Nerves (1919) - full transcript
Doubt and uncertainty ensue when the figurehead of a rebellion goes to court for an alleged rape.
Robert Reinert's film represents
the mood of 1919 as "nervous dynamite
arising in the human psyche
as a result of war and hardship".
It was altered by film censors several times.
At its premiere in 1919,
the film had a length of 2,637 meters,
but according to
the Berlin film censorship office's records
this had been reduced to
2,054 meters by November 1920.
Subsisting are a black and white copy (1,646m)
at Gosfilmofond, Moscow,
a tinted fragment (65 meters)
at the German federal film archive,
and 777 meters of an American version
at the Library of Congress.
The colours of the latter fragment
have begun to disintegrate.
Unfortunately, approximately one third
of the film is considered to be lost.
This reconstruction tries to follow
the film's original concept closely.
We therefore rearranged the order of
particular scenes or sequences,
and we added new inter-titles.
The reconstruction was tinted
in accordance with the
norms and practices of the film's time.
Virtually nothing remains of the
"living titles"
mentioned by all contemporary reviews.
There are a few examples
in the fragment of the American version
and in one German out-take.
Prologue
Mother. Thousands of miles from home,
your son is dying.
Mother. And you feel it,
thousands of miles away,
at the same moment.
What does it mean?
Murderer...
...you, who shrinks at nothing...
Fly. You are lost,
your pursuers are outside.
Poor little thing without any water:
it is dying, dying.
Lucky children,
you who don't know about nerves yet.
Beware you peoples, shaken by nervous
epidemics, and terror and panic
or by wild, unbridled lust.
End of prologue
Roloff, the factory owner,
and his wife Elizabeth
The 500th anniversary
of the house of Roloff
"You have followed me up to this moment
of success and eternal fame..."
"Our invention is the greatest
since time immemorial
and will make us masters of the world."
"We will conquer the world
with our machines and tools,
designed to break all resistance.
Do you hear me? The whole world."
"The flag will be the symbol
of our domination over the world."
"Start the machine. Raise the flag."
The exploding machine
destroys the newly opened factory.
"Don't lose your nerve, keep calm
like me. Otherwise all will be lost."
Panic
It is the end
of Roloff's plans for world domination.
"I won't give up."
Teacher Johannes, apostle of the People
Marja, Roloff's sister
"Great unrest and discontent
are marching across the world..."
"You ask for bread, they seek power."
"The peoples are mourning
on bloody battlefields."
"It is the end of the greed for power,
which marched across the earth
like some hideous, murderous beast."
"You are trembling with fear..."
"I used to have nerves of steel,
but since then..."
"Since then I keep seeing
the ghosts of the dead
rising to wreak their terrible revenge
on us, and especially on me."
"Your wedding dress, Marja,
your wedding dress."
"Tomorrow is your wedding day,
you lucky child."
"Do you not feel the mysterious
electricity charging the air?"
"Do you not feel the earth being shaken
by something tremendous and incredible?"
"I will see."
"It would be better
if the wedding did not take place."
"Do you know, nurse, what it is
to marry a man one does not love?"
"I can only belong to someone
who possesses the souls of all men:
to Teacher Johannes."
The gardener's boy
"What has happened?"
There are riots in the streets.
"And you?"
"You coward."
"But all I want is you."
"I must go to him,
he is speaking at a meeting."
"Have mercy, Marja."
"Down there
people are fighting for their lives
and you're running around
all love struck, you coward."
Richard, the Count of Colonna,
Marja's fiancé
"Tomorrow morning present this bouquet
to Marja, my bride."
"She said I was a coward."
"I am no coward."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Up against the wall."
"So we have also lost our second son."
"How could this happen?"
"I did not want that."
"My wedding day breaks blood red."
End of Act 1
Marja's wedding day
Richard: "Has the gardener's boy
given you my flowers?"
Marja: "He is no murderer. We should see that
he receives a Christian burial."
Richard: "He doesn't deserve one."
