A scientist flees the Nazis but can't outrun what he helped create.
World-famous geneticist Professor Hülsenbeck is a man of integrity who refuses to mix science and political gain. When his findings are being used to harm humanity, he immigrates to the USA in 1933 in protest against Nazi racial politics.
Acting
Armin Mueller-Stahl before Hollywood came calling—pure controlled anguish.
Direction
Maetzig weaponizes DEFA's sterile aesthetic as thematic critique.
Director
Kurt Maetzig
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
DEFA's rare direct engagement with Jewish persecution—made in 1972 East Germany, where official narratives typically minimized Jewish specificity in favor of anti-fascist universalism.
Mueller-Stahl would defect to West Germany four years later; this was his final major DEFA role before becoming the go-to Eastern Bloc actor for Western audiences.
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