Berlinger (1975)

The all-rounder and adventurer Lukas Berlinger, a cheerful factory owner’s son, and his friend Johannes Roeder, with whom he shared boarding-school and university years, are two people of profoundly different character. Roeder, a working-class boy, wants to “make something of himself,” escape dirt and poverty, and has become an opportunistic, slick careerist in pursuit of that goal, adapting to every situation, demand, and social system like a chameleon, completely and unconditionally. Berlinger, a dreamer and inventor with the endearing charm of a scatterbrained free spirit, is the exact opposite: at any cost, he refuses to become like the crowd, wants to live out his dreams and experience them, and deftly evades all expectations and political constraints placed upon him. Over the years, Roeder has become the archetypal conformist, while Berlinger emerges as the prototype of an individualist. These opposing antagonists repeatedly cross paths throughout their lives, demonstrating each time how incompatible these two fundamental ways of behaving are. Their former friendship and mutual respect give way to ever greater discord and rejection, ultimately even to open hostility and enmity. The film’s opening scenes are rousing, including one set on an airfield in the war year 1942, visually modeled on the closing scene of 1942’s most famous film, Casablanca. Two Nazi henchmen are taking Berlinger away, but he breaks free. A lit match he has snatched away lands in a pool of gasoline, setting it alight. Suddenly, explosions illuminate the nighttime airfield. The Nazi henchmen shoot at the fleeing man, but Berlinger reaches a Luftwaffe plane ready for takeoff, prevents the pilot from getting into the cockpit, climbs aboard, and escapes. From an early age, Lukas Berlinger had been passionate about flying and eventually earned his pilot’s license. His childhood was financially secure, and as the son of wealthy parents he did not have to worry much about his future. The circumstances of his boyhood friend Johannes Roeder were very different. Roeder lacks everything he secretly envies in the free-spirited Berlinger: he is shy and introverted, insecure and weak-willed. Nevertheless, the two enjoy a carefree youth on the spacious Berlinger estate. It quickly becomes clear what Roeder envies about Berlinger: his eloquence and carefree nature, his casual jokes and pranks. Roeder wants to escape his mediocre social standing. So he adapts whenever it seems advantageous and helpful to his career: he joins the Nazi Party and, from 1933 onward, tries to get ahead and build a career through unquestioning obedience and subservience. Berlinger, in contrast, manages to avoid many things through his cleverness: he does not ingratiate himself with the Nazi regime or let it co-opt him, and during the war the brilliant tinkerer and inventor is even exempted from military service as a scientist whose work is vital to the war effort. But the space for his free-spiritedness keeps shrinking. Roeder, who has risen high on the career ladder as head of the factory that once belonged to Berlinger’s father, cannot persuade his former friend to “get on board”—to submit to the regime and adapt. When Berlinger escapes by plane, even the model careerist Roeder suffers the consequences: he is expelled from the party. The children Lukas and Johannes lose their friendship, and the two men grow into bitter enemies. Roeder must now regard his repeated attempts to make Berlinger like himself as an utter failure. Whenever he tried to drag his former friend down to his own level—that of a system-compliant participant—Berlinger, a committed individualist, slipped away. Yet the darker sides of Berlinger’s life also become increasingly apparent. His ruthlessly asserted independence and his sometimes eccentric-seeming life as a loner leave victims—not only Roeder himself, but also people close and devoted to him, such as his wife Marlit. Following Berlinger’s flight abroad, the Gestapo arrests her, whereupon the young woman takes her own life. Postwar Germany. It is 1968, and Berlinger, essentially apolitical at heart, erratic, and always a “conservative anarchist,” still refuses to give up his free-spirited way of life. His dreams matter more to him than his obligations and the expectations placed upon him. He has no interest in rebuilding the factory that once belonged to his father. His plans and inventions can be realized even in a ruin. First, he constructs his own airship. Roeder, meanwhile, has also weathered the feared career setback of 1945 thanks to his willingness to adapt. He has even become a senator and property developer. There is a new woman in Berlinger’s life: Maria. She is a teacher and an idealist, and in a milder form shares some of Berlinger’s character traits. Above all, she strongly resembles his first wife, Marlit. Roeder, meanwhile, is planning a vast construction project in concrete, for which he absolutely needs Berlinger’s former factory site. Berlinger sees Roeder’s plan as yet another declaration of war by his old adversary. Once again, it seems to him, Roeder wants to prove that his principle of unconditional submission to state systems and demands triumphs over Berlinger’s individualism and free spirit. But Berlinger is not prepared to give in and begins to fight. When Roeder’s business partners discover that he intends to build on land that does not belong to him, they put the senator under pressure. Roeder, in turn, now tries to force Berlinger to hand over the property. It becomes a battle of principles, attitudes, and fundamental outlooks on life. Berlinger looks back and sets out to destroy the Roeder enterprise once and for all, by razing his own as well. To Berlinger’s great misfortune, his completed airship goes up in flames after being struck by lightning. Then the factory ruin also collapses. Berlinger can only win by failing to appear to sign the contract that would formalize the transfer of the property. So he climbs into his old plane and evades making a decision. One of the final shots shows his crashed biplane hanging in a tree. Senator Roeder waits in vain for Berlinger and his signature. His bills of exchange have been dishonored, and he is ruined.