Ein Mann geht durch die Wand (1959)

The little third-class tax official, Mr. Buchsbaum, is a fairly contented man, until one day he gets a new superior who is not at all pleased with the exceedingly friendly reminder letters sent to delinquent taxpayers. By chance, Buchsbaum runs into his former professor, who is rather disappointed that his best student became only a third-class tax official. Buchsbaum tells him that although he was always hardworking, conscientious, and punctual, he still never became the best at anything in life. Something had always been missing. He had great plans, but it always seemed to him as if there were a wall in the way. The professor replies that this is only an excuse from someone who was top of every class. There are no walls; he simply lacks self-confidence. When a short circuit occurs in Buchsbaum’s apartment and the whole place goes dark, he tries to find the door so he can tell the caretaker, but suddenly finds himself in the stairwell and realizes that he can walk through walls. Very shaken, he goes to see a doctor, but all he gets are pills that make him feel contented. The next day, when he arrives at the office, his boss, Pickler, orders him to sort files. Buchsbaum is annoyed and sticks his head through the wall into the boss’s office to tell him exactly what he thinks of him. Pickler then suffers a nervous breakdown and is taken away by doctors. Buchsbaum meets his new neighbor, Yvonne Steiner, a piano teacher, and falls in love with her at once. For her sake, he walks through the wall to return her repossessed watch and pay the bill. Suddenly another man appears, young and handsome. Buchsbaum is disappointed, thinking he no longer has a chance. He steals a necklace for his neighbor, but she wants to call the police. Disillusioned with decency, kindness, and love, Buchsbaum decides that from then on he will do everything only for himself. He goes into the bank and steals a million, but then feels guilty and has his friend, the painter, take the money back so that he can claim the 10 percent finder’s fee. However, nobody believes his friend, and he is sent to prison. Buchsbaum therefore goes to the bank a second time, intending to spend the night there and get his friend released. As he keeps going in and out of the prison, he is locked in the tower and is to be put in chains. Buchsbaum, who feels he is innocent because he returned everything, goes home. There he is greeted by his neighbor, who realizes that he is ill. She fetches her doctor, the young man Buchsbaum had taken to be her lover. Buchsbaum makes a date with his neighbor and is happy again, partly because he has been promoted to second-class official for his successful, friendly reminder letters. When he rings her doorbell that evening, because he does not want to go through the wall, he suddenly realizes that he can lean against walls again.