I can't pull it up... Darn, darn, the wrong string...
HANDICAPPED FUTURE
THE SITUATION OF PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
There, now you almost have it, come on.
Real tight, tight Susanne, real tight!
There are a total of four and a half million handicapped people living in the FRG,
of those, four hundred and seventy thousand are school age children.
According to surveys, the majority of the German citizens...
don’t want to live with them. How are they living? And where?
And what do we know about them? Which opportunities does society give them?
Or is our behavior towards them perhaps an additional handicap?
Dagmar, how old are you? - Six.
And you go to school already? - Preschool.
Well, I don't play too much, at home,
a little bit.
But during sport in the afternoon...
I'm bored,
and then I paint...
or play something. - Do you think about things a lot,
or what do you do, for example in the afternoons?
In the afternoon, well,
then I just imagine things for myself.
What do you imagine?
Well, something about... also with Indians.
And... about walking...
if I could walk...
Yes, what would you do then? What do you imagine?
Well, I would bring Richard down to school.
You would bring Richard to school? - Yes. Downstairs.
Yes. - And then I would go walk up the stairs.
Because I'm afraid to use the elevator, alone.
So you would walk up the stairs?
And what else would you do? - Well, go inside,
then either paint something...
or walk around, or listen to records.
Well,
I don't exactly know...
Do you dream a lot? - Well, when my eyes are open, yes.
But afterwards,
around five, I run out of ideas to dream of.
So you don't dream much at night, but during the day?
Yes but... yes but then...
I can't think of anything to dream of. I don't notice it anyway.
And what do you dream about during the day? - During the day?
Well, what I said before, from the Indians and such.
Do you have friends here? - Yes.
Who, what's his name? - I think his name is Thomas.
What makes him different from you? - Hm...
He doesn't have any arms or feet.
Is what he has bad, or...? - Yes, it's bad. - Yes, they're disadvantaged.
But for you, he is just as much of a friend as someone whose arms are long,
or is he someone completely different for you? - It's hard to say, but...
he looks different. But actually he's the same,
except for the arms, the short ones... - What do you say?
He... he is almost the same as us,
only at birth he became different. - Do you think that that's bad,
or that it gives your friendship a different meaning?
Yes, it's bad, because they can't eat so well.
I see. - And they can't play well.
Have you had a lot of interaction with physically handicapped children?
Yes. - Can you tell us something about it, about your thoughts?
Yes, I even sit next to one at school. And she is quite good...
at gymnastics. But our teacher always does things, gives us things to do,
where she can't participate. Sometimes yes,
but not most of the time. And she is very, very good at writing.
If I want to, I can write too, but I don't write as well.
And dressing,
well, she needs to be helped a bit. And otherwise...
she is quite good, actually roundabout.
Are you her friend? - Yes.
In 1968, the Pfennigparade established a community facility here in Munich,
where for the first time an attempt was made to house physically handicapped people...
together with the healthy members of their families in specially furnished apartments...
instead of isolating them in institutional homes, as was up until then the case.
The complex includes an elementary school and a secondary school,
medical facilities, a gym...
and a workplace with computer facilities from the Siemens Company.
A second such house is being constructed adjacent to the first.
Gymnastic exercises are done here to train balance. Then without arms,
the perception of the body and of balance are completely different than we know it.
Turn around... Mhm... You stay seated, OK...
Then I have to jump off... - That's very good.
But I never did it before, did l? - Oh, I think you did.
Uh-uh... - When you were smaller,
I'm sure you did it. - Oh yes, in... in the Kapuziner Street.
We try to stimulate the children at least as much as in other schools,
actually I try to stimulate them even more,
so that they are not later...
employed on the basis of pity,
but on the basis of their qualifications, and therefore have a better chance...
to somehow enter into an occupation. And we have to see to it...
that all of the children learn an occupation,
because they can't just rely on pity...
their... life long.
Hey, stop it... you jerk.
Dagmar, why would you like to go to America?
