Die Geschichte vom goldenen Taler (1985)

The 15-year-old orphan Anna Barbara works as a baker’s assistant and lives in the simplest of circumstances with her sick grandmother. The dying woman keeps telling Anna Barbara how different her life would have been if only she had had the golden thaler. When her grandmother dies, Anna Barbara is driven from her home by a gang of children and, in the freezing winter, encounters the supposed rag-and-bone man Hans Geiz and his white horse, Unverzagt. She asks Hans Geiz if he knows where she can find the golden thaler, and he takes her to his realm beneath the earth. It is full of things other people have thrown away. Hans Geiz lives very frugally, subsists on stale bread and bacon, lights his underground realm with fireflies, and has the rooms heated by the hellhounds Envy and Greed (both of them deadly sins). Anna Barbara is to work for him for three years to earn the golden thaler. In the first year, she must polish all of Hans Geiz’s copper coins until they shine. Her food consists of a bowl of gruel that refills itself as long as she does not eat it all. Her only company is a little polishing man who makes the polishing water abrasive. Anna Barbara starts polishing the coins and soon gets into an argument with the cheeky little man. His name is Martin, and he once wanted to earn the golden thaler just like Anna Barbara, but he was lazy and insolent, so Hans Geiz turned him into the tiny creature he is now. When he was a big boy, he was popular with girls, and he believes Anna Barbara is in love with him too. But she only laughs at him. After a year, Anna Barbara has polished all the copper coins and is allowed to return to the world above with Hans Geiz for one day. Like Hans Geiz, she proves to be cold-hearted and retrieves her belongings from her former home. Among them is her bed, on which a seriously ill boy had been lying until then. Despite the other residents’ pleas, she even takes away the bedcover, which belongs to her. Hans Geiz is pleased and sings, even though Anna Barbara cries on the way back. Back in his realm, he shows her the task for the second year: an entire cave full of silver coins to polish. Her food for the year is a raw potato, which grows back if she never eats it completely. Horrified, Anna Barbara tries to flee, but Hans Geiz takes her back to the cave. Martin is disappointed that Anna Barbara wanted to leave him behind. In response to her rejection, he stops working. Now that the polishing water is no longer abrasive, Anna Barbara cannot make any progress. Only when Hans Geiz sends rats into the cave, where they try to eat the potato and kill Martin, do the two make up. Together they drive the rats away and then get back to work. After a year, Anna Barbara is once again allowed to go into town with Hans Geiz. Hans Geiz demonstrates the power of the golden thaler: although they are both dressed in rags, they are admitted to the finest establishment in town when Hans Geiz toys with the gold thaler. In the third year, Anna Barbara must polish all of Hans Geiz’s gold coins. Her food for this year is a piece of dry bread, a little of which must always be left over so that it can grow back overnight. By now, Martin has fallen in love with Anna Barbara. Among other things, this means he is constantly very hungry. When Anna Barbara has nearly finished polishing all the gold coins, Martin is at the end of his strength. He is so hungry that he thinks he is going to die. Anna Barbara breaks the last little piece of bread, knowing full well that it will no longer grow back. Inside the last piece is the sought-after golden thaler. At his request, Anna Barbara kisses the lovestruck Martin and realizes that she feels a tingling sensation too. After the kiss, Martin grows back to his original size. Anna Barbara replies to Hans Geiz: “How foolish you are. Whoever is sparing with their feelings remains desperately poor to the very end.” Anna Barbara and Martin flee Hans Geiz’s realm together and set off with the white horse, Unverzagt. At a railway crossing, Anna Barbara loses the thaler, which rolls into a mouse hole. She does not even notice as she walks away with Martin.