Cinema
The Murderers Are Among Us
Die Mörder sind unter uns
Wolfgang Staudte · 1946
Synopsis
Berlin, 1945. Susanne Wallner, a young photographer back from a concentration camp, finds her apartment occupied by Hans Mertens, a former military surgeon whose memories of war have driven him to drink. Forced to share the flat, they gradually grow closer. Susanne finds a farewell letter that Mertens never delivered to the wife of his former captain, Ferdinand Brückner; in taking it to her, she learns that Brückner, believed dead, is alive and prospering: he makes saucepans out of old helmets.
Context
Shooting began on 16 March 1946, two months before the founding of DEFA, in the Althoff studios in Babelsberg, in those at Johannisthal and in the ruined streets of Berlin. Staudte had first applied in vain to the British, French and American authorities; the Soviets accepted the screenplay on condition that its ending be changed, for fear that it would be seen as a call to take justice into one's own hands. The film was presented on 15 October 1946 at the Admiralspalast, in the Soviet sector of Berlin.
Who it is for
A black and white film, shot partly in the real ruins of Berlin, the first of the so-called rubble films.
Prizes and reception
The first German feature film of the post-war period; selected in 1995 among the one hundred most important German films.