Gipfelsturm (2007)

Josef Naus, a Tyrolean and veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, now serves as a lieutenant in the Bavarian Army. In 1820, army command assigns him to survey the Zugspitze region. He sets to work there with his grumpy servant Schani, but the locals are far from enthusiastic. They see the two soldiers as troublemakers and bringers of misfortune—especially since the officer is himself a Tyrolean, a former enemy. The locals believe in the so-called Zuggeist, which they blame for all kinds of misfortune and see embodied in a golden eagle. A widespread superstition holds that this spirit guards a Springwurzel on the summit of the Zugspitze, promising eternal riches. Previous attempts to find the Springwurzel have ended in death. Naus, however, aspires to greater things. He wants to be the first to climb the Zugspitze’s summit, thereby improving his prospects for advancement in the military and his social standing. But Naus faces other kinds of adversity as well. He falls in love with Afra, a young maid and mother who suffers under her innkeeper, Bärenmartl. This also puts his work at risk, since the father of his fiancée in Munich is financing Naus’s scientific activities. Nevertheless, he breaks off the engagement without much hesitation. But Görgl, a young local who has just been released from Landsberg prison after serving a five-year sentence for poaching, has also set his sights on Afra. He knows Naus from the war, when Görgl, as a Bavarian, had been hostile to the Tyrolean, but Naus spared him in battle.