The blind sister of Teacher Johannes
"Your sister is looking for you,
Teacher Johannes."
"Mother, why are you no longer alive
to advise me?"
Matthew 5:28: But I say unto you,
that every one that looketh on
a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
"My brother, I cannot see you,
but I feel that you are suffering."
The wedding guests
"Teacher Johannes, today is my wedding
day."
"I believe I will be very unhappy..."
"Do you remember being my teacher?"
"You overfeed that animal,
and in the worker's village
people are dying of starvation."
"I was a happy then,
but today I am miserable and desperate."
"Marja, please leave me alone."
"Marja has disappeared."
"I will never marry Richard,
the Count of Colonna."
"For God's sake,
what's the matter with you?"
"Richard, I cannot become your wife."
"I can no longer become the wife
of a respectable man."
"Another man has possessed me..."
"It was Teacher Johannes."
"I haven't finished with you yet."
"My sister's wedding
has been called off."
"I'll explain later."
Roloff urges Marja to talk.
"Marja, overcome the shame
and tell me..."
"In his arms I lost consciousness..."
Roloff's overwrought nerves
cause him to imagine
that he witnessed the scene
described by Marja.
My love for her is impure and sinful.
"The teacher has to be destroyed."
Can love, this most beautiful
of all feelings, be so vivid?
"This incident, Avocat général,
is terrible but
it gives us the opportunity to eliminate
our most powerful political enemy."
The faithful dog
"This isn't true."
"That can't be true."
"I saw it. So help me God, I saw it."
End of Act 2
The People
"You my faithful friend, where is
Johannes?"
At night
"Marja, I implore you for God's sake:
Tell me the whole truth."
"Teacher Johannes possessed me."
Public gathering
At the gathering
an argument takes place.
Speaker: "Let's not get confused
by irresponsible fanatics."
The blind woman intuitively feels
that there is a connection
between the bible and her brother.
"Who are you?"
"I am closer to you than you think..."
"I will prove his innocence
at the trial."
The day of the trial
"You will be excused from appearing,
due to illness.
The disgrace of seeing you in court
would be unbearable for me."
"Be quiet Conscience, quiet."
"He has been condemned
to six years' hard labour."
"I have the feeling that
a righteous man has been condemned."
"There was an atmosphere of
breathless suspense in the court room."
"He stood there in silence and did
not utter a single word in his defence."
"He remained silent in the face
of all the terrible accusations."
"Then his blind sister entered."
"My brother is a good man.
He reads the Bible every day."
Every one that looketh on a woman
to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
"She believed she was saving him but
she unintentionally sealed his fate."
My love for her is impure and sinful.
"This line can only refer
to Marja Roloff."
"You admit to having harboured
forbidden feelings of love
for Marja Roloff for a long time?"
"Your silence will incriminate you."
"...and then I took the oath..."
"I swore that I had seen it."
"After sentence had been passed, the
teacher broke his inexplicable silence."
"Although the accusation is not true
I will do penance."
End of Act 3
"He has been condemned
to six years' hard labour."
"Don't you see
how terribly he is staring at me?"
"I can't stand it."
"Why did he remain silent?"
"Why did they pass sentence on him?"
"Because he is a criminal."
"That man is not capable
of committing a crime."
"I saw it."
"My poor brother, you did not see it."
"I saw it.
After all, I swore that I did."
"My poor brother,
you could not have seen it."
"Woman, what is the truth?"
"Teacher Johannes possessed my soul,
but not my body."
"I saw it and swore under oath
that I had seen it. And now she says...
What can it mean?
Am I a fool, or a criminal?"
"What is wrong with me?"
"We must keep it secret, Marja has
to remain silent. I took an oath...."
"But you cannot sacrifice
an innocent man."
"I have committed perjury.
I am the most vile of all creatures."
Alone
"I am going to the Avocat général.
Your sense of honour will tell you
what remains for you to do."
"Everything will come out
during a further investigation."
Marja leaves her father's house
for good.
