All language subtitles for Missile.from.the.East.2022.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.E

[CHEERING CROWDS]

[HUGH ANDERSON]:
It's dead silence.

A hundred thousand people there.
Didn't register.

It is absolutely another world.

The concentration levels
are so high

it's a sort of
spiritual mental state.

Nothing can stop you.

By accepting death,
you lose the fear of it.

That's Grand Prix racing.

[TOMMY ROBB]:
Degner was a spectacular rider.

A very, very fast rider.

[LOTHAR REESE]:

[STROMHARDT KRAFT]:

[OLAF DEGNER]:
My father was a racing driver.

It was all racing.

This was his life.

He was a star in East Germany...

but he definitely thought

he would get a better life
in the West.

[LOADING AND PLAYING AUDIO
CASSETTE]

I was born on
22nd September 1931

in Gleiwitz,
which is now Poland.

[DISTANT SOUNDS OF WARFARE]

My father died a few days before
the end of the war.

And then we had to emigrate
from Poland.

[ROCKETS BEING LAUNCHED]

When the Russians
were conquering again

parts that Germans
had conquered before,

when they came back,

then all these people
who were Germans

flew to be saved
from the Russian troops,

and there he was also then
with his mother

and his sister,
fleeing in this track.

[ERNST DEGNER]:
We went to East Germany,

settled down there,

then half a year later
my mother died

so, I was 14-years-old
without any parents.

He'd had a tough upbringing.

I wouldn't have wanted to be
an orphan in East Germany

at the end of the war.

It was a shocking place
after the war.

Absolutely awful.

All those eastern countries
were bombed and bashed

by the Russians and the Germans.

East Germany was just
completely trashed.

[OLAF]: I could see that he had
a very tough childhood.

His father was extremely strong.

He tried to educate Ernst
by beating him.

I think this is a very dark
part of his life.

[WARPLANES FLYING OVERHEAD]

From Stettin in the Baltic
to Trieste in the Adriatic

an iron curtain has
descended across the continent.

[ARCHIVE REPORTER]:
Nikita Khrushchev made it clear

he believed the communist world
could bury the West.

Even if there were only
one communist

in the State Department,

that would still be
one communist too many.

[ARCHIVE REPORTER]: The Soviet
Union launches Sputnik One

on October 4th 1957.

[TREMENDOUS SOUNDS OF ROCKET
LAUNCH]

[ARCHIVE REPORTER]:
Two atomic colossi

are doomed malevolently

to eye each other indefinitely
across a trembling world.

[ANNA FUNDER]: There was
competition at every level.

Eastern bloc athletes
competing in the west

was enormously important.

The communist regimes
were very intent

on proving that their way
of being

and of running things,
of running a society

was superior in every way.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

[MURRAY WALKER]:
MZ was an East German

motorcycle racing company.

If you were an East German

you aspired to having
a motorcycle

and MZ made those motorcycles.

[ROBB]: Walter Kaaden was
an exceptional engineer.

He was probably the person
who advanced 2-strokes

faster than anybody else did.

[HAMMER TAPPING]

[NORBERT KAADEN]:

[MUSIC]

[WALKER]: He harnessed the
harmonics of the exhaust system,

which made the engine
a lot more efficient.

[KAADEN]:

[KRAFT]:

[ROBB]:
It was all done so low-key.

They weren't a monied
company.

The materials they used
weren't the best materials

because they were limited behind
the Iron Curtain in those days.

They looked a bit tinny.

[KRAFT]:

[ROBB]: Ernst I could tell
admired Kaaden greatly,

so he did,

but I could also tell that
Kaaden admired Degner greatly

because of his ability
as a rider.

And of course as an engineer.

When you were watching them
together

it was almost like a father
and son relationship,

he was that close to him.

[KRAFT]:

[OLAF]: They saw that he is not
only a good racer,

he would also be a very big part

of the development
of the engines.

[KRAFT]:

[ANDERSON]: The innovation
was absolutely incredible.

