If I leave my family, Hans says to Katharina, you have to promise you’ll always be with me.
If you want to be with me, then be with me. But it’s not a trade.
I don’t know what’ll happen.
You have to want it.
I can’t go into a void.
What void?
[...] Katharina and her friends drink it in the KDW department store and are mean enough to walk out without paying. Half their money and their parents’ money has been vaporized in the course of the historical reform, so are they expected on top of that to shell out as much for a piece of cake as t…
She returns to Berlin with her sketchbook full. Welcome home, says her mother, who collects her at the station and has supper ready for her in Reinhardtstrasse. Home? Coca-Cola, she’s noticed, is now on sale in the eastern half of Friedrichstrasse station, also in Pankow in the little store where s…
[...] Only when they’re drinking coffee does she notice that Hans is down. The radio station is being “restructured” as they’re calling it, but Hans doesn’t want to discuss it. He looks at her soberly, she looks soberly back. Are we finished as lovers, then? Why shouldn’t she look serious? When he …
Then she goes back into the kitchen to chop some herbs, Katharina leans on the doorjamb, can I help, no no, it’s fine. Rosa chops and talks and in between looks across at Katharina, then stops, Katharina sees the knife in Rosa’s hand, and Rosa looks at Katharina. Katharina takes a couple of steps t…
