Rolf Richter

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A film on the subject of peace. The authors' discussion partners, who contribute their own reflections and assessments to the film, are the translator Georgia Peet, the toxicologist and chemist Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Lohs, the pastor Jan Laser, the stonemason Ralph Jeremias and Major General Hans Unterdörfel.

Articles of former East Germany from household items to flags are thrown away at a garbage dump outside of East Berlin, serving as a reminder of a state that no longer exists. In this gesture of breaking ties with the past, the film captures the dumping ground as the last burial site of a society and the absurdity of time and existence.

A documentary crew follows the December 1978 “big repair” at the Bernburg (Saale) cement works, normally shut only for maintenance, where management has cut the planned 16-day turnaround to 14, with a 15 000 M bonus (rising to 20 000 M if finished a day early). As cameras roll through cement dust, crew and workers discuss the twice-yearly overhaul, familiar crews, and gritty camaraderie. They learn that chronic spare-parts shortages force constant improvisation, and that bureaucratic red tape weighs heavier than the hardest labor. Amid pride in their long-running plant, workers confess simple hopes for health, peace, and family. By film’s end, the crew realizes the true “core” of the factory lies not in its machinery, but in its people’s hands and minds.