Der Mut zum Glück (1917)

After a long absence, young Eveline Braden returns to the family castle from the girls’ boarding school where she was raised. Her father greets her with icy coldness; he directs at her the very hatred he had once hurled at his now-deceased wife, Eveline’s mother. The girl finds emotional support only in Heinz Bergen, her young uncle, and old Margarete. Eveline and Heinz fall in love, but Heinz restrains his emotions because he thinks he is too old for her. Her father has other plans anyway. Deeply in debt, the old man intends to marry Eveline off to the neighboring landowner, Baron von Sanden, who is extremely wealthy and also his principal creditor. But Eveline does not love Sanden, and in despair she rushes to Margarete, asking her to try to influence Eveline’s father. He coldly dismisses Eveline’s advocate and claims that his unloved daughter ought to be grateful that anyone is willing to marry her at all, given how dishonorably Eveline’s mother behaved and how she sullied the family’s reputation. Eveline has overheard this distressing exchange and now begs Margarete to tell her what happened back then, and why her mother supposedly behaved “dishonorably.” The old woman now recounts the whole story. Once, Eveline’s mother had married this wastrel, who soon squandered the fortune she brought into the marriage. Eveline’s mother was deeply unhappy in the marriage, as her husband soon proved to be a despot. He claimed that his wife had had an affair with Heinz, and his hatred then fell not only on his wife but also extended to their daughter Eveline (whom he apparently assumes is not his daughter at all). In fact, Heinz Bergen had never been anything more to Eveline’s mother than a good, loyal friend—certainly never her lover. At the dying woman’s bedside, Heinz promised her that he would look after Eveline and protect her from her father’s hatred. Margarete rushes to Bergen and implores him to save Eveline from her father and from the unwanted marriage to the baron. Heinz then goes to his brother to have a frank talk, man to man. A heated argument follows. When Heinz leaves, his brother is seething with rage. Eveline runs to her beloved to warn him about the consequences of her father’s fury. In this moment of great closeness, the two confess their love for each other. A little later, Margarete rushes in and announces that Eveline’s father has been seriously injured. He had wanted to set the whole castle on fire in order to destroy a document that gravely incriminated him. As he lies dying, the father asks his daughter and his brother for forgiveness.