[ROBB]:
They were 2-stroke wizards.

[TROOPS MARCHING]

[TANKS ROLLING]

[FUNDER]:
East Germany was a small nation

that came out of the ashes
of fascism

and the Second World War

and that was, in theory,
trying to create

a fairer non-fascist,
non-capitalist world.

But East Germany had...

an extreme system of repression
of its own people.

In those days,
it was frightening.

Quite brutal.

The GDR was an extraordinarily
intrusive

malicious surveillance state.

[WALKER]: There was
an organisation called the Stasi

in East Germany,

which was in effect
the secret police.

Everybody in East Germany was
informing on everybody else

because that was the culture,
sadly and tragically,

that existed.

[RITA PERRIS]: "Shut your mouth.
Don't speak."

You have to live
like a mouse.

You just keep schtum.

[FUNDER]: You could do nothing
without being spied on.

You could do nothing without
having it reported back

to the government.

They wanted to keep everything
literally under control

and everyone under control.

[OLAF]: My father was observed
by the Stasi all the time.

If my father was meeting
a known or unknown,

some Stasi person,

this person was writing down

all the conversation
he had with him.

To give it to the party members.

[CLICKETY-CLACK OF OLD
TYPEWRITER]

[FUNDER]: People tried to
live a normal life

in abnormal or extreme
circumstances.

[KRAFT]:

[OLAF]: He had a very special
status in East Germany.

He enjoyed getting
special treatments.

[OLAF]: They also gave my mother
a job at MZ

so they both could be together
in the same company.

He had a better car
than everybody else,

and he could travel to the west,
which normal people couldn't.

But compared to what he saw
in West Germany

it was still very little.

[PASSPORT STAMP]

[TRAVELLING MUSIC]

[KRAFT]:

[ROBB]:
For Ernst then to come back

from behind
a restricted country,

that must have been like
us going to Disneyland.

I remember them feeling
very out of place.

Chelira and Mondal and MV

and all the top names in Italy
were there then,

so you were really
going into the country

and the world

that was at the top
of the Grand Prix racing scene.

[WALKER]: MZ were hardly known
and little thought of

and certainly not thought
highly of.

They were persona non grata

in the motorcycle racing world
after the war.

[ROBB]: Jimmy Matsumiya was
an absolute gentleman.

He came over
as Suzuki's representative.

He was always
dressed immaculately.

My name is James Akira
Matsumiya.

And for the British, I'm Jimmy.

I was at the Italian Grand Prix
circuit of Monza.

Suzuki wasn't successful.

I had to bring
Suzuki's performance up,

but I didn't know what to do.

[ROBB]:
Ernst got a very good start.

He was first
into the first corner.

[OLAF]: He won by inches against
the Italian hero Ubbiali

in a very nose to nose race.

"It was very exciting" he said.

He was telling me the story
quite often.

[JIMMY MATSUMIYA]:
I was trying very hard

to find out the secret
of why MZ is so strong.

My job is to make Suzuki
company successful.

So I started to look at
Ernst Degner.

[ROBB]: That was making Ernst
a star rider.

This high speed missile

that was coming out of
East Germany.

The name Degner and the name MZ
were becoming rapidly known.

People were starting to look
at these...

hand-beaten aluminium bikes

from behind the Iron Curtain.

[CLACKING OF OLD TYPEWRITER]

Ernst Degner was projected
into a world

of international motorcycle
racing,

which took him out of
East Germany

into countries
all over the world

where the standard of living

was infinitely higher than
the one he was used to.

I believe that Degner,

as a member of
the Communist State

and as a top motorcycle racer

was actually paid a sort of
basic wage.

So seeing people like
Jim Redman, Tom Phillis,

Mike Hailwood, Phil Read

who had loads of money,
loads of status,

must have hit Degner

like throwing a bucket of
cold water at him.

