Erfolg (1991)

Munich in the early 1920s. Dr. Martin Krüger, an art historian and director of Munich’s Neue Staatsgalerie, has made a good name for himself and is very successful in his profession. He is in a relationship with Johanna Krain, a graphologist. The painter and drawing teacher Anna Haider is also deeply in love with Krüger, but her affection gets her nowhere with him. As the title suggests, Krüger’s success has its downsides, arousing envy and bringing rivals onto the scene. Mathilde Beradt, the extremely conservative widow of a medical councillor, disapproves of Martin’s supposedly unrestrained private life, seeing him as a Bohemian and holding him in contempt. Since the unmarried Anna Haider is her lodger, and for this reason Mrs. Beradt deeply disapproves of Anna’s efforts to win Krüger over, she tries to initiate an indecency case against Anna. Before the magistrate, Dr. Krüger is forced to swear an oath that he is not involved in any “immoral” relationship with Miss Haider. The powerful figures in the Free State of Bavaria have long since been alarmed and, in keeping with the wishes of the widow Beradt, are trying to bring down Krüger, a respected man who nonetheless seems suspect to them. Despite his oath, Anna is dismissed from her teaching post and is no longer allowed to teach young people. To give her some help and counter the reactionary direction of Bavarian state politics, Krüger, in his capacity as museum director, has Anna’s self-portrait, “The Naked Teacher,” acquired for a considerable sum, paid for from the Ministry of Culture’s budget. Shortly afterward, Martin Krüger and Johanna Krain travel to Spain to spend a holiday together. They have no idea that back in Munich, desperate Anna sees no way out of her social and financial predicament other than to take her own life. Deeply shaken by her suicide, Krüger decides upon his return to put Haider’s supposedly indecent self-portrait on public display after all, deliberately provoking a public scandal. He has now finally turned the powerful figures in culture and government against him. Krüger, however, refuses to be intimidated and insists that his contract be honored; it cannot be terminated unilaterally and grants him far-reaching powers. Moreover, dismissing the unconventional and widely respected art historian from his post as director of the State Gallery would seriously damage Munich’s reputation as an art capital. Nevertheless, Krüger’s direct superior, Bavarian Minister of Culture Dr. Flaucher, plans to fire the stubborn free spirit. He is supported by his similarly reactionary colleague Dr. Klenk, who, as Bavarian Minister of Justice, wields extensive power. They conspire against Krüger and even use criminal means to get rid of him. Taxi driver Xaver Ratzenberger is induced to commit perjury in this matter, severely discrediting Krüger. The court consequently sentences the museum director to three years in a penitentiary. Johanna, who has become Krüger’s wife since he began serving his sentence, immediately organizes an appeal. She meets the Swiss writer Jacques Tüverlin, who, much like Émile Zola once fought to restore Alfred Dreyfus’s honor, takes up Krüger’s case and works to clear his name by whatever means he can. During this period, Johanna begins an affair with Tüverlin, but remains steadfast in her determination to fight for her husband’s freedom. Things only begin to improve when Dr. Bichler, a farmers’ leader and an all-powerful figure in the Free State of Bavaria, takes up Martin Krüger’s cause. The former director of the State Gallery is eventually pardoned, but dies on the eve of his release. It is November 8, 1923, and a certain Adolf Hitler and his men are marching toward Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller to overthrow the government in Berlin …