Die Rothausgasse (1928)

Milada grew up in a brothel in Rothausgasse, though she has not yet become a prostitute herself. Resigned to her fate, she has always followed her mother Katherina, an aging prostitute who was never able to escape that world herself. Now her mother is dying and makes her daughter promise to do everything she can to leave that environment. Milada is now a 17-year-old chambermaid working in a new “salon” run by Frau Goldscheider. When the brothel-keeper Goldscheider suggests that Milada work as a prostitute herself, Milada proves not especially strong-willed and asks one of her admirers, the well-read Dr. Horner, for advice. He tells her to stay in the brothel, since Rothausgasse is really all she knows. He then gives her works by Immanuel Kant to read for philosophical edification. At the brothel, the aspiring prostitute soon meets Gustav Brenner, a young man who is seriously worried about her. “You have to get out of here! Today! I’ll help you,” Gustl tells Milada, but, weak-willed as she is, she only replies, “I belong here.” At her mother’s deathbed, Milada also met Dr. Brenner, Gustav’s father, who had cared for the dying prostitute. The doctor now knows Milada’s origins and occupation. Milada now wants to leave prostitution for good, but in the end she is too weak and keeps returning to her old life. Thrown out onto the street by the brothel-keeper Goldscheider, she rushes to Gustl, who loves her, but he no longer has a roof over his head either. When chief physician Dr. Brenner learned who his son’s new sweetheart was, he broke with Gustav. The son now has to manage without financial support from home as well. Before long, the young couple can no longer afford the little hotel room they have taken together. In desperation, Milada accepts help from her former admirer, the free-thinking Dr. Horner. He pays her hotel bill, but expects certain favors in return and also plans to take Milada away from Gustav. Gustl then breaks up with his fickle girlfriend. Dr. Horner tells Milada he regrets having advised her to stay in Rothausgasse. The girl writes Gustav a farewell letter and returns to the brothel in Rothausgasse. Horner follows her there as a customer, and Gustav soon arrives too. As Horner is about to leave, he takes Milada, who once again follows her fatherly friend without any will of her own, to his home. But now Gustav is ready to fight. A little later, he turns up at Horner’s and persuades the wavering Milada that she should go with him instead. The two head toward an uncertain future, while Dr. Horner can only say to himself, “Old fool!”