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Film 1
Aching
for distant lands (1919-1928):
Paul
has arrived in Schabbach. He’s walked back to the Hunsrück from
captivity in France.
His family and the village residents that
have observed his return are crowded in the
Simon’s small kitchen, and want to know everything
that has happened to him.
But Paul is too tired.
He falls asleep.
Even young Maria did not overlook the return
of Paul Simon…
Paul
brought a fascination for radio home from the war,
and developed into an amateur radio builder.
The rich farmer Wiegand, who’s bought
himself a motorbike, would like to own a radio and
commissions Paul to build him one.
In
the small village of Schabbach, a war memorial is
unveiled. Paul
falls in love with Appolonia, the innkeepers maid,
who is called a “gypsy” by the townspeople
because of her black hair.
Appolonia leaves the village and goes to
Koblenz. There,
she becomes pregnant by a French soldier, with whom
she moves to France.
Paul
and Maria get closer…
An
American pilot lands in the field by the village.
Paul’s brother Eduard is to procure fuel
for him, in return for which Paul is allowed to
board the biplane for a flight over Schabbach.
Paul
and Maria, the daughter of the large-scale farmer
Wiegand, get married.
Shortly thereafter, Maria has her first son,
Anton. Her
second son, Ernst, comes into the world a year later.
Paul’s
sister Pauline marries the watchmaker Robert in
Simmern. Eduard
gets a severe lung inflammation when, together with
the bell ringer and Glasisch, he searches for gold
in the cold waters of Goldbach.
In the forest, the body of a naked young woman is
found.
One day, Paul says he is going out for a beer, but
he’s not to be found at the local tavern.
Maria searches the entire district, but Paul
has disappeared without a trace.
Film 2
The
Center of the World (1929-1933):
In
the village it’s still not clear whether Paul
Simon is still alive.
In Schabbach in the Hunsrück, one has no way
of knowing that he has arrived in America.
A
French woman on horseback is searching for
“Chateau Baldeau.”
She’s on her way to Berlin and wants to
spend the night there.
The villagers try, with their limited French,
to explain that Baldenau is just a ruin and offer
her a room at the Inn.
Eduard
is in Berlin to get treatment for his lung disease
from Professor Sauerbruch.
During an evening walk in the capital of the
Reich he meets a group of scantily clad women who
entice him into a house.
Eduard
finds himself in a brothel where he comes together
with the madam, Lucie, whom he tells about his
family in the Hunsrück.
Lucie mistakenly assumes that the family owns
a large estate…
They
get married shortly thereafter.
When he returns with her to the Hunsrück, he
introduces the bewildered (and obviously
disappointed) Lucie to his family.
When
it becomes clear that Eduard is not the son of a big
land owner, Lucie pushes him to join the party.
Wiegand sends his son Wilfried to Berlin to join the
SS.
Paul’s
mother Katharina visits her relatives in the Ruhr.
She witnesses the arrest of her nephew Fritz,
who is taken to a Concentration camp because of his
contacts with the German Communist Party.
Film 3
A
Christmas like never before (1935):
Even
the small Hunsrück community of Schabbach gets
telephone service.
Lucie
established contact with the Gauleiter, also named
Simon, and used the connection to make sure Eduard
became the mayor of Rhaunen.
With a loan from the “Jewish Bank” in
Mainz, Eduard and Lucie build themselves a villa.
The
family attends a Christmas mass and is enthusiastic
about the “new age.”
Only Katharina has misgivings…
Wilfried
Wiegand is back from Berlin and has become an SS
officer. He
brings Lucie news that high officials plan to visit
the villa. Three
members of the Nazi elite are on a trip through the
Hunsrück and are going to make a rest stop in the
village.
Lucie
is fired with enthusiasm.
Is this the opportunity to take her Eduard to
the very top?
Film 4
Highway
(1938)
Maria
and Pauline go to the cinema and watch a Zarah
Leander movie.
At home, they wait for Robert, who’s in
Idar-Oberstein to buy jewelry.
Pauline tells Maria about the new customers.
She shows Maria the death’s head ring that
is so popular with the workers building the Hunsrück
highway.
Even
Otto Wohlleben has such a ring.
He’s a structural engineer and lives at the
Simon house in Schabbach.
In the evening he helps young Ernst build
model planes. When
Wohlleben comes home with a broken arm, Maria must
care for him. They
go dancing together and fall in love.
Martina,
a former Colleague of Lucie’s from Berlin, is on a
visit to the villa.
Lucie is not too happy about it.
Will it come out how Edu’s wife used to
make her money?
Film 5
Away
and back again (1938-1939):
A
letter from America!