[SLOW WHIRR OF OLD CINE
PROJECTOR]

[TYPING]

[ROBB]: He would've liked to
have been in the west

because of the freedom
that we had.

He would love to
have been with us

every weekend
with no restrictions.

Not being watched.
Not being kept back.

[OLD FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

He could see then...

that life on the other side of
the curtain

might be interesting.

I think this was a time when
they started to think about

trying to find a way to escape.

[LIVELY MUSIC]

[WALKER]:
The Isle of Man TT

is the greatest
motorsport event in the world.

It is totally
and absolutely unique.

The circuit goes through
towns and villages.

[ROBB]: The hazards were
the fact that you had hedges,

ditches, trees, garden gates,
ordinary roads.

And it's hurt me
so many, many times.

When you hit something solid,
that was it.

[MATSUMIYA]: Mr Suzuki came
to the Isle of Man.

And he said, "Jimmy, we must win
the motorcycle racing in Europe.

Then people will recognise that

Japanese motorcycle
is worth buying."

So, my job was...

to try to bring
Suzuki's performance up to

the level of MZ.

[ROBB]: At the TT, I was staying
in the same guest house,

the Fernleigh Hotel,

along with Jimmy, Degner,
and the other riders.

Jimmy Matsumiya -
he was ambitious.

He was determined
to get Suzuki to the top.

[MATSUMIYA]:
I was at the bar.

And then I bumped into
Ernst Degner.

I said, "Entschuldigung".

He said,
"You, you spoke German!"

So I said, "Yes.
I learnt German in school."

So my association with Degner
had started.

[ROBB]: In those days, they had
a chief commissar with them,

Herr Hartmann, who watched
their every move.

And he had the ability to stop
that race meeting for them

and take them back home.

[COMMENTATOR]:
These East German 2-strokes,

radically altered
in the engine departments

are sounding terrific.

[ROAR OF MOTORBIKE]

And here's Ernst Degner
on his East German MZ.

Degner had broken
the lap record in practice.

[WALKER]: The BBC did the TT
in the Isle of Man...

and I used to go round
all the individual camps

and I talked to Degner.

And he certainly had a lot
inside his head

as a rider and a mechanic

and someone who had worked
very closely with Walter Kaaden.

[MOTORBIKE ROARS PAST]

[WALKER ON COMMENTARY]:
There were three

Japanese Suzukis,

but they had been in trouble
during practice.

None of these seemed to have
any chance of winning.

[ERNST]: Well, we had known
in the MZ team

two or three people
from the Communist Party.

So Matsumiya and I
had to talk together

very secret.

[MATSUMIYA]: One day,
when he was in my room

Degner said, "Jimmy,
I love jazz, do you like jazz?"

So I said, "Yes, I used to play
drums."

[HE IMITATES DRUMS]

I got the gramophone.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

I intentionally made the volume
of the jazz music higher,

and we are talking.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

I never thought he knew
jazz song.

[MELLOW JAZZ]

Degner and myself put together
through the music.

Degner was trying desperately
to escape from Eastern Germany.

[CIGARETTE LIGHTER]

At that time,
I'd made up my mind

that we must get
some technology from MZ

one way or another.

We must have a better engine.

So I was trying to build up
the relationship.

I thought that Degner
is important to us.

Degner started to feel that
I am trustworthy friend.

One day after dinner,

Degner and myself
went to the top of the cliff,

to the edge of the land.

You can see
there's nobody around.

I still remember
it was very windy

and the sea was very rough.

[CRASHING WAVES]

And when we are looking
at the sea...

Degner said,
"Jimmy, beyond there,

there's civilisation.

Britain, America, even further
you have Japan.

I have only one way
to go back.

To the small cage
called Eastern Germany,

where I don't have any freedom
whatsoever."

[CRASHING WAVES]

I feel sorry for him.

So I said, "Ernst, I can give
you my word of honour...

you have money waiting for you
when you defect.

Now, how shall we construct
your defection plan?"

