Klassenverhältnisse [Class Relations] (1984)

CLASS RELATlONS
Myumbrella!
Why are you pounding on the door like a madman?
I got lost. I didn't notice it so much during the crossing...
but this is a terribly big ship.
I'm not disturbing you? -How could you be disturbing?
You are a German? -I am, I am.
Sit down on the bed.
I've completely forgotten my suitcase!
Up on the deck.
Do you really need the suitcase?
Then why did you leave it? -I'd forgotten my umbrella...
and rushed off to get it, but I didn't want to drag the suitcase along.
Then I got lost, too.
You are alone?
Yes, alone.
And now you've even lost the suitcase. Not to mention the umbrella.
But I believe the suitcase is not lost yet.
Happy the believers...
I'm leaving, too, in a little while, so we'll go together.
Either the suitcase has been stolen,
then nothing can be done,
or they left it standing.
Then when the ship is completely empty, we'll find it all the better.
The same with your umbrella.
Do you know the ship well?
I'm a ship's stoker.
I've always been interested in machinery and I would surely have...
become an engineer later, if I hadn't had to go to America.
So why did you have to go?
There must have been a reason.
Now I could also become a stoker.
To my parents...
it's quite indifferent now.
My place will be free.
You're leaving the ship?
Yes,
we break camp today.
But why? Don't you like it?
That's how relations stand.
It isn't always decisive whether a man likes it or not.
Butyou're right,
I don't like it either.
You're probably not seriously thinking of becoming a stoker...
but that's just when it's easiest to become one.
So I advise you decidedly against it.
If in Europe you wanted to study, why don't you want to here?
The American universities are incomparably better.
That's possible, but I have almost no money for studying.
Besides, I wasn't particularly good in school.
And the schools here might be even stricter.
I hardly know any English.
Besides, people here have a prejudice against foreigners, I believe.
Have you learned that, too, already?
Well, then that's good. Then you're my man.
You see, we are on a German ship,
why aren't we all Germans here?
Why is the chief machinist a Rumanian?
His name is Schubal. It is not to be believed.
And this dirty dog torments us, us Germans, on a German ship!
I know that you have no influence and are yourself a poor boy.
But it's too much!
I've already served on so many ships...
and have distinguished myself, been praised,
was a worker to the taste of my captains.
And here on this tub,
where everything is by the line and no wits are needed at all,
here I am worth nothing,
here I am always in Schubal's way,
am a loafer, deserve to be thrown out,
and only receive my pay out of mercy.
Do you understand that? I don't.
Were you already to see the captain?
Have you sought justice from his part?
Oh, go on, just go away.
You don't listen to what I say...
and give me advice.
How should I go to the captain then?
Now everything is finished and we can go.
Now I am going to the office and I will tell my opinion to these gentlemen.
It's time for pay, do you want to come?
Bring the money to me here rather.
Where did you find this handsome lad?
I permit myself to say that in my opinion...
the stoker has been done an injustice.
There is a certain Schubal here who bullies him.
He himself has already served and given full satisfaction...
on numerous ships, all ofwhich he can name to you,
and one cannot see why, just on this ship,
where the service is not excessively difficult,
he should be badly suited.
It can be nothing but slander that hinders this advancement and...
deprives him of the esteem which he surely would not lack.
All that is word for word correct.
The man is a notorious quarreler.
He is in the cashier's more than in the engine room.
How many times...
have you been thrown out of the pay rooms as you deserve with your...
wholly, completely and without exception unjustified demands!
How many times have you been told for your own good that Schubal...
is your immediate superior and that it is with him alone you as a subordinate...
must come to terms.
And now you come here while the captain is present;
you aren't even ashamed...
to bring as a mouthpiece, to recite by heart your insipid accusations,
this little one, whom I now see for the first time on this ship!
Let us listen to the man once.
Schubal is getting much too independent for me anyway as time goes on.
Mr. Schubal is unjust!
Mr. Schubal favors foreigners!
Mr. Schubal...
expelled me from the engine room and made me clean waterclosets,
which was certainly not my business!
You must recount that more clearly. The captain cannot appreciate that...
as you are recounting it to him.
To me you have always depicted it so clearly.
What is your name actually?
I come because I believe that the stoker...
is accusing me of certain improbities.
A girl from the kitchen...
told me she had seen him...
on the way here.
Captain, sir,
and all you gentlemen,
I am ready to refute each accusation...
with the aid of my writings,
if necessary with depositions by witnesses...
who are not prejudiced or influenced.
Then I am your uncle Jakob...
and you are my dear nephew.
What is your name? -Comprehend,
young man, your luck.
It is Senator Edward Jakob...
who has made himself known to you as your uncle.
I really do have an uncle Jakob in America,
but if I have well understood, Jakob is only the last name of the Senator.
Well, my uncle Jakob, who is the brother of my mother,
has the first name of Jakob, while his last name naturally would...
have to be the same as that of my mother, who was born a Bendelmayer.
I have lived for all the long years of my sojourn in America -
the world sojourn is assuredly ill fitting here to the American citizen which I am with all my soul -
for all the long years...
I have lived completely separated from my European relatives...
for reasons which, first, do not belong here and which, second,
it would truly affect me too much to recount.
My dear nephew has been simply put aside by his parents...
as one throws a cat out the door when it annoys.
I do not wish to gild over what my nephew did to be punished,
but his fault is such that simply naming it...
already contains excuses enough.
He was in fact seduced by a servant,
Johanna Brummer, a person of about 35 years.