She fights passionately to have
Teacher Johannes's ideas put into action.
"What is it
that is so suddenly oppressing me?"
"Where am I?"
"Is this my castle?"
"Help."
"Help me, I am afraid I shall go mad."
To ascertain his real condition, Roloff
consults a famous nerve specialist.
"A friend of mine
has been experiencing strange things,
things which in reality do not exist."
"Most horrible of all,
his own ego is haunting him."
"...and has at the same time
a perfectly healthy appearance..."
"These people here all appear healthy.
They are, however, seriously ill."
"And the cause?"
"The progression of civilisation;
the struggle for existence;
anxiety and the terrors of war;
the sins of the parents..."
"What do you want of me? Am I in your
way? Do you perhaps want to kill me?"
"Why are you crying?"
"Because you are so ill, Sir."
"Nonsense. You are crying for your idol,
Johannes, whom I have had arrested."
My dear son, unfortunately your
parent's marriage was not a happy one.
Your father suffered from pathological
fits of rage and from alcoholism.
"Hereditary taint is the doctor's
nice way of expressing it."
Through the intervention of the District
Attorney, Johannes is released from prison.
Paranoia
"Roloff, you have killed me."
"My God,
is this not Elizabeth, my wife?"
"Roloff, you have brought about
the destruction of a noble spirit."
"No one ever died the way he did."
"No one ever went to heaven
the way he did."
"I am no murderer: he killed himself."
"He is dead?"
"Were you not just lamenting
at his bier?"
"Here. He was lying here."
"Don't cry, I can't stand it."
"Am I then really so ill?"
End of Act 4
"Nobody knows why I remained silent."
"I suffered in silence
because I was expiating my sins."
"Johannes, forgive me."
"I incurred a heavier burden of guilt
than you."
Richard looks for Marja,
his fiancée, and finds her.
Richard: "Marja, like you
I gave up everything.
I want to follow you
and your great ideas."
Together with Marja he takes part
in the riots in the streets.
"My own nerves
mirror the nerves of the world."
"And the world's nerves are ill."
My dear son, unfortunately your
parent's marriage was not a happy one.
Your father suffered from pathological
fits of rage and from alcoholism.
"He is hopelessly lost."
"He is hopelessly lost,
only death can release him."
"I know you have forgiven me, Johannes,
and I have overcome my love for you."
"Now I am Richard's wife."
"He is hopelessly lost."
"Why do I live?"
"Now I know why he kept silent."
Some days later
Roloff's condition becomes alarming.
"How unfortunate you are,
Elizabeth, because of me."
"Why are you laughing, whore?"
"Drive as fast as you can, perhaps
I can escape these horrible images."
"I strangled her,
and now I am being led to my death"
"Elizabeth, are you still alive?"
"Save me. Save me."
"These dreadful images, which the nerve
doctors call illusions, are back again."
"Do you understand my fear of
the dreadful thoughts I cannot escape?"
"I know you have some wonderful poison,
the bequest of your dead friend.
He prepared it for the unfortunates
who were hopelessly lost
to release them from their suffering
and beautify their death."
"Do not let me degenerate.
Donor the man in me,
do not let me turn into a brute-beast."
"How well I feel.
Euthanasia: an easy death,
the Greeks called it. Thank you, Johannes."
"A stroke of apoplexy
has terminated his life."
Elizabeth retires from public life.
Johannes tries to calm down
the people on the streets.
"Human ideals cannot be achieved
by violence."
"Leave the street now."
"Go to your work. Work is power."
"Just as a man who doesn't work
will be damaged in body and soul,
a people which doesn't work
will perish."
End of Act 5
"The lady of the castle is ill."
Later
After Elizabeth's recovery
their friendship deepens.
The love I feel for you will never be
accepted. I am but an ordinary man.
Marja: "Now we are ready to fight to the death."
Johannes: "You are distorting my ideas
with your violence and battles."
Richard: "Anyone who resists
the People's will is our enemy."
"I want to stay with you. Will you take me in?"