Everybody is compromised

in the way that the State
is compromised.

And in that sense
it broke people.

Both the people who
worked for it,

who were kind of...
morally broken

and the people that
they oppressed.

We know now that Kaaden
was a part of the Stasi.

So even, let's say, one of
his friends, his team mate,

who was always around him

was observing him.

He didn't have a choice, did he?

He wouldn't have been in the job
if he hadn't said yes.

If he'd said, "No, I don't agree
to doing all this",

Kaaden wouldn't have been
an engineer.

This was a regime

that effectively used fear
as fuel

and it ran on betrayal.

It asked of people
to betray themselves

and to betray the most
fundamental relationships

in their lives.

[ROBB]:
Any top rider

desired the World Championship.

And Ernst was a very, very
determined person.

[KRAFT]:

[WALKER]: Because East Germany
and the Iron Curtain countries

were deprived of
the spectacle

of top international
motorcycle racing

they got the most enormous
crowds there.

[KRAFT]:

[OLAF]: He was so close to being
world champion

but he was sick of not doing
what he wanted to do

and when he was doing something

then it was only Kaaden
and the higher people

that was getting
the benefit out of it.

He wanted to have
his own decisions

rather than be controlled
by them.

[ARCHIVE REPORTER]: The
attention of an anxious world

is focussed on East
and West Germany and Berlin.

The last great exodus of
refugees from the east

is processed at
the Marienfelde Centre

as the Communist German regime
moves to close their border

against further flights.

Once the East Germans
are processed

they are absorbed

into the hungry West German
labour market.

Young people were leaving
in droves.

Some ex-East Germans
have described it to me

as a haemorrhage.

There were checkpoints,

but they were very permeable
on a daily basis.

People went back and forth.

[MATSUMIYA]: During that period,
Berlin Wall is not created yet.

So the people in East Berlin

can commute with western Berlin

through the underground.

It was before
the government started

to tighten up the loophole.

[ERNST]: It was easy,
you just took the underground

from East Berlin to West Berlin,
and you were there.

[MATSUMIYA]: My idea was
to meet with Degner

in the western side of Berlin.

And one day Degner said,

"Jimmy, we will try to come out
to the west."

Now, Degner started to prepare
for the defection.

They wanted to leave
as soon as possible.

[MATSUMIYA]:
So, I went to Berlin...

and meet with him
in the western side

of the underground.

So, about 10 o'clock
I went to the station.

Not this train, OK, next train,
next train, next train.

I was just sitting there,
waiting.

He did not come.

When I came back to the hotel,
I received a telephone call

from somebody unknown,

who claims that actually
he's a friend of Degner.

And he said, "You are waiting
for Degner, aren't you?

And Degner isn't coming."

He said, "It is too dangerous."

"The wall will be built
within two days."

Degner stopped talking to me.

So I had to come back to the UK.

[FUNDER]:
Overnight, the guards came

and started building a wall
through the city,

the heart of the city of Berlin

and around the eastern sector

to wall in
the eastern part of the capital.

And at the same time then
they fortified the border

between East Germany
and West Germany.

[FUNDER]: People were leaping
from windows

in their apartment buildings

when they could see the guards
and the sandbags

and the dogs and the barbed wire
outside their window.

People were separated
from their jobs.

They were separated from
family members

for years, for decades.

It was a desperate measure

and that really cut through
people's lives.

[KRAFT]:

[OLD-FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

His family, his wife
and his children

were not allowed
to accompany him.

They were in effect the ransom.

[ROBB]:
Gerda wasn't one of those people

who you would notice.

She stayed very much
in the background.

Very quiet, very reserved.

Spent a lot of time with
her little boy

at the race meetings, obviously.

She was devoted to Ernst.

[OLAF]: My mother is
a strong personality.

She would influence you
that you do it

without her telling you to do.

She was putting pressure on him

when they saw that
the wall was going up.

Then she, she thought
it is time now to go.

