Der rote Reiter (1923)

Germany in the early postwar period. Otto von Wellisch, a former officer who was once a respected man in the days of the Kaiser, has been thrown off course by the turbulent conditions of the young Weimar Republic. He is now without a profession or income and has to face entirely new challenges. The noblewoman Hasia von Nawroska is in a similar predicament; until recently, she had known nothing but luxury. The two losers under the new system quickly become a couple. One day, a certain Director Livius approaches Otto and makes him an unusual offer: since Otto closely resembles the fiancé of Livius’s only daughter, Etelka, who was killed in the First World War, he should move into Livius’s luxurious villa and henceforth be a devoted husband to his daughter. Grief over her missing fiancé—whose death has so far been kept from her—has brought Etelka close to madness, and Otto could spend his final years safe and comfortable at her side, never having to worry about money again. Von Wellisch accepts the arrangement, leaves Hasia, and arrives in the quiet town of Heidestatt with all the papers belonging to his dead wartime comrade. Overjoyed at the return of her missing, supposedly still-living fiancé, Etelka Livius immediately agrees to become Otto’s wife. Otto, too, takes a liking to the petite young woman. But before long, clouds begin to gather: Wellisch and Livius do not get along, and Wellisch misses his aristocratic former girlfriend and the wide world of the big city he had been used to. He leaves Heidestatt behind and returns to Hasia, and the two reconcile. Hasia has meanwhile made a career in films, and Otto sees opportunities for himself there, too. He is offered a role as a daredevil horseman in a film. But Wellisch feels guilty toward Etelka and decides to return to Heidestatt once more to explain himself to his wife. To his surprise, she tells him that she is pregnant with his child. Etelka makes it clear that she loves him more than anything. Otto nevertheless wants to return to the film. During rehearsals, he—the red rider of the title—is seriously injured in an accident. Etelka and her father appear at his bedside, and Hasia realizes that Etelka’s love for Otto is more than anything she could give him. And so she lets him go.