"We have driven down this road often." "Parting from Berlin, it heads straight towards the German-Polish border." "We pass local machinery near our destination," "Golzow, in the Oderbruch." "Since autumn 1 961 we've been filming the story of a school class." "We began filming children born in 1 955, endeavouring to document their lives over a quarter century." "Spring came late in 1 969 and the sowing season was delayed." "When we returned, one April day, winter wasn't about to capitulate." "WHEN YOU ARE 1 4" "A FILM FROM THE DEFA FILM STUDIOS FOR SHORT FILMS" "We meet our pupils and their teacher as they prepare for youth consecration." "Stage fright." "That's the right word here." "And willy, no nerves?" "None at all." "Are you nervous, ilona?" "Yes." "Just since today?" "We've never done anything like this." "I'm jittery about the final ceremony." "You'II be entering adulthood, right?" "well, sure, the teachers have addressed us with "du" for eight years, now they'II say "Sie"." "That's a bit weird." "It is weird, isn't it?" "I won't find it easy either." "For exampIe with you, willy, saying "Sie, willy" to you when I ask you to go to the board." "Goodness, just look at this." "I can't look." "Just look at it." "Whatever you do don't..." "Yes, you can show that." "It's funny seeing everyone get ready." "We all want to look as nice as possible." "The limelight isn't for me." "Their comments when we showed them this footage." "At 1 4 you don't want everything you do to be filmed." "But we are friends, and this is their big day." "Tomorrow they will look back on it fondly." "In your parents' dreams you are their greatest hope for a lifetime." "Find the strength for great dreams and deeds in yourselves." "With us learn to take the paths that promise happiness, bread and freedom for all peoples on this earth." "Show those who err in the dark where a new day dawns." "Be strong and dutiful." "tolerate not the evils you encounter, fall not to be able advocates of that which is good, but always serve the working class and its party." "Fight until peace reigns and the light of socialism shines on our earth." "Much preceded this day." "A visit to the Schwedt oil refinery." "A visit to Weimar." "A visit to the Sachsenhauen concentration camp memorial." "WORK SETS YOU FREE" "Are you ready, as young citizens of our German Democratic republic, to honour our constitution, and along with us, to work and fight for the great and noble cause of socialism and to honour the revolutionary legacy of the people?" "If so respond with "Yes, this we swear"." "Yes, this we swear." "Are you ready, as worthy members of the socialist community, to strive for higher learning and culture, to master your trades, to constantly learn and to employ your knowledge and ability to help realize our great humanistic ideals?" "If so respond with "Yes, this we swear"." "Yes, this we swear." "That ceremony took place on 20 April 1 969 in a place near the Oder River, one generation after the demise of the old Germany, at the start of the third decade of the German Democratic Republic." "Many encounters with our socialist reality helped Bernd prepare for this day." "Now he is an adult, and, in reality, life's difficulties are only just beginning for him." "On his journey to succeed in life his parents, teachers, all of us will be good and reliable friends." "This is how the day ended, a day which many of them will only fully understand retrospectively." "Oh no, when we were dancing." "Goodness me, no!" "I told them to stuff their shoes to look taller." "The camera makes you insecure." "It was nice, not something you forget very quickly." "Eight years have passed." "In the ninth year, teachers will address them with "Sie"." "They've now come of age, and feel like grown-ups." "Yet they remain pupils after consecration for another two years, or longer." "Unlike earlier, when pupils in rural areas left after eight years." "The demands on them grow with each school day." "And when the teachers enter the classroom now it will be a new beginning for them as well." "Good morning." "Morning." "Take your seats." "hello." "hello." "Sit down." "Good morning." "Morning." "Take your seats." "Today we'II review the degasification and the gasification of coal." ""I study Russian in Year 8."" ""I study Russian in Year 8."" "Do humans conceive by internal or external fertilization?" "Now we want to express "rho" with a different quantity, to do so..." "calculate the energy used by an engine in a..." "When we began filming them in 1 961 they were learning the letter A." "Today they each have their own rich personality." "To the side of the room hasten Sweep, as of