Original subtitles

A film by Alexander Kluge

and Edgar Reitz

In Danger and Deep Distress

the Middle Way Spells Certain Death

"Inge Maier, who watched,

kept getting the feeling

of being in the wrong film."

1. The Story of Inge Maier

2. The Secret Agent Rita M�ller-Eisert

3. The language of public events

4. Evicting people from

Schumannstrasse 69, 71 and

Bockenheimer Landstrasse 111, 113

POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Vice Chief Constable of a medium-sized city.

His driving licence has been revoked.

My partner and I are agents for an Eastern Bloc country.

We are about to start spying on Western Germany.

We are preparing for that.

My partner is studying Marx, the original texts.

"We make petrified conditions dance by playing them their own tune."

"Sensuality is the basis of science."

I like to travel

Have a look at the world

There are so many nice things to see

I can imagine

A little story took place in China

Oh, in China? As I happened to be there

I wrote it down

Chinaman

Loves the Chinese Girl Marzipan

Looks at her full of desire

And keeps saying:

My Sweetheart are you

Come to me

Full of joy, I'll build you...

Then I'll bring the bulldozer.

I can use it to demolish what's under the shovel.

Safety measures have to be respected.

They are important for our safety. It's not a tank we're driving.

I'm really upset.

My life is no longer normal.

I don't understand. We have unions, laws, a five-day week.

Why is that damned thing allowed to roar?

It is absurd.

I'd like to know the truth!

Allow me to ask:

Where's the permit?

Why can millions of pigs

do what they want,

when for us everything's forbidden.

That's all.

Thank you.

I'm the head window dresser of a major department store in Frankfurt.

I'm trying to give a fresh impetus to the carnival

by designing a modern stage set.

There is a big mouth here,

on the teeth of which the prince and princess will sit.

The Committee of Eleven will sit here

while up here, all the guards will march in from over there,

and then appear on stage.

I assume

you've all come here with the intention

to take to heart the motto of this year's campaign:

"Join in and laugh yourself fit."

On our...

On our tours during high season

in recent days, we've seen

that the will to laugh is as strong as ever in our Carnival Kingdom.

I'm Inge Maier. I use sexual intercourse to steal.

Through years of experience, I know

that men's promises always turn out to be too little in the end.

To compensate for that deficit, I take their wallets.

At least I get my money's worth.

Now start the engine, please.

The first gear is down there. But let's see.

Yes, okay.

Nice.

When they fed the 5000, they had fish. Sorry I can't offer you any.

If we don't have enough, I can check in the boot.

There might be something there.

But for now it's enough. Let's see.

More than enough.

Would you like some gherkin water?

No. - No? I like it.

A good substitute for beer.

I might manage to finish it, then we can also eat the gherkin.

I'll go for a pee.

What's going on?

Stop! Stop!

Stop now!

Stop! Stop! My car! Stop!

Are you crazy? Stop! Stop!

My car! Stop! Stop!

"We do not confront the world with a new principle:

'This is the truth, kneel down before it. '

We develop new principles out of the world's own principles.

We don't say: 'Cease your struggles, they are foolish.

We will give you the true slogan of struggle. '

We merely show the world what it is fighting for,

and consciousness is something that it has to acquire,

even if it does not want to."

Yes, "...consciousness is something that it has to acquire,

even if it does not want to."

You'll get your first mission today.

At the password, "The cat is in the kitchen cupboard,"

you'll open the envelope.

Later, when I've told you what to do,

you'll see a suitcase on the chair to my right

which you'll take discreetly down the stairs.

Got it?

Then please leave inconspicuously.

Let's head towards red dawn

All together comrades!

You'll be victorious everywhere

Our enemies' bulwark will soon give way

I'm highly skilled at spying on state secrets.

Based on the advice of my partner, who reads Marx in the original,

I changed the focus of my work

and am investigating Western German reality with microphones and cameras.

I'm convinced that true secrets are to be found here,

rather than in government espionage.

I can read about so-called state secrets, real ones,

two days later in the financial section of the newspaper.

But my superiors disagree totally.

