Kairos

In East Berlin, July 1986, Katharina and Hans meet by chance on a bus. Katharina had come from a bookstore and chased after the bus that Hans just happened to board. They get off at the same overpass to wait for the rain to stop. They walk to the Hungarian Cultural Center, only to learn it is already closed. Hans invites Katharina to have coffee. Remembering this moment, Katharina thinks about Kairos, “the god of fortunate moments,” who was believed to have a lock of golden hair on his forehead. This forelock was the only way to grab hold of him—and thus of the moment—because once he passed, the back of his head was bald.

Katharina is 19 years old. She works in state publishing but aspires to become a designer. Hans is a novelist who has written several books. When Katharina expresses interest in his work, Hans turns sheepish, believing she will not enjoy the work of an older man preoccupied with death.

Hans becomes anxious about being seen in public with a girl much younger than he is: He is married and has a son not much younger than Katharina. Hans realizes that he has seen Katharina before: Years earlier, when she was a child, he saw her with her mother at a May Day demonstration.

They chat about their mutual connections, as well as Katharina’s plans to visit her relatives in Cologne, West Germany, for her grandmother’s 70th birthday. They nearly part ways after leaving the café, but Hans changes his mind and invites her to spend the evening with him while his family is away.

After touring Katharina around his family apartment, Hans takes her into his study, which he barely uses in favor of a rented studio elsewhere. There, he writes freelance scripts for radio programs, mostly on music history and musicology. Hans is impressed by Katharina’s curiosity. He puts on some of his favorite records for her—performances of Chopin, Schubert, Bach, and Mozart. At dinner, Katharina makes the effort to prove her sophistication, believing that this encounter marks “the beginning of her life” (20).

When they return to Hans’s house, they listen to a record of requiem music. The music transports them to an imaginary graveyard, where they kiss, which leads to sex. Hans lets Katharina occupy his side of the bed while he sleeps on his wife’s side. Hans thinks that the feeling of that night can never be replicated, unaware that Katharine hopes for the same feeling to last forever.

Hans meets Katharina at the Ganymede, the same restaurant where he celebrated the news of his wife’s pregnancy and the completion of his first novel manuscript. During dinner, they pretend they are meeting with a third person to dispel the notion that they are on a date. He gives her a copy of one of his books, then sets the terms of their relationship: They are only to see each other occasionally so that Hans can attend to his family obligations, as well as his other romantic affairs. Katharina agrees to keep their relationship discreet, but largely because she had been anxious that Hans would end their relationship. Earlier that day, Katharina’s mother, Erika, had deduced Hans’s identity when Katharina talked about him. Erika cautioned Katharina against his infidelity.

Hans predicts that Katharina will eventually marry someone her age. Hans promises to gift her roses for her wedding, though he is saying this primarily to brace himself for the inevitability of their breakup. He gives her the power to end their relationship whenever she wants. Though Hans believes he is putting too much burden on her, Katharina feels that he is being protective, which she appreciates.

While walking through Berlin, Hans reflects upon the historical expatriation of the musician Wolf Biermann by the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which Katharina is too young to appreciate. Katharina reflects upon her first relationship with a boy named Gernot, who took her virginity after several attempts at sex. Hans and Katharina are amused when they advise a group of American tourists that they have accidentally wandered into East Germany.

Hans shows Katharina his rented office and lets her listen to a record of Ernst Busch, a communist singer who had been previously censored and for whom Hans feels much sympathy. Katharina asks if she can take a photo of Hans to bring with her during her upcoming trip to Budapest. Only then does she realize that she’s left her copy of Hans’s book at the Ganymede. They return to the restaurant to claim it.

Hans’s book, Turning Back, is inscribed with a line taken from the requiem they had listened to on their first night together. Katharina is distracted by the memory of their last date as she prepares for her trip.

Katharina goes to Budapest with her childhood friend Christina. They were the best of friends growing up, but they stopped seeing each other when Christina and Katharina were moved to different schools. Because they have nowhere to stay for their first night in Budapest, Katharina suggests sleeping on the roof of a high-rise. This plan fails, and they are immediately offered a room by an elderly Hungarian woman. Katharina tells Christina about her first date with Hans, recalling the sharing of their bedtime secrets as children. The following day, Katharina and Christina take a room in the house of Erika’s friend Agnes.

In Berlin, a solitary Hans misses Katharina’s company. He writes her a love letter and spends the entire week wistfully recalling their time together. His wife and son, Ingrid and Ludwig, return.

