 The seemingly solid childhood friendship of Amsel and Matern evolves into the love-hate relationship between Jew and non-Jew under the impact of Nazi ideology.When the former friends from the region of the Vistula Delta finally meet again in the West, the ominous Alsatian dog (German shepherd) that followed Matern on his odyssey is left behind in Brauxel's subterranean world of scarecrows.While "Dog Years", like "The Tin Drum", again accounts for the past through the eyes of an artist, the artist is no longer a demonic tin-drummer in the guise of a child but the ingenious maker of a world of objects reflecting the break between the creations of nature and those of men.