Now this Brummer has had a child by my nephew,
which has received at baptism the name Jakob,
doubtless with a thought of humble person, which,
even in surely quite peripheral mentions by my nephew...
must have made a great impression on the girl.
Happily, say l. For, as the parents,
in order to avoid the alimentary payments or all other scandal,
transported their son, my dear nephew, to America...
with irresponsibly insufficient equipment,
so that, without the signs and miracles still alive in America,
the boy would already be in perdition in an alley of the port of New York,
if this servant had not communicated to me the whole story in a letter,
which arrived in my possession the day before yesterday,
and included a description of my nephew's person and,
judiciously, the name of the ship.
And now I want to hear from you if I am your uncle or not.
You are my uncle. But...
It is a special honor for my ship...
to have supplied the place for such a meeting.
But the crossing in steerage was no doubt very hard.
We do everything possible...
to ease the crossing for the people in steerage,
much more, for example, than the American lines,
but...
we surely have not yet succeeded in transforming such a crossing into a pleasure.
It did me no harm.
It did him no harm.
What will happen to the stoker now?
What he deserves...
and what the captain deems good.
I believe we have had enough and more than enough of the stoker.
But that isn't important...
in a matter of justice.
Perhaps it is a matter of justice, but...
at the same time it is a matter of discipline.
Both,
and particularly the latter, depend here on the judgement of the captain.
It is so.
Furthermore, we have already disturbed the captain...
so much in the business of his charge...
that it is high time for us to leave the ship...
to avoid in addition making an incident of...
this futile dispute between two machinists.
For the rest, I understand perfectly your way of acting,
but precisely that gives me the right to conduct you hence most quickly.
Why do you say nothing? Why do you stand for all this?
You have been done an injustice as no one else on this ship.
But you must defend yourself,
say yes and no; otherwise people have no idea ofthe truth.
You must promise me that you will obey me, because I have reason to believe...
I will no longer myself be able to help you at all.
You felt abandoned, there you met the stoker,
and now you are grateful to him; that is very laudable.
But don't push that too far, if only out of love for me,
and learn to comprehend your place.
You have really come far.
And I set it all up myself thirty years ago.
At that time I had a small business and if...
five crates were unloaded in one day...
that was a lot and I would go home inflated.
Today...
I have the third-largest warehouses...
and the shop from that time...
is the dining room of the 65th group of my porters.
That borders on the miraculous.
All developments here go on that fast.
Mr. Pollunder has come to take you to his country house.
I didn't know it was to be today already,
otherwise I would already be prepared.
Ifyou are not prepared perhaps we'd better...
put off the visit for the time being.
What preparations! A young man is always prepared.
He would still have to go to his room and you would be detained.
I foresaw a delay also and closed my office early.
You see what inconveniences your visit is causing even now.
You will miss your riding lesson tomorrow; have you cancelled it already?
No, I didn't know... -And in spite ofthat you want to go?
On the way we will stop at the riding school and put the matter in order.
But Mack will still wait foryou.
He won't wait for me but he will surely come.
But Klara...
is waiting for him, too,
and this very evening, and surely she has precedence over Mack?
Assuredly.
So run to your room.
You will be back in the morning for your English lesson?
Can't he stay...
out there at least for the day tomorrow?
I'll bring him back in the morning the day after tomorrow?
That can't be in any case.
I cannot let his studies fall into disorder.
Later, when he has a regulated professional life,
I will very gladly allow him to defer to an invitation so kind and so honorable.
One must take what one gets.
It is strange how unreadily he gave me permission to visit you,
even though you are his friend.
He didn't mean all that so seriously. Your education is close to his heart.
Did he tell you himselfthat he did not mean...
the earlier things so seriously?
Here is Mr. Jakob at last. -My name is Rossmann.
He is only Jakob's nephew. -That changes nothing in our joy to have him here.
You are Miss Klara?
We also have one more guest this evening. Mr. Green.
It does no good at all to live just outside New York;
one is not spared the disturbances.
We absolutely must move our residence still further away.
Even if I would have to drive halfthe night before I get home.
Perhaps he will leave soon.
He has some grand business for Papa, and the discussion will last a long time,
for he already threatened me jokingly...
that if I want to be a polite mistress of the house,
I will have to listen until morning.
So now that, too. He will stay all night!
After supper, if it is all right with you, we will go...
immediately to my rooms and...
you will do me the kindness of playing for me on the piano,
for Papa has already told me...
how well you do that, but I am sadly incapable...
of making music and do not touch my piano,
although in fact I love music very much.
She is so old that even the way from the door...
to my table is difficult for her...
Only recently have I succeeded in getting the servant...
to carry the platters as far as the door of the dining room,
but the way from the door to my table...
belongs to her, as far as I understand her.
My God, that is loyalty!
Yes, there is still...
Ioyalty in this world.
Don'tyou like it at all with us?
Come, I want to make the last attempt.
So far the new electric wiring has only been introduced downstairs.
We bought this house only recently.
There are already old houses in America, too.
You will sleep here.
Well, do you want to come with me or not?
Now I might have fallen out! -A pity that it didn't happen!
It tempts me enormously to slap you as you are lying there now.
And I naturally won't content myselfwith a slap,
but will hit to the right and left until your cheeks swell up.
And perhaps you are a man of honour...
and you wouldn't want to continue to live with these slaps.
But why were you so against me?
Don'tyou like me perhaps?
Perhaps you'll get the desire to come see me later.
The door to my rooms is the fourth counting from this door,
on this side of the corridor.
