Die Frau, die im Wald verschwand (2009)

Dr. Gerd Vorweg and Katharina Vorweg are the model couple of the Swabian district town of Großgeldern. But when the mayor’s wife disappears without a trace one evening in the autumn of 1956, Vorweg is deeply troubled: shortly beforehand, at an official function, his wife had whispered to him, “Thank you for everything.” That same evening, an explosive device detonates in the nearby Knochenwald, an area still mined from the war and only makeshift-fenced off, near where Katharina was last seen on her motor scooter. Since searching the area and securing evidence are impossible because of the countless scattered mines and unexploded ordnance, her fate initially remains unknown. But when a piece of her coat is found on one of the barriers around the restricted area, suspicion grows that Katharina Vorweg was killed in the explosion. Weeks later, Vorweg is woken one evening by piano music and finds an old acquaintance from the war years in his living room. The man has gained entry to the house. The homeowner is delighted and surprised to see him, but his visitor does not share in the joy of their reunion—the man has a pistol with him. Unlike Vorweg, who has built a successful career as a local politician, complete with his own villa and swimming pool, Horst Karg never managed to return to civilian life after the war. Near the end of the war, he deserted but was caught and, with defeat looming, assigned to a penal unit tasked with defusing mines. He used an explosion that killed two of his comrades as an opportunity to disappear. Without valid papers, he eventually joined the Foreign Legion and later, by then a French citizen, tried his hand at running a bar. His wartime experiences have never left him, ever since he witnessed members of his unit shoot unarmed American soldiers. Though he himself had taken no part in the crime, Karg did not dare surrender to the Americans at the end of the war, fearing he would be charged over his unit’s war crime. Karg now blames Vorweg—who served as a doctor in a military hospital during the Second World War and did not declare him unfit for service despite his wounds and trauma—for his failed life. Vorweg vehemently rejects the accusations, but Karg says he himself would have preferred to lose a limb through amputation rather than return to the front. In flashbacks, the film shows how, several months earlier, Karg came to Großgeldern, initially, as he puts it, just out of curiosity, and by chance met Katharina Vorweg. Soon afterward, they become lovers. Katharina, too, still suffers panic attacks after fleeing the Red Army, during which her parents were killed. Afraid of gossip, she can only seek treatment in secret from a Jewish doctor in town. It is also suggested that, with her husband’s knowledge, she repeatedly visited businessman Dr. Rohleder privately when the proposed establishment of a textile business in town threatened to fall through—an outcome that would have meant Vorweg’s financial ruin. Katharina, unhappy in her marriage, and Karg, uprooted from his former life, dream of a future together during their secret meetings in the forest. But Katharina cannot simply leave or divorce her husband, who once took her in from a refugee camp when she was sick and emaciated, without damaging his social standing and political career. So they hatch a plan to fake her death in an accident in the Knochenwald. First, Karg and a French acquaintance defuse an unexploded device, then prepare and mark it accordingly. The plan is for the friend to take Katharina away afterward while Karg gets rid of any incriminating traces. But Karg now tells Vorweg that Katharina must have strayed from the path and been killed by a land mine. Vorweg is stunned, also by the cold-bloodedness with which Karg tells him all this. Suddenly, Katharina appears before the two men in the living room in the middle of the night. She tells them that she will neither return to her husband nor start a new life with her lover, since Karg clearly still had a score to settle with her husband and used her for that purpose. From now on, she will go her own way. Karg desperately tries to change her mind. As Katharina drives away alone, Karg shoots himself in the shed on the property. Vorweg returns to his professional routine, begins a relationship with his secretary after a while, and is eventually honored by the Federal President for his services to the region’s development. The film ends with Vorweg beaming and looking optimistically into the camera as he pointedly raises his glass to the viewer.