It was a time of pure bliss.
But it was marred one day in a strange
and completely unexpected way.
Roloff's diaries
Now I understand everything.
He kept silent because he loved Elizabeth.
I am an unfortunate soul who should step
aside and let them be happy together.
"He knew it.
That's why he chose to die."
"...I killed him..."
"She must never find out."
"He doesn't love me anymore,
he loves only you. I don't belong here."
"I will explain everything to you.
He is haunted by a terrible secret."
"He only did it to put an end to
his dreadful suffering. Believe me..."
Now I understand everything.
He kept silent because he loved Elizabeth.
I am an unfortunate soul who should step
aside and let them be happy together.
"It was murder.
He might have made a full recovery."
Separation
"Your talkativeness is to blame."
"We will leave the country for good."
Elizabeth regrets having left Johannes.
"He wants to leave us.
Please hold him back."
"I will kneel here and pray
until you, Lord, unite the two."
Elizabeth asks Marja for advice.
Marja: "You can get Johannes back
only by performing a great deed."
As Elizabeth is now a nervous wreck,
she resorts to desperate measures.
"My poor sister
will perish in the flames."
Elizabeth doesn't dare to confess to her
deed. She disappears without a trace.
Richard dies in a street battle.
Richard: "In the face of death I confess
that for the love of you, Marja,
I fought for an idea I never believed in."
Marja: "Is everything in this world a lie?
Even our ideals?
What have I left to live for?"
It was me who set the castle on fire.
I am guilty of your sister's death.
Now I am doing penance in a convent. Elizabeth
Marja commits suicide.
Teacher Johannes is called to the dying woman.
"Forgive me once again for everything,
Joh..
I am paying for what I did to you with my life.
I have never ceased loving you, farewell."
"I still believe in the ideas
I fought for and am dying for."
End of Act 6
Epilogue
The reunion
Love
The recovery of mankind...
...man and his mate,
thirsting for beauty and truth,
conjoin in pure love...
Progenitors
of a new and happy humankind.
Back to Nature. Work.
New nerves, new human beings.
the mood of 1919 as "nervous dynamite
arising in the human psyche
as a result of war and hardship".
It was altered by film censors several times.
At its premiere in 1919,
the film had a length of 2,637 meters,
but according to
the Berlin film censorship office's records
this had been reduced to
2,054 meters by November 1920.
Subsisting are a black and white copy (1,646m)
at Gosfilmofond, Moscow,
a tinted fragment (65 meters)
at the German federal film archive,
and 777 meters of an American version
at the Library of Congress.
The colours of the latter fragment
have begun to disintegrate.
Unfortunately, approximately one third
of the film is considered to be lost.
This reconstruction tries to follow
the film's original concept closely.
We therefore rearranged the order of
particular scenes or sequences,
and we added new inter-titles.
The reconstruction was tinted
in accordance with the
norms and practices of the film's time.
Virtually nothing remains of the
"living titles"
mentioned by all contemporary reviews.
There are a few examples
in the fragment of the American version
and in one German out-take.
Prologue
Mother. Thousands of miles from home,
your son is dying.
Mother. And you feel it,
thousands of miles away,
at the same moment.
What does it mean?
Murderer...
...you, who shrinks at nothing...
Fly. You are lost,
your pursuers are outside.
Poor little thing without any water:
it is dying, dying.
Lucky children,
you who don't know about nerves yet.
Beware you peoples, shaken by nervous
epidemics, and terror and panic
or by wild, unbridled lust.
End of prologue
Roloff, the factory owner,
and his wife Elizabeth
The 500th anniversary
of the house of Roloff
"You have followed me up to this moment
of success and eternal fame..."
"Our invention is the greatest
since time immemorial
and will make us masters of the world."
"We will conquer the world
with our machines and tools,
designed to break all resistance.
Do you hear me? The whole world."
"The flag will be the symbol
of our domination over the world."
"Start the machine. Raise the flag."
The exploding machine
destroys the newly opened factory.
