day

date

events

Thu

09-11-1989

Just before 11 pm: Hermann leaves the Berliner Philharmonie (Kemperplatz / Tiergarten) and walks via Savignyplatz to the Kempinski-hotel on the Kurfüstendamm. (a walk of at least 4 km.) In the lobby he meets Clarissa. They stay at the Kempinski

Fri

10-11-1989

(According to synopsis, not in the film): Reinhold Loewe, the assistant of H. is looking for him everywhere, because he didn’t arrive in his room. Reinhold organizes a spontaneous concert for H + C both. Willy Brandt is there.

Sat

11-11-1989

H + C are leaving Berlin and the DDR by BMW. At dusk they reach Oberwesel (St. Martin’s procession). H. awakes when the car stops at the Günderode-house, they look around (Titanic-imitation at the top of the rock), drive back to Oberwesel and check in at the Schönburg-hotel.(world-famous since the visit of Ivan Mansley) Meeting with Mr. Wallauer, hotel-owner and owner of Günderode.

Sun

12-11-1989

H + C visit the Günderode ruin with Wallauer (+ Pitt) and buy it. They walk around and discover the church tower of Schabbach. Clarissa: “Until Christmas I have still 14 concerts”. Hermann: “after Wednesday my free days are rare”

Clarissa has to leave for her concert on Monday in Leipzig. She’s driving Hermann’s Munich BMW.

Hermann walks on to Schabbach and goes around:

• He meets Rudi Molz , the peace-movement and vicar Dahl.

• He looks around at his birth-house (behind are the horses of Mara Simon)

• He meets Ernst at his home near the Goldbrook;

• He meets Anton and his household

• He visits Simon Optische Werke with Anton
  (perhaps some of these visits occur on Monday)

Mon

13-11-1989

Clarissa in Leipzig (Gewandhaus), the concert is cancelled because of the Monday protest walk. C. meets Gunnar and Udo and contracts them

Tue

14-11-1989

Clarissa drives back to the Hunsrück; 2 passengers: Udo + Gunnar

They all have dinner at Anton’s, where C + H stay to sleep.

Udo + Gunnar will sleep at Gasthaus Molz in Schabbach

Wed

15-11-1989

Udo + Gunnar go –accompanied by Hermann- to the Globus Baumarkt in Simmern. Clarissa picks them up with a little truck of Simon Optik. The restoration of Günderode is starting.

The couple H + C stays again at the Schönburg hotel

Thu

16-11-1989

??

Fri

17-11-1989

The restoration is in full speed.

Hermann is in Zürich to rehearse the 5^th pianoconcerto of Beethoven

??

Mon

20-11-1989

H+ C bring a brand new concrete mixer. Due to the wish to use historic methods; they decide to get Tobi from Dresden

21-11-1989/

30-11-1989

??

Fri

01-12-1989

Images of the Brandenburger Tor. In the Konzertsaal Berlin Clarissa sings international folksongs with the “Leipziger Avantgarde”

Sun

03-12-1989

H+C together near Günderode house. There’s is a telegram. C has to go to Hamburg immediately, for her son Arnold (who lives in the house of his grandmother) has been arrested for hacking the Deutsche Bank

Mon

04-12-1989

C in Hamburg to join Arnold in the court-room. The judge is mild; Arnold is a free man. He celebrates it in a Hamburger billiardbar.

H. has a concert in Basel

Tue

05-12-1989

Hermann writes a letter to Clarissa.on a trainstop at Köln Hbf =Central Station (coming from Basel, he is on his way to a concert in Hamburg)

Gunnar drives his yellow 23 years old VW, bougt from Rudi Molz. When they arrive at the Günderode house, also Tobi is there with his Trabant. Soon he discovers that the actual restoration method will last several years. He has an idea and goes –with Rudi Molz as guide- to the van workshop of Wiegand

Wed

06-12-1989

H + C for a short moment together at the airport Köln-Bonn. H. is flying to Amsterdam, C to Paris. They expect not to see each other before Christmas.

Thu

07-12-1989

H. plays pianoconcerts of Beethoven and Schubert in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. (NB The publicity cloth shows the announcement: Hermann Simon concert 22 november.) He is visited by Frau Lichtblau, Clarissa’s mother. Reinhold brings her via the Prinsengracht to a hotel.

Clarissa that evening writes a letter to H in the empty dining room of hotel Ambassador in Paris. She started the rehearsels of the role of Dido (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell)

Fri

08-12-1989

Mrs. Lichtblau travels from Amsterdam to Paris

Sat

09-12-1989

Tobi produces a construction of 20 hydraulic levers to lift the Günderode house to facilitate the renewing of the foundation: “It floats”. Tillmann , the electrician, arrives from Dresden.

H. arrives by car from a concert travel in the Schönburg hotel. There is a letter from Clarissa.( “I can’t believe we met only six (????) weeks ago”. ) Clarissa has promised Arnold to be in Hamburg at Christmas Eve.

Tillmann drives to the Schönburg hotel to pick up Hermann to look for his “floating house”. Rudi Molz: it took three days together with Tobi to collect the levers. Tobi: is there someone who has old materials for the house: doors, door handles etc. H: Yes, my brother Ernst.

H. puts some photographs of the restoration in an envelope an addresses it to Clarissa in Paris.

Sun

10-12-1989

H. in Vienna, Saal des Konzerthauses, conducts Mozart’s Prager Symphonie.

On Sunday the labourers don’t work at the Günderode-house. Gunnar and Udo are kidding Tillmann with his suitcase

Mon

11-12-1989

Moni climbs up the wine mountain to the Günderode-house and discovers the clarinet playing Tillmann (Love at first sight)

Hermann is sitting in the Pavilion and writes a letter to Clarissa.

When the night is falling Hermann joins the peacemovement, who is demonstrating before the Pydna rocket base.(long chain of people)

Tue

19-12-1989

Clarissa sings the role of Dido in Paris ( première)

??

Hermann has a concert in Brussels (Reinhold: 3000 spectators)

??

It starts snowing, but right in time the workers can close the Günderode building for wind and snow.

Hermann is very proud and donates extra money to the DDR-labourer.

The wives and children of Udo and Gunnar come in from Leipzig. The two families are invited to travel to Munich, where they can stay in the house of Reinholds mother in Bogenhausen. Reinhold and Petra like each other. Tobi and Tillmann stay behind.

Sun

24-12-1989

At Christmas Eve the two families + Hermann and Reinhold enjoy the warm hospitality of Mrs. Loewe ( who has a concert-agency)

Clarissa is in Hamburg to celebrate Christmas with her son Arnold. When Hermann makes a phonecall to her, but the number is always occupied. Arnold introduces her for hours in the world of internet. In the old times of the modem connection that was blocking the normal telephone-line.

Tillmann and Moni are together in the Günderode-house and show their love

Mon

25-12-1989

In Munich the company travels to the Zugspitze, the top of Germany. Gunnar discovers that he will loose his wife Petra to Reinhold. In his own he drives back to the Günderode-house.

When the rest of the company is back in Bogenhausen, Clarissa arrives. She has fever, she couldn’t play in the theatre.

??

Sun

31-12-1989

On the last day of the year Gunnar is sitting in the chestnut tree at Günderode and looks for a lonesome firework rocket.

Near the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin are 100.000 people celebrating the first free new year: at that moment the Germans are the happiest people in the world.