Kairos

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses pregnancy loss.

Katharina listens to the sixth cassette tape from Hans, where he questions the point of continuing their relationship. He suggests that their relationship was already broken by the time she left for Frankfurt and criticizes her for pursuing someone as provincial as Vadim. Citing her capacity for self-deception, he urges her to stop pursuing her craft as an artist.

Katharina sometimes feels happier than she was at the start of their relationship, especially when Hans walks with her or reads to her from his new novel. Katharina’s friend Sibylle is arrested on suspicion of opposing the government, even though she simply chained her bicycle next to a church. Hans supports a resolution calling for government reform. Many of the signatories are younger people who want not to abolish the socialist government but to restore its ideals. Katharina agrees to design the costumes for a stage adaptation of the Book of Revelation scheduled for the summer next year.

In Berlin, preparations are underway for the anniversary of the founding of the GDR. Katharina leaves in the middle of a performance at the opera house to meet with