Wrack and Ruin

An absolute rarity until now, this Blu-ray box set contains five groundbreaking postwar films from former East Germany. Titled WRACK AND RUIN: THE RUBBLE FILMS AT DEFA, the films not only attempt coming to grips with Germany’s Nazi past and its consequences but, overseen by the Soviet Military Administration, its themes address the psychological as well as the physical ‘wreckage’ following the horrors of WW2.

‘Trümmer’ is the German word for ‘Rubble’ and ‘Trümmerfilme’ (literally meaning ‘rubble films’) were often shot on location amidst the bombed-out ruins of Berlin. First up is THE MURDERERS ARE AMONG US (DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS) from 1946 - both written and directed by Wolfgang Staute. Hildegard Knef (also known as Hildegard Neff to English-speaking audiences) plays Susanne Wallner, a graphic designer who survived her horrific internment in a concentration camp, although we never learn why she was deported in the first place. Walking through the ruins of what used to be the street she lived on before the war, she is relieved to learn that her apartment, which she owns, is still intact but Herr Mondschein (Robert Forsch), the caretaker of the building, informs her that since no one had any idea where she was all that time or whether she would ever return at all, someone else is now living in her apartment.

This someone else turns out to be former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens (Ernst Wilhelm Borchert), whose constant flashbacks of his time practising during the war make it impossible for him to continue with his work. Suffering from severe post traumatic stress (a condition which wasn’t even recognised at the time), he cannot handle being near people in physical pain. Aimlessly wandering through the neighbourhood (or what’s left of it) he’s usually drunk. Despite an initial argument upon Susanne’s unexpected return and her perfectly justified demand of wanting her place back, she realises Hans’ predicament and the two come to a compromise regarding the living arrangements. Susanne doesn’t reveal the reason for her long absence. Likewise, Hans doesn’t reveal as to why he behaves so obnoxious most of the time. While out and about one day, Susanne finds a letter on the floor in Hans’ room, addressed to a Mrs. Brückner, whose husband Ferdinand (Arno Paulsen) holds the key to Hans’ erratic behaviour. It’s from then on that Susanne, who by now is in love with Hans (god knows why), slowly begins to understand the root cause for Hans’ fractured state of mind and his hatred for Ferdinand Brückner, not realising that both men are closer to her own past than she thinks… This is a tense psychological drama and the protagonists’ paranoid state of mind is further emphasised through the exquisite cinematography courtesy of F. Behn-Grund and Eugen Klagemann, who make clever use of expressionistic-style light and shadow camera work.

SOMEWHERE IN BERLIN (IRGENDWO IN BERLIN; 1946) was written and directed by Gerhard Lamprecht. Primarily about a group of friends, in this case young children whose playground are the bombed-out buildings of a district in Berlin, the film has multiple subplots which eventually come together. Little Gustav Iller (Charles Brauer) and his best mate Willy (Hans Trinkhaus) are out playing when Gustav makes the acquaintance of a shabbily dressed man called Waldemar (Fritz Rasp). He lies to the boy that he is looking for his lost dog but in truth, the man is on the run from a mob after he stole a purse contaning 900.- Deutschmarks out of a woman’s handbag.

Gullible and forever well-meaning, Gustav invites the stranger back to his place which he shares with his mother (Hedda Sarnow), so she may fix Waldemar’s torn coat. She takes an immediate dislike to him. A little while later, the police turn up because Gustav and Willy were seen setting off fireworks for which they paid with stolen food. Panic-stricken, although the police aren’t interested in him at all, Waldemar secretly hides the envelope with the stolen money behind a bookshelf and leaves the Iller household. Some days later, Gustav’s father (Harry Hindemith) returns from a POW camp, a mere shadow of his former self. Money is sparse and father Iller, of all people, is in dire need of proper food. When Gustav, by sheer coincidence, discovers the envelope with the stolen money in the kitchen, he sets a string of events in motion which end in tragedy for his friend Willy… It’s a cleverly constructed film and highlights how people, no matter how well-meaning and well-brought up, can be reduced to committing petty crime out of sheer desperation and hunger (not much has changed on that front…).

POLICE RAID (RAZZIA) from 1947 was DEFA Studio’s first thriller and was directed by Werner Klingler. Oh, and it’s also really brilliant! Just like the previous two films, the story is set in post-war Berlin, only this time we are introduced to the world of black marketeers who flog their contraband (everything from cigarettes to chocolate to coffee) in the hope of earning some much needed pennies. Enter Kommissar/Detektiv Neumann (Paul Bildt) who has planned a police raid on a swank nightclub called Alibaba, as he suspects that Goll (Harry Frank), the club’s owner, is the ringleader of a particularly ruthless gang of racketeers, specialising in the selling of contraband - specifically cigarettes. Unfortunately, Neumann and his team can’t pin anything on Goll because someone has warned him upfront of the looming raid.