old" "Spirits l have ne'er untied Save to act as they are told" "Thank you, MarieIuise." "well recited." "But what...?" "The feed materials are cleansed and dehydrated in the preheating chamber." "Not all collective farms see the advantages of cooperation." "Why haven't they?" "They think they can do it better alone." "Bernd will be as tall as his father soon." "And it's hard to say who is more proud of whom." "His father supervises cultivation at the collective." "Does Bernd already grasp what it means to be responsible for 1 500 hectares?" "And how gratifying it is to grow grain for the people?" "His father has a few minutes alone with his son." "...use some force." "It's a bit hard to move, I'II help." "And now?" "release the clutch." "slowly release the clutch and step on the gas." "Go ahead." "Come on." "What did you forget?" "To give gas." "You forgot to give gas." "From the top." "Take it out of gear." "Try again." "Now the engine's running." "Give it some gas." "Yes, and then?" "release it." "release it." "well, my boy, you'II have to keep practising." "Now the clutch." "AII right now, step on the gas." "Yes, keep driving." "He didn't really want to let him drive off." "But who can say no to their son?" "But Bernd can already get his moped license." "It's not hard at all." "Along with Bernd we are following Ilona closely." "What do we have now?" "German." "Oh no, I have to do my exercises!" "We happen to film her realizing she forgot to do her homework." "An exception or the rule?" "All we know is that she demands order from her little sister." "You can't keep things in order either, huh?" "well, you girls, what are you doing?" "You make sure it's all in order?" "Yeah, but her papers are mess." "Now, ilona, give her some time." "You were the same way at the start." "We talk with her." "Afterwards we get the feeling her wish to help and emulate her mother has led her to forget her own duties." "And of the five children you are the?" "oldest." "The eldest of five children." "She has to be able to play the mum now and then." "What should I do?" "Take the tray in." "Be quick about it." "We ask her if they listen to her." "Brothers too?" "Yes." "olaf take one too." "You having two?" "Here, Birgit." "Look, it's "Sandman"." "You're making a mess." "Does she want so many kids?" "No." "How many?" "Three at most." "At most." "All the same, three." "And she wants to work as well." "She doesn't know as what, but she knows..." "Once I start my profession" "I can say that I've accomplished something." "And, of course, you do keep learning, you don't say to yourself," ""That's it, there's nothing left to Iearn now."" "What's most important when it comes to work?" "is it earning good money?" "No, not earning good money, no." "You can't say, "Just keep the money."" "You do need it after all." "But what good is it to earn lots of money if you aren't happy with your life." "Winfried loves anything that challenges his mind, and technology is his passion." "And he will always strive to solve things on his own, even if his neighbours take the easy way." "They're a bunch of copycats." "...in the audio mechanism." "First we have to remove the tube fixture." "If you don't, you'II tear it off." "And then we open it up." "Wow!" "And there it is." "Hurry up, I want to watch "Professor FIimmrich"." "Too much?" "Pardon?" "Too much voltage?" "No, there's not, but we need..." "Till now he only knew the TV from the front." "But at 1 4 he can grasp how this miracle works." "But his curiosity still trumps his knowledge." "alternate current is gradually transformed into a pulsating direct current." "Now all we'd see is a slightly wavy line." "But with an alternate current..." "Winfried wants to be an electrical engineer." "We ask him what that requires?" "school qualifications and university." "Do you think you can manage that?" "Sure, others have, why shouldn't I?" "Let's look back at the visit to the Schwedt oil refinery." "It was also career counselling." "For at their age they're asking themselves what work they can do." "At 1 4 you don't realize the practical use of some knowledge." "They now see the use of chemistry and physics." "And they understand why they need to go to school for ten years or more." "Winfried?" "You need knowledge to master a craft." "That's exactly right." "Bernhard?" "Man can tame nature with knowledge." "Yes." "Are we superior to nature?" "Can we control it?" "The school board chairman." "We invited him to observe us filming." "Why do we work so hard in school?" "Bernd?" "To make it in life." "You don't learn just for yourself or the teacher." "Yes." "well, listen." "Bernd and WiIfried put it very