I won't exactly wait for you, but ifyou want to come, than come.
Remember thatyou promised to play the piano for me.
Yes, a lantern is much more practical. Why is there such a draft here?
There is still much to build here;
especially near the chapel...
the draft is unbearable.
If I did not have my ears full of cotton,
I could not endure.
Then I must speak louder? -No, you have a clear voice.
The chapel...
is worth seeing;
if it hadn't been for that, Mr. Mack...
would not have bought the house.
I thought the house belonged to Mr. Pollunder? -Assuredly,
but Mr. Mack made the decision for the purchase.
You do not know Mr. Mack?
But what connection does he have to Mr. Pollunder?
He is the fiancé of the young lady.
Does that putyou in such astonishment?
When one doesn't know of such relationships one can make the biggest mistakes.
Apparently it was thought that you knew,
for it is no novelty.
Ifyou will, I shall wait for you here...
and will then take you to your room.
I will not return to my room.
But I think that I will still need your help.
So I will wait here.
The candle you can also leave with me. -I am quite distracted.
I have a request which you must not misunderstand.
It is naturally already fulfilled.
I request that you let me - now in the night - return home.
You know that my uncle did not readily give me permission for this visit.
And as long as my English studies are not finished...
and I have not looked around enough in practical dealings I am completely...
dependent on the goodness of my uncle.
You cannot believe that I could already earn my bread honestly somewhere...
- and God preserve me from all else.
That is why, to repair only halfway the error I have committed,
I must go home immediately.
Don't you want to say something to him?
It is very laudable...
that he wishes to return to his uncle, and one could believe...
that he would thereby give his uncle a special joy.
Unless his disobedience had...
already made his uncle too angry...
I hear from your words that you too...
think in best that I return right away.
I did not say that at all.
Dear Mr. Rossmann, you will not believe...
that I would hold you here against your will.
I cannot put the automobile atyour disposal...
because it is far from here in public garage,
since I have not yet had the time...
to set up a personal garage here.
The chauffeur does not sleep here at the house either, but near the garage;
I don't know myselfwhere.
But all that would be no obstacle to your momentary return,
for ifyou insist,
I will accompany you immediately to the nearest subway station.
I had not even thought of the subway.
But you must not accompany me in any case.
Outside is a servant who will readily accompany me.
Now I must only look for my hat.
Could I help you out with a cap?
But I won't take your cap from you!
I can go bareheaded very well.
It is not my cap. Just take it.
Then I thankyou.
It fits so well!
Now it is 1 1 :15.
Before you go you must take leave of Miss Klara.
I have something interesting to tell you...
which could be decisive also for your return.
Unfortunately I am bound by higher orders to betray nothing to you before midnight.
I can finish discussing my business with Mr. Pollunder...
and you can...
spend a nice while with Miss Klara.
At twelve sharp you will present yourself here,
where you will learn what is necessary.
Conduct this young man to Miss Klara.
No, you must go to Miss Klara.
I would stay here only a moment.
Don't hinder me...
in carrying out my charge.
Come along, young man.
Not everything goes as one wishes.
You will wait for me right outside this door.
Permit me to take my leave, for at twelve sharp I must be downstairs.
What urgent affairs you have!
Couldn't you still...
play the piano a little?
But isn't it too late by now?
I definitely hope to come again,
or you should visit my uncle some time and at that opportunity look in at my room.
I have a magnificent piano.
My uncle gave it to me and he will soon engage a famous teacher for me...
and since I can't play at all yet.
Perhaps...
you shroud play now anyway.
Wait.
Pardon me,
I have just been recalled...
and can no longer wait.
Do you want to have music?
Thankyou, but I can't even read music properly.
There is still someone listening!
Until now I knew only your riding talents.
I am as bad at one as the other. If I had known you were listening...
I would not have played.
You play quite like a beginner, but it pleased me very much,
aside from the fact that I scorn the playing of no one.
But won'tyou sit down...
and stay with us?
I thank you. I cannot stay,
as much as I would like to stay.
I promised you something interesting for midnight...
and am already here with it.
From my uncle! I expected it.
Just read.
Are you finished?
Have you brought me the suitcase and umbrella?
What kind of strange suitcase is that?
It is my father's old army suitcase. Besides, it is quite practical.
I am also giving you...
a third class ticket to San Francisco.
I decided on this trip foryou...
because the earning opportunities are much better for you in the west,
and because your uncle has his hands in all the things...
that could come into consideration for you here.
In Frisco you can work undisturbed.
Start...
at the very bottom and try...
to work your way up gradually.
You must explain to me one thing: on the envelope...
it only says that I am to receive it at midnight, wherever I am found.
Why did you hold me back then, on the grounds ofthis letter,
when I wanted to leave at eleven-fifteen?
There you went beyond your charge.
If I had not held you back, I would have had...
to deliver the letter to you at midnight on the highway.
That is not quite so.
On the envelope it says,
"To be delivered at midnight."
Ifyou were too tired, you may not have been able to follow me,
or I might have already arrived at my uncle's by midnight,
or in the end it might have been your duty to bring me back to my uncle in your automobile,
since I desired it so.
Doesn't the inscription say quite distinctly that midnight...
was to be my last reprieve?
And you are the one who bears the guilt for my missing it.
Would you be so kind as to show me the way out...
and then lead me onto the way by which I will come to the nearest inn?
But quickly. You are giving me no small bother.
My name is Karl Rossmann and I am a German.
