Ways across the Country

Ways across the Country

Heyer convinces Gertrud to remain in Rakowen, episode III.
Genre Historical drama
Produced by Albrecht Langenbeck
Written by Helmut Sakowski
Starring Ursula Karusseit
Manfred Krug
Music by Siegfried Matthus
Country Democratic Republic of Germany
Language German
Original channel Deutscher Fernsehfunk
Original run September 22, 1968 – September 27, 1968
Running time 445 minutes
No. of episodes 5 (re-edited to 6 in several TV channels)

Ways across the Country (German: Wege übers Land)[1] is a 1968 East German television miniseries, directed by Martin Ackermann.

Contents

Plot

Episode I

November 1939. Gertrud Habersaat is a young and proud maid, serving in the house of the Leßtorff family, the richest farmers in Rakowen, a village in Mecklenburg. She is pregnant from Jürgen Leßtorff, and hopes that he would marry her. But he returns from the successful war against Poland only to forsake her in favor of the Countess Palvner and joins Hans Frank's staff in the newly-formed General Government. Gertrud is forced to abort the baby and to marry Emil Kalluweit, a landless worker. In the meanwhile, Willi Heyer, a communist recently released from prison who was on probation in Rakowen, escapes the village to join the underground.

Episode II

Kalluweit is given a farm in Poland, where he and his wife are to be part of the new 'Master Race'. They witness the brutal deportation of the local Poles. Gertrud saves a little girl, Mala, that is harassed by SS men and takes her in. Heyer, who is now imprisoned in a concentration camp, saves Polish professor Pinarski from the AB Action; they escape the camp. When Gertrud discovers that Mala is Jewish, she finds Leßtorff and convinces him to arrange fake papers to her; he agrees, on condition that she takes in another child, Stefan. Kalluweit volunteers to join the Wehrmacht, after he reveals that SS officer Schneider intends to have drafted to his organization.

Episode III

At 1945, Gertrud and the children flee the Red Army. She returns to Rakowen, where Heyer is appointed mayor by the Soviet authorities. Leßtorff returns, after hiding his wartime activities from his British captors. Children starve, but the rich farmers claim they have little to share. Heyer confiscates their cows to provide milk. When Heyer leaves to meet the commandant, The farmers believe he will not return and destroy the counter from which food was distributed to the needy. Schneider, who hides in Leßtorff's farm, threatens Gertrud not to reveal his identity. She leaves the village, but Heyer convinces her to stay. The two return, and the mayor confronts the villagers and wins them over for his cause. Gertrud exposes Schneider, who kills Jürgen while trying to escape. The lands of Rakowen are re-distributed to the former serfs and workers.

Episode IV

The need to modernize and to maximize production leads most of the villagers to agree to the formation of an Agricultural Cooperative. Gertrud and several others resist but eventually come around, and she becomes the chairperson of the Rakowen collective.

Episode V

Emil Kalluweit, now a rich West German businessman, returns to the village and tries to convince Gertrud to leave with him. Stefan's mother is revealed to be alive, and visits her son, who is torn between her and his German upbringing. Gertrud decides to remain in Rakowen, starting a new life with Heyer.

Cast

Production

The series' script was written by the East German author Helmut Sakowski, who was already well-known for his historical novels set in Mecklenburg.[2][3] Its main theme, the portrayal of villagers' life, was common in East Germany's television during the late 1960s. The country's cultural establishment endorsed this trend, as a means to reach West German audiences: since West Germany had virtually no "agrarian-based" TV series at the time, it was hoped that such entertainment would attract Western viewers and improve the GDR's image. Ways across the Country was the most notable show to employ this feature.[4][5] Another significant motif of the plot was the depiction of the wartime expulsion of Germans, a sensitive subject that was rarely dealt with openly at the time.[6]