They call my additional reports "agents' poetry".

Erroneously.

I reply: When we lift a bucket of water, we lift it from the ground.

What is the ground, in regards to raising the level of our spying?

It can only be the basis of workers and peasants.

Espionage belongs to the people.

It has to be deeply rooted in the working masses.

It has to be understood and loved by them.

Here I'm investigating the police organisation of the qualifying rounds

for the world championship.

The police forces of Darmstadt,

Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt have united

in the attempt to prevent violence.

That's exciting.

I discover that the police headquarters wouldn't be able

to control a crowd of 60,000 people

unless they were good-natured.

How can you organise a strike in the Frankfurt theatre?

This would be something

that the people who work there know best, that's for sure.

The strike committee has to see that the strike goes smoothly,

that the audience is kept out, etc. But it has to be said:

The critical point in the theatre is the electricity.

When you turn that off,

no pulleys work, no flies, no hydraulic lifts.

The lights are off, nothing works at all.

Modern theatre can't function without technology.

We could also call an internal strike that wouldn't affect the audience.

We could decide to go on strike against the internal services.

We block it. But in order not to harm the audience,

we ensure that they can get in and see the performance.

Then we wouldn't need to strike. - No, actually, we wouldn't.

This is my 10th event this week.

I got through 12 this week. But somehow...

How do you do it? - Well, I have to say...

I find that

when you constantly focus on

the next speech in Parliament, the next question...

I don't do that. That's no problem for me at all.

Concerning your defence policy...

World politics! - Not that nonsense you talk!

But Mr. Leber is a professional, able to explain things

very, very clearly, even to the man on the street.

Mr. Leber spoke to us,

and within 20 minutes

the whole problem was...

Was played down! - It wasn't played down. - It was.

And besides, in my original profession, in my company

I was head of department, I built it up systematically.

I know, we once talked about it in Bonn.

I was very successful.

The whole chain of companies has been taken over by the Americans.

Really? - They come and they pay. - A new management, interesting.

No, no, they don't have a clue.

Our management methods are traditional and informal, theirs are organised.

But, my dear colleague, that's very interesting!

Not at all. It's highly formalised.

I'm Alfred Bieringer, Member of Parliament.

Hello, the ticket to Teheran under the name Bieringer, please.

I have a little present for you to remember me by.

I'm in an awful hurry, again.

Goodbye.

One day, my partner had a mission.

He never returned from that mission.

The artistically bent Schmidt, who had written hymns for the organ,

wanted to become an architect and town planner.

But then he studied economics.

The future Chancellor of the Exchequer Schiller was his teacher.

What would you do if the pipeline burst?

We've rehearsed that.

... the politician has known his wife Liselotte since they were small.

The technical relief teams would get moving immediately.

They all have a direct line to police headquarters. No problem.

Eyes straight ahead!

Good morning, soldiers.

Good morning, Minister.

What if there really is a Third World War?

The people would run like lemmings.

Where will they run to?

Those from Palatinate to Bavaria, Bavarians to the Rhineland.

Those from Lower Saxony want to go to Hesse.

It will be a terrible mess.

You'll have a hundred policemen. - Two hundred.

But it's a drop in the ocean. It's nothing.

It is very satisfying, at least for me, to know

that I work for the public good, a passion now shared by many.

In his effort to mediate between Israel and Syria,

US Secretary of State Kissinger has travelled the Middle East in vain.

All his shuttle diplomacy achieved is a record of 4 countries in 2 days.

Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

All vehicles have to be ready.

All phones are solely for the President.

No private phone calls are allowed.

There are countless possibilities. - It just keeps on raining.

And you use water cannons, cars, and hundreds of policemen

against the rain.

If the rain doesn't stop,

we'll have to build Noah's ark

to rescue the party leaders and the Chief of Police.

I read your report. 25 pages!

25 pages of nothing, absolutely nothing!

It's too general. But class struggle means facts, not generalities.

Those facts

are to be handed in.

But you, you write poetry!

You can perform these texts in Potsdam, in the Marchwitza house

at a poetry reading, but not here.

Feelings exist, right.