My father also wanted to go

but I think my mother
was pushing.

[ERNST]: The western side
is completely closed.

Nobody is able to go over to
West Berlin or West Germany

and then I had to change
my plan.

I had to concentrate,

not only for raising up to
the end of season for MZ,

but also to bring my family over

and try to leave in the best way
from East Germany

via Sweden
for the Swedish Grand Prix.

The he started to tell me,

"OK, next possibility is
Kristianstad in Sweden."

But at the same time, his wife
and children will be defecting

from Eastern Germany
to Western Germany.

The plan on the defection
Degner told me in detail.

Eastern Germany
exports lots and lots

of large tree trunks.

And there are
special transporter

and in the centre,
there's a small cavity

that was made
which is not accessible

through the outside.

And his wife and sons
are supposed to be inside.

[FUNDER]:
That had to be

an absolutely secret operation.

Or you could be in prison
just for planning it.

The risks were enormous.

If Gerda had been caught
trying to defect

the children would be separated
from their parents.

They were put into
state institutions

and often they were adopted

by leading SED, Communist Party
or Stasi cadre.

And then brought up as
good model socialist citizens.

[OLAF]:
The border was pretty drastic.

They didn't want people
going out or coming in.

[ROBB]: From West Germany
to East Germany

we had to go through guards

with sub machine guns

sticking the machine gun through
the window to question you.

When you looked out
the other window

there was a gunning tower

with a machine gun watching
all the traffic coming in.

[FUNDER]:
If you were in a vehicle

there would be a check

underneath the car
with a mirror.

They would check the boot
for its contents

and also take out the bottom
of the boot to check

there were no people lying
in secret compartments.

[OLAF]:
There was a massive place.

One control. Second control.
Third control.

It was pretty scary.

[KRAFT]:

Of course the elections were
utterly sham.

There was only one party.

The so-called opposition parties
were fictions or fronts.

And the ruling SED Party
won every election

with margins of about
98, 99 percent.

[KRAFT]:

[OLAF]:
We drove from Berlin

towards the West German border.

Stopped somewhere
at a parking place.

[ERNST]: I brought them to
a special place

where they had to change over
to the other car.

I went back to Stralsund

which is the point
where the ferry went to Sweden.

He had this race in Sweden.

It was all part of the plan.

[MATSUMIYA]: I hired a car
and drove to Kristianstad.

I went to the hotel where MZ
was also staying.

[ERNST]: We stayed all
in one hotel, the MZ people

and I took a single bedroom.

I waited for, for their call.

If they wouldn't have crossed,

I wouldn't have moved
from Sweden.

[OLAF]: We took tranquilisers
so that we would be calm.

My brother was a small baby
and I was two.

[GERMAN VOICES]

[BARKING GUARD DOGS]

[ENGINE STARTS]

[TELEPHONE RINGS]

[MATSUMIYA]:
That actual information he got

that his family managed
to cross over the border

was given to him
before he started racing.

That's when he knew
now he can defect,

because his family
is already in the safe side.

There's no more going back,

because when he
goes back, he'll be caught.

His wife is no longer there.

He has to go one way or another.

I give him my key
of my hired car.

[KRAFT]:

[WALKER]: He was going to be
world champion

and he was going to be
world champion

for East Germany!

[KRAFT]:

[ROAR OF MOTORBIKES]

[WALKER]: He took full advantage
of the performance

of his MZ bike

and got light years ahead
of everybody else.

[MATSUMIYA]: He was very fast,
placed number one.

[WALKER]: The eyes of the world
were on him.

So the mental pressure on him

must have been
absolutely gigantic.

[OLAF]: In Sweden,
he would have liked

to win the world champion,

but on the other hand
it would have been

even more difficult to escape.

[ROAR OF MOTORBIKE]

[KAADEN]:

[COMMENTATOR]:
The last lap, the last corner,

the first gear jumped out
and the engine quickly overran.

And the chains were broken,
and that was it.