"Don't lose your nerve, keep calm
like me. Otherwise all will be lost."
Panic
It is the end
of Roloff's plans for world domination.
"I won't give up."
Teacher Johannes, apostle of the People
Marja, Roloff's sister
"Great unrest and discontent
are marching across the world..."
"You ask for bread, they seek power."
"The peoples are mourning
on bloody battlefields."
"It is the end of the greed for power,
which marched across the earth
like some hideous, murderous beast."
"You are trembling with fear..."
"I used to have nerves of steel,
but since then..."
"Since then I keep seeing
the ghosts of the dead
rising to wreak their terrible revenge
on us, and especially on me."
"Your wedding dress, Marja,
your wedding dress."
"Tomorrow is your wedding day,
you lucky child."
"Do you not feel the mysterious
electricity charging the air?"
"Do you not feel the earth being shaken
by something tremendous and incredible?"
"I will see."
"It would be better
if the wedding did not take place."
"Do you know, nurse, what it is
to marry a man one does not love?"
"I can only belong to someone
who possesses the souls of all men:
to Teacher Johannes."
The gardener's boy
"What has happened?"
There are riots in the streets.
"And you?"
"You coward."
"But all I want is you."
"I must go to him,
he is speaking at a meeting."
"Have mercy, Marja."
"Down there
people are fighting for their lives
and you're running around
all love struck, you coward."
Richard, the Count of Colonna,
Marja's fiancé
"Tomorrow morning present this bouquet
to Marja, my bride."
"She said I was a coward."
"I am no coward."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Up against the wall."
"So we have also lost our second son."
"How could this happen?"
"I did not want that."
"My wedding day breaks blood red."
End of Act 1
Marja's wedding day
Richard: "Has the gardener's boy
given you my flowers?"
Marja: "He is no murderer. We should see that
he receives a Christian burial."
Richard: "He doesn't deserve one."
The blind sister of Teacher Johannes
"Your sister is looking for you,
Teacher Johannes."
"Mother, why are you no longer alive
to advise me?"
Matthew 5:28: But I say unto you,
that every one that looketh on
a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
"My brother, I cannot see you,
but I feel that you are suffering."
The wedding guests
"Teacher Johannes, today is my wedding
day."
"I believe I will be very unhappy..."
"Do you remember being my teacher?"
"You overfeed that animal,
and in the worker's village
people are dying of starvation."
"I was a happy then,
but today I am miserable and desperate."
"Marja, please leave me alone."
"Marja has disappeared."
"I will never marry Richard,
the Count of Colonna."
"For God's sake,
what's the matter with you?"
"Richard, I cannot become your wife."
"I can no longer become the wife
of a respectable man."
"Another man has possessed me..."
"It was Teacher Johannes."
"I haven't finished with you yet."
"My sister's wedding
has been called off."
"I'll explain later."
Roloff urges Marja to talk.
"Marja, overcome the shame
and tell me..."
"In his arms I lost consciousness..."
Roloff's overwrought nerves
cause him to imagine
that he witnessed the scene
described by Marja.
My love for her is impure and sinful.
"The teacher has to be destroyed."
Can love, this most beautiful
of all feelings, be so vivid?
"This incident, Avocat général,
is terrible but
it gives us the opportunity to eliminate
our most powerful political enemy."
The faithful dog
"This isn't true."
"That can't be true."
"I saw it. So help me God, I saw it."
End of Act 2
The People
"You my faithful friend, where is
Johannes?"
At night
"Marja, I implore you for God's sake:
Tell me the whole truth."
"Teacher Johannes possessed me."
Public gathering
At the gathering
an argument takes place.
Speaker: "Let's not get confused
by irresponsible fanatics."
The blind woman intuitively feels
that there is a connection
between the bible and her brother.
"Who are you?"
"I am closer to you than you think..."
"I will prove his innocence
at the trial."
The day of the trial
"You will be excused from appearing,
due to illness.
The disgrace of seeing you in court
would be unbearable for me."