Please tell me, since we have a common room,
your name and nationality also.
I declare as well that I have no claim to a bed...
and that I have absolutely no intention of sleeping.
Furthermore, you must not be put off by my handsome suit.
I am fully poor and without prospects.
That one is called Robinson and is lrish.
My name is Delamarche.
I am French and now demand quiet.
Why did you become a machinist ifyou now want to go...
pan for gold? -Why I became a machinist?
Certainly not so that my mother's son should starve at it.
There are fine earnings in the placer mines.
Were once. -Still are.
We will be sure to find jobs in Butterford.
You are a German, aren't you, little one?
I have not been in America long.
What do you want?
Bacon, bread and beer.
No, thank you, but for three persons. -But that is a meal for convicts!
Do you still have a long march? -As far as Butterford.
That is still very far? -One more day's journey.
Why do you want to spend the night outdoors?
Sleep here in the Hotel.
I have my baggage outside.
You have only to bring it here.
But my comrades!
They naturally can spend the night here, too.
For the rest, my comrades are good people, but they are not clean.
To us really the worst can come.
I will have three beds prepared.
I cannot bring my comrades along.
Then leave your comrades outside and come in alone.
I can't do that, I can't do that; they are my comrades and I must remain with them.
You are headstrong.
One means well by you...
and you defend yourselfwith all your might.
My best thanks for your kindness. What sum do I owe you?
Pay it when you return the basket to me.
Good night. But you are not acting rightly.
Get up! You sleep and in the meantime thieves have been there.
Is something missing? -I don't know, but the suitcase is open.
We were hungry,
thought that in your suitcase...
you could have something to eat, and tickled the lock...
until it opened.
He seems to be moody.
I am not moody,
but I will spend the night at the hotel and am not going to Butterford.
Eat quickly, I have to give back the basket.
You see, Robinson,
we gave him our trust,
we dragged him with us a whole day,
and now - because someone down at the hotel lured him on -
he simply takes his leave.
But because he is a deceitful German...
he doesn't do this openly but...
Iooks for the pretext of the suitcase.
You have nothing, and that lowers you in my eyes not in the least,
but you begrudge me my little property and therefore try to humiliate me.
And now, after breaking open my suitcase,
you haven't a word to excuse yourselves,
but yet you insult me and insult my people.
We envy him his property, he thinks.
One day ofwork in Butterford...
- to say nothing of California -
and we will have ten times more than you...
could have still hidden in your coat lining. So, watch your mouth!
You seem as if you'd like to give me a beating.
All patience has an end.
You had better be quiet, Robinson.
Inwardly you give me the right,
but on the outside you must hold with Delamarche!
Do you want to bribe him perhaps?
Wouldn't think of it.
I am glad to leave and want to have no more to do with either ofyou.
The Head Cook says to tell you that she urgently needs the basket she lent you.
Then the Head Cook says to ask you ifyou don't want...
to spend the night at the hotel after all.
The night is warm...
but it is not without danger to sleep here on the slope. One often finds snakes.
In this case it is my charge...
to conduct you to the hotel and to carry your baggage.
I cannot find the photograph.
The photograph of my parents.
We have seen no photograph.
There was no photograph inside, Mr. Rossmann.
But that is impossible. It was lying on the top and now it is gone.
If only you had not fooled with the suitcase.
All error is out of the question. There was no photograph.
It is irreplaceable. I will not get another.
It was the only picture I possessed of my parents.
Perhaps...
we could still search the pockets of these gentlemen?
They probably have torn up the photograph and thrown away the pieces.
I thought they were friends, but in secret...
they only wanted to harm me.
Listen!
If one ofyou should still have the photograph and would bring it to me,
he will get the whole suitcase full and,
I swear it, will not be reported.
It is nice thatyou have come after all.
And your comrades?
We have parted in discord.
Then you are free?
Yes, free I am.
Won't you accept a place here in the hotel...
instead of rambling through the world that way?
For example, would you like to become an elevator boy?
Just say yes and you are one.
You come into contact with all the guests,
you are always seen, you are given small charges;
in short, every day you have the possibility of advancement.
I would quite gladly be an elevator boy. Isn't a knowledge of languages required?
You speak German and English.
That suffices fully.
English I have only learned in two months in America.
That alone speaks for you enough. When I think...
what difficulties English gave me!
Only yesterday I was talking about it. Yesterday was my 50th birthday.
Then I wish you much luck.
That one can always use.
Come,
I will take you to your room.
A work period of ten to twelve hours...
is a little too much for such a boy.
He arrived only six months ago with his parents. He is ltalian.
But you are a strong boy,
so take courage!
Ifyou had come with your comrades,
I would have had beds given you in the servants' dormitory,
but since you are alone I think that it will suityou better here...
When you come to wake me in the morning, you must come through the corridor.
There is a guest sleeping here. He is dead tired.
For several years I have been sleeping uncommonly badly.
Now I can be satisfied with my position...
and need have no more worries.
But it must be the effects of my earlier worries...
that cause me this insomnia.
If I fall asleep at three o'clock I can be glad.
But since I must be at my place at half past five at the latest,
I must have someone wake me, and with special care,
in order not to become even more nervous.
And so it is Therese who wakes me.
Do you wish something?
Won't you open the door?
I must get dressed first.
That is no necessary. Open the door and get into bed.
I will wait a little.
Pardon me and don't betray me, please.
Will you stay here long?
It is not yet wholly decided, but I think that I will stay.
That would be very good.
I am so alone here.
The Head Cook is very kind to you.