You can do something with feelings here.

That's right. That's fine.

But feelings don't count, facts do.

We want facts,

not some kind of poetry.

Tell me how you work, when, and under what kind of circumstances.

I want to know!

What is it? What's wrong?

Nothing.

Everything has been explained.

No! Not everything.

I have something to tell you. Don't be afraid.

It's quite simple.

I went to a bar. - Why?

Why did you do that?

Because, once again, your work was more important than I was.

I'm always alone.

We danced and drank. - And then?

Then I started to miss you.

You have to hold me much, much tighter.

I will.

You'll never be alone again.

Never again?

I don't ask that much.

Just that you're here for me a bit more.

I've missed out on a lot.

It'll be different in the future.

It'll be much nicer.

I consider playing music to be highly suitable compensation

for the hardships of daily police work.

I am therefore happy to support the endeavour of the police choir

to increase their popularity through this performance.

I hope, especially, to raise interest among our young colleagues

who might find it difficult to make friends in Frankfurt

and feel at home.

The blackbird is singing

High and clear

Full of joy

And because this so We sing along

The joyful song

Sorrow leaves

Daily life may be grey

Still the sky is gay

Let us sing

With beloved and wine

Enjoy the life

You're living

Let's do it, friends

Listen to the choir

Let it charm our senses

Here you see a constable's uniform.

It's the old constable's uniform, which can only be seen

in the theatre these days.

Thank you.

This is the traffic warden of Hesse

in his original uniform.

Thank you.

Everybody back come on stage, please.

That's the charm of Spanish nights

Everybody wants to be a torero

He's a great success with the ladies

They look only at him, at him

S�, s�, se�or...

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

Heel, toe, heel, toe, up, up...

The only current progressive event

concerning human education is the spring conference

of the Astrophysics Society.

Trillions of kilometres away, there was an historic breakthrough

in the field of black stars, which are now completely explored.

I'll pass by.

I represent a field that meshes more and more with other fields.

We've heard a lecture on movement in the Milky Way,

orbits and others.

We have to go a long way back into history

to judge this.

I am also studying the movement of the stars close to the sun.

The main subject is simply called: establishment of an inertial system.

The Earth's movement around its axis. The movement of the axis

around the planetary system, the perpendicular to the ecliptic,

and the question to which extent the ongoing constants can be improved.

It's about the movement of fundamental stars.

And a problem that has been worked on for 20 years:

the connection of the fundamental system of brightest stars

to the extra-galactic nebula.

You'd need approximately 300,000 stars to do that,

which have to be connected to the extra-galactic nebula.

That's my subject.

The next lecture is on the Aeros Additional Rocket Programme.

Provisional results of the neutral and ionic mass spectrometer,

by Tankowsky and Knorr.

They're binary stars:

Through an exchange of mass, the star passes its mass on to the other

until it ends up as a white dwarf.

Couldn't it also be possible

that mass is stored again at this white dwarf,

still under the Chandra Sekkar Limit? That it slowly gains mass

and suddenly turns into a neutron star?

Due to the low specific gravity, the drive force is null.

Due to the magneto-acoustic plasma, we have to use

Lorentz force, that is q over c times v cross b.

b is the magnetic field, the electric charge.

An interfering field...

You have a point in what you say.

The neutron star in Hercules X 1 has very little mass.

It's only 0.2 sun masses, I mean the neutron star there.

A neutron star? - Yes, with very little mass.

This could support what you just said.

But the partner cannot be blown away.

You just talked about the gravitational bond.

The Federal Association of Young Entrepreneurs has 3,200 members.

The total number of employees in companies run by young entrepreneurs

is approximately one million.

The total turnover is about 10 billion Deutschmark,

which corresponds to 10 per cent of the GNP.

I've been a young entrepreneur since January 1st, 1974.

I came to Frankfurt. At school, I had learned to read and write.

I came to Frankfurt to learn how to express myself in public.

As a young entrepreneur I am simply responsible, also socio-politically,

for expressing myself correctly.

For a while we have been trying to increase employees' motivation,

to let them participate in the activities of the company.

