Der Dritte 1972

This too is written while watching a film on TV. The film is/was "Der Dritte" (1972), an Eastern German production which I suspect was made for the West to show a more or less idealized GDR as it has an explicit  Western angling. There is very little direct praise of the socialist state and the plot is more or less in line with what you find in Western movies: the growth and choices of a person  (a woman) as she goes from youth to a grown up woman. The subtleties of going from a repressive Lutheran Christian environment to becoming a woman "who chooses in freedom" of course are present.

Footnotes at the end to explain a few words.

PS: I should mention (as I do in the last ku) that my phone rang ½ways in so I just got the finishing scene while missing the middle part of the movie.
Like in the series "Un Flic" this has not been edited except for typos. It was written in the moment at remains like that.

**|**

Der Dritte / East Germany 1972 by Egon Günther

excerpts from a movie

Der Dritte endless rows of concrete blocks grey

her mother dies she runs down the stairs for water

it's -72 and hippies were Western Decadence

synthetic fabrics but no sweat stains under the arms

5.55 am morning gymnastics over the radio

he steps over her to get out of bed she screamed in her sleep

2 sleeping pills she reminds her friend to bring bread

a greying pastor too long out of the sun

in my father's house are many mansions the Sister smiles nervously

herbalist training they wear starched bonnets and pray

as if it was a free country bible quotes

robbing the deceased elder women faking sorrow

decently dressed she enters the Baltic Sea innocent

she's a Sister who would have thought that about her

leave the keys and leave the house I'm sick of you

commuter trains in faint colours might be the light

always in a group the tutor wears sensible shoes

she cries a little before she quits the world lies open

Ivan's Childhood on the telly (voice dubbed) a cable car screams

cars from WWII still on the streets not a word about the queues

introduction to first aid she knows nothing about real life

first factory job rebuilding is harder than creation

The Workers' State a man with a Hitler moustache coughs

numerology she is shown a genuine Dürer print

this Lutheran heritage work work work and frugality

vorwärts she can decide nothing for herself

collection for Vietnam her friend wear a polka dotted dress

sewing their own static electricity doesn't show

counter revolution? she cuts her dress to a mini

factory meeting evaluation of a colleague’s revolutionary spirit

the foreman with Elvis hair no real rock 'n' roll in DDR

bulletins of calamities in West is that really coffee?

her first a science teacher in high school freezing a carnation

drinking snaps her inexperience shows quickly

Avanti Popolo im Deutch the radio large as chest

she writes “7” but changes it to “19” and adds “yours forever”

he snores while she leaves her world is bright

a decent pyjama the science teacher plays Bach as well

noch ein snaps she is nervous and in love

suddenly winter (he looks a bit like Charlie Sheen) she asks if he's a reactionary

tumbling in the snow he taunts her for her Christian heritage

we're human too this flick was meant for the West

washing by hand she adds hot water to wine

a letter “it's not you, it's me”

she has a child he knows nothing … he pretends

there's food enough and posters with naked girls playing guitar

Der Zweite reads Braille outdoors in spring

fingers searching the words he opens his eyes and smiles

he fears his emotions but his glasses aren't transparent

asking a friend what she looks like he's actually spying

control control and head aches more snaps to feel like a man

he plays in bars and would rather be Thomas Mann

bleached race walkers a Russian Choir creates wall after wall

she marries the foreman er ist Der Dritte I guess

even technical mathematical level headed genossen eat cherries in vodka

(the phone rings I hope for a reprise gotta piss anyway)

–

a few notes:

Der Dritte: The Third

Ivan's Childhood: film by Andrej Tarkovsky (Tarkovskij), Russian director, roughly about love for the Motherland and fighting Nazism in WWII.

vorwärts: forward, the “v” pronounced as “f”, revolutionary expression also signifying the growth of the socialist state.

Avanti Popolo: really “Bandiera Rossa” (Red Flag), Italian revolutionary song. Some might know it from Bertolucci's “1900”

Der Zweite: the second

genossen: comrades