You must not believe that I am ungrateful.
Without the Head Cook it would be much worse for me.
Earlier, I was a kitchen girl here at the hotel and already in great danger of being let go...
because I could not perform the heavy work.
But there I really had luck. The Head Cook needed a girl once...
to arrange the serviettes for a banquet.
I was right at hand and gave her full satisfaction...
for I've always known about preparing serviettes.
And so from there on she has...
kept me near her and gradually trained me as her secretary.
I have learned much at it.
Is there so much to write? -Oh, very much...
Of course I don't write continuously, but I also have many purchases to make in the city.
Is it a large city? -Very large,
I don't go there gladly. But don't you want to sleep?
No, no, I still don't know why you came in.
Because I can talk with no one.
I only wanted to say that the Head Cook is kind to me as only my mother was.
But there is too great a difference in our position...
for me to be able to talk freely with her.
And it sometimes seems to me...
that my present work is more strain on me than what I did earlier,
that I don't even carry it out as well as what I did earlier,
and that the Head Cook keeps me in my place only out of pity.
It is a sin to say it,
but often and often I am afraid of becoming insane.
For the love of God, you must not say a word of this to the Head Cook.
I goes without saying that I will tell her nothing.
From the moment I sawyou...
I had trust in you. And in spite of that...
I was afraid that the Head Cook could make you secretary in my place and let me go.
The matter is already in order.
I will be an elevator boy and you will remain secretary.
These snowstorms in the long, straight New York streets!
Ifyou walk against the wind...
you cannot open your eyes. Continuously the wind grinds the snow on your face.
You run but you don't go forward. It is something desperate.
Mother...
had already been two days without work.
the day was passed in the open...
and in our bundles we dragged unusable rags around with us.
For the following morning she had been given...
the prospect ofwork on a building site, but she feared...
being unable to make use ofthe favorable opportunity,
for already that morning, to the fright of passers-by, she had coughed a lot of blood,
and her only desire was to get into the warm somewhere and reset herself.
And just on that evening it was impossible to find a place.
Certainly we would have been able, late in the night...
when no one insisted on his rights any more,
to find a way into one of the public dormitories rented by entrepreneurs,
but I did not understand it and Mother no longer wanted rest.
In the morning, the beginning of a beautiful winter's day,
we were leaning against the wall of a house,
and there perhaps we had slept a little, or perhaps, with eyes open, only stared around us.
We continued through the streets coming to life,
passed over a bridge,
and finally arrived at the building site where Mother had been summoned for that morning.
I sat on a pile of bricks and watched her...
take a multi-colored rag and wrap it around the scarf that she had worn on her head all night.
Without reporting at the building hut...
she climbed up a ladder...
as if she already knew what work had been assigned her.
I was astonished,
for the female laborers are usually occupied with simple work below.
That made me think that she wanted to carry out...
better paid work, and I smiled sleepily up at her...
Above she went ably around the masons who were laying brick upon brick...
and incomprehensibly demanded no explanation of her.
She held on cautiously to a wooden partition that served as a railing.
But now she came to a small pile of bricks in front ofwhich the railing...
and probably also the walkway ended.
She took no notice of that, went right onto the pile of bricks.
Her ability appeared to have abandoned her.
She knocked over the pile of bricks and fell over it...
into the depths. Many bricks rolled after her...
and a long while later a heavy plank came loose...
and crashed down on her.
Now people ran together from all sides...
and from the building above a man...
furiously shouted something downwards.
Good evening, Mr. Rossmann,
it's me, Robinson.
Butyou have changed!
Yes, it's going well for me. -But you drink.
It is only to fortify myself when I am on the road.
I no longer want to better you.
Rossmann, won't you come visit us once?
We live with Brunelda,
a splendid singer.
Are you inviting me, or Delamarche?
I...
and Delamarche. In that we are agreed.
Then I say to you and ask you to communicate to Delamarche:
Our parting was final.
You two...
have done me more hurt than anyone.
But we are your comrades.
And you have such a fine position here.
Could you let me have some money?
You have received from Delamarche the charge of bringing back money.
I will give you money but only on the condition...
that you leave immediately and never again visit me here.
Do you want money on this condition?
Yes or no?
Rossmann,
I feel very sick.
I will not be able to leave. I will die here.
When I sit like this I can still bear it, but I cannot stand up.
Robinson,
ifyou want me to take care ofyou, then make an effort.
You are really a good boy.
I will do everything you consider right...
You must please replace me here a while.
Why did you leave? Why didn't you report it?
But I did tell him that he had to replace me.
Don'tyou know...
that one must report even the shortest absence in the office of the Head Waiter?
Well, just then the Head Waiter passes by, asks me where you're hiding.
I have no idea -you didn't tell me...
where you went - so he telephones the dormitory that another boy should come right away.
I said that you asked me to replace you,
but apparentlyyou do not know him yet.
I am to tell you that you should go to the office right away.
It is the first time I have abandoned my post.
That is always so, only no one believes it.
By no means say...
that you suddenly felt sick. He will laugh in your face.
It is better to say that a guest gave you...
an urgent message for another guest and that you no longer know...
who the first guest was and could not find the second.
You have abandoned your post without permission. Do you know what that means?
That means dismissal.
Did you perhaps feel sick?
I did not know that one must ask for permission.
I know the paragraph. I received and closely read the regulations.
But precisely such a disposition one never uses - one forgets it.
I have never abandoned my post. -For thatyou will abandon it now.
Besides, I also know you.
