A wild herd gathered in the abandoned East Berlin houses in the fall of 1989. They even included a goat, Dodo. She supplies milk, which when drizzled sparingly with vodka makes for the drink of the hour, or homemade cheese. Everything is homemade here. Carl Bischoff, the bricklayer from Gera, is a welcome latecomer. Because he can tackle. Welcome to the pack.
Lutz Seiler tells this story in his novel “Stern 111”. It begins oddly with Carl, in his mid-twenties, being summoned by his parents, who tell him they have signed their house and car and everything over to him. Because they’re going west, two days after the opening of the wall – they believe that the wall will be closed again soon. Carl should, as the parents put it, stay behind as the rear guard.
But the son also leaves, like his parents without a fixed place to stay and a clear plan, in the family’s Shiguli, a small Russian car. But not in the West, but in Berlin, where he quickly became part of the squatter scene in Prenzlauer Berg. They call him Shigulimann there. When money is tight, he illegally drives a taxi. For him, as for the rest of the pack, a phase of anarchy begins – of course, there are rules within the group, which of course are always disputed. But for a while, evading socialism that is blowing away and capitalism that is rushing in works quite well. And to relocate the navel of the world to the self-governing cellar bar “Assel”.
A Wende novel, an adventure novel, an artist novel; Carl is also a poet, with small initial successes. The questions naturally arise as to whether a radio play version of this literary bestseller is necessary – for artistic reasons and not just because of the attention-getting worthwhile free-riding. Why the radio can’t come up with their own stories.
The director Heike Tauch, together with the musician Janko Hanushevsky, finds a convincing answer. In her three radio play parts, she doesn’t simply retell the novel’s plot – with great actors, by the way: Sandra Hüller speaks the narrator, André Kaczmarczyk the main character Carl, and Boris Aljinovic, Felix Goeser and Tanja Schleiff can also be heard. Instead, it combines everyday noises with a gentle industrial sound to create an atmospherically harmonious composition. The spatial sound is also precisely arranged. In this way, Tauch finds his very own, specific expression in the radio play for the tonality of laconicism and urgency that is inscribed in this story. And focuses on their sensuality.
star 111, RBB Kultur, January 20, 2023, 7 p.m. More parts on January 27th and February 3rd. Complete from January 20th in the ARD Audiothek.