Because I want to see the Indians. - Why the Indians?
Because I want to see them in real life. - Aha. Where have you seen them before?
In movies. - And what did they do?
They captured Shattrhand. - Really?
And the Sohn from Winnetou too. - Imagine that, imagine that...
And what happened then?
Um... then there was the time...
where Winnetou was supposed to die. - Aha. Yes and...
and uh... who is your favorite Indian?
I would say Winnetou. - Really?
And what else do you want to do in America besides look at Indians?
Hm...
What would you do if you saw an Indian?
Not much. - Not much?
What do you think that the Indians look like today?
What I think?
Yes, what you think. - They still have a headdress and feathers,
but they are just dressed like the white people.
Aha! So...
Today we have... I have brought you some more nice things.
No, he, he is a, he's "Kalbste",
or his name is something like that "Kalbe" or something...
Many practical things are difficult to access...
for the children due to their restricted freedom of movement.
Therefore there is a class especially for general knowledge in the school.
When asked, where the potatoes come from, one girl said:
from the potato mine. They have to first learn what a pine cone,
a horseshoe or a bank note is.
Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue, it's on the tip of my tongue...
That's a pine cone,
a fir cone. - Oh yes!
Ho... ho... horseshoe from a horse!
Wow, Gunter is right. - I knew that too.
You knew that? - That's what I meant... you have to...
Give it to me, I know where to put it! - Well, then!
That, that has to go down there on the feet, like that.
Like that...
And then you heat it up and it gets welded,
they weld it,
and then something gets put on it,
and when it's finished, then they put it,
they put it, uh, down someplace,
and then they put it,
on the hands, and, I mean on the horses, over them,
but actually, that hurts them...
to walk around barefoot...
Good! Do you think that that is a hundred mark bill?
That... that... yes...
Is this a hundred mark bill? - Yes!
And can you buy something with it? - Not, no.
No, you can only buy something with it in English. - Only in English?
Or in Africa, you can do it there... - In Africa? Do you think, that that...
Just who is that there? Do you think that this is our President?
Yes. - Yes?
Yes, that's him. Look, he has a round face!
He isn't for real! - I have another one here,
what could that be?
A five hundred, a five hundred!
A six hundred! - What was that?
A six hundred. - Hundreds of? - Marks.
Is that so, you think that that is so much money...
Can you tell us what you do to take Monika out in public?
Yes, first of all, we go shopping with her,
besides that we take her wherever we go, we drive up to the mountains...
or to the lakes with her or take her into restaurants for lunch.
And above all, we maintain...
contact to families...
that have children with normal limbs
so that she grows up amongst normal people.
Now she's going again, uh, recently to a swimming course and uh,
they were also in a skiing course, Moni and Hansi...
and Helma, three of the children from the house,
the other children didn't participate in the ski course.
Well, uh, how do people react if you ski without poles,
what do the people say to you then?
Mostly the small children around seven or six,
they come over and ask, for example,
why don't we have any poles and such. And then we stand up for ourselves
and just say that that's the way it is...
and try to get rid of them. Because they just bother us.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the misconduct of outsiders?
Yes, especially when we go for a walk or even in a shop, the people stare.
I think it's more the older ones, the oldest generation even,
like around sixty or seventy,
not the forty year olds, and that is of course always very painful.
Yesterday I was, for example, taking a walk with the two of them.
They didn't notice that Monika didn't have any arms...
because she was wearing al little cape, but Andrea was wearing a cape too...
but she had her arms out. And I could notice...
that the people were constantly staring at Andrea, although Andrea...
is really such a nice, healthy girl.
Well, and maybe they think that Monika can't do anything,
I know that from one of our neighbors,
who has often been asked what Monika does all day long.
And she always said that she can do this and that and whatever.
People maybe have the idea that the children sit around the apartment...
and can't play nor eat nor write.
So, does anyone need anything else?
OK, the first self-portrait is hanging on the wall.