You are the only boy who on principle doesn't salute me.
Mr. Head Porter, sir, I salute you most certainly. I have saluted you every day several times.
But naturally not every time I have seen you,
since I pass by you a hundred times a day.
You are to salute me each time without exception.
You are to address me always as "Head Porter"...
and not "you".
And all that each time and each time.
In your next situation you will know how to salute the porter,
even if it is perhaps in some miserable hole.
This is Head Waiter lsbary. Good morning.
I have not waked you after all!
Yes, yes, but I am sincerely sorry to have startled you.
No, truly I have no excuse,
particularly in view of the insignificance of the matter about which I am speaking to you.
She must have run to the telephone in her nightdress. I really did wake her.
There is here an elevator boy by the name of -
by the name of Karl Rossmann.
Unfortunately he has repaid your kindness badly.
He has abandoned his post without permission...
and I have therefore this moment dismissed him.
I hope you do not take the matter tragically.
No, there I really cannot yield to you.
It concerns my authority. There is much at stake.
Such a boy will spoil the whole band for me.
No, no. He will not be transferred to other work,
he is completely unusable.
For the rest, other grievances run against him as well.
The Head Porter, for example - yes, Feodor -
complains ofthe impoliteness and insolence ofthis boy.
What, that should not suffice? My dear madam,
you renounce your character because ofthis boy.
Every night free of service he runs into the city.
To speak frankly I would not have believed...
you were such a poor judge of character.
I have this moment learned something about your young angel...
that will fundamentally change your opinion.
Well, this fine boy whom you call a model of decency...
does not let one night free of service pass without running into the city...
and not returning before morning.
Yes, yes, it is proven by witnesses,
irrefutable witnesses.
Can you now tell me where he gets the money for these enjoyments?
And how he can preserve his attentiveness to his service?
But, Mr. Head Waiter, every night free of service I am in the dormitory.
All the boys can testify to that.
When I am not sleeping I study commercial correspondence.
The Head Porter evidently is confusing me with someone else,
and now I understand also why he believes I do not salute him.
You will be silent at once!
Then I can no longer be Head Porter if I confuse people.
Leave it, Feodor!
He would like perhaps before his departure...
to occasion some grand inquest on his nocturnal occupations.
Let us rather not do that.
The Head cook, this good woman, he has already duped her and that should be enough.
That's unheard of! I'll come at once.
Keep this fellow a little;
we will have more to say to him.
Do I not confuse him now?
Mr. Head Porter, please, let him free at once.
You are hurting him.
What pleasure cant it give you to torture him?
Orders, little miss, orders.
Please, Therese, don't stay here; go upstairs.
I will come take leave ofyou.
But Rossmann, what are you thinking of? You will stay with us...
Let him loose;
he is no murderer!
Above all...
I want to tell you that I still have complete trust in you.
The Head Waiter also is a just man.
Forget therefore...
what has been said to you until now.
Above all, what the head porter perhaps has said to you.
He is indeed an irritable man, which in view of his service is no wonder,
but he also has a wife and children and knows that a boy with only himself to depend on...
must not be tormented needlessly,
but that the rest of the world will furnish enough of that.
I say this in order that you answer without inhibition,
which you probably would have done in any case.
The cause ofyour protégé...
becomes continually worse.
In a bed in the boys' dormitory was found...
a man heavily drunk and totally unknown.
Naturally he was waked and was to be removed.
But this man began to shout over and over...
that the dormitory belonged to Karl Rossmann,
whose guest he was,
and who would punish whoever dared to touch him.
Besides, he said he also had to wait for Karl Rossmann...
because this one had promised him money and...
had only gone to get it.
Pay attention, please, to this:
had promised him money and had gone to get it.
You can also pay attention, Rossmann:
The man said further thatyou two,
after your return,
would make a nocturnal visit to some singer.
And the boys being what they are,
at first they laughed at the man,
then they began a dispute with him, and he was simply knocked out.
It is true that I brought the man into the dormitory.
He came here to pay me a visit, but was so drunk...
that he could not go away again alone.
One must help the brother in drunkenness.
Guilty I am, then.
I am guilty only in that...
I brought the man - his name is Robinson: he's an lrishman -
into the dormitory.
All that he said otherwise,
he said out of drunkenness and it is not correct.
You promised him no money, then?
Yes, because he asked me for it. But I did not want to go get it,
but to give him the tips...
I had earned tonight.
You are going further and further astray.
First you brought the man - I don't even believe the name Robinson;
since there has been an lreland no lrishman has been called that -
so first you only brought him into the dormitory.
Then, when one asks you by surprise,
you did promise him money. And first you didn't want to go get the money,
but give him your tips from today.
But then it is demonstrated that you still have this money,
so obviously you did want to go get other money.
In the end that would be nothing peculiar,
but that you deny it, that is something peculiar.
Also that you want to keep quiet that you made the man drunk here in the hotel,
ofwhich there is not the least doubt, for you yourself admitted...
that he came alone but could not go away alone,
and he himself shouted in the dormitory that he is your guest.
In question...
then remain only two things:
how did you gain access to the storerooms...
and how did you gather together money that you could give away?
Tell me, Therese,
have I in your opinion failed to do something for him?
Madame Head Cook, I do not believe that I have done you disgrace in any way...
and after an exact inquest, all others would have to find it so also.
No, Karl,
no, no!
Things that are just also have a particular look,
and your cause, I must admit, does not.
How could you, Karl, hide all these things from me?
