Am Rüdesheimer Schloß steht eine Linde (1928)

Christl, the pretty blonde daughter of the elderly master blacksmith Wangen, and Fritz von Hohenstein, a young, dashing student, have fallen in love. They enjoy a carefree, happy time together on the banks of the Rhine. This does not suit court clerk Ensser at all: a pinched, mouse-gray, scrawny and thoroughly unpleasant sort of man. The scheming official has set his sights on the attractive blonde himself. When he asks for her hand in marriage, Christl immediately turns him down. To get revenge on her and also ruin any future she might have with Fritz, he rummages through the files of a murder case that was closed long ago. At the time, Christl’s father, master blacksmith Wangen, had stood trial, accused of beating Fritz’s father to death. Wangen had been found beside the victim’s lifeless body and was arrested. The case went to trial, but the real culprit soon came forward. So Ensser’s planned plot comes to nothing, only bringing Christl and Fritz closer together. Meanwhile, a crisis is also brewing at the Hohensteins’ home: the small aristocratic family is nearly bankrupt, and Fritz is expected to marry a wealthy woman. His mother is being hounded by their creditor, Ottokar Kalkreuth, who would like to see Fritz marry his very young daughter, Else, in order to improve his own social standing. He says that in return he would be willing to settle the financial matter between the two families amicably. Heavy-hearted, Fritz agrees to the arranged marriage after returning home, solely to help his mother. One day, Christl’s father arrives and asks Fritz to come with him at once, because his daughter, who has been crying every day since Fritz left, is at the end of her tether and seriously ill from lovesickness. Fritz leaves everything behind, knowing that his heart will always belong only to Christl. In her magnanimity, Else then releases him from their engagement. And so the two lovers meet again beneath a lime tree at the Rüdesheim Castle mentioned in the title and fall into each other’s arms.