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.
How Alex, the eternal philosopher, experiences teh day John F. Kennedy is assassinated. How Mrs. Cerphal has a cherry tree chopped down. How Hermann refuses to accept the dreams of Helga's. How Clarrissa refuses to have a child that has two fathers. How the young filmmakers have a falling-out, how Hermann meets Schnüsschen and how the death of the American President rescues Helga from committing suicide.
The teenager Paul Simon takes up the hobby of wireless radio and marries the girl Maria, but leaves the village and never returns.
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.
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.
A highway is built near Schabbach, and one of the engineers, Otto, becomes Maria's lover.
Eduard Simon becomes the mayor of a village near Schabbach.
The Simon family deals with the waning years of the German war.
Paul Simon's brother Eduard moves to Berlin and meets the socialite Lucie.
An addendum to Edgar Reitz's epic 'Heimat' trilogy, this surrealist, avant-garde drama employs a series of dreamlike sequences to portray the subconscious of a young woman and her female antecedents. Nicola Schossler stars as Lulu, the daughter of an eminent musician, who is searching for something that she feels is missing from her life. As she turns to the past for answers, she tunes in to the varied experiences of female relations from different periods of her family history, from emotional wartime upheavals to everyday family life on the farm.
German historical drama. Jakob Simon dreams of emigrating from his poverty-stricken life as the son of a blacksmith in Schabbach, a village in rural Rhineland.
Jakob Simon fervently dreams of emigrating from his poverty-stricken life as the son of a blacksmith in Schabbach, a small village in rural Rhineland. As he studies the languages of tribal South America, the return from military service of his more worldly brother Gustav fails to break him from his daydream, but day-to-day living in Prussian feudal society means that his dreams have to be put on hold. In German with English subtitles. Black and white with colour sequences.
Paul returns to Germany. The Simon family struggles for prosperity in the lean post-war years.
Anton Simon and his brother Ernst struggle for success in their businesses.
Hermann has a love affair with 26-year-old Klärchen, who is ostracized from Schabbach.
Anton Simon, fighting on the Russian front, marries Martha Hanke via a telephone wedding. Schabbach villagers confront the morality of Nazism.
How Hermann leaves his home town and comes to Munich to study music. How right away on the first day he makes friends, how he falls in love and how he starts to fight against this love
How Juan, a young South American, attempts to make some progress with his talents, for he has too many. How Hermann becomes friends with Juan, how Juan kisses Clarissa and how Hermann loses all of his worldly possessions to Mrs. Moretti. How he becomes sick for the first time away from home.
How Evelyne, the girl with the deep voice, loses her father and starts out to look for her mother, who is presumed to be dead. How she ends up in Mrs. Cerphal's villa and experiences the film premiere of some young filmmakers. How Hermann, Clarissa and Juan are jealous and hurt each outher's feelings. How Evelyne finds Angar.
How Ansgar and Evelyne become inseperable, how Olga shoots at Ansgar to try to kill her love. How Clarissa wins the cello competition, playing a piece written by Hermann, how Hermann is overshadowed by her and suffers because of it. How Ansgar points out his parents to Evelyne, and how he suffers from self-doubt. How an artists' party is celebrated during carnival and how Ansgar dies in an accident.
How Elga lanquishes, and how Hermann and she experience the riots in Schwabing. How Hermann is beaten by a policeman and how he flees Munich. How Hermann arrives in Helga's sleepy town, and how he becomes the dream man of three women.
How Clarissa almost dies from an abortion. How Hermann performs his SPUREN concert ("Traces") and remains alone afterwards. How Helga and Stefan realize that they can torture one another. How Juan and Renate bury their hopes. How Christmas draws near and Hermann has to cling to Schnüsschen. How Clarissa flees from the clinic and how she, once again, misses the right moment with Hermann.
How Schnüsschen celebrates New Year's Eve in Hunsrück, and how she resolves to marry soon. How she and Hermann take care of the children of a girlfriend of hers and she demonstrates to him the advantages of a perfect household. How Clarissa goes to Paris in order to play for a famous cello teacher. How the wedding of Hermann and Schnüsschen turns into a party for all of their friends. How Clarissa returns and goes to the wedding reception as everyone is allready in despair. How Juan tries to die.
How Mrs. Cerphal finds out that her father will die soon. How she must realize that the villa doesn't belong to her at all and how she surpresses the past. How Hermann and Schnüsschen do everything for their child and try to be happy. How Clarissa returns from California and her cello breaks. How Volkert becomes a great pianist and gets closer to Clarissa. How old Mr. Cerphal dies and thus a period of time for all concerned ends.
How Reinhard comes back from Mexico and can't find the villa of his friends. How he tries, together with Rob, to depict the disappearance of the house in a film. How Hermann composes a requiem for the torndown house and how the friends have a fight on the construction site. How Clarissa becomes a mother. How Reinhard goes to Venice in order to write a screenplay, how he meets Esther there and how he becomes a charachter in his own film. How he drowns in Lake Ammer near Munich.
How Rob, the cameraman, meets Esther. How he develops a film technology. How Esther visits the concentration camp in Dachau with her father and loses all trace of her mother. How Hermann meets Consul Handschuh. How Clarissa and Hermann attempt to come to grips with day-to-day life. How Clarissa stops playing the cello. How Hermann cheats on Clarissa and how he and Rob get lost in experiments. How Helga becomes politcally active and fights against the artists. How Rob loses his sight for a while during the premiere presentation of VariaVision.