Who did that? Rudi? - Shh, now we've hung it up.
Afterwards we'll think about who it is...
Mrs. Gartenberg, what should I paint now, I'm finished with my picture.
Oh, I've forgotten my hair.
Do you remember that we drew ourselves...
already once last year? - Mhm. - The carnival picture? Yes?
How did you draw yourself there? Today's picture is completely different.
In that picture I have, I have a very, I drew a very colorful patchwork skirt.
Yes and how did you look, how did you draw yourself?
I think that this picture is very different from last year's picture.
I've painted it a bit more clearly now, and the face,
I've done that very differently, and I've made the hair very messy.
Mhm. Well the greatest difference to last year,
is that it is more differentiated. Last year she drew herself more babyish,
but with normally developed limbs and she didn't leave out her toes.
In the meantime, she is more conscious about her type of handicap...
and the toes have taken on a greater importance.
The first self-portrait is hanging, everybody look here now! - Nice.
Who knows who this is? - l... I... I know it...
Who is it, Robert? - Rudi.
Rudi, what do you think is very characteristic of yourself? - The hands.
Well, what is it especially that you notice there?
Well, I only have three fingers on one hand and four on the other.
Exactly. That's how I would have recognized you too, right. Good.
Gitti, look at me.
Listen, you painted pictures of yourselves today in art, right?
This girl painted a picture of herself...
and then wanted the finished picture back so that she could paint in some tears...
Do you like it? - Not bad. - You think it's not bad.
Do you think that the picture looks like you? Yes?
The face is pink, I can see that, yes.
And brown eyes, that's right too, but what is the blue there?
Those are the tears. - Oh, those are the tears.
First you gave me the picture without the blue.
Do you remember? And then you wanted it back, right?
Why did you paint tears on it? - I don't know.
Why did you paint tears on it?
Is there a reason?
When you go away from home, then you cry sometimes.
Did you go away from home recently?
Were you home on the weekend? - Mmh... - No, not.
Were you thinking about it?
I have some of the pictures from the children here, from some of the children...
here in front of me, where a big problem is noticeable,
namely the problem of isolation, that the children feel of course.
For example here, this picture, this is from an eleven year old girl.
She draws herself down here, incidentally not handicapped,
but rather completely healthy, but isolated from...
these are three fish here, from life around her,
around which she draws a circle to encapsulate it. And I have...
a very interesting picture here...
from a ten year old boy, he draws himself,
well not himself, but a snake behind bars, in prison.
And he told me, when I asked him what the meaning was,
he said: Well, that is a boy that the snake just gave birth to.
And the bars in front show how he feels.
He just feels as if he is imprisoned through his physical handicap...
and he feels isolated from the other playmates, from the environment.
And the same child painted here, as well, a prison in the rocky overhang,
this here should depict a rocky overhang, and this is the prison,
and there's nothing other than that on the picture except his name, Robert.
His name, Robert, is up here. It is always the same image...
that is communicated by the children, the isolation, the loneliness.
Hey Bodo, wait, catch me.
Bodo, too bad that I have this apparatus on,
because if I didn't I could show you my handstand.
Yeah? Oh, too bad.
No, that won't work, I can't.
Or should I try it with the apparatus... it works, no, it doesn't... uah...
The problem of isolation is not terribly noticeable on the playground.
The question remains, if the construction of the community facility...
can eliminate the isolation at all.
How old are you, Kurti? - I'm ten now. Ten years old, yes.
He turned ten in August. - On August twenty-first.
And how is it here, how do your pals treat you?
Well, none of my pals are here. - Badly, from those his own age.
Only from the little ones, from the little ones,
the second, third grade, it's alright with them. With those...
who are in his class, they don't accept him at all.
They call him the little mashed guy, or the electronic dwarf...
and give him other such names. And that makes me angry.
He comes home namely often during the week and tells me about these things.
And it makes me angry. - Do you go out, for example, with Kurti...
maybe to a restaurant? - Oh, I haven't done that often.