Christina doubts that Katharina will be granted permission to visit her relatives in West Germany. Katharina buys herself a dress to wear for the next time she sees Hans. Before leaving Budapest, Katharina buys eggplants to cook for Hans, having learned a recipe from Agnes. Both Katharina and Hans independently worry that the other person is having second thoughts about their relationship.

Katharina receives Hans’s love letter upon her return to Berlin. She is elated by his instruction to call her but is nervous about using the phone to speak to him while she is at work. Hans invites her back to his apartment. She is excited by the continuation of their relationship, even if it must remain secret.

Their reunion is as passionate as their last encounter. Hans is once again impressed by Katharina’s curiosity as she asks about his latest book. They add up their birth years and find that the sum is 100, a result they both find fanciful. Hans pockets the dinner bill as a keepsake. He becomes self-conscious when some young people watch him and Katharina walk by.

Hans lets Katharina listen to German Austrian composer Hanns Eisler’s Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain, which he wrote during Hitler’s assault on the Soviet Union. Eisler also wrote the national anthem of the GDR, whose unofficial lyrics Hans recalls as a relic of the dream for a unified Germany. He explains how the chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, gave up the bid for reunification by applying to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against the Soviet Union.

Hans plays a record of the song he thinks should have been the anthem of East Germany: Eisler’s rendition of a Bertolt Brech poem entitled “Children’s Hymn.” The lyrics call for a renewed and unified Germany to prosper, inviting neighbors to link arms. Katharina appreciates the sincerity of Eisler’s voice. She shows off the dress she bought in Budapest. Hans is initially incredulous that she bought it just for him but says he will always believe her.

Katharina asks Hans to buy pepper and breadcrumbs for her to cook a surprise meal on their next date. Hans is surprised when he finds a note from Katharina in his office door, bearing the impression of her lips. He writes his own letter for Katharina, which he does merely for the practice of articulating his feelings.

The following evening, Hans watches Katharina cook the eggplant recipe. He is struck by their domesticity. Katharina talks about an essay she wrote in grade school. Hans comments on it in a way that makes him sound like a teacher. He realizes how different Katharina is from Ludwig, who often feels pressured by Hans’s attempts to teach him things.

Enamored by his gestures, Katharina draws a sketch of Hans. Hans encourages her to study graphic art instead of commercial art. He shows her two sketches Spanish artist Pablo Picasso made on the day he was born. One sketch features a dying minotaur—a monster from Greek myth— and the other depicts Theseus—the hero who slays the minotaur. Hans explains how the minotaur’s half-sister, Ariadne, taught Theseus how to kill her half-brother. Katharina interprets the sketch of the minotaur as a failed act of self-sacrificing vanity.

Katharina sees an image of Picasso’s Guernica and vaguely recalls her grandfather, a veteran who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Later, while they lie together on the sofa and Hans looks at Katharina’s naked body, he tells her that he’s never been this intimate with anyone else.

The next morning, Katharina watches Hans as he puts the apartment back in order, anticipating his family’s return. Hans gives Katharina back the sketch she made of him.

Katharina’s trip to West Germany is officially approved. She becomes excited to see her relatives again.

Hans asks Katharina to show him the neighborhood where she grew up. He tells her that he was too afraid to swim as a child. Katharina shows Hans where she had her first kiss with a boy named Jens, who is now a carpenter. At a café, Hans ruefully muses that their bliss shall remain with Katharina after he dies. Katharina encourages him to look back instead of forward.

The next morning, Katharina picks up her visa. Knowing that their time together is limited, she and Hans take the same walk they took on their first meeting. They recall the details of their first encounter with affection. Hans never tells Katharina that while she was in Budapest, he revisited the café to look at their table again.

Erika tells Katharina that a casual lover named Phillip had come by to reclaim his sweater. Katharina had been expecting Phillip the night she met Hans, but because he never showed up, she left to go to the bookstore.

Katharina calls her father, who is separated from Erika, to tell him that she is in a relationship with an older man. Katharina is also visited by her friend Sibylle, who is annoyed that Katharina won’t take her criticisms about her relationship with Hans seriously.

Hans thinks fondly about the novelties of his relationship with Katharina. It reminds him of the novelties of fatherhood he enjoyed after Ludwig was born. He feels that his relationship with Katharina makes him a better person, but he is also cautious of what might follow.

On the morning Katharina is set to leave, Hans escorts her to the border to see her off. Heading home, he is already thinking of the welcome message he will write to celebrate her return.