When I want to do something

and I want to achieve
something...

I will do anything.

I think after so many years,
50 years,

I'm sure it's OK
to say it now...

he over-revved intentionally.

And machine seized over,
broken down.

If he'd won the race

he was gonna be involved
in the podium,

getting the adulation
of the crowd,

being interviewed.

And, most important of all,

having his Stasi minder
or minders

within controlling reach of him.

[MATSUMIYA]: He had key of
my hired car.

So he drove straight away.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

[ROBB]: The secrecy they must've
lived in that week

because we were there
with them all.

We knew nothing of it.

[WALKER]: He disappeared.
It was absolutely mind blowing.

[MATSUMIYA]: After racing,
a few hours later...

everybody said,
"Where's Degner?"

So I said, "Maybe Degner
has gone back to his room

and is sleeping
or something like that

because he must be
very depressed

by not scoring
the world champion, the title.

[OLD FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

I was hanging round
until midnight.

So I was drinking, drinking...

and the MZ people are drinking,
drinking, drinking.

Degner's car was there in front
of bar!

So nobody suspected

I had something to do
with Degner,

because Degner's car is there.

And nobody's thinking
Degner's driving my car.

And after everything's getting
quieter,

I left with Degner's car.

My heart is beating.

It's a dark night.
I started, gone.

[WALKER]: For Degner to give up
the world championship

must have been
an enormous sacrifice.

But it showed that his wife
and children, his family

were more important than

his craft, his calling,
his living, motorcycle racing.

[MATSUMIYA]:
I met him in Denmark.

The ferry boat was about to
set sail.

I said goodbye to him.

When he left...

on the ferry
towards Western Germany...

he's a defector.

And from that time onward,

Degner was free
to go anywhere else.

He was happy.

[OLD-FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

Everybody's down for breakfast
and Kaaden comes up to Frank

and he says, "Have you seen
Ernst this morning?"

And Frank said, "No."
Which is true, Frank hadn't.

I mean, we've been to bed

and we didn't know anything
of what was going on.

He was like a chicken
with his head cut off.

[OLD-FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

[OLD-FASHIONED TYPEWRITER]

[ROBB]: Can you imagine
Kaaden's feelings...

when the whole story
eventually came out

when he found what had happened.

That all his secrets were going,
you know?

[PERRIS]: It must have been
devastating for him, of course.

[KRAFT]:

We know the consequences for him
going back without Ernst

would be totally unacceptable.

"You didn't look after him.

You should've brought
him back."

[PERRIS]: And everybody said
he treated him like a son

and you do everything for them,
don't you?

He taught him everything
that Ernst knew.

And that would have hurt
when Ernst went.

Would have hurt a lot.

[KAADEN]:

After Degner left,
it was very bad for us.

We had no help
from the government.

Government was not interested
to have motorcycle sport.

[OLAF]:
I admire what they did,

because at this time
it was quite a thing.

It takes a lot of courage
to have the decision to defect,

because it was so dangerous.

[ARCHIVE INTERVIEWER]:

The official line
by the SED government

and by the Stasi

would have been - it's a crime.

You are leaving us.
You are going over to the enemy.

The air of the fascist state.

-Daddy!
-Aah!

[OLAF]: I remember them,
these Japanese people

were coming to our house.

They met up with my father.

It could be that these were
the people from Suzuki

that just wanted to make
a contract with him.

[WALKER]: He goes to Japan,
a foreign country.

And not just a foreign country,
a totally foreign culture.

And he goes from
a starvation level

in terms of facilities
to develop the bike

that he had at MZ to...

you name it, and you can have it
with Suzuki.

Because Suzuki was a big company
and they wanted success

and they'd got all the money
and facilities that he needed.

[WALKER]:
He works over the winter

in those circumstances,
and develops a bike.

[ERNST]: I'm just making
the final touches

to finish the first cylinder

ever I have done for Suzuki.