The way...

one generally, or women generally portray men,

is not correct. It's not true.

Let's not forget that men and women are human beings,

human beings who hold certain rolls and positions.

Can a young person today still become an entrepreneur?

Yes, of course. Take me as an example.

I didn't have any capital,

I don't have a family,

I didn't inherit anything.

But as a young man I was diligent.

And I am now a partner in a renowned 110-year-old company.

Is there a secret to success?

Work hard. - That's it?

Work hard, be clean, open-mindeded, and honest.

Do you have to be talented? - No, I was always a bad pupil.

Stop! There, Peterson!

Is there life before death?

If you don't follow our instructions, we'll use the water cannons.

The water main has been cut. There's no light anymore.

They haven't done the gas yet.

They're going to enter the house.

There are still people in the house.

In that house? - Yes, look.

Oh, right.

Yes, hello?

Now, listen!

What you did is beyond the pale.

You know very well that we need brief reports.

But you send me a 25-page expos�!

I don't even know whether to encode it or not.

Yes, okay. But not so wordy.

Not so convoluted, we don't have any use for that.

Okay. If we reach the target early,

I'll be given the fatherland's golden order of merit. Listen.

I'm on the list. And you're on the list for silver.

Do you understand? But we also have to work for it.

I'm used to it. You let me down two weeks ago.

Don't try that again.

I tell you, if you go on like this,

you'll be back at a workbench in our Republic.

There is a whisper going around the world

Can't you hear them, worker?

The voices of the ministers of war

Can't you hear them, worker?

Coal and steelmakers are whispering

The chemical industry is whispering

The whisper is heard on all continents:

War to people's democracies!

Workers, peasants, knock daggers and rifles

Out of the fascist's hand!

Wrest the atoms from the militarists

Before all countries are on fire!

Plant your red banners of labour

In every field, in every factory!

Then will rise from the ruins of the old society

A socialist people's republic

Again the drums say: "Onto the field

For freedom, nation and race"

They set you onto the working class

For the moneybags of the world

The invasion of the Soviet Union

Forms part of the salvation of the reactionaries

The war that is roaming the countries

The war is against you, worker!

Workers, peasants, knock daggers and rifles

Out of the fascist's hand!

Wrest the atoms from the militarists

Before all countries are on fire!

Plant your red banners of labour

In every field, in every factory

Then will rise from the ruins of the old society

A socialist people's republic

Then will rise from the ruins of the old society

A socialist people's republic!

First of all we'll pull down the front in Bockenheimer Landstrasse.

That means we'll take down the roof and the top floor,

so that there is no risk

of hindering pedestrians, passers-by

or the tram.

It's our job to ensure that, by 3 pm or maybe at 5 pm

the tram will run again on Bockenheimer Landstrasse.

It's not that easy,

because there are various gables attached to the house

that are only fixed at the top,

and are not easy to remove.

We'll then go to Schumannstrasse

and we'll proceed on Schumannstrasse as we do here.

We'll take down the attic

and the second floor. And with a second machine,

that one, with that big bulldozer,

we'll pull down the whole block.

I doubt we'll be able to remove it all today,

due to the sheer mass.

After all, there's 30,000 cubic metres to deal with today.

We'll make them uninhabitable, or even pull them down.

There'll only be a pile of rubble.

Poor Communist Party, if it comes to fighting.

We've expressed our opinion:

We reject the eviction.

And radicals who defend themselves! That's your policy.

It helps capitalism in the same way the police do.

The tool of capitalism.

Your policy is to keep people from defending themselves.

That's your policy, isn't it?

Just insults!

Those resolutions of yours

don't interest anybody at all. Who wants to read them?

Yes, that may be so. It may be so.

We assume the saw has been stolen,

we've already told the police.

This gentleman will take down the particulars.

It's in our depot.

The police and the city know that the saw has been seized.

I don't believe it.

And my welding torch?

Why do you think we have your welding torch?

And a box of burners for the construction of cars.

Excuse me...

Where have they gone, I'd like to know.

We don't have them. - There was stuff, too.

There were two gas cylinder caps over there.

