The Keep (1983)

Jürgen Prochnow: Woermann

Photos 

Quotes 

• Captain Klaus Woermann : At Poznan, a year and a half ago, SS Einsatzkommando executed men, women and children. Children for God's sake! Ruthlessness? Courage?

  [whispers] 

  Captain Klaus Woermann : How many times in this Keep have you wet your bed?

  Major Kaempffer : Don't you talk to me about courage! Were you with the German anti-fascists fighting us in Spain? No! Did you stop the Einsatzkommando at Poznan? No! You have the debilitating German disease Woermann - Sentimental talk! It allows you to feel sensitive, superior, and yet stay safe because you take no action. Your sentimental suffering makes me sick!

  Captain Klaus Woermann : For once your right, Kaempffer. I'm only half a man. All that we are is coming out! Here in this Keep!

  [laughs] 

  Major Kaempffer : The man sees the truth.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : And what truth do you see? What are you discovering about yourself Kaempffer, uuh? "I murder all these people. Therefore, I must be powerful." And you smash them down only because that raises you up. It's a psychotic fantasy to escape the weakness and disease you sense in the core of your souls! You have scooped the most diseased psyches out of the German gutter! You have released the foulness that dwells in all men's minds! You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies! And from the millions of diseased mentalities that worship your twisted cross... What monstrosity has been released in this keep? Who are you meeting, Kaempffer, in the granite corridors of this keep?

  [pokes Kaempffer with his finger, whispers] 

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Yourself.

• Captain Klaus Woermann : What's all the shooting in the village, huh?

  Major Kaempffer : A civilian to be interrogated. He resisted, and was shot!

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Another civilian! The courageous Einsatzkommondo again is victorious!

• Alexandru : There's a 108 such crosses made of nickel imbedded in the walls of the Keep.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : You counted them? Or is it something you tell your tour customers...

  Alexandru : I am Alexandru. My sons and I work here. No one tours this place.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : I thought the Keep wasn't occupied.

  Alexandru : We go home at night. We live in the village.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Where is the owner?

  Alexandru : I have no idea.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Who is he?

  Alexandru : I don't know.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Who tells you what to do?

  Alexandru : We do what needs doing. My father spent his life doing it. His father before him and so on. My sons will continue after me.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Very well. You may continue your maintenance after we settle in.

  Alexandru : You cannot stay here.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : And why not?

  Alexandru : No one stays here.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : And who forbids it?

  Alexandru : No one forbids. Some travellers have stayed. We don't stop them. But no one stays the night.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Ghosts? Demons?

  Alexandru : No. No ghosts here.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Deaths then? Suicides?

  Alexandru : No one's ever died here.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Then what drives people out, in the middle of a rainy night?

  Alexandru : Dreams...

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Nightmares? Look, man, the real nightmares man has made upon other men in this war. The bad dreams of your Keep are nursery rhymes by comparison.

• Captain Klaus Woermann : [catching Lutz attempting to chisel out a cross]  Soldier, what's your assignment?

  Lutz : To string lights, sir.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Then what the hell are you doing? Answer!

  Lutz : The silver crosses, sir. There's talk among the men. They hide silver here. Treasure, sir.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : Private Lutz, it's been a profitable day for you! Not only have you learned the crosses are made of nickel, not silver, but you have earned yourself a place on first watch all week!

• Captain Klaus Woermann : Are you insane?

  Captain Klaus Woermann : SS-Einsatzkommondo, Sturmbannfuhrer Kaempffer is what I am! Captain Klaus Woermann is what you are!

• Captain Klaus Woermann : [looks at picture of young man]  Who's this?

  Dr. Cuza : My son. He died in Spain. Five years ago this month. Fighting on the republican side. Where you in Spain?

  Captain Klaus Woermann : If I were, I would have been in the Thälmann brigade. The anti-fascist Germans. Your son and I, we would have been fighting on the same side.

  [with sadness] 

  Captain Klaus Woermann : But, no, I wasn't.

• Captain Klaus Woermann : Who built the Keep?

  Alexandru : Some say Turks. Some say the warlords of ancient Wallachia.

  Captain Klaus Woermann : No, no, this is not a fortress. A soldier could walk up the outside wall. Why are the small stones on the outside and the large stones here in the interior? It's constructed... backwards. This place was not designed to keep something... out. What is this pleace?

  Alexandru : Who knows for sure...

• [first lines] 

  Captain Klaus Woermann : [to a soldier, looking at the Keep]  Your new home. How do you like it ?

• Captain Klaus Woermann : And what truth do you see? What are you discovering about yourself Kaempffer, uuh? "I murder all these people. Therefore, I must be powerful." And you smash them down only because that raises you up. It's a psychotic fantasy to escape the weakness and disease you sense in the core of your souls! You have scooped the most diseased psyches out of the German gutter! You have released the foulness that dwells in all men's minds! You have infected millions with your twisted fantasies! And from the millions of diseased mentalities that worship your twisted cross... what monstrosity has been released in this keep? Who are you meeting, Kaempffer, in the granite corridors of this keep?...

  [pokes Kaempffer with his finger, whispers] 

  Captain Klaus Woermann : ... Yourself.

• Alexandru : Never touch the crosses! Never!

  Captain Klaus Woermann : And why not?

  Alexandru : You must not stay here...

• Captain Klaus Woermann : [screams]  You murdered our Romanian citizens! We are an ally state!

  Major Kaempffer : Let's have an immediate understanding, Woermann. Because I give a damn about the death of a few communists.