''When the White Lilacs Bloom Again'' (German: ''Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht'') is a 1953 West German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Hans Deppe Hans Deppe (; 12 November 1897 – 23 September 1969) was a German actor and film director. Filmography As director As actor References External links * 1897 births 1969 deaths German male film actors German television dire ...

and starring

Willy Fritsch Willy Fritsch (27 January 1901 – 13 July 1973) was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s. Biography Early life He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only s ...

Magda Schneider Magdalena Maria Schneider (17 May 1909 – 30 July 1996) was a German actress and singer. She was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider. Biography Magdalena Maria Schneider was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, the daughter of a plumber. She att ...

and

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

. It was shot at the

Tempelhof Studios The Tempelhof Studios are a film studio located in Tempelhof in the German capital of Berlin. They were founded in 1912, during the silent era, by German film pioneer Alfred Duskes, who built a glass-roofed studio on the site with financial bac ...

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and on location around

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Alfred Bütow Alfred Bütow (1902 – 1986) was a German art director. Originally he worked on scenic design in the theatre before switching to the film industry.Giesen p.236-37 He worked on the set design of over fifty films during his career. Selected filmo ...

and Ernst Schomer. It is one of the best known and most popular German films from the early 1950s. It is shown periodically on German television and still commands a wide audience.

Plot

The marriage of struggling Wiesbaden ballad singer, Willy Forster, and seamstress Therese is plagued with constant financial difficulties. After a heated argument Willy leaves Therese, unaware that she is pregnant by him. Thus, Therese becomes a single mother when Evie is born. She raises her daughter with the help of Willy's friend, Peter. Fifteen years later, Willy, who now has an international career as a singer under his stage name, 'Bill Perry', returns to Wiesbaden as part of a European tour. He goes straight to see Therese, who does not mention that they have a daughter. However, Evie is a big fan of Bill Perry and she gets to know him anyway. Therese confides in Evie the truth about her father, and the girl later tells Willy that she is his daughter. However, Willy's visit does not bring about the expected happy ending. Instead, Therese and Peter recognize that they are really meant for each other, and Willy comes to realize that his happiness does not lie with Therese, but rather with his longtime manager, Ellen. The film ends at

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

with Peter, Therese and Evie there to see Willy and Ellen off. Willy promises his tearful daughter that he will be back to see her the following year.

Background

In this film, pre-war German actors such as

Paul Klinger Paul Karl Heinrich Klinksik (14 June 1907, Essen – 14 November 1971, Munich) was a German stage and film actor who also worked in radio drama and soundtrack dubbing. Family life His father, a civil engineer, was Karl Heinrich Klinksik; his mot ...

and

Hertha Feiler Hertha Feiler (3 August 1916, Vienna – 1 November 1970, Munich) was an Austrian actress. She was married to the comedian Heinz Rühmann with whom she starred in several films. She was of Jewish descent. Filmography * '' Darling of the Sailors ...

appear alongside the children of other stars of that earlier era.

, the daughter of Magda Schneider and the Austrian actor,

Wolf Albach-Retty Wolf Albach-Retty (born Wolfgang Helmuth Albert Albach; 28 May 1906 – 21 February 1967) was an Austrian actor. He was the father of Romy Schneider with the German actress Magda Schneider. Career Born as Wolfgang Helmuth Albert Albach in Vienna ...

, appears in her first film role together with Nina von Porembsky, the daughter of

Alexa von Porembsky Alexa von Porembsky (5 June 1906 - 18 August 1981) was a Hungarian-born German actress. Selected filmography * '' Leontine's Husbands'' (1928) * ''Woman in the Moon'' (1929) - Eine Veilchenverkäuferin * ''Road to Rio'' (1931) - Die Unerfahre ...

, as well as

Götz George Götz George (; 23 July 1938 – 19 June 2016) was a German actor, the son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg detective Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series ''Tatort''. Early lif ...

, the son of

Heinrich George Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz (9 October 1893 – 25 September 1946), better known as Heinrich George (), was a German stage and film actor. Career Weimar Republic George is noted for having spooked the young Bertolt Brecht in his first ...

and

Berta Drews Berta Emilie Helene Drews (; 19 November 1901 – 10 April 1987) was a German stage and film actress. She appeared in more than 60 films from 1933 to 1983. She was married to actor Heinrich George. The couple had two sons, including actor ...

. The title song, "When the White Lilacs Bloom Again", was a popular hit in the 1920s for Franz Doelle. Made in and around

, ''Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht'' is one of the few so-called ''

Heimatfilm ' (, German for "homeland-films"; German singular: ') were films of a genre popular in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. ''Heimat'' can be translated as "home" (in the geographic sense), "hometown" or "homela ...

e'' to have been set in the Hesse region as they were usually shot in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, or the Lüneburg Heath. Among the highlights are shots of the Wiesbaden old town.

Cast

as Willy Forster *

as Therese Forster *

as Evchen Forster *

as Ellen *

as Peter Schroeder *

Albert Florath Albert Peter Adam Florath (7 December 1888, Bielefeld – 11 March 1957, Gaildorf) was a German stage and film actor. Early life and education Born to Joseph Florath, a locksmith, and his wife Matilda, née Burkart, he attended school in Brakel ...

as Professor Mutzbauer * Trude Wilke-Roßwog as Frau Möslein *

as Klaus * Nina von Porembsky as Barbara * Erika Block as Lieselotte * Erna Haffner as Frau Kühn * Liselotte Köster as Solotänzerin * Jockl Stahl as Solotänzer * Egon Kaiser as Himself and his soloists

References

Bibliography

*Robert Amos (ed.): ''Mythos Romy Schneider – Ich verleihe mich zum Träumen''. Melzer Verlag, Neu Isenburg 2006, * Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009.

External links

* *, Willy Fritsch {{ Hans Deppe 1953 films West German films German drama films 1953 drama films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Hans Deppe 1950s German films Films shot at Tempelhof Studios