When Mr Okana saw that cylinder,

he rushed to Mr Suzuki
to show him.

And they looked at it and, well,

they have seen
what I was able to do.

[WALKER]: And the Japanese
were not stupid.

They only needed a lead

from a knowledgeable,
intelligent, experienced

and successful chap like Degner

to pick that up and go with it.

[ANDERSON]: Once Ernst brought
the knowledge out

and Suzuki gained that,

the MZ's then didn't have
a chance, really.

He had everything
in his head. Yeah?

He didn't have to take
any papers.

It was all... They had part
of the development of the MZ.

[RHYTHMIC MUSIC]

[COMMENTATOR]:
Degner was the favourite

for Friday's two-lap,
76.5 mile race.

Right from the fall of the flag,
Degner rode like a man inspired.

Degner had increased his lead.

The last lap was a scorcher.

[COMMENTATOR 2]:
Degner of Suzuki

has beaten his competitors

and broken the 30 minute
lap record.

The winner is Suzuki's Degner
of Japan.

Ito, Ichino and Suzuki
have also won prizes.

All of the Suzuki team
are winners.

[KRAFT]:

And it's a mark incidentally
of not only his ability

and his acumen as an engineer,

but his skill and brilliance
as a rider.

[MILITARY DRUMBEAT MUSIC]

[ARCHIVE REPORTER]: Suzuki has
gained the championship

with an unbelievable
maximum record speed

of 144.84 kilometres per hour.

These outstanding records
have brought glory,

not only to
Suzuki Motor Company,

but have also made
a deep impression

in business circles
throughout the world.

Increasing Japanese
foreign trade.

[MATSUMIYA]:
We were the fastest.

And in the end,
when we won that race,

I cried. It was fantastic.

At long last, we won.

We Japanese. Every Japanese.
We want to be equal to Europe.

This is how we are
so strongly motivated.

[ERNST]: I was the first guy
who ever won

the Isle of Man
on a Japanese motorcycle.

I can remember that
there was a good prize.

He got a Mercedes.

There was his brand new white
convertible Mercedes, lit up.

And this was the prize.

So the whole neighbourhood came.

Because at this time,

to have a Mercedes
was something very special.

Maybe. Anybody's life.

Must, you must do
something crazy.

[OLAF]: Suzuki never did
anything good

or was big enough to compete.

And from one year to the other
with my father's help,

they were at the top.
Yeah, for years.

[OLAF]:
He was a friendly man

and he got friends in Japan.

He immediately started to learn
a little bit of Japanese.

Spoke a few words.

And so he could communicate
with them. Not only in English.

And I think that made also
a big difference.

For Suzuki he was a hero.

And I think Suzuki was
a very big part of his life.

[ROBB]:
Speed is something that...

once you've sampled it once,
you want more of it.

It's an addiction that you can't
give up.

In the '60s,
we were probably losing...

a rider every couple
of months.

[WALKER]:
He gets to Suzuka...

and crashed
at a double right hander.

[ERNST]:
I had a very bad start

and I had to risk a lot
in the first lap

to get the connection
to the top.

And it was on the second corner
I went off the line

and I hit with my head,
I hit the ground.

Your first instinct
if you're a motorcycle racer

or a car racer

and you go off the course,
is to rejoin it.

You are taking part in the race
against your rivals

because you want to beat them.

You want to win.

That's the thing that's driving
you all the time.

[ERNST]:
So I run up to the bike.

I wanted to pick it up

but the motorcycle
inside the cover

it was burning
but I didn't see it.

But when I start to pick up
the motorbike,

then I went unconscious.

And then a big flame
sprang into the tank.

The tank exploded
and that was the end.

[PERRIS]: For Frank, that was
the worst thing

that he's ever seen.

And so luckily the Japanese chap
came over

and the two of them pulled Ernst
out of the fire.

All he could remember is
Ernst's face bubbling.

Yeah, it was burning away,
bubbling away.

