Good Bye, Lenin!

Our Weekend Cabin, Summer '78

Look over here, into the camera.

Hands off!

- Alex, hold on tight! - Papa, help me!

Slowly and carefully...

...the giant colossus...

...is placed on the launching pad.

The product of a great joint endeavor will be put to the test here.

The principle 'quality supplied by all to all"...

That's him!

...can be seen perfectly here.

I am ready to embark on the flight of the spaceship, S OJUS 31 ...

...as a member of the international crew.

On August 26, 1978, we were world-class.

East German citizen Sigmund Jahn was the first German in space.

On that day, things in our family started going seriously downhill.

This is your husband's third trip to a capitalist country.

He's standing in tor his boss, Professor Klinger.

Does your husband have contacts in the West?

No.

Mrs. Kerner, how would you describe the state of your marriage?

Did your husband discuss fleeing the country?

Mrs. Kerner.

Did he discuss it with you?

Please allow me to express my sincerest gratitude...

...to the central committee of the Communist Party...

Get out! Leave me alone!

While Sigmund Jahn was intrepidly representing our country in space...

...my father was getting his brains tucked out...

...by his new "enemy of the state" girlfriend.

He never came back.

My mother was so depressed that she stopped talking.

She just didn't speak.

Not to us, nor to anyone.

Please, Mama, come back.

It's so boring at Mrs. Schafer's.

Mama, I love you!

The Sandman has adapted very well to conditions in space.

But the biggest surprise tor us...

...was that he has become good friends with Mascha.

We've even had a cosmic wedding. In just a few minutes...

...The Sandman and Mascha return to Earth.

Dear children, I hope that you all have an opportunity to see this at home.

After eight weeks, Mother came home. She was back to normal.

- Surprise! - My darlings!

My Alex...

...my little cosmonaut.

SOLIDARITY WITH MOZAMBIQUE

Pioneer Camp, Spring '79

We never mentioned Father again.

From then on, our mother was married to our socialist fatherland.

Our country

Is not just cities and villages

Since the relationship was not sexual, she had a lot of energy tor us kids...

...and tor the realities of lite under socialism.

The grass on the meadow The crops in the field

And the birds in the sky And the animals

My mother became an activist tor social progress...

...a passionate crusader tor the concerns of common people...

...and against those tiny injustices of lite.

In the matter of garishly colored...

...maternity wear.

Now tor our report on the award ceremony...

It's coming up now.

Factory and office workers, scientists and collective farm workers...

...artists and retirees arrived in Berlin today...

...to receive our country's highest awards.

- That's you, Mama! - Gold award...

...in recognition of extraordinary contributions...

...to our socialist society.

On the eve of the national holiday, the party is central committee...

...traditionally honors exceptional citizens.

After long hours of training, the day had finally come.

I, Alex Kerner, would be the second German to venture into space...

...father than anyone be tore.

Takoff!

I imagined how lid explore the secrets of space tor the benefit of mankind...

...how I'd look down on our planet and wave proudly at my mother.

Stand by for liftoff!

10 years later - October 7, 1989

People are at the core of socialist society

East Germany turned 40.

I had the day off from my job at a TV-repair firm...

...and felt that I was at the height of my masculine allure.

40 YEARS GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

Change was in the air...

...while the members of the world's last great shooting club...

...paraded outside our house.

Ther's a girl here tor you. Shall I send her away?

- What girl? - No idea. Seems nice, though.

Did you sleep in your clothes again?

Where's my visitor?

Your visitor's name is Paula. She's your date, as agreed.

- Oh, no. - Oh, yes, little brother.

- Can't your ex mind her? - Her father is on call today.

"...these products. Women of a certain age..."

Cannot and do not wish to wear the kind of underpants you sell.

The population of the GDR does not consist of young ice princesses...

...and exquisitely slim comrades. - That's good.

Still here? It's started already.

- As we can hear. - You better hurry.

- May be the last time with the old gang. - Where's Paula?

Is she asleep?

I might see your mother on TV today.

From the Palace of the Republic?

Invitation

With a magnifying glass.

I'm not even sure I'm going. All the party bigwigs will be there.

I won't know a soul.

But I wouldn't mind seeing Gorbachev close up.

Look at them, celebrating themselves, the old tarts.

You don't have to watch.

- Can't you see what's going on? - What do you want to do? Emigrate?

Nothing will change it everyone emigrates.

Continue with:

It simply won it do...

...tor our sturdier female workers and farmers...

...to be punished in this way by our fashion combines...

...in this 40th year of our republic. With socialist greetings...

Hanna Schafer.

On the evening of October 7, 1989...

...several hundred people got together for some evening exercise...

...and marched tor the right to go tor walks...

...without the Wall getting in their way.

Freedom of the press! Freedom of the press! Freedom of the press!

Cough it out!

Are you okay?

- You okay? - Thank you.

Even more cops over there.

All right, all right.

It you take the subway, you might still make it.

What's your name?

Stop it!

Watch it!

- That's my mother! - Don't move!

That's my mother!

Let me go, you asshole! My mother's lying on...

- Alexander Kerner? - Yes?

Your mother.

What's wrong with Mother?

What is it?

She had a heart attack.

CPR was performed rather late. She's in a coma.

- When can I talk to her? - Alex, Mama is in a coma!

We don't know it she ill ever wake up again.

Can you hear me, Mama?

You have to wake up.

But Mother kept on sleeping.

In her long, deep sleep...

...she orbited like a satellite around our small planet...

...and our even smaller republic.

The 9th congress has granted Erich Honecker's request...

...to resign tor health reasons...

...and thanked him tor his contributions to politics.

Her sleep kept her in the dark...

...during the resignation of Comrade Honecker...

...secretary general of the party...

...and chairman of the state council of the German Democratic Republic.

Berlin: Tonight the Wall came down.

Unity and right and freedom For the German fatherland...

She slept through a classical concert in front of West Berlin's city hall...

...and through the start of a huge and unique recycling campaign.

Open the gate! Open the gate!

Stasi out! Stasi out!

Mother kept on sleeping.

She missed my first outing to the West and certain comrades'...

...unflagging efforts to protect us, the workers and farmers.

She also missed my first cultural discoveries in a new country.

Excuse me.

Her condition prevented her from voting in the first tree elections.

She slept while Ariane quit studying economic theory...

Thanks tor choosing Burger King.

...and gained her first practical experience with monetary circulation.

She was spared watching Ariane's new lover move in...

...Rainer, class enemy and greasy spoon manager.

WORKER OF THE MONTH ARIANE and RAINER

The bedroom furniture goes down to the cellar.

She missed the slow but steady westernization of our tiny flat.

The old stuff marked with red dots goes on the street tor junk collection.

She missed Rainer's enthusiasm tor the ways and tradition of the orient.

Sorry.

Not even my hormonal rapture at the sight...

...of certain shapely legs could penetrate her twilight.

Shit.

- What are you doing? - Nothing. The drip...

In her dark dreams, she also missed the arrival of Lara...

...the angelic student nurse from the Soviet Union.

- You again. - Hello.

I was worried about you.

They arrested me.

Mother slept through the triumph of capitalism...

Change the guard!

...and my carefully coordinated visits to the hospital.

You know what live noticed?

When she's in a good mood, she wears her hair down.

In a bad mood, she wears it up.

She bites her nails during the doctors' rounds.

Doesn't she have a lovely smile?

In her sleep she didn't see how our working-class heroes lost their jobs.

The TV-repair shop where I worked was shut down.