\u00bbWell, our economic miracle stopped at our front door if you look at the state our staircase is in.\u00ab
\n\u2013 Maria B. from Duisburg-Beeckerwerth<\/p>\n
In this film, Maria B. tells her story, the story of a miner\u2019s wife in the Ruhr. It is also the story of forty years of working life in Germany. In cooperation with WDR<\/em> and Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet<\/em>.<\/p>\n Film programme Ruhr Local: Ruhr and Work, Two Sides of the Same Coin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":18812,"template":"","movie_year":[467],"movie_genre":[85],"movie_cat":[427],"festival":[596],"class_list":["post-13407","movie","type-movie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","movie_year-467","movie_genre-documentary-en","movie_cat-focus-en-2015","festival-2015-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe wedding is in 1928. Being married, finding an apartment and becoming a mother \u2026 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\u2019s 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\u2019 disease in her husband, he is earning next to nothing \u2013 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\u2019s colleagues help out: she experiences happiness through solidarity.
\nAfter the war, she realises what happiness it is to stand up for others, to be able herself to act in solidarity. The miners\u2019 wives march to the mine because the wages aren\u2019t 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 \u00bbMother\u00ab by the pitmen, works as a cleaner in a miners\u2019 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 …
\n\u2013 Erika Runge in: Frauenfilmbuch der Demokratischen Fraueninitiative M\u00fcnchen<\/em>, 1978<\/p>\n