nicely." "But I get the feeling some of you don't take learning so seriously." "well, when the teachers see that you want to Iearn, then they... help you , too." "But when we just sit and stare..." "Those words bothered Annegret." "Wasn't the chairmen right?" "The class's image could really be better." "She discusses this at a Free German Youth meeting." "And recently when we were studying Hans BeimIer most just brought a book and read verbatim." "That wasn't the point of the whole thing at all." "And I don't think most of us have read the constitution at home." "They just take it home and put it in some drawer." "And so our attention was drawn to a girl who knows what she wants." "If I didn't pay attention and work hard in school" "I wouldn't manage my work at home." "My mum was only in school seven years, and then the war started." "And Dad only finished to Year 8." "They just can't help with the schoolwork we have now." "At this age boys stick with boys and girls with girls." "They're just becoming aware of themselves and others, asking how they look and who they are." "Their task in this lesson." "draw a self-portrait." "It's hard even if it's small." "You've got a big one." "The head makes it look distorted, the hair I mean." "This is risky." "well, I'm finished." "There's a resemblance." "But is it he really him?" "What do they think is funny?" "A teacher has the courage to let them say what they normally whisper." "You tell your friends your deepest secrets." "And at your age one has loads of secrets." "Brigitte's happy, isn't that right?" "And one is convinced one can trust their friend with any secret." "Gudrun showed courage..." "well, a man goes to market with his son and wants to buy a cow." "And he pinches the cow..." "No." "And then the man, I mean his son sees a man pinching a cow in the leg." "The boy asks the man what he's doing and his dad tells him," ""He wants to see if it's meaty, if it's worth buying."" "And then again on the way home his son sees a man pinching..." "tell the rest of it, Winfried." "He sees a man pinching a girl." "It's not a joke." "Nope." "We then asked him..." "Do you want to marry one day?" "Of course." "You never know." "You might feel it wouId hinder your career." "well, he doesn't have to be an engineer." "But he should continue to study, and maybe he should know more than me so that I can learn from him." "Are you mainly interested in her for her looks?" "Looks play a role, but it's more about character." "I think it's less about looks, and more about character." "But looks probably play a small role too." "I still think you are in love with her looks a bit?" "Yes maybe, at the moment." "You think that will change?" "certainly." "I liked Weimar the most." "The museums, like the Goethe Museum and Goethe House, and the big park too." "All that was great." "It's just amazing all the things he did." "He did so many different things, not just write verse." "The visit really made him come to life." "We knew things like when he was born, but all the things he had, and all the things he wrote." "The huge library he had is quite pretty." "And the books are still there." "l used to think he was just a poet." "That he just wrote poems and that was all." "If you heard it in school you might forget it." "But I don't think anyone will forget this." "They will gain a deeper understanding of Goethe's works in years to come, but the visit to Weimar impressed them so much, that their teacher read an excerpt from Faust to incite them to think about what knowledge means." "A man who knows everything, yet who is in such despair." "There's something he lacks." "And it took a very, very long time until he came to the realization that learning is important and that knowledge is desirable, but that it isn't an end unto itself." "Siegbert?" "You must be able to apply knowledge." "So it is beneficial to others." "And that's what Goethe was saying." "That we should apply our knowledge so it can benefit others." "At the end of a Iong and exciting life Faust knew the most beautiful thing was when he began being useful to others, then life was good." "And he could be satisfied." "And to the moment I would say, linger awhile, you are so lovely." "Still other impressions from Weimar remained with them." "A stark contrast to the impressions they took away from the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp." "They tried to figure out how one could be related to the other." "Mostly they were horrified." "Only when they are older will they comprehend what makes humanity great or degenerate." "And they'll recognize the circumstances that shape our kind." "The execution facilities left