He was very, very badly burnt

and had umpteen operations
subsequently

and was never the same again
physically or mentally.

[ROARING FLAMES]

The transplants were sometimes
accepted in a good state

and sometimes the skin
from somewhere else,

I think from the back,

didn't get accepted in the face

and it was hard, for one year

he was in the hospital
to recover.

[KRAFT]:

[OLAF]:
We moved to visit him every day.

As a 3 or 4-year-old child

I had to go every day
to the hospital

to visit my father.

He doesn't have the perfect face
for perfectionists anymore.

He never got over this.

And no wonder why
depression came.

And with depression comes
everything else, yeah?

Somehow you get hooked on drugs
cos you can't help it anymore

or whatever and you go deeper
and deeper and deeper.

From then on,
although Degner won races,

basically his life
went downhill.

[OLAF]: The competition is big.
Young drivers are coming up.

So you have to push
right to the limit,

and he had so many accidents.

He broke his arm...

I think 12 times.

He showed me X-rays,
so it was a mesh

and he was saying they were
putting some metal pieces inside

to keep them straight

and this must have hurt
all the time.

[PERRIS]: Things didn't work
so well for Ernst

with the bikes.

You know, he was riding
and it wasn't as good

like he used to feel,

you know, and all that
sort of thing,

he's always not quite as happy.

He accused Gerda of looking at
other men all the time.

This is what broke up
their marriage,

because he then felt
so insecure.

You know, he's no longer
good-looking

so, you know, she's not...

And it was the opposite.
She would do anything for him.

[OLAF]: She was always with us.
For her, the family came first.

But I could see that my parents
start to separate

more and more and more.

And my mother was
lacking quite a bit

of him being away all the time.

This I think was sometimes
really hard on her.

He was mostly of racing,
I have to say.

Yeah?

It went to the point that
his own dog

didn't recognise him
and was barking at him

when he came home.

He had a very tough childhood.

And this is why probably
he was missing this,

holding together
family part. Yeah?

[ANDERSON]:
Nothing seemed to go his way.

He retained his place in
the team for another year,

but the following year,
he was dropped.

Because he wasn't riding well
enough.

They didn't need his knowledge
anymore.

Income was shrivelling up.

The relationship with
Gerda and Ernst

had sort of gone.

So he left.

[OLAF]: At this time I saw my
father less and less and less.

He had his life
and we had our life.

And there was always
a big gap in between.

For years.

[GENTLE SPANISH GUITAR MUSIC]

He left Suzuki
and he ended up in...

doing all sorts of odd jobs

including running
a garage in Tenerife,

I think it was.

[OLAF]: After he spent
almost everything

he earned in his racing career,

there was still some money
left over.

And so he tried to find
a business he could do

so that would give him
some money easily.

And there were
some friends there

wanted to sell rent-a-car.

In the beginning he thought
it's a good idea.

He bought it
and he tried to work it

but he could see that this
is not his business.

His business was racing.

And as he never had a real
good contact to us later on,

we also didn't
know his state.

Yeah?

Because he was also
a good actor.

Acting nicely to everybody else,

but then pulled back
to be on his own.

[GENTLE MUSIC]

I have to say, he never asked
the family to help him.

I don't know why.
Maybe he didn't trust us.

Maybe he thought
we couldn't help him.

He wanted to go his way.

He wanted to do it
all by himself.

He stayed in this apartment

and we got these calls

that he can't control
his medicine

and it is better when
somebody is coming

to check what he's doing.

And as my mother was working
and my brother as well

and I was a student and
I had holidays in the summer,

it was me who got sent out
to see how he is.

So I came here

and all I found
was a dead body.

I came too late.

[GENTLE MUSIC THROUGHOUT]

[MUSIC]

[WALKER]: I think it's
pretty fair to say that

if Degner hadn't defected

and taken his knowledge
to Suzuki,

as a result of which they were
able to achieve racing success

that it dramatically affected

the whole worldwide
motorcycle industry.