Why not? - Well, I'd rather avoid the excitement. I'm a nervous wreck...
and I just can't take it, it's too much excitement,
so if I can avoid it, I avoid it.
And why do you do that? - Well, like I said,
the excitement, the, the, the staring, the whispering.
You notice that when you're sitting at a table...
and the whole restaurant is staring at you.
And then they whisper and gossip and you know exactly why.
That upsets me. Then I have to get up and go.
So I don't go there in the first place. I'll say, "Let's go for a walk this afternoon,
today is a lovely day", but he rejects it every time...
because he says, "no", he says to me, "No Mama, I won't go with you...
because you get yourself much too upset". He goes with his sister and with his brother.
He goes with them, but not with me. Because he wants to keep me from getting upset,
he understands that, you know. So he doesn't...
With me he doesn't go anywhere. - Do you suffer as a result?
Yes... terribly, terribly, I'm already emotionally distressed.
Emotionally I'm... it's ruined me. Emotionally it has brought me...
to my wit's end, the way they react, the...
So, when you're out with Kurt in the department store, for example?
Well of course they could, and there are some, if they had enough tact,
then they do it too, but some of them, they have none whatsoever.
And how is that situation? - How the situation is?
First of all, they stare at you directly, and then they say something stupid to you.
Some of them come to you with the stupidest things. They say something dumb.
Well, is that a Thalidomide child and why did you take that stuff,
that's what I have to listen to. I didn't take anything
while I was pregnant and this child will blame you some day...
and so on, that's the kind of thing you have to listen to. - In front of Kurt?
In front of Kurt. They say it in front of Kurt. Of course they say it.
Just don't listen to them. - "Don't listen to them"... Of course I don't listen to them.
I have to plug my ears shut outside.
Well and then... - What about during the birth? - During the birth? How he was born?
Well, I didn't see him at all. They didn't show him to me at all.
They only told me briefly, "The child is not properly developed."
I couldn't imagine what they meant.
Then, they took him away from the clinic. And then he stayed ten weeks long,
until he was there every day, in the Lachner Institutional Home, and then I said,
now I'll just try to see if I can take the child myself.
The treatment will be quite difficult, then you can still do it.
But everything went just marvelously, just marvelously.
And then the winter came... - And why were you so shocked?
When I picked the child up from the children's clinic to take him home,
and I hadn't seen him once before then,
and I was all alone, abandoned, completely alone, and then...
you should take the child out of the baby carriage, and you should unbundle it,
and you should look at it or not, and I thought hard,
should you or shouldn’t you, but there was no other choice.
I can't leave it in the baby carriage the whole year long.
I have to take it out. Then I took it out and unbundled it on the couch...
in the living room, and I saw what happened to him.
Without anyone telling me anything before or showing me the child.
I hadn't seen the child before and it was a terrible shock.
And then I was happy that it was winter, now the child can lie in the baby carriage,
now you can cover it up, now nobody can see anything,
but then, when the spring came and the child, then it was,
then you can't cover it up to its neck.
Did you try to hide him? - Yes, I did,
I never took him out. I only had him in the bedroom,
towards the window, and then there was the social worker, she came to visit me...
every two weeks, she looked after me very well.
And what about now? Do you still try to hide Kurt?
Well, of course if I have to take him someplace,
then I am terribly excited, shopping, because of the way...
the people stare and whisper.
Do you like to go on walks with your mother...
or to a department store or something?
Alone, yes. I once went alone to Rewe.
He goes alone to Rewe... - But with Mama, well...
first of all, it's a long way if I have to walk, and second,
I don't like to go with the stroller because the people stare and think,
"Oh! Such a big lad sitting in a stroller..."
He sits in a baby carriage and then they stare, right. -...and they stare.
And if I walk, then they can see it... then they can see with their own eyes...
that I can walk. - And then they once said, aren't you ashamed,
such a big lad like you sitting in a baby carriage?