"Be quiet Conscience, quiet."
"He has been condemned
to six years' hard labour."
"I have the feeling that
a righteous man has been condemned."
"There was an atmosphere of
breathless suspense in the court room."
"He stood there in silence and did
not utter a single word in his defence."
"He remained silent in the face
of all the terrible accusations."
"Then his blind sister entered."
"My brother is a good man.
He reads the Bible every day."
Every one that looketh on a woman
to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart.
"She believed she was saving him but
she unintentionally sealed his fate."
My love for her is impure and sinful.
"This line can only refer
to Marja Roloff."
"You admit to having harboured
forbidden feelings of love
for Marja Roloff for a long time?"
"Your silence will incriminate you."
"...and then I took the oath..."
"I swore that I had seen it."
"After sentence had been passed, the
teacher broke his inexplicable silence."
"Although the accusation is not true
I will do penance."
End of Act 3
"He has been condemned
to six years' hard labour."
"Don't you see
how terribly he is staring at me?"
"I can't stand it."
"Why did he remain silent?"
"Why did they pass sentence on him?"
"Because he is a criminal."
"That man is not capable
of committing a crime."
"I saw it."
"My poor brother, you did not see it."
"I saw it.
After all, I swore that I did."
"My poor brother,
you could not have seen it."
"Woman, what is the truth?"
"Teacher Johannes possessed my soul,
but not my body."
"I saw it and swore under oath
that I had seen it. And now she says...
What can it mean?
Am I a fool, or a criminal?"
"What is wrong with me?"
"We must keep it secret, Marja has
to remain silent. I took an oath...."
"But you cannot sacrifice
an innocent man."
"I have committed perjury.
I am the most vile of all creatures."
Alone
"I am going to the Avocat général.
Your sense of honour will tell you
what remains for you to do."
"Everything will come out
during a further investigation."
Marja leaves her father's house
for good.
She fights passionately to have
Teacher Johannes's ideas put into action.
"What is it
that is so suddenly oppressing me?"
"Where am I?"
"Is this my castle?"
"Help."
"Help me, I am afraid I shall go mad."
To ascertain his real condition, Roloff
consults a famous nerve specialist.
"A friend of mine
has been experiencing strange things,
things which in reality do not exist."
"Most horrible of all,
his own ego is haunting him."
"...and has at the same time
a perfectly healthy appearance..."
"These people here all appear healthy.
They are, however, seriously ill."
"And the cause?"
"The progression of civilisation;
the struggle for existence;
anxiety and the terrors of war;
the sins of the parents..."
"What do you want of me? Am I in your
way? Do you perhaps want to kill me?"
"Why are you crying?"
"Because you are so ill, Sir."
"Nonsense. You are crying for your idol,
Johannes, whom I have had arrested."
My dear son, unfortunately your
parent's marriage was not a happy one.
Your father suffered from pathological
fits of rage and from alcoholism.
"Hereditary taint is the doctor's
nice way of expressing it."
Through the intervention of the District
Attorney, Johannes is released from prison.
Paranoia
"Roloff, you have killed me."
"My God,
is this not Elizabeth, my wife?"
"Roloff, you have brought about
the destruction of a noble spirit."
"No one ever died the way he did."
"No one ever went to heaven
the way he did."
"I am no murderer: he killed himself."
"He is dead?"
"Were you not just lamenting
at his bier?"
"Here. He was lying here."
"Don't cry, I can't stand it."
"Am I then really so ill?"
End of Act 4
"Nobody knows why I remained silent."
"I suffered in silence
because I was expiating my sins."
"Johannes, forgive me."
"I incurred a heavier burden of guilt
than you."
Richard looks for Marja,
his fiancée, and finds her.
Richard: "Marja, like you
I gave up everything.
I want to follow you
and your great ideas."
Together with Marja he takes part
in the riots in the streets.
"My own nerves
mirror the nerves of the world."
"And the world's nerves are ill."
