Country Dr. Robert Koch is desperate: a tuberculosis epidemic is decimating the children in his district and no one is able to do anything about it. Every fourth child is already sick and the parents must helplessly watch as their young ones die. Now Koch is undertaking to find the cause of the tuberculosis --- something he has already been working on for years --- which has been causing this plague of illness. His work is made more difficult by envy; for example, that of his teacher, who was wounded defending his honor. But his greatest obstacle is the famous Berliner scientist and Reichstag deputy, Privy Councilor Rudolf Virchow: He is extraordinarily skeptical of Koch's theory, that the cause for tuberculosis is a bacteria.
Acting
Emil Jannings bellows and broods as the tortured visionary.
Production
Glossy UFA sets make tuberculosis weirdly picturesque.
Director
Hans Steinhoff
Emil Jannings
Dr. Robert Koch
Werner Krauss
Geheimrat Rudolf Virchow
Viktoria von Ballasko
Schwester Else
Hilde Körber
Frau Göhrke
Theodor Loos
Dr. Georg Gaffky
Bernhard Minetti
Sprecher der Gesundbeter
Paul Bildt
Baron von Kossin, Reichstagsabgeordneter
Elisabeth Flickenschildt
seine Frau
Paul Dahlke
Lehrer
Lucie Höflich
Kochs Patientin Frau Paul
Hubert von Meyerinck
Fähnrich Graf
Raimund Schelcher
Kochs Assistent Dr. Fritz von Hartwig
Hildegard Grethe
Emmy Koch
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the 'UFA state film' era, this was part of Nazi efforts to reclaim German science heroes from 'Jewish' international science.
Koch's actual post-Nobel career was messy—he promoted a fraudulent TB cure—yet the film ends at his 1905 triumph, not his disgrace.
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