s German television series
- 1990s German television series
- 2000s German television series
- 1984 German television series debuts
- Das Erste television series
- Hunsrück