Little does Goll know that the informer is his very own police assistant Becker (Heinz Welzel), who got involved with Goll and his shady dealings purely because he happens to be in love with Yvonne (Nina Konsta), Alibaba’s singing sensation. Becker’s clever attempts to put the blame on his colleague Karl Lorenz (Claus Holm), who happens to be engaged to Neumann’s daughter Anna (Agathe Poschmann), backfire after Neumann discovers Becker’s hat in Yvonne’s dressing room during an interrogation. A short time later, Neumann’s body is discovered… brutally murdered. Lorenz vows to bring the culprit to justice but his main obstacle isn’t Becker but Paul (F. Von Petersson), Neumann’s son who has recently returned from a POW camp and hopes to find work as a classical musician. nstead, he soon finds himself in the claws of Goll and his gang… This is cracking stuff with top notch performances and unexpected twists galore!

The 1947 melodrama MARRIAGE IN THE SHADOWS (EHE IM SCHATTEN; directed by Kurt Maetzig) is as powerful as it is harrowing. The film was inspired by the real-life case of actor Joachim Gottschalk who, on November 6th 1941, committed suicide together with his Jewish wife Meta Wolff and their little son, minutes before the expected arrival of the Gestapo at their house. In the film, the story is told over ten years, beginning in 1933 and with celebrated stage actor Hans Wieland (Paul Klinger) and his equally celebrated colleague Elisabeth Maurer (Ilse Steppat) at the height of their success. Privately, Elisabeth is betrothed to Dr. Herbert Blohm (Claus Holm, who had played police assistant Lorenz in RAZZIA). If you think it sounds too good to be true then it is, because the ugly shadow of the national socialists already throws dark clouds over Germany and before our players know it, the Nazi Party is in power, Germany is at war with Europe and the Jewish people are doomed.

When Blohm, still pretending that nothing bad will happen to Elisabeth (who happens to be Jewish…), gets more and more involved with Nazi circles, Elisabeth breaks up with him. Some time later, she marries Hans Wieland (who secretly had always been in love with her), although Elisabeth is no longer allowed to work due to her ethnicity. As the anti-Semitic policies of the Nazi regime begin to play havoc with the lives of Jewish citizens, Blohm still tries to shield Elisabeth from impending disaster, especially when her husband gets drafted and is now fighting at the front. Upon his return, he takes up work again as an actor and stupidly invites Elisabeth along to the premiere of his new film. There, she accidentally bumps into Blohm, who is in attendance with a Nazi officer. Initially charmed by Elisabeth when an increasingly nervous Blohm introduces him to her, he is furious when later, he finds out that she is “a Jewish woman”. Blohm receives orders to give his old friend Hans an ultimatum: divorce Elisabeth and save himself and his career or face the consequences… With its truly devastating conclusion, ‘Marriage in the Shadows’ is thought-provoking throughout!

Finally, THE BLUM AFFAIR (AFFAIRE BLUM; 1948), directed by Erich Engel, plays out like an Agatha Christie whodunnit, albeit with political undertones. In fact, the film is based on a real-life court case which took place in Weimar Germany during the 1920s, involving a prominent Jewish businessman by the name of Rudolf Haas. While the names of the characters have been changed for the movie, the events are the same as in the actual case. At the start, we are informed that during this particular period in Germany, jobs were sparse but jobseekers were many. One of them is the elderly Wilhelm Platzer (Arno Paulsen), previously employed as an accountant for the firm Blum & Co but he got fired when he discovered that the company top dogs embezzled money.

Now in dire need for employment, not least because he is engaged to get married, he answers a job advert when, a short time later, a man, who introduces himself as Richard Schröder (Karlheinz Gabler) turns up at Platzer’s apartment (actually, it’s his sisters) and promptly offers Platzer the job (working as teller) he applied for. The bank in question is about 12 miles from the city. Asking for references and the requested ‘Kaution’ (deposit) the position requires as some sort of guarantee, Platzer complies. Schröder explains that his boss at the bank wishes to see Platzer for an interview that very evening and that they should make their way to the bank using bicycles. With the deposit in his jacket, Platzer and Schröder cycle along a country road when the latter suddenly stops at an isolated house… his house, which he shares with his girlfriend Christina (Gisela Trowe). Pretending that by now, it would be too late to make it to the bank before closing time, Schröder says his boss is a good friend and will drop by in the house after work. He then invites Platzer into his house for coffee, only to kill him minutes later in cold blood. Taking the deposit money from the dead man’s pocket, he hides the corpse in the basement. The timid Christina is so shocked over what her boyfriend has done, she doesn’t know how to react.

That same evening, a friend of Schröder’s happens to drop by and the murderer sells Platzer’s bike to him, pretending he bought it especially for him to help him looking for work. As the days pass and Platzer fails to return home, his worried fiancée and his sister seek help from the police. When Schröder reads in the papers that the search for the missing Platzer is on, he turns up at the local police station with the knowledge that Platzer’s former boss, Dr. Jakob Blum (Kurt Ehrhardt) had every reason getting his accountant out of the way due to the accusations of embezzlement. While one of the investigating police inspectors, who harbours anti-semitic views, is only too eager to believe the scheming Schröder, his colleague begins to doubt Schröder’s version more and more… Once again, it’s incredibly well acted and the plot is as tense as it is chilling.

WRACK AND RUIN: THE RUBBLE FILM AT DEFA is presented as a limited edition set (2,000 copies only) and comes with collector’s book plus an array of special features.