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Heimat (film series)

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Heimat
Directed byEdgar Reitz
Written byEdgar Reitz
Peter F. Steinbach
Produced byHans Kwiet
Edgar Reitz
Release dates
September 16, 1984
Running time
924 min
LanguageGerman

Heimat is a trilogy of episodic films by Edgar Reitz which views 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 title Heimat is a German word meaning "homeland". Its use is partly an ironic reference to the film genre known as Heimatfilm which was popular in Germany in the 1950s. Heimatfilms were noted for their rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality.

Aesthetically, all three films are notable for their artful switching between colour and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states.

Heimat

Heimat, the original series, premiered in 1984 and follows the life of Maria Simon, a woman living in the fictional village of Schabbach. 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.

"Heimat" stone in Woppenroth
  • Episode 1: The Call of Far-Away Places (1919–1928). The teenager Paul Simon takes up the hobby of wireless radio and marries the girl Maria, but leaves the village and never returns.
  • Episode 2: The Center of the World (1929–1933). Paul Simon's brother Eduard moves to Berlin and meets the socialite Lucie.
  • Episode 3: The Best Christmas Ever (1935). Eduard Simon becomes the mayor of a village near Schabbach.
  • Episode 4: The Highway (1938). A highway is built near Schabbach, and one of the engineers, Otto, becomes Maria's lover.
  • Episode 5: Up and Away and Back (1938–1939). Paul writes from the United States that he is visiting, forcing his ex-wife Maria to break up with Otto. However without proof of his Aryan lineage Paul is unable to enter Germany.
  • Episode 6: The Home Front (1943). Anton Simon, fighting on the Russian front, marries Martha Hanke via a telephone wedding. Schabbach villagers confront the morality of Nazism.
  • Episode 7: Soldiers and Love (1944). The Simon family deals with the waning years of the German war.
  • Episode 8: The American (1945–1947). Paul returns to Germany. The Simon family struggles for prosperity in the lean post-war years.
  • Episode 9: Little Hermann (1955–1956). Hermann has a love affair with 26-year-old Klärchen, who is ostracized from Schabbach.
  • Episode 10: The Proud Years (1967–1969). Anton Simon and his brother Ernst struggle for success in their businesses.
  • Episode 11: The Feast of the Living and the Dead (1982). It is the twilight years of the older generation of the Simons, with a flashback to Maria's 70th birthday party and then her funeral.

The Second Heimat

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. At 25 hours and 32 minutes divided into 13 episodes, The Second Heimat is considered the longest film to be commercially shown in its entirety.

Episode List:
1. The Time Of The First Songs (Hermann, 1960)
2. Two Strange Eyes (Juan, 1960-61)
3. Jealousy And Pride (Evelyne, 1961)
4. Ansgar's Death (Ansgar, 1961-62)
5. The Game With Freedom (Helga, 1962)
6. Kennedy's Children (Alex, 1963)
7. Christmas Wolves (Clarissa, 1963)
8. The Wedding (Schnüsschen, 1964)
9. The Eternal Daughter (Fräulein Cerphal, 1965)
10. The End Of The Future (Reinhard, 1966)
11. Time Of Silence (Rob, 1967-68)
12. A Time Of Many Words (Stefan, 1968-69)
13. Art Of Life (Hermann And Clarissa, 1970)

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 [1].

Criticism

Heimat has been criticized for its selective interpretation of German history. There is little treatment of the hyperinflationary spiral of the 1920s, the Great Depression, or the Jewish Holocaust of WWII. Schabbach is also depicted as unusually idyllic, with no shops or markets, no financial crisis, and no personal conflict during the first half of the movie. Its 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" [1].

Character histories

The Simon family

  • Matthias Simon (1872–1945), blacksmith. Married to Katharina Schirmer (1875–1948). Parents of Eduard, Pauline, and Paul.
    • Eduard Simon (1897–1967), mayor of Rhaunen. Married Lucie Hardtke (1906–1978), a socialite in Berlin who embraced life in the Hunsrück. Early in his life Eduard was convinced that there was gold in the Hunsrück streams. Eduard and Lucie were parents of Horstchen Simon (1934–1948) who died at an early age.
    • 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 1926 to start Simon Electric in Detroit, Michigan.
    • Pauline Simon (1904–1975), assistant jewelry shop owner. Married watchmaker Robert Kröber (1897–1944). Both became modestly wealthy during the 1930s. Parents of Gabi (1935- ) and Robertchen (1937- ).

The 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 town's allegiance to Hitler during WWII.
    • Gustav Wiegand (1897–1917), died as a World War I soldier. Not married; no children.
    • Wilfried Wiegand (1915–1972), member of 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 party. Did not marry and had no children.
    • Maria Wiegand Simon (1900–1982), matriarch of the family after WWII. Married Paul Simon and gave birth to Anton and Ernst. By Otto Wohlleben (1902–1944), a quarter-Jewish engineer who came to work on a new highway before the outbreak of war, and was killed defusing a bomb, gave birth to Hermann.
      • Anton Simon (1923–1995), owner of Simon Optical factory. Married to Martha Hanke (1924–1987). Had numerous children born 1945-1953: Marlies, Hartmut, Dieter, Helga, and Gisela. Anton worked for a German Army propaganda unit during WWII 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's. He founded Simon Optical with investment from father Paul.
      • Ernst Simon (1924–1997), WWII 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. Did not marry; no children.
      • Hermann Simon (1940-), conductor and composer. At age 15 he was in love with Klärchen Sisse, 26, who was expelled from Schabbach. Moved away from the Hunsrück at age 18 to study music in Munich.

The Schirmer family

  • Katharina Schirmer (1875–1948), matriarch of the family before WWII. 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 (1900–1982), son of Marie-Goot. Throughout the film he was Schabbach's friendly, good-natured town drunk, dissociated from town life but seeing all. He served as the story narrator.
  • Hans Schirmer (1873–1943), lived in Bochum. Father of Fritz and brother of Katharina. Was remembered for having the same birthday as Hitler.
    • Fritz Schirmer (1903–1937), young Communist sympathizer who lived in Bochum. Married Alice (1902–1945). Parents of Lotti. Fritz was sent to a concentration camp during but 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 WWII 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 and Hou.
      • Ursel Schirmer (1936–1945). Died at an early age.
    • Walter Schirmer (1899–1943), of Bochum, married Lilli (1901–1969). No children.

Unrelated characters

  • Klärchen Sisse (1929- ), worked at Simon Optik and was a friend of Lotti Schirmer. A 1956 love affair with Hermann Simon, a minor, resulted in her being ostracized.
  • Appolonia (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 (1910–1945), both died in Berlin.
  • Hänschen Betz (c. 1908-?), 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 WWII, for which Eduard felt some responsibility having encouraged Hänschen's shooting practice when young.
  • Fritz Pieritz (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.

Trivia

  • Director Edgar Reitz has explained the title of The Second Heimat as "not [...] a continuation of Heimat, but that place which we find as adults, which we choose freely for ourselves and call our second home. Career, friendships, these are values which easily crumble. In the second Heimat one lives on uncertain ground."
  • Reitz is a native of the Hunsrück who left to work in the arts in Munich. Parts of the Heimat trilogy can therefore be viewed as semi-autobiographical.
  • Heimat was one of director Stanley Kubrick's favourite films.[2]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heimat.
  1. ^ Heimat: Eine deutsche Chronik (Film). Barkin, Kenneth. American Historical Review, Oct91, Vol. 96 Issue 4, p1124, 3 p.
  2. ^ Stanley Kubrick exhibition website, Newsletter No.17, April 2005
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