Solo für Martina (1980)

The young violin maker Jürgen Mosler and Martina Becker, an economics student, are a couple. However, Jürgen has to travel all the way to Leipzig every time he wants to be with Martina. Now she has set her mind on visiting Jürgen’s hometown in the Vogtland for a change. But since he keeps putting her off, saying there is nothing going on in Altneukirchen, she fears he might have another girlfriend there. So she arranges a place to stay through her old friend Peter Struck and sets off. Peter is a physicist and thinks poorly of violin makers, who, in his opinion, know nothing about the laws of vibration. Martina therefore does not tell Peter that her boyfriend belongs to this group. Jürgen, for his part, is not at all pleased when Martina turns up in town without warning, especially since his parents think just as little of the theorists at the institute Peter belongs to. Jürgen’s parents are also extremely hostile toward Martina. This upsets her so much that she wants to return to Leipzig at once. But her landlady tells her why: three years earlier, Jürgen had wanted to get married, and everything was ready when the wedding fell through at the last moment because the bride made it a condition that Jürgen move with her to Dresden. His parents are therefore afraid the exact same thing might happen again. Martina hopes that her academic work might nevertheless make an impression on Jürgen’s parents. She wants to devote her diploma thesis to instrument making, which will allow her to do research on site. But she has also set her mind on doing something about the “fragmented small-scale production” of the Vogtland instrument makers and offering them more effective—and therefore more economical—options. Meanwhile, the institute has to admit through gritted teeth that its factory-made violins are acoustically inferior to the handmade models. The craftsmen’s experience cannot be replaced by any technology or machine, because every piece of wood is different. There is little to be achieved through the systematic approach that science offers. After Jürgen successfully passes his master craftsman’s examination, he gradually begins to enjoy the time he spends with Martina. Martina learns a great deal about the secrets of the art of violin making, which she can also put to good use in her diploma thesis. But in the end, the two argue again, and Martina returns to Leipzig. There, her thesis proposal impresses her university professor, who also shares the results with the violin makers of Altenkirchen. They feel honored and mollified that their craftsmanship is now recognized by science as well. Jürgen, too, makes peace with Martina and overcomes the jealousy he had developed toward Peter.