Die Verführten (1919)

The film depicts the life story of a brother and sister. A young craftsman, an honest and capable man and a member of an athletic club, comes under unfounded suspicion of receiving stolen goods. Although there is no conclusive evidence of his guilt, he is sentenced to two months in prison and led away in chains. After serving his sentence, his fellow workers shun him, and he is expelled from his athletic club. He meets a girl who was once a prostitute, and they live happily as husband and wife. He finds work as a furniture mover. His wife gives birth to a stillborn child, and he becomes mentally ill as a result. In his capacity as a furniture mover, he has to load up the contents of a brothel, where he discovers that the brothel’s owner is responsible for his sister’s shameful life. Persuaded by a friend, he decides to take revenge on the brothel owner and rob her. During the robbery, the brothel owner is murdered. Although the film clearly shows that the accused is mentally ill, he is sentenced to death. His sister has a wealthy man as her lover. She works as a saleswoman but is dismissed because of her disreputable way of life. At a party given by her lover, she meets the young judge who has just questioned her brother about receiving stolen goods. The young judge accompanies her to her parents’ home, where her enraged father disowns her. She gives herself to the judge, but leaves him when he tries to pay her off. A woman of the demi-monde, who owns a carriage and lives in a lavishly furnished apartment, takes her in and leads her into prostitution. There she realizes that the woman of the demi-monde is a thief. Her first lover rescues her. But when the young judge summons her to court as a witness to testify against the thief, he questions her during the hearing—not in the exercise of his judicial duties, but out of personal spite—about how she earned her living at the time. When it emerges in court that she had been a prostitute, she flees in shame from her lover and ends up in a brothel. Her brother finds her there. She confesses to him how she has been living, whereupon her brother, as hinted earlier, decides to avenge his sister.