A communist student learns revolution isn't just costumes and pageantry—it's blood, betrayal, and maybe love.
In 1948, students from Berlin University take part in the filming of a movie about the 1848 revolution as extras. A dispute arises between Else and Heinz, who tends to dismiss the revolution as a comical affair. Two fiercely opposing camps form at the university. But Heinz begins to reflect, and reading about a young student who lost his life in the turbulent days a hundred years earlier slowly changes his attitude. The conclusion of the filming at the Wartburg also reunites him with Else.
Production
Meta-layer: 1948 students playing 1848 students playing revolution
Direction
Von Wangenheim's clumsy sincerity makes propaganda oddly human
Director
Gustav von Wangenheim
Inge von Wangenheim
Else Weber
Wilhelm Borchert
Heinz Althaus
Viktoria von Ballasko
Betty
Josef Sieber
Architekt Ring
Willi Rose
Gustav Knetsch, Nante
Harry Hindemith
Schneegandt
Arnold Marquis
Hinzdorf
Paul Bildt
Direktor Schöffer
Ernst Legal
Professer Kortlein
Lotte Loebinger
Frau Jandrek
Charles Brauer
Sohn von Ring
Erik von Loewis
Adjutant des Königs
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made in the Soviet Zone months before DEFA's founding, it's essentially East Germany's unacknowledged origin story.
Director von Wangenheim was a committed communist who'd fled Nazi Germany; his wife plays Else, making this a family affair of ideology.
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