Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand (1979)

During the Peasants’ War, the free knight Götz von Berlichingen becomes embroiled in a bitter feud with the Bishop of Bamberg because the bishop is holding and torturing one of his men. Götz retaliates by taking Adelbert von Weislingen prisoner, a childhood friend who serves the bishop. At Jagsthausen Castle, Götz tries to persuade him to join his side. To seal their new alliance, Adelbert becomes engaged to Maria, Berlichingen’s sister. The bishop then sends his secretary, Liebetraut, to persuade Weislingen to return to Bamberg. Weislingen returns to the bishop’s residence “on a trial basis” and falls in love there with the young noblewoman Adelheid von Walldorf. He eventually resumes his service to the bishop and marries Adelheid. The situation then escalates. Götz von Berlichingen now promises his sister in marriage to the influential knight Franz von Sickingen and raids wealthy merchants in retaliation for the capture of one of his riders. Influenced by Weislingen, Emperor Maximilian places Knight Götz under the imperial ban and has him pursued by an army raised for that purpose. Götz takes refuge with his loyal followers in his castle, where they are besieged. At last, he surrenders to the superior force, but first negotiates safe passage—which his opponents fail to honor. In the hands of his enemies, Götz is put on trial at Heilbronn’s town hall. He insists that he is innocent. His future brother-in-law, Sickingen, frees him in a daring raid, entering the town hall with his men and taking the councilors prisoner. Soon the country is in the grip of a major uprising. After the rebels commit serious excesses, the peasant insurgents want to make Götz von Berlichingen their captain. He allows himself to be persuaded, but insists that from then on he will use no more violence. His men, however, do not keep to this. When the town of Miltenberg is raided and burned down shortly afterward, Berlichingen falls into the hands of Adelbert von Weislingen’s riders. Meanwhile, Weislingen’s wife wants to leave him so she can draw closer to the designated emperor, Philip. Weislingen’s squire, Franz, has become Adelheid’s lover and is under her influence. At her request, he poisons Weislingen. Desperate over what he has done, the squire then takes his own life. A secret tribunal condemns Adelheid to death for adultery and murder. By now, Götz—seriously injured during his arrest and broken by the injustice he has suffered—is awaiting his fate in Heilbronn’s prison tower. On the night of the poisoning, however, Marie had managed to persuade Weislingen to overturn the death sentence against her brother. Thus, although Götz still dies of his injuries, surrounded by his wife and sister, in the end he has become reconciled with the world.