The German language has some heroically long words – Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, for example.
It also has some that are exquisite in their succinctness and challenging in their resistance to simple translation – Heimat, for example.
You could say “homeland”, but you’d be well off the mark.
Closer would be ” love and attachment to homeland” in the way that people are bound to their heimat by their birth, their childhood, their language and their earliest experiences.
Edgar Reitz, a German filmmaker, draws strongly on the concept for his made-for-TV 30 episodic films spread over 3 series ( a total of over 50 hours) in which he follows a fictitious family and village in the Hunsrück from 1919 to 1999.
It regularly drew audiences of 10 million when first shown on network television in Germany and is listed as one of Stanley Kubrick’s favourite films.
Praise indeed.
The third series featured the restoration of a derelict half-timbered house as a central theme.
And that’s today’s story.
Edgar Reitz wanted a house as a film prop positioned high above the Rhine close to Oberwesel and called on Uwe Rumeney, owner of Ars Ligni, and a specialist in preserving and restoring half-timbered houses and someone we know fairly well, to a) find an appropriate building, b) deconstruct it, c) erect in overlooking the Rhine and d0 decostruct it again at the end of filming.
Which is what he does for a living.
Part of it, anyway.
He’d already saved an utterly unloved house dating back to 1780 from destruction and deconstructed it, keeping the beams for later use on his massive storage area.
Just what Edgar Reitz wanted.
When it came time for the second deconstruction after the film was in the can, up pops Elke Bolland, saying “Hang on a minute, this would make a great restaurant…..”
Which is what it is to this day as the Günderodehaus.
And this is the view.
Not bad, eh
Mainz Daily Photo 
been there, done that – the restaurant is nice, if you’re a hungry wanderer along the high rim of the Rhine valley. I truly wish them all the success in the world to continue to keep Heimat alive. We all have become part of the plot now.
A great story as only you can tell. How’s the food?
V
I remember learning about the word heimat a long long time ago.
The story around the house, and the views, are amazing.
Compounding of nouns…indeed! Thanks for the links–enjoyed them. The restaurant has an interesting history. During your narrative I wondered why the buildings would be deconstructed again after so much work…guess someone benefitted! The restaurant looks terrific!