the biggest impression on me." "The execution trench and all of that." "They must have been people who didn't think twice about executing someone, taking their life." "What made you decide to become a military officer?" "We still don't have peace and socialism all over the world." "I thought I had to do my part." "We arranged for him and his friends to visit a GDR Air Force base." "We hope this will help solidify him in his desire to become officer." "Right, you climb in." "When you switch it on it cycles." "And here in the middle, you pull this lever towards you." "It's a 12.7 mm gun." "This aeroplane is very safe." "Very safe." "Bernhard, can you imagine a day when your profession will no longer be needed?" "When there's peace on earth we won't need it." "What would you want to do then?" "Maybe a forest ranger." "Maybe we shouldn't have asked." "But that was the only way to show how aware he was of the need for him to be a soldier." "They meet Comrade Arthur Klitzke, the collective farm chairman." "girls and boys, we've convened here today to hear about our community, about our community's development." "An agronomist from Iraq, a GDR ally, flanks him." "He is performing experiments in Golzow." "Let's talk about cultivating our land." "What do you think we'II be able to harvest in the future?" "In GoIzow we now yield an average of 38.5 quintaIs of grain." "We consider that an acceptable yield." "But will we be able to keep increasing that forever?" "There must be a limit." "Why do you think there is?" "Up to now no researcher has been able to prove that there's a limit, because we always have new hybrids, the earth is being better cultivated." "And we can always increase our yield." "We even talk of achieving a yield of 60 quintaIs." "Research has proven it can be done." "That means we can ever increase the yield capacity of the soil." "especially here in this swampy area." "And it won't end there, certainly not." "The land in the Oderbruch is fertile." "On 400 ha of its arable land the collective could double its yield." "That's why they're improving farmland, rearranging settlement planning and building roads." "When Gudrun was born, her father owned an 1 8 ha private farm." "He now manages a hundred times that and plans large-scale projects which will shape the future of socialist agriculture." "The Oderbruch won't look like it does in this footage for much longer." "So what do you think?" "If we extrapolate from now into the year 2000, that's in about 30 years, what do you imagine things will look like here in the year 2000?" "I told you much will be done with computers by then, farming too." "So we really need intelligent people who can solve these problems..." "Asked to name someone who forges ahead they say Comrade Klitzke." "His expertise and verve have made this area, 85% of which was bombed during the war, large, prosperous, and a nice place to live." "They will have a hand in realizing what is planned for the 1 97 0s." "How much less enjoyable would school be if they weren't allowed to show in production that they can contribute." "And whenever they are introduced to a new task they ask," ""How do I start?"" "The summer of 1 969 was hot and dry and the grain was early to harvest." "Impressions of harvest begin as do the last days of learning of this school year." "They are linked in our memories." "You actively step forward to join us, and we're reminded what we pledged to you on your consecration." "To welcome you into our community of working people, led by the working class and its revolutionary party, which is united in its dedication to build socialism in the GDR." "They are celebrating the end of the school year." "Some day they will look back on school fondly." "Friendships that will last a lifetime start here." "Here they are in a small community, a microcosm of the larger one they will later find." "I'm really enjoying this time of my Iife." "At 1 4 you have your whole life ahead of you." "I heard if you flew at the speed of light you wouldn't age." "That you'd stay the same age forever." "Dieter, now you're leaving school..." "Dieter will make his school proud." "And he knows you can never stop learning in life." "Jürgen has decided to finish school while doing his apprenticeship too." "Those who are going to attend college in SeeIow..." "They are the pride of the school." "One day they'll have leading positions in Golzow or elsewhere in our country." "They'll be agronomists, engineers, doctors and officers." "We wish you all the luck in the world." "Take care." "We will return." "Enjoy your holiday, all of you!" "Copyright © 2010 TITELBILD, berlin subtitles:" "Nathan Fritz et aI."