Frau Irene Besser (1961)

Federal Republic of Germany, in the early postwar years. Since her husband Martin was drafted into the Second World War and taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1945, Irene Besser has had to manage her own life and that of her daughter, Lotte, alone in West Germany during the 1940s and 1950s. With great commitment and a practical, can-do attitude, she made the most of the years of the economic miracle and built up her own department store. The lawyer Dr. Werther has supported her with advice and help, and over the years has become increasingly like a family friend. For twelve long years, Irene’s husband was presumed missing. Then, from one day to the next, the lives of everyone involved change abruptly: Martin Besser is back in Germany. The country has become foreign to him, and the first thing the long-delayed returnee wants is to see his wife again. In his hometown, he befriends the young Franziska von Stein. When Martin and Irene meet again, there is distance and estrangement between the couple instead of great joy—and these feelings grow even stronger when Besser realizes that his wife has not only become a highly successful businesswoman, but is also no longer unattached in her private life. Irene wants to do right by both her husband and her lover, and reconcile her two lives—the one she leads now and the one she had before. But in the end she has to make a decision: Irene Besser intends to divorce Martin, but to wait until her husband has found his footing again and built a future of his own without her.