They told us we had to negotiate with the Home Secretary.

You didn't go there. - Yes, we did. - When?

The police stored the saw in their depot.

It will be given to the person who can prove to be the rightful owner.

That's all we can do.

Palm Garden

I even enjoyed it. Those speedy young people. They chanted protest slogans.

With good reason, too.

It was peaceful. They didn't obstruct anything. The tram passed as usual.

Until the police arrived. Is it their job to keep common people down?

Common people are told to work for the state for free.

I work for the state, too.

I'm a civil servant.

But I'm appalled.

I work at the post.

Hello?

It's you? Where are you?

Why haven't you come here as I said?

I absolutely have to talk to you.

I expect you to report within 15 minutes.

You know what an order means to us. No discussions.

You'll be here at exactly 3:20 pm. You know what that means.

Alright. Bye.

Schiele, as well, is very important in Bolivia.

You may wonder

why someone in my position

goes to see films dealing with the porno wave.

I saw such a film last night,

"The Intimate Teenagers". It shows the fate of twelve women

who've gone astray and started to work as prostitutes.

It was interesting.

You know our Republic rejects it,

and we are practically not involved in this business.

But, as I said, we as agents

also want to know what it is about,

to be able to report on it.

Here lived, are living and will live

Katrin Swoboda, J�rgen Humbug,

Heiner Boehncke and many more.

From now on, the lid is closed.

How am I supposed to do it? I can't drive into the crowd.

Why don't you try? They may pay attention to you.

I've to be at the airport at 2:30 pm for a lecture in Vienna.

We constantly have to stop.

It's still 4 traffic lights,

3 km of motorway and two ordinary roads.

What can I do?

I'll pay you extra. Move the car, or shall I do it?

It won't help to pay. - It will.

I'm not the chauffeur, you are. I have to get to the meeting!

You must be crazy! 4 traffic lights, 3 km of motorway and two roads ahead!

Then I'll make room. - Do as you like.

This is outrageous! - Alright.

We won't get through. You have to find another way!

I've kind of a general idea.

The situation is highly complicated.

What nature doesn't destroy, is destroyed by man.

Allied bombers fly over Monte Cassino,

home of St. Benedict's famous monastery.

They suspect a German observation post.

The Germans spared the towering abbey.

Later on, US Supreme Commander General Mark Clark said:

"The bombardment was wrong."

And you, as Chief Constable, continue,

as it used to be,

to flood these people with legal proceedings like slander, defamation,

as was the case with J�rgen Roth due to his book.

And now it's the same with Zwerenz.

If you want to solve individual infringements,

support those people, don't start legal proceedings against them.

Why do you have to do that?

I didn't withhold witnesses from the police or public prosecutor,

but lawyer Mr. Golzem stated

he thought it was wrong that Zwerenz had already informed the public.

Because those who are concerned are still in custody

and have to fear reprisals.

I then arranged

that on Friday, the two possible candidates,

two radicals who we'd arrested at police headquarters

because they were writing down

the licence plate numbers of all police vehicles parked there...

If you'd let me finish my sentence, you'd understand why I say that.

And because they then declared

they were free citizens on their way to have a beer.

My police officers asked them to leave the car.

The car was then searched.

In the car they found

what was described on a pamphlet of the squatter council as

the equipment

which these radicals carry in such operations:

The well-known black helmet, the stocking mask,

woollen scarves, lemons cut into half,

protection for certain parts of the body,

and tools to attack the police.

On suspicion of...

On suspicion of participating in a breach of the peace,

the magistrate had them put in custody.

I don't consider this party congress to be the body

to which to address a statement, as Chief Constable of Frankfurt,

to justify last week's police operation.

What nonsense he does.

He pours water in the glass. Doesn't stop, how stupid that.

The water flows, until the room is completely drowned.

Look, the chair is deeply in it.

Puppy's swimming for and back.

So do two boats with sails and steam.

Of Babette at the door only the tail shows anymore.

In Danger and Deep Distress

the Middle Way Spells Certain Death

Subtitles Mascha Rohner

Film und Video Untertitelung Gerhard Lehmann AG