»Well, our economic miracle stopped at our front door if you look at the state our staircase is in.«
– Maria B. from Duisburg-Beeckerwerth

In this film, Maria B. tells her story, the story of a miner’s wife in the Ruhr. It is also the story of forty years of working life in Germany.
The wedding is in 1928. Being married, finding an apartment and becoming a mother … happiness, she thinks. But her husband loses his job and hunger, misery and hopelessness jeopardise their hopes. In 1933, the Nazis come to power and the former dreams seem to come true! With him at work again, they are not too badly off. Maria B. does not want to believe the reports of arrests and dismisses her husband’s opinion that there might be a war. Her little bit of happiness is not to be called into question. 1939, though, sees the first signs of a miners’ disease in her husband, he is earning next to nothing – and Maria B. is expecting their third child. Now, for the first time, she gets a new idea of what happiness may involve. Her husband’s colleagues help out: she experiences happiness through solidarity.
After the war, she realises what happiness it is to stand up for others, to be able herself to act in solidarity. The miners’ wives march to the mine because the wages aren’t being paid. Maria B. gets on the table and makes demands on the behalf of everyone. Her husband dies and one of the sons dies in an accident. Maria B., now called »Mother« by the pitmen, works as a cleaner in a miners’ hostel. However, in 1968, in the wake of the first major economic crisis of the post-war period in Germany, mines are shut down and hostels closed. Maria B. is herself unemployed …
– Erika Runge in: Frauenfilmbuch der Demokratischen Fraueninitiative München, 1978

In cooperation with WDR and Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet.

Film programme Ruhr Local: Ruhr and Work, Two Sides of the Same Coin