That was in wintertime and he was covered, they didn't see the legs,
and someone said these dumb things to us in passing.
Aren't you ashamed such a big lad and you let yourself be pushed in a baby carriage.
He was shocked. He pulled back his head and closed his eyes,
he was so shocked at what the man had said. And I thought to myself,
my God, what a stupid idiot, I thought, if you only knew why,
you wouldn't be asking me. I can't wear a sign...
around my neck that explains why.
And that's why, if I can, I just avoid going out with him.
Mrs Hennes, can you tell us a little bit about Dagmar?
Yes, Dagmar was born with a double femur fracture...
and was brought directly to the clinic, to the respective children's clinic.
And Dagmar came home, quite a while ago,
when she was two and a half or almost three,
and was completely frightened, spoke very little,
was afraid of strangers
and screamed during the night without any apparent reason,
and it cost my husband and I quite a lot of patience and effort...
to slowly explain to the child that it was now in an environment...
where it wouldn't have any more pain, where she would be cared for gently,
where she would also be loved...
and not only tended to, which was also very important.
We told both children, Richard and Dagmar,
as soon as they were consciously aware of their handicap,
immediately what was wrong with them, how the chances are,
so that they were able to learn quickly to live with their handicap.
Especially in order...
to give them a positive outlook on life,
so that they learn to get around in spite of their handicap.
They have family duties, they help me,
they wash the dishes by themselves, it's possible here,
dry them and help clean up, they keep their rooms tidy,
and we think that it is absolutely necessary that they have duties...
and responsibilities within the family,
because, if you don't demand anything of them,
then I would say that you would raise them to be apathy in a wheelchair.
We have just spoken about the handicapped environment. It seems...
as if the handicapped practically belong to a group.
Yes, it shouldn't be like that. The illness should be,
in my opinion, treated as a secondary matter.
More so, because the illness in itself...
well, it debilitates one, in that it isn't possible to run so quickly
or that you have to take care of your health more than others, perhaps,
but I think that is completely secondary,
because a physically handicapped person, in my opinion,
is just as capable at work or in life as anyone else.
And that should... and the education should be done accordingly, should lead there.
And what is being done wrong here?
It's miserable for the physically handicapped in other places as well...
But I think that it's the same everywhere, because I was in another institution,
and I'd say it was almost worse there.
Ludwig, can you tell us about this film project, please?
Yes, we had the idea, rather, I had the idea and suggested it to the others,
that we should steal something from Wertkauf or some other department store...
and simultaneously film it. And we wanted to show...
how people react to the physically handicapped.
Like, that they aren't considerate, at best stare at them and say:
Look at the poor fools, or other stupid comments.
And why didn't you make the film?
Well, I can't film and steal at the same time, and the others wouldn't do it.
Well, even if the people had noticed our little theft action,
I don't think that they would come over to us and say,
what did you take there or something.
They are constantly surrounded by an invisible barrier,
and they have to somehow overcome themselves...
before they can speak with us at all.
And I think, that with cheaper things that could be stolen,
they would, should they notice, disregard it completely.
With more expensive things, they would get caught up...
in a moral dilemma with themselves.
Pity might play a role, but it's not only pity.
They just don't know enough about us or they think that we're abnormal.
Since we're always kept in institutions.
That's why we seem abnormal, because it's so seldom that we get out.
It's like when the crazies are on leave.
"Why don't you address the chemical factory that sold Thalidomide...
without having tested it beforehand. Here's where the real guilty ones are,
for whom the taxpayers have to fork over money for now. Besides:
euthanasia would be a blessing for the poor creatures that have been affected,
they would be released from their suffering...
that can not be considered a life worth living. A friend of humanity."
What do you think about that? - A great friend of humanity...
How does that have anything to do with being a friend of humanity...
if you murder another human being... or kill them in a humane fashion.
...a release, right.
Have you come up against something like this often, an attitude like this?
