Das Fahrrad (1982)

Susanne, a single mother who works at a factory operating a punch press, meets mechanical engineer Thomas Marlow at a disco. Thomas buys her a drink, and the two grow closer, but he is called back to his party. Winter comes, and Susanne is struggling financially. She is behind on payments for her daughter Jenny’s kindergarten care and regularly pays for an insurance policy she would rather cancel. Her monotonous work at the machine depresses her, so she quits. By chance, she runs into Thomas again the next day and tells him she has quit. Over the next few days, she tries to find another job, but as an untrained worker without an Abitur, she has a hard time. She seems to have a chance at a tourist information office, however, and is told to register with the organization. That night Jenny falls ill, and Susanne has other worries. She does not have enough money, and her ex-husband refuses to advance her next month’s child benefit, so she has to borrow money from her friend Kalle. At the disco, a drunken friend suggests that she report her bicycle stolen and collect the insurance money. A stranger intercepts Susanne, who is drunk, outside the disco, and she wakes up the next morning in his apartment. Horrified, she runs home, where her daughter is already waiting with the neighbor, Frau Puschkat. Susanne breaks down in tears. Susanne wants to change her life. She hides the bicycle, reports it as stolen to the insurance company, and receives a payout of 450 marks. She treats herself to a little luxury with the money and buys new clothes for her job in tourist services, but is turned away: because she had not got back in touch, the position had already been given to another applicant. She starts work checking bottles at a brewery. Meanwhile, her relationship with Thomas grows closer. Spring arrives, and Susanne takes a bicycle outing with her daughter. On the way back, a police officer stops her because she has all kinds of plants hanging from her handlebars. The ABV, the local police officer, recognizes her and her bicycle and is surprised that Susanne did not report finding the bicycle, since the police had naturally opened an investigation into the thief. Susanne pretends she forgot. She is summoned to the police, where she is told that proceedings will be opened against her for intentional fraud. Susanne keeps all this from Thomas, who takes her on at his workplace. There, she is to be trained in the work brigade led by Lotti. At Thomas’s suggestion, Susanne and Jenny move into his apartment, but Susanne breaks down after a nightmare. She tells him about the proceedings over the bicycle, and Thomas reacts irritably because his position at work is now at risk, since he was the one who brought Susanne into the brigade. This causes the first rift between Susanne and Thomas. He still wants to help her and have the case transferred from the court to the workplace’s conflict commission. They argue more and more often, and Thomas is also having problems at work because of his progressive methods. When he accuses her of being ungrateful because he has done everything for her, and asks what she has ever accomplished, she replies that she raised Jenny. His response—that Jenny will only end up stealing anyway—makes Susanne end the relationship. She moves out of Thomas’s apartment and back into her old apartment in an older building. Frau Puschkat’s apartment is empty. Thomas and Susanne still greet each other at work, but treat each other as colleagues. One day, Thomas sees Susanne and Jenny: Susanne lets Jenny, who is still of kindergarten age, ride her large women’s bicycle, and is delighted when Jenny manages what seems impossible.