Krauses Zukunft (2021)

Horst, Meta, Rudi, Elsa, and Lubo now live in the villa of the late Rolf-Dieter Schlunzke, and they have left the Krause Inn in the hands of their cook, Paula. Krause is unhappy with the changes happening around him: Paula has revamped the inn and plans to serve only vegan dishes; wind turbines are to be built in Schönhorst; and, at Mayor Stübner’s behest, the village pond is to be turned into a recreational swimming area to make the place more attractive to tourists. Krause dislikes all of it, because, as he sees it, “nobody needs any of that.” He is not alone in opposing the wind turbines, since most of the village’s residents are against them. The project cannot go ahead as long as he refuses to give up the meadow where the developers intend to put the turbines. After one of Krause’s horses suddenly falls ill due to old age and dies, and then, just a few days later, his brother-in-law Rudi writes to Krause’s sister Meta to say that he has fallen in love again with a former classmate and therefore will not be returning from Cologne, Krause no longer knows what to think. Bewildered and sad, he wonders why things have to change at all. When the mayor starts putting his plan into action and construction machinery arrives to reshape the pond and the surrounding area, Krause takes a stand. He gets into a clash with the village police officers, who briefly take him into custody and bring him to the police station. In the wake of the media attention, the contractor withdraws from the project, giving Krause at least a small victory. There is now no longer any consensus over the wind turbines, because Krause’s sister Meta is not the only one in favor of the energy transition: Paula’s boyfriend, Thomas, supports it too. Paula, however, cannot understand his position, and the young couple argue so bitterly that Thomas moves out of the inn, leaving Paula heartbroken. Krause cannot bear to watch this any longer and tries to make Thomas see that he cannot just come and go as he pleases. After all, it is not only Paula who is affected, but also her son Timo. To cheer Timo up, Krause decides to buy a new horse. At the horse market, where Timo picks out a Haflinger foal, Krause happens to meet his acquaintance Fanny, who is performing music there. She tells him that her now 99-year-old father is supposed to leave his home because of coal mining, but refuses to do so. When Krause visits her father with Fanny, he realizes that coal mining cannot go on like this. He agrees to have the wind turbines put on his meadow, provided the excavators are “switched off” immediately. He persuades Fanny’s father to move into his shared home in Schönhorst, and asks the mayor to lease him the meadows around the village pond. Since his land is now going to be a wind farm, the horses need a new pasture. Over time, Krause learns to live with Paula’s meat-free menu, as he finds dishes on it that he remembers from his childhood and has not eaten in years. In the end, Krause can no longer stand entirely in the way of the future, but he also makes sure that things do not change too quickly.