Yes, oftentimes.
Hansi has a good example, he was there... - Yes, that was at Sonnenzug,
Georg had a respirator, but some difficulties.
And there was a paramedic standing in the doorway and he says to a nurse:
Oh, those poor ones, it would be better if they met a quick end...
before they have to suffer so much. And he said it so loud...
that Georg could hear it. He did, too.
In order to find a future that isn't made more difficult by society,
a physically handicapped person must perhaps go sometimes as far as California.
Living there is the young German scientist, Adolf Ratzka,
who contracted polio at seventeen and spent several months in an iron lung.
Even today he uses an artificial respirator during the night.
However, he is able to work as a Scientific Assistant specialized in Social Sciences...
at the State University of California...
due to the difference of willing acceptance of the people here...
and through the use of technical aids.
Presently, he works in the state redevelopment programs.
The handicapped have been integrated here,
and all of the public buildings are accessible with ramps.
The doorways have no thresholds,
and there are small ramps throughout all of the sidewalks.
This is Adolf Ratzkas room in a student dormitory.
His roommate overtakes the work of washing and dressing him.
Otherwise, Adolf Ratzka is practically independent.
The attitude towards a physically handicapped person here...
is substantially more unprejudiced as in Germany.
A handicapped person is accepted here, and he lives together with others...
just like someone who might have broken a leg in our country.
This is the respirator that is hooked up during the night.
During the day, breathing is a conscious activity.
Purely structurally, I would say...
that maybe because the country here and the city is younger,
as for example Munich, where I was previously,
that there is an absence of architectural obstructions...
Like those I found in Munich.
The houses here don't have any pompous stairways for the most part,
public buildings all have elevators...
and in publicly sponsored buildings,
facilities for wheelchair users are mandatory.
What I noticed here, was that the Americans, as far as I have gotten to know them,
confront the matter of disability with a much more objective attitude.
You don't sense pity...
or Christian mercy here - thank God.
In this achievement-oriented society...
one is judged by what one can do.
In my opinion - besides the purely...
physical things like therapy...
and technical aids such as wheelchairs,
electric wheelchairs and above all cars -
the most important thing is to give the handicapped a goal that they can achieve.
Another case, that I am not familiar with personally, but through my work,
is a professor on the University of Wisconsin...
who is so crippled...
that he has to turn the pages of his books...
with a long wooden stick...
that he holds in his mouth. And I've been told...
that it looks pretty wild when, surrounded by his assistants,
he swirls through the pages with this wooden stick.
He teaches, he is active in research,
appears often at conferences and in addition, he is a businessman...
who runs a successful building company.
If the integration in an achievement-oriented society...
should be the only worthwhile goal, is questionable, of course,
because there are many who cannot or will not achieve this.
This is Adolf Ratzka's car. A technology class reconstructed...
a normal delivery car for him as their semester project...
and it is now simple to rebuild it from the applied basic concept.
Now I buckle my wheelchair into my car,
so that I don't slide while I'm driving.
I drive the car completely with my hands,
all of the controls are up here.
And my left hand is somewhat weaker,
that's why I drive with the right hand.
I have very sensitive power steering.
With the left hand I control the brakes,
this turning movement is the brake.
Here, on the manometer, I can read the respective pressure level...
that still remains. This here is the gas.
I have an automatic clutch,
very simple. Up here is the horn.
Down here is a short wave radio, just in case...
the car breaks down and I need help...
I can contact radio hams...
on the same channel.
Well, and here is the key.
On the Los Angeles Highway, Adolf Ratzka...
is no different from any other driver on the road.
Here in California he has been granted mobility and social participation.
In ten years, this girl will be twenty years old.
Only, the way things are, her future prospects look rather bleak.
It will probably take a long time until the Federal Republic of Germany...
attains a status that is generally achieved in the USA,
because it is less an issue of means and more an issue of alternative thinking.
Until then, we will only be able to offer handicapped children...
a handicapped future.