''Marriage in the Shadows'' (German: ''Ehe im Schatten'') is 1947 German

melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

directed by Kurt Maetzig and starring Paul Klinger, Ilse Steppat and

Alfred Balthoff Alfred Balthoff (1905 – 1989) was a German stage, film and television actor. He also worked as a voice actor, dubbing foreign releases for the German-speaking market. Of Jewish background, he spent the final years of the Nazi era in hiding.No ...

. It was produced in the Soviet zone in what later became East Germany and was released by DEFA. The film was described as an "attempt to confront the German people about the morals of the past", being the first film to confront the people about the persecution of the Jews and the atrocities conducted during World War II.

Plot

Actor Hans Wieland refuses to divorce his actress wife, Elisabeth, who is Jewish, even as extreme pressure is applied on him by the Nazi authorities. He even takes her to a premiere of one of his films where she is unwittingly introduced to a high Nazi Party official. Upon later discovering that the charming woman at the premiere was in fact Jewish, he orders her arrest. Hans Wieland is given an ultimatum by his former friend Herbert Blohm, now a Nazi official at the Reichskulturministerium (culture ministry), to save himself by divorcing his wife. Knowing that his wife will die in a concentration camp, Hans Wieland returns home and they drink

poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

in coffee whilst reciting the closing scene of

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

's tragic play ''

Kabale und Liebe ''Intrigue and Love'', sometimes ''Love and Intrigue'', ''Love and Politics'' or ''Luise Miller'' (german: Kabale und Liebe, ; literally "''Cabal and Love''") is a five-act play written by the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller. His third play, ...

'' together. The film ends with a dedication to the real-life actor

Joachim Gottschalk Joachim Gottschalk (10 April 1904 – 6 November 1941) was a German stage and film actor during the late 1930s, a romantic lead in the style of Leslie Howard. Life and work Gottschalk, the son of a physician, was born in the small town of Ca ...

who committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

with his Jewish wife Meta Wolff and their nine-year-old son Michael.

Cast

Production

The screenplay was based on the life and suicide of actor

and his family in 1941. However, Kurt Maetzig said of the film, "almost everything in the film is based on what I myself, or my family and friends, have experienced." Indeed, the character of Kurt Bernstein, portrayed by Alfred Balthoff, is strongly based on Maetzig. Maetzig's mother had committed suicide to avoid being caught by the Gestapo. It is Kurt Maetzig's first feature film as director. The film was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin and on location around the city. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

s Otto Erdmann and

Kurt Herlth Kurt Herlth (1896–1966) was a German art director known for his designs of film sets. His brother Robert Herlth was also an art director active in the German film industry, and the two men worked together a number of times.Bock & Bergfelder p.1 ...

Reception

''Ehe im Schatten'' was the only film to be released simultaneously in all the sectors of occupied Berlin, on 3 October 1947, becoming the most successful film produced in the first post-war years and is widely considered one of the best German films of this period. The picture sold 12,888,153 tickets.List of the 50 highest-grossing DEFA films.
/ref> Maetzig and cinematographer Friedl Behn-Grund received the

National Prize of East Germany The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (german: Nationalpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, ...

Second Class for their work. The director was also awarded the first ever Bambi Prize, in 1948.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1947 films East German films 1940s German-language films Films directed by Kurt Maetzig 1947 drama films Films about Nazi Germany Holocaust films Films set in Berlin German black-and-white films German drama films Films shot at Johannisthal Studios Films shot in Berlin