Der Bockerer (1981)

The film begins with historical black-and-white footage of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich, which turns to color for the opening scene: A German soldier enters Bockerer’s butcher shop and asks for a Bockwurst in a Berlin accent, but after some difficulty communicating, Karl Bockerer eventually gives him a portion of Leberkäse. Bockerer then wants to send his son Hansi to Frau Hofrat’s house to deliver Leberkäse for the regular small-group card games there—his son has been close to her daughter Elisabeth for some time. But Hansi has no time. It turns out that he has been a member of the SA for some time and now has other duties to attend to. Despite this unpleasant news, Bockerer looks forward to the weekly tarock game with his wife, Herr Hatzinger, and the Jewish Dr. Rosenblatt, who tells him that he is emigrating to the United States because of the Nuremberg Laws. A few days later, Hansi and other SA men are tormenting Jews in the courtyard of an apartment block by making them scrub the pavement, in the presence of SS-Unterführer Gstettner, when he sees his father approaching. Afraid that his father will reprimand him, Hansi hurriedly orders the Jews to form two lines and continue somewhere else. Bockerer, who narrowly misses seeing the scene, tries to help a Jew left lying on the ground, whereupon a policeman orders the distraught butcher to leave. One morning Bockerer wakes up and realizes that his wife is not at home. Puzzled, he searches the whole apartment until he notices that it is April 20, and therefore his birthday. He mistakenly takes the bouquet his wife left on the table—the flowers she meant to give the Gauleiter at the celebration of the Führer’s birthday—as a present for him. Full of energy, he wants to open his shop. But once again a policeman stops him, because this date is also Adolf Hitler’s birthday and all shops must therefore remain closed. At that moment he realizes that his family has forgotten his birthday. Only his old friend Alfred Hatzinger remembered it. As Bockerer says goodbye to his Jewish friend Rosenblatt at Vienna’s Westbahnhof, who is taking the opportunity to emigrate, he meets his friend Hermann, and they arrange to meet for “a little glass” at a Heuriger. There, Bockerer and Hermann, a Communist already in the Gestapo’s sights, get into a confrontation with some German patrons. By chance, several SA men and SS-Unterführer Gstettner are also there, and Gstettner gives Hansi a pistol and orders him to detain Hermann and Bockerer. Bockerer is horrified when his own son attacks him with a blackjack. Hansi is supposed to guard the two men, but after struggling with his sense of duty, he lets his father and Hermann escape. Gstettner knows the two did not simply get away on their own, but covers for Hansi and blackmails him. Bockerer eventually has to appear for questioning by the Gestapo, where he loudly challenges the legality of his treatment. Just before he is to be taken away, Gstettner calls—at a time of his choosing, but at Hansi’s request—and suggests bending the facts a little so that Bockerer can leave. Meanwhile, Hermann is captured and sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he dies in an “industrial accident” on the day he arrives. Later, when Bockerer asks Hermann’s widow about him, she explains what happened. She gives him a document that includes the words that Hermann was arrested “thanks to Bockerer’s testimony.” Bockerer is beside himself and gives the widow money to request the urn containing her husband’s ashes. He then goes to Café Tosca and looks for Hansi, who has earlier rebuffed the advances of the homosexual SS-Unterführer Gstettner. Father and son have a fierce argument, during which Bockerer throws his son out of the house. Hansi subsequently leaves the SA and returns to his girlfriend Elisabeth, and they move in together. Gstettner is angry that his blackmail of Hansi has failed and schemes to have Hansi sent to the Eastern Front. Elisabeth brings about a reconciliation with his father. During their conversation, Hansi tells his father that he intends to marry Elisabeth on his first leave home. But soon word arrives that he has fallen in the Battle of Stalingrad. The transition from the Nazi regime to the Allied occupation of Austria is once again shown through original footage with commentary. Herr Hofrat, who volunteers at the Family Reunification Office, brings them little Karli, the son of Elisabeth, who was killed in a bombing raid, and thus Bockerer’s grandson, at the butcher shop. Herr Rosenblatt also returns to Vienna as a member of the United States Forces in Austria, allowing Bockerer at last to begin another game of tarock with the words, “Your hand, Herr Rosenblatt!”