Reception

The series was broadcast in the evenings during a single week at September 1968, from the 22nd to the 27th. It was highly successful; Deutscher Fernsehfunk registered that on average, approximately 78% of East Germany's television sets were tuned to Wege übers Land, calculating that it was therefore viewed by an audience of some eight million in the Democratic Republic alone.[7] It was also well received in West Germany.[8]

On 3 October 1968, Sakowski, director Martin Eckermann, cinematographer Hans-Jürgen Heimlich, dramatist Helga Korff-Edel and actors Ursula Karusseit, Christa Lehmann and Manfred Krug were all awarded the National Prize, 1st degree, for their work on the series.[9] The VI East German Writers Congress devoted a discussion to the series, during which it was met by considerable approval.[1] At 1969, Sakowski released a novel based on his script, by the same name,[10] that was also adapted for theater.[11]

The series was frequently re-aired in the following decades. At 1983, as the Stasi adopted a policy of 'no traitors on screen', it attempted to forbid its re-screening since several of the leading actors - including Armin Mueller-Stahl, Manfred Krug and Angelica Domröse - had moved to West Germany.[12][13] Sakowski used his influence as the deputy-chairman of the GDR's Cultural Association to prevent this, and the series had another re-run at 1984.[14] On 2010, it was released on DVD.

References

  1. ^ a b Dorothy Miller. The East German Literary Scene. Radio Free Europe research, 4 June 1969.
  2. ^ Carsten Gansel. Gedachtnis und Literatur in den geschlossenen Gesellschaften: des Real-Sozialismus zwischen 1945 und 1989. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (2007). ISBN 978-3899713480. Page 171.
  3. ^ Bernd Wurlitzer. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Von der Ostseekuste mit ihren Hansestadten und den Inseln Rugen und Usedom bis zur Seenplatte. Dumont (1996). ISBN 978-3770138494. Page 211.
  4. ^ Claudia Dittmar. Feindliches Fernsehen: Das DDR-Fernsehen und seine Strategien im Umgang mit dem westdeutschen Fernsehen. Transcript Verlag (2010). ISBN 978-3837614343. Page 150.
  5. ^ Daniela Münkel. Der lange Abschied vom Agrarland: Agrarpolitik, Landwirtschaft und landliche Gesellschaft zwischen Weimar und Bonn. Wallstein (2008). ISBN 978-3892443902. Pages 195-196.
  6. ^ Louis Ferdinand Helbig. Der ungeheure Verlust: Flucht und Vertreibung in der deutschsprachigen Belletristik der Nachkriegszeit. O. Harrassowitz (1988). ISBN 978-3447028165. Page 79.
  7. ^ Rainer Rosenberg, Ingeborg Münz-Koenen, Petra Boden, Gabriėle Gast. Der Geist der Unruhe. 1968 im Vergleich. Wissenschaft, Literatur, Medien. Akademie Verlag (2000). ISBN 978-3050034805. Pages 261-262.
  8. ^ Knut Hickethier, Peter Hoff. Geschichte des deutschen Fernsehens. Metzler (1998). ISBN 978-3476013194. Pages 305-306.
  9. ^ DEFA chronicle of 1968.
  10. ^ Helmut Sakowski. Wege übers Land: Dramatischer Fernsehroman. Mitteldeutscher Verlag (1969). OCLC 491190583.
  11. ^ Heinrich Vormweg. Die Literatur der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Kindler (1974). ISBN 978-3463220024. Page 529.
  12. ^ Tobias Voigt. Operation Fernsehen. Vandenhoeck (2008). ISBN 978-3525367414. Page 55.
  13. ^ Thomas Beutelschmidt, Henning Wrage, Kristian Kißling, Susanne Liermann. Das Buch zum Film - der Film zum Buch. Annäherung an den literarischen Kanon im DDR-Fernsehe. Leipzig (2004). ISBN 978-3937209197. Pages 72-73.
  14. ^ Erich Selbmann. DDF Adlershof: Wege ubers Fernsehland : zur Geschichte des DDR-Fernsehens. Edition Ost (1988). ISBN 978-3932180521. Pages 80, 95.

External links