Ifthe common dormitory was perhaps unbearable for you...
and you at first began on these innocent grounds with your nocturnal caprices,
why did you not say a word to me?
You know I wanted to procure your own room for you.
You must now leave the hotel, and as quickly as possible,
otherwise an inquest perhaps would be unavoidable.
Go directly to the Pension Brenner.
On my recommendation they will take you in for nothing.
Tomorrow I will come to Brenner's and we will see what we can further do for you.
I will not abandon you.
Aren't you glad at all that everything turned out so well?
Rossmann, the man is writhing in the entrance and will not let himself be removed.
He struggles and claims that you would never tolerate his going to the hospital.
Someone is to take an automobile and send him home.
You would pay for the automobile. Will you?
The man has trust in you. -I am also to ask you ifyou want to go with him.
He will not go with him.
So, Rossmann, you are dismissed on the spot.
The grounds for your dismissal I cannot pronounce aloud,
otherwise I would have to have you locked up.
Now go, change, turn in your livery and leave the premises at once.
Leave me, I want nothing more to do with you.
I can scream. -And I can strop your mouth.
I am indeed convinced that I will find nothing, but you must be searched.
But now it is enough.
Rossmann, why do you let me wait so long?
I wish thatyou had seen how I bled from the nose.
My vest is completely ruined;
besides, I left it there.
My trousers are in shreds; I am in underdrawers. What will become of me?
Do you really live here?
Then I can go.
In shirtsleeves?
I will be sure to earn another jacket.
You must give him something more. I had to wait for you so long there.
I can only look to you.
From this sick man I can demand nothing.
Yes,
if only I had something more.
Robinson is a little sick,
but he will be able to climb the stairs.
The driver here still wants a supplement to the fare, which I already paid.
And now I am going.
I say you stay!
What is your name?
Rossmann. Show your identification papers.
So you have no identification papers. -Not with me.
That is serious.
I was an elevator boy.
You were an elevator boy, so you are one no longer. And from what do you live now?
Now I will look for other work. -Yes, were you dismissed, then?
Yes, an hour ago.
And without a jacket you were dismissed?
In what hotel were you employed?
He was employed at the Hotel Occidental.
No,
it is not true.
You know the boy?
I have done him much good in this time,
but he has thanked me very badly.
He seems to be an obdurate boy.
But that is still not his worst quality.
Yes, that is one fine shark.
We dragged him with us,
explained everything to him,
thought, in spite of all the signs...
that spoke against it, to still make of him a useable human being.
Then he disappeared once at night,
under accompanying circumstances I prefer not to utter.
In any case I will take him along and have him given back to the Hotel Occidental.
May I venture to request that you provisorily leave me the boy.
I have some things to put in order with him.
I will take it upon myself to conduct him back to the hotel.
I cannot do that.
I must learn why he was suddenly dismissed.
But he is not at all dismissed! On the contrary, he has a good post there.
He is always in with the Head Waiter, with the Head Cook, and is a trusted person.
How can he be dismissed?
I was gravely injured in the hotel and he received the charge to get me home...
and since he was without a jacket he just came with me without a jacket.
But is that also true?
And if it is true, why does the boy pretend to be dismissed?
Stop him!
Is she asleep?
I believe not, but I preferred to wait until you came.
She is sitting on the sofa, but perhaps she is asleep.
Is she ill?
He does not know her.
Yes, can we come in?
What heat, Delamarche!
Should I perhaps have the curtain raised?
Anything but that.
Then it becomes still worse.
Wait, I will...
make it a little comfortable foryou.
Who is that? Why does he stare at me so?
It is only the boy I brought for your service.
But I want to have no one.
But all the time you wish for someone atyour service.
Oh, Delamarche,
you do not understand me.
I really don't understand you.
But nothing has happened.
Ifyou will, he shall go away this instant.
If he is already here, he shall stay.
I thankyou for wanting...
to leave me here yet a little. I am frightfully tired.
I don't at all rightly know where I am. But when I have slept a few hours,
you can send me away...
without taking any regard.
You can stay here.
Room we have...
in overabundance, as you see.
So you must go.
No,
he shall stay.
Delamarche, I cannot endure the heat. I am burning;
I must undress; I must bathe.
Send the two out ofthe room.
They are a burden to me; they weigh upon my breast;
if I succumb it is because ofthem.
You must both go out on the balcony.
I am wholly pushed aside. That so amuses Brunelda.
Once she wants to comb her hair, once she wants to open her corset,
once she wants to put it on, and always I am sent onto the balcony.
Earlier I often pulled the curtain a little and looked,
but since one time Delamarche...
hit me in the face with the whip several times,
I don't dare look any more.
And so I lie here on the balcony and have no pleasure besides eating.
Why do you stay here then, if they treat you so?
Pardon, Rossmann, that is not a very judicious question.
You will stay here also, even ifyou are treated still worse.
No, I will go, and yet this evening if possible.
And how will you arrange...
to go this evening when you don't even have the right to enter the room?
As long as there has been no bell, we do not have the right to enter.
Earlier I had the right to ask...
if I could enter yet, and I would be answered yes or no according to circumstances,
but then I apparently made too much use of this,
and so it was decided...
that when I can enter the table bell is pressed.
So,
there has been no bell yet today,
and once it doesn't ring for so long, then it can still last a very long time.
Yes, but...
what applies to you still need not apply to me.
Besides,
such a thing only applies to the one who lets it.
Is that a life?
Wouldn't it be better in Butterford?
Or even in California where you have friends?
