Old Wounds

Martin Kupfer, his West Berlin girlfriend Katja Wiese and two daughters have become a little patchwork family, even if Anna misses her old family life, and Lisa feels Martin isn’t supporting her career as a photo model enough. Martin has other worries: The order books at the furniture collective are full, and there’s lots of work. Martin’s brother Falk is in a wheelchair since Dunja Hausmann shot him. He struggles to deal with his paraplegia, in vain. He takes a job with West German insurance company Promittas, who secretly hope to use his skills as a former Stasi officer in conquering the East German market. Falk has taken on a new name to hide his past. His physiotherapist Petra Zeiler is impressed by her patient’s gumption and touched by his vulnerability. She was in jail for trying to escape for years, and was interrogated by the Stasi. When she and Falk grow closer thanks to the intimacy that comes with therapy, she has no idea about his real past. Hans Kupfer hopes society will come to grips with its past, and sees the changes going on as a new opportunity. His wife Marlene is worried about the future and tries to get him to use their old connections. Working with Stasi Lieutenant General Günther Gaucke, Marlene plans to hide the party’s wealth from the investigative committee.

Hans wants the Stasi records out in the open. As an active member of the civil rights movement, Vera Kupfer sees the upcoming People’s Chamber elections as a chance. After a protest, she’s approached by Bernd Krohnak, a member of the recently-founded Treuhand Holding Company for former East German property. Impressed by her integrity and conviction, he wants to recruit Vera for the Holding. As everyone watches the election results with bated breath, Lisa runs into the wrong people during a photo shoot at Milan. High on cocaine, she finds herself in a hotel room with a 50-year-old man.