Maria had just forgotten Paul and was happy
in her relationship with Otto when the man everyone
thought was dead sent word from the states.
On the letterhead is a picture of a factory.
“Simon Electric Company, Detroit, USA,
Postbox.” So
Paul has made something of himself in America.
He writes that he would like to visit the
family, and would soon be traveling to Germany.
Maria is horrified.
She doesn’t know which way to turn.
What was to become of her new love?
Otto
is transferred to Trier.
Maria and Anton go to Hamburg, where Paul’s
ship is to arrive.
Paul is denied entry, however, because he
doesn’t have proof of Aryan descent.
Maria
sends a telegram to Eduard in Rhaunen to ask him for
help. Together
with Wilfried, Eduard searches through archives of
church record books to investigate the lineage of
the Simon family.
But they aren’t able to procure the
appropriate document in time, so Paul has to return
with the ship to America.
On
the radio, Hitler announces the attack on Poland.
It’s war.
Film 6
The
Home Front (1943):
The
war has even come to the Hunsrück.
On the edge of Schabbach lies the wreckage of
an English airplane that’s been shot down.
A couple of children tell Wilfried Wiegand of
an Englishman who has parachuted from his plane and
lies wounded in the woods.
They lead the SS man up to a clearing.
The pilot lies on the ground, helpless and
moaning from the pain.
Without batting an eye, Wiegand shoots
him to death.
He later said that he had to shoot the
Englishman because he was trying to escape.
Otto
Wohlleben has been removed from the Organization
Todt and attached to a bomb disposal unit.
Because he has Jewish ancestors, the Nazis
can do without his engineering skills.
He still doesn’t know that Maria has borne
his son.
Martha
has come from Hamburg to the Simon’s house.
She is the fiancée of Maria’s son Anton
and is in the advanced stages of pregnancy. In old
Wiegand’s parlour.
Martha
and Anton, who is on the Eastern front, are married
by telephone. Ernst
flies over Schabbach in a training plane and throws
flowers to the bride.
Film 7
The
Love of Soldiers (1944):
Anton has been transferred to a Propoganda Company
and is present during the filming of people being
shot to death in the woods.
Otto
comes to Schabbach and falls into Maria’s arms
when he finds out that Hermann is his son.
The next day, he must set off to defuse a
bomb. During
the defusing of this bomb, something goes wrong.
Otto Wohlleben is blown to pieces.
The anti-aircraft battery in Schabbach is
destroyed by airplanes.
There are dead and wounded.
Shortly thereafter, Americans enter the
village. Lucie
takes trouble to collect her valuables, because as a
party member she must certainly leave her villa.
Wilfried is a broken man and kneels in the
music room in a daze.
Eduard sees two black soldiers through the
window as he notices the picture of Hitler on the
wall.
Film 8
The
American (1945-1947):
Martina
has found Pollack in Berlin, dying.
She tries to distract him from the battle
raging outside by playing the piano.
Eventually, the doctor would arrive, after
the fighting had quieted down...
The
Americans have marched into the Hunsrück.
But not it’s not just soldiers from the USA
that have set foot in the place.
A large man with a hat and a black chauffeur
is also seen in Schabbach.
When
he hits the anvil with the hammer in the smithy and
Katharina runs home from the cemetery, she says with
certainty: “You’re
Paul!”
The
entire village is happy that the American has
returned and is putting on a festival where everyone
can eat their fill.
Only Maria is not happy…
Yet
another visitor comes into the Simon house.
Klärchen claims to be the fiancée of Ernst,
who has not come home yet.
He is presently avoiding the village because
he intends to become rich trading on the black
market.
Meanwhile,
Maria’s oldest son flees from captivity in Russia
and marches back to the Hunsrück by way of Turkey,
Greece, and the alps.
During his journey, he worked out patents in
his head, which he tells his young wife about in the
meadow by the village.
Katharina
goes to bed because she wants to rest.
When someone checks on her shortly thereafter,
she is dead.
Film 9
Hermännchen
(1955-1956):
Hermann
and school friends from the Gymnasium in Simmern are
traveling by bicycle along the Rhein.
He wants to visit his Uncle Ernst, who is
transporting tree trunks with his new helicopter.
In the evening, they visit a Parish Fair,
where Hermann meets Schnüsschen…
Anton
has also become an entrepreneur, and has erected the
“Optical Works Simon OHG” on the meadow by the
village.
He allows the villagers to take part in his
success. Many
are employed in Anton’s firm.
After a festival organized by the Simon
company, Klärchen, Lotti, and Hermann lie in a
bed.
What they show him there has more
consequences for Hermann and Klärchen than just
adventure. They
fall in love with each other.
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