When you so vilely deserted us, it went very badly for us.
We could find no work in the first days.
Besides, Delamarche wanted no work.
Then he said we should go beg in the dwellings.
So we went begging, and in order that it would look better,
I sang in front of the doors of the dwellings. And as Delamarche always has good luck,
once while we were standing in front of a dwelling,
a very rich dwelling, on the ground floor,
and at the door were singing something to the cook and the servant,
there comes the lady to whom this dwelling belongs, even Brunelda, up the stairs.
She was perhaps laced too tightly and would not come up the few steps.
But how beautiful she looked!
Naturally the maid and the servant ran to meet her and almost carried her up.
She stayed immobile a little...
because she still didn't have enough breath, and I don't know how it happened -
because of hunger I was not wholly in my right mind, and nearby she was even more beautiful -
in short, I touched her a little behind, but very lightly, you know, only touched, like that.
Naturally one cannot tolerate that a beggar touches a rich lady.
Who knows how badly that would have turned out if Delamarche...
had not at once given me a slap,
and such a slap...
that I at once needed both my hands for my cheeks.
Didn't you say that Brunelda is a singer?
But we did notyet know that then.
We only saw that it was a rich and very distinguished lady.
She acted as if nothing had happened.
Without cease she contemplated Delamarche,
who in return...
Iooked straight into her eyes.
Thereupon she said to him:
"Come in a little while", and with her parasol pointed inside the dwelling.
They forgot me outside and I sat down on the steps...
to wait for Delamarche.
But instead of Delamarche the servant came out and brought me a whole tureen of soup.
The servant stayed with me a little while as I ate and recounted...
to me things about Brunelda. She was a divorced woman.
Her husband, a cocoa manufacturer, indeed still loved her, but she...
did not want to hear of him in the least.
The servant did not dare, despite the largest tip ask Brunelda if she would receive him,
for she had already asked several times and always Brunelda had thrown...
in his face whatever she had at hand.
What has the man done to her?
Nothing in particular, I believe;
at least he himself doesn't know it.
He waits for me daily there on the streetcorner.
When I come, I have to recount novelties to him...
If I cannot come, he waits half an hour and then goes away again.
It was for me a good supplementary revenue,
but since Delamarche learned of it, I must deliver everything to him,
and so I go more seldom.
But what does the man want to have?
He hears that she does not want him.
What does it matter to me? I only know...
he would give much money to be able to lie here...
Tomorrow a judge will be elected...
in our district,
and the one they are carrying down there...
is a candidate.
Don'tyou want...
to look through the glasses? -I see enough.
Try it anyway, you will see better.
I have good eyes; I see everything.
No, no, no! Please, let me go.
Leave him,
he will stay.
Be glad you are not thrown out.
An escaped thief is not thrown out,
he is delivered to the police.
And that can happen to him as early as tomorrow morning, if he does not keep quiet.
Nowyou have seen enough.
Go into the room,
make the beds, and prepare everything for the night.
Your way of staring at me disturbs me horribly.
Do you want something of me? -You are studying?
First, you have already disturbed me. But second,
I always make a pause at three o'clock.
Who are you?
How do you come to these people? I hate them...
all three.
That is quite simple.
Delamarche wants me to become his servant.
But I don't want to.
Do you have another situation?
No,
but that is nothing to me, if only I were away from here.
Why don't you want to stay with these people? -Delamarche is a bad man.
If all servants in choosing their masters wanted to be as difficult as you?
During the day I am a salesman in Montly's department store.
This Montly is doubtless a scoundrel but that leaves me at rest.
I am only furious at being so miserably paid.
By day you are a salesman and you study in the night?
But when do you sleep?
Yes, sleep!
I will sleep when I have finished my studies.
Provisorily I drink black coffee.
I don't like black coffee.
Without the black coffee Montly would not keep me an instant,
for believe me,
I would soon lie behind the counter and sleep.
I always say...
Montly, although he naturally has not the slightest idea that I am in the world.
I wanted to study also.
For years I myself have actually only been studying...
out of consistency.
I have little satisfaction from it...
and still less prospects for the future.
Could I not perhaps also obtain a place in the department store?
Having obtained my post at Montly's...
has been until now the greatest success of my life.
Ah, what are you thinking!
It is easier to become a district judge here than a door opener at Montly's.
You saw this evening...
the demonstration below?
I understand nothing of politics. -That is a fault.
But aside from that you have eyes and ears.
Come to us one evening, naturally only ifyou would like.
You advise me then to stay with Delamarche?
Absolutely.
On the racecourse in Clayton,
today from six o'clock a.m. to midnight,
personnel will be recruited for the Theater of Oklahoma!
The Great Theater of Oklahoma calls you!
Who now misses the opportunity, misses it forever.
Everyone is welcome!
Whoever wishes to become an artist should report!
We are the theater that can use everyone, everyone in this place!
But hurry to be received before midnight!
At midnight all will be closed and opened no more.
Accursed be who does not believe us!
On the Clayton!
You were without a situation?
Where were you employed at the last?
At the last! -ln an office.
where you satisfied there?
To what post...
do you feel yourself apt?
I read the placard in the city and since it said there that everyone could be used,
I reported. -What did you originally want to study?
In Europe, I mean. -I wanted to become an engineer.
An engineer you cannot become right away.
But perhaps provisorily it would be...
suitable to you to perform some minor technical work.
So we are finished, then.
In Oklahoma everything will yet be reexamined.
Do our recruiting troupe honor!
Subtitles translated by Barton Byg