Her daughter Corinna advises her mother to have nothing to do with them, and points out the differing conditions enjoyed by the authorities and the people in the East.

Emma finds the article objectionable, but her daughter, who has embarked on an affair with Niemeyer, defends him on 'earning a living' grounds.

Emma Küsters now joins the Communist Party, having found Karl's newspaper article more sympathetic, but after Küsters speaks at her first DKP political gathering she meets a young male paper seller who claims to really have her interests at heart in clearing her husband's name.

She quickly grows impatient with the communists' passive tactics; they have to campaign in the forthcoming elections, Karl explains.

Fassbinder also clearly criticizes the small German Communist Party's moderation and "armchair activism".