Ways across the Country
Encyclopedia
Ways across the Country (German
: Wege übers Land) is a 1968 East German television miniseries, directed by Martin Ackermann.
. 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.
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.
. 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.
. Gertrud and several others resist but eventually come around, and she becomes the chairperson of the Rakowen collective.
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. 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.
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. It was also well received in West Germany.
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. The VI East German Writers Congress devoted a discussion to the series, during which it was met by considerable approval. At 1969, Sakowski released a novel based on his script, by the same name, that was also adapted for theater.
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. 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. On 2010, it was released on DVD.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Wege übers Land) is a 1968 East German television miniseries, directed by Martin Ackermann.
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 MecklenburgMecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
. 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
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank was a German lawyer who worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s and 1930s and later became a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany...
's staff in the newly-formed General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
. Gertrud is forced to abort the baby and to marry Emil Kalluweit, a landless worker. In the meanwhile, Willi Heyer, a communist
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
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 menSchutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
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
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
, 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 ArmyRed Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. 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 CooperativeLandwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft
The German expression Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft , or — more commonly — its acronym LPG was the official designation for large, collectivised farms in the former East Germany, corresponding to Soviet Kolkhoz.The collectivisation of private and state owned agricultural...
. 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
- Ursula KarusseitUrsula KarusseitUrsula Karusseit is a German actress.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
- Gertrud Habersaat - Manfred KrugManfred KrugManfred Krug is a German actor and singer.-Life and work:After moving to East Germany at the age of 13, Manfred Krug worked at a steel plant before beginning his acting career on the stage and, ultimately, in film...
- Willi Heyer - Christa Lehmann - Gertrud's mother
- Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
- Jürgen Leßtorff - Erika Pelikowsky - Jürgen's mother
- Angelica DomröseAngelica DomröseAngelica Domröse is a German actress, who became famous in the role of Paula in Heiner Carow's film "The Legend of Paul and Paula". Her Mediterranean appearance is the result of her biological father being a prisoner of war from France.-Life:After training as a shorthand typist Domröse worked in a...
- Countess Palvner - Erik S. Klein - Emil Kalluweit
- Katharina Hercher - little Mala Zimmerbaum (episodes II-III)
- Anne-Kathrein Kretzschmar - older Mala (episodes IV-V)
- Berko Acker - older Stefan
- Renate Rennhack - Martha Heyer
- Carmen-Maja Antoni - Irma
- Hans Klering - Leitkow
- Hans Hardt-Hardtloff - Siebold
- Anna PrucnalAnna PrucnalAnna Prucnal is a Polish actress in both cinema and theatre, as well as a singer.Prucnal was born in Warsaw, Poland. After her father, a surgeon, was killed by the Nazis during World War II, Anna and her sister were raised by their mother, who was of noble descent and related to the 18th-century...
- Steffa - Ireneusz Kanicki - Jan
- Marian Melman - Pinarski
- Volkmar Kleinert - Schneider
- Ingolf Gorges - Fredi Neuschulz
- Otto Dierichs - Mr. Heinemann
- Erich Brauer - Hänsel
- Alwin Brosch - Frenzel
- Harry Merkel - miller
- Margit Bendokat - miller's wife
- Fritz Dallmann - blacksmith
- Aleksandra Karzynska - Stefan's mother
- Lothar Bellag - Hans FrankHans FrankHans Michael Frank was a German lawyer who worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s and 1930s and later became a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany...
- Gerd Michael HennebergGerd Michael HennebergGerd Michael Henneberg was a German actor and theater director.-Biography:Gerd Henneberg's father, Richard, was a theater director. After the young Heeneberg took private acting classes, he made his debut on stage at the age of sixteen, in the Leipzig Theater...
- Friedrich Krüger
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. 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 GermanWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
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. Another significant motif of the plot was the depiction of the wartime expulsion of Germans
Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II...
, a sensitive subject that was rarely dealt with openly at the time.
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 FernsehfunkDeutscher Fernsehfunk
Deutscher Fernsehfunk , known from 1972 to 1990 as Fernsehen der DDR , was the state television broadcaster in East Germany.-Foundation:...
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. It was also well received in West Germany.
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
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
, 1st degree, for their work on the series. The VI East German Writers Congress devoted a discussion to the series, during which it was met by considerable approval. At 1969, Sakowski released a novel based on his script, by the same name, that was also adapted for theater.
The series was frequently re-aired in the following decades. At 1983, as the Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
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
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
, Manfred Krug
Manfred Krug
Manfred Krug is a German actor and singer.-Life and work:After moving to East Germany at the age of 13, Manfred Krug worked at a steel plant before beginning his acting career on the stage and, ultimately, in film...
and Angelica Domröse
Angelica Domröse
Angelica Domröse is a German actress, who became famous in the role of Paula in Heiner Carow's film "The Legend of Paul and Paula". Her Mediterranean appearance is the result of her biological father being a prisoner of war from France.-Life:After training as a shorthand typist Domröse worked in a...
- had moved to West Germany. 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. On 2010, it was released on DVD.
External links
- Wege übers Land on the IMDb.
- Wege übers Land on icestorm.de, with official trailer.
- Wege übers Land on TV.de.
- Wege übers Land on film-zeit.de.