This is an episode guide for the film series Heimat created by Edgar Reitz.
Heimat
Starting with episode two, there is an introductory narration by Glasisch-Karl who recaps events during and between the previous episodes, using snapshots of the main characters to jog viewers' memories.
1: "The Call of Faraway Places"/"Fernweh" (1919-1928)
After serving in World War 1, Paul Simon returns home to his family in the (fictional) rural village of Schabbach in the hills and mountains of the Hunsrück Province of the Rhineland-Palatinate. There to welcome him are Paul's parents, Mathias Simon and Katharina (née Schirmer), and his brother and sister, Pauline and Eduard. Eduard did not fight in the war, he has a bad lung and his mother is very protective of him. Also there is Paul's cousin, Glassich-Karl, also a veteran. He was sent home earlier with a disfiguring skin condition caused by poison gas. Because of his appearance Glassich-Karl will never be a full participant in village life. This gives him something of the perspective of an outsider and he will gradually become the narrator of the series. Paul's first act on returning home was to strike an iron in the family forge. But although brought up in the family trade as a blacksmith, Paul no longer feels at home in Schabbach. He seeks wider horizons and is determined instead to pursue his passion for radio communications in every spare moment.
The most prominent citizen in Schabbach is its avaricious mayor, Alois Wiegand. Wiegand flaunts his purchase of the first motorcycle in the village, exciting the envy and wonderment of the inhabitants. Wiegand's children Maria and Wilfried both will become major characters in the series. The kind and long-suffering Maria Wiegand, in fact, will take over from Paul as the character around whom everything revolves. Wilfried, on the other hand, takes after his unpleasant father.
In 1922 Paul's brother Eduard helps organize the unveiling of Schabbach's war memorial to its fallen sons. The following year the French army occupies the region. Ruhr Valley.
Meanwhile Paul has become attracted to Apollonia, a strikingly beautiful girl employed as a maid at the inn. The women of Schabbach, including Paul's mother Katharina, whisper that because she has black hair, Apollonia is gypsy who casts spells on men. The locals hate Apollonia because she has had a child with a Frenchman. Since Apollonia lets no one see her baby, village gossip accuses her of having killed and buried it in the midden (dung heap). They organize a search but instead of a corpse unearth Wiegland's lost motorcycle, missing for a year. Unable to bear their cruelty, Apollonia leaves with her baby for France. After learning that Apollonia returns his love, Paul, smitten, almost goes with her, but is unable to summon up the courage.
Still pining for Apollonia, Paul marries Wiegand's pretty daughter Maria, who has kept in touch with Apollonia and who is also in love with Paul. They have two sons: Anton and Ernst. To support them Paul works at his father Mathias's forge. They live at the forge with Paul's parents.
Paul's sister and brother, Pauline and Eduard, visit the neighboring town of Simmern. While Pauline gazes at the window of a jewelry shop, stones are thrown at the apartment above it, which is owned by a Jew. A shard of glass pierces Pauline's hand, and the jeweler-watchmaker, Robert Kröber, who has been watching from inside, extracts it. That evening, Pauline's hand becomes dangerously infected. Her mother, Katharina, cures it with a home remedy involving soaking it in hot water. During her delirium, Pauline raves about finding a lump of gold. Pauline and the watchmaker fall in love and later marry.
1927, Eduard and his boon companions, his cousin Glasisch-Karl and the bell ringer Glockzieh, become obsessed with panning for gold in nearby streams. They find a shiny pebble and take it to Eduard's brother-in-law, Robert Kröber, for testing, but it turns out to be only copper oxide. Nevertheless the trio persist in believing that gold abounds the mountains and streams of the Hunsrück.
Shortly after this, Paul, his father and several other men from the village are working in the forest when they find the naked body of a murdered woman. Paul is assigned to watch it while they summon the police.
Mathias asks Paul to make a trap to catch a pine marten that has been killing the family's hens. The following day Paul sets off for a beer but instead just keeps walking and disappears, abandoning his family, seemingly forever.
2: "The Centre of the World"/"Die Mitte der Welt" (1929-1933)