Honecker und der Pastor (2022)

Uwe Holmer leads a quiet life with his family as pastor and mayor of the community of Lobetal, a Bodelschwingh institution for people who have fallen on hard times, near Berlin. The peace comes to an end when, in January 1990, Erich Honecker, the chairman of the Council of State who was ousted during the peaceful revolution, and his wife Margot find asylum in the rectory. The Holmers made this decision out of Christian conviction, since Erich Honecker had just been discharged from hospital after an operation and, because of the political circumstances, no longer had a home. No one else was willing to give shelter to the couple, under whose rule the Holmers, too, had suffered. For ten weeks, the deeply devout Holmers house these famous homeless guests, a decision that almost nobody in the town understands. There is also considerable resentment within the Holmer family, because the two children still living at home, Kornelius and Traugott, must now share a room at their parents’ direction, so that the guests can have more space. The differences between the two couples become clear during the Holmers’ very first conversations with the Honeckers, and Traugott accuses Margot Honecker of being responsible for none of his eight older siblings having been allowed to take their Abitur. While Erich Honecker keeps to the background because of his illness, his wife takes on the daily household chores. She has no qualms about helping with the dishes or mopping the stairs. Her husband, however, wants to pay for their room and board, which Holmer refuses, because in his view charity cannot be bought. The Honeckers themselves, despite their gratitude, regard this charity as humiliating. Pastor Holmer expresses his surprise that none of Honecker’s supposed friends from the past had been willing to take them in. In a way, however, he now finds himself in a similar situation, since his fellow pastors are offering him little support at the moment. Because of the oppression of Christians in East Germany, they cannot understand the Holmers’ decision. As feared, with the Honeckers’ arrival the small community of Lobetal becomes the focus of international media attention. Reporters from a wide range of countries are on the scene, desperately trying to get interviews and pictures of these extraordinary guests. Meanwhile, major demonstrations take place in the town, calling for the Honeckers to be imprisoned. He comments on this rather sarcastically: “Let them shoot me, like Ceaușescu. It won’t do them any good.” Holmer, who knows all the people personally, manages to calm them down and bring the demonstration to an end. During a final walk with the Holmers, the Honeckers still show little understanding of their past misdeeds. After all, the people could have lived well under “their rules.” They simply refuse to accept the pastor’s argument that these were their rules, and that they had never asked the people whether they wanted them. They do admit to having made mistakes, but say that as long as you learn from them, that is all right. After all, everyone makes mistakes. During a live television broadcast in which Uwe Holmer takes part, an incident occurs when a young woman in the audience speaks spontaneously about her past in the “hell” of the closed Torgau youth reformatory, and says that no one—not even a pastor—has the right to forgive people like the Honeckers. Back in Lobetal, Margot Honecker justifies herself by saying that many of these young people had been grateful to her for finding their way back onto the right path through the youth reformatory. The Holmers are left speechless. This continues when the Honeckers refuse to leave the house after a bomb threat is made and all the residents are supposed to be evacuated. Since the pastor does not want to leave anyone alone in difficult times, he stays in the house too. Fortunately, the all-clear comes soon, and no one is injured. The Honeckers then announce that they are moving out, since it has become possible for them to move to a government guesthouse in Lindow. They do not want to put the Holmers in danger again or impose their presence on them any longer. The whole family breathes a sigh of relief, and the boys quickly move back into their old rooms—only for this to prove premature. The entire town of Lindow has rebelled, so the Honeckers are sent back and are once again at the Holmers’ door. They move back in, until 14 days later, when they finally leave Lobetal and find accommodation in a Soviet military hospital.