Die Wunderlampe des Hradschin (1916)

The old Jew Nathan, being completely destitute, must one day leave his home and sets off for Prague with his beautiful daughter, Rahel. On the way, father and daughter come upon a ruined castle, where Nathan discovers a mysterious inscription that arouses his interest. From the letters, Nathan makes out that on the Hradčany, the hill on which Prague Castle stands, there is a hidden nook in a temple where a miraculous lamp hangs. The light of this lamp can locate all the gold and treasures in the world. But whoever takes possession of this magic lamp will be brought to ruin by it. Nathan does find the lamp, but he does not dare remove it from its appointed place, fearing the foretold damnation. Terrified, he flees the place of temptation and eventually collapses, exhausted, in a side street. In their distress, Rahel, who has been accompanying him, knocks on the door of Rabbi David. He helps them both and is utterly smitten when he first looks upon Rahel’s face. In the time that follows, he helps Nathan establish a new life and eventually asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Rahel, too, has fallen in love with the rabbi. The wedding is to take place after the upcoming Passover festival. One day, a stranger arrives, catches sight of Rahel at the window, and is immediately captivated by her beauty. He enters and virtually begs Nathan for his daughter’s hand. Nathan is still thinking about the magic lamp and agrees to a wicked bargain: if the stranger obtains the lamp for him from Hradčany, then he may marry Rahel. The stranger does indeed go to the castle temple and steal the lamp, despite having been warned that he too would suffer eternal damnation. Now that Nathan finally has the lamp he has so coveted in his hands, he gives the stranger Rahel’s hand, though she is deeply unwilling. Rabbi David is utterly bewildered when he learns that Rahel, his bride-to-be, has meanwhile been handed over to another man by her father. Holding the magic lamp, Nathan, the unwise one, descends into the catacombs, eagerly searching for treasure—and actually finds some. Meanwhile, the stranger takes Rahel to his castle, hoping to win her love there. But she absolutely refuses to become his wife, pushes him away, and runs out of the castle back to her father’s home, only to find the door locked. Suddenly homeless, the girl knocks at David’s door, and he lets her in. A little later, the stranger arrives there too and reclaims the woman promised to him by her father. The rabbi realizes that the stranger’s love for the girl is so overwhelming that he really must let her go. Rahel joins the stranger only reluctantly. He tirelessly strives to prove his love to her, and, little by little, Rahel warms to him and returns his feelings. Meanwhile, her father has become hopelessly lost while searching for treasure in the catacombs and can no longer find his way back up. Days of utter despair pass, and Nathan is close to starving to death when the rabbi finds him unconscious. The young man had gone looking for Nathan out of concern for him and has only now found him. David strongly advises him to return the magic lamp to its original place, in the hope that this will lift the curse. Nathan sees the wisdom of this, but first returns once more to the ruined castle to study the cryptic inscription very carefully. Trembling, he reads these words: “If the culprit, repentant, brings the sacred object back, the temple will collapse upon him, burying him!” Holding the lamp, Nathan hurries to the stranger and asks him to return it, but to leave his child with him, so that she may be spared the cruel fate foretold. Rahel, unaware that the prophecy is about to be fulfilled, lets herself be led away from her beloved with a broken heart. But when the young woman learns what is about to happen to her lover, she breaks free from her father and rushes to the spot where the stranger is just rehanging the lamp. She throws herself into her beloved’s arms; then the temple walls come crashing down and bury the couple beneath them.