My dear son, unfortunately your
parent's marriage was not a happy one.
Your father suffered from pathological
fits of rage and from alcoholism.
"He is hopelessly lost."
"He is hopelessly lost,
only death can release him."
"I know you have forgiven me, Johannes,
and I have overcome my love for you."
"Now I am Richard's wife."
"He is hopelessly lost."
"Why do I live?"
"Now I know why he kept silent."
Some days later
Roloff's condition becomes alarming.
"How unfortunate you are,
Elizabeth, because of me."
"Why are you laughing, whore?"
"Drive as fast as you can, perhaps
I can escape these horrible images."
"I strangled her,
and now I am being led to my death"
"Elizabeth, are you still alive?"
"Save me. Save me."
"These dreadful images, which the nerve
doctors call illusions, are back again."
"Do you understand my fear of
the dreadful thoughts I cannot escape?"
"I know you have some wonderful poison,
the bequest of your dead friend.
He prepared it for the unfortunates
who were hopelessly lost
to release them from their suffering
and beautify their death."
"Do not let me degenerate.
Donor the man in me,
do not let me turn into a brute-beast."
"How well I feel.
Euthanasia: an easy death,
the Greeks called it. Thank you, Johannes."
"A stroke of apoplexy
has terminated his life."
Elizabeth retires from public life.
Johannes tries to calm down
the people on the streets.
"Human ideals cannot be achieved
by violence."
"Leave the street now."
"Go to your work. Work is power."
"Just as a man who doesn't work
will be damaged in body and soul,
a people which doesn't work
will perish."
End of Act 5
"The lady of the castle is ill."
Later
After Elizabeth's recovery
their friendship deepens.
The love I feel for you will never be
accepted. I am but an ordinary man.
Marja: "Now we are ready to fight to the death."
Johannes: "You are distorting my ideas
with your violence and battles."
Richard: "Anyone who resists
the People's will is our enemy."
"I want to stay with you. Will you take me in?"
It was a time of pure bliss.
But it was marred one day in a strange
and completely unexpected way.
Roloff's diaries
Now I understand everything.
He kept silent because he loved Elizabeth.
I am an unfortunate soul who should step
aside and let them be happy together.
"He knew it.
That's why he chose to die."
"...I killed him..."
"She must never find out."
"He doesn't love me anymore,
he loves only you. I don't belong here."
"I will explain everything to you.
He is haunted by a terrible secret."
"He only did it to put an end to
his dreadful suffering. Believe me..."
Now I understand everything.
He kept silent because he loved Elizabeth.
I am an unfortunate soul who should step
aside and let them be happy together.
"It was murder.
He might have made a full recovery."
Separation
"Your talkativeness is to blame."
"We will leave the country for good."
Elizabeth regrets having left Johannes.
"He wants to leave us.
Please hold him back."
"I will kneel here and pray
until you, Lord, unite the two."
Elizabeth asks Marja for advice.
Marja: "You can get Johannes back
only by performing a great deed."
As Elizabeth is now a nervous wreck,
she resorts to desperate measures.
"My poor sister
will perish in the flames."
Elizabeth doesn't dare to confess to her
deed. She disappears without a trace.
Richard dies in a street battle.
Richard: "In the face of death I confess
that for the love of you, Marja,
I fought for an idea I never believed in."
Marja: "Is everything in this world a lie?
Even our ideals?
What have I left to live for?"
It was me who set the castle on fire.
I am guilty of your sister's death.
Now I am doing penance in a convent. Elizabeth
Marja commits suicide.
Teacher Johannes is called to the dying woman.
"Forgive me once again for everything,
Joh..
I am paying for what I did to you with my life.
I have never ceased loving you, farewell."
"I still believe in the ideas
I fought for and am dying for."
End of Act 6
Epilogue
The reunion
Love
The recovery of mankind...
...man and his mate,
thirsting for beauty and truth,
conjoin in pure love...
Progenitors
of a new and happy humankind.
Back to Nature. Work.
New nerves, new human beings.