Himmel ohne Sterne (1955)

In divided Germany in 1953, young East German Anna Kaminski, a seamstress at a state-owned enterprise, lives in Thuringia, right on the inner-German border. Her son Jochen, whose father was killed in the war, is forced to live with his grandparents, Elsbeth and Otto Friese, in Bavaria, only a few kilometers from the inner-German border. Elsbeth and Otto, complacent, well-to-do representatives of the West German economic miracle who are scarcely capable of empathy, had once been willing to help Anna only if she gave her child up to the Frieses for adoption, to spare Jochen the supposed “disgrace” of being born out of wedlock (since their fallen son is the child’s father). Because Anna has to care for her elderly grandparents in the East, she resists moving permanently to the West and agrees to their demand. And so, whenever she wants to see Jochen, Anna has to cross the border secretly. During one of her crossings, she meets Carl Altmann, a Bavarian border policeman. He has a big heart and promises Anna that he will bring her son Jochen to her in the East. As they make further border crossings, Anna and Carl get to know each other better and fall in love. Their only chance to meet from then on is at an abandoned railway station between the two borders. Anna has decided to take Jochen with her to the East; one night, she secretly leaves the Frieses’ house with him. Carl has arranged for his buddy Willi Becker to hide them both in the truck’s storage compartments and take them, along with their belongings, across the border. But Jochen slips out of the compartment unnoticed and runs to a carousel set up at the border checkpoint. Anna is now back in the East, while Carl, at first without realizing it, is in the West with Jochen. A passerby finds the crying child at the checkpoint; Carl recognizes Jochen and takes him into his care. He plans to bring the boy back to his mother for good—a dangerous undertaking for him, too, since actions like this put him at great risk. At one of their secret meetings in the old station, Anna is visibly ill. Carl sets off to the village to fetch a doctor, but he is intercepted and arrested by Soviet border guards. Anna is also discovered and arrested in the West. Carl’s guard, People’s Policeman Bröse, signals that he is willing to let Carl escape if Carl can help him get a well-paid post in the West German border force. Carl agrees and manages to escape. Anna, now recovered, leaves a message for Carl with his landlords; Carl leaves a message in the East: they should go to the agreed meeting place—but by chance, they meet again at the station that very night. Anna’s doubts about life in the East are not changed even by meeting Mischa Bjelkin, a young Soviet soldier who behaves with great humanity, quite contrary to her expectations. His apparent interest is only in playing regular chess games with Anna’s grandfather. When he is transferred, Anna asks him for a travel permit for herself and her son, so that she can cross the border regularly to care for her grandparents in the East and see Carl in the West. But Anna’s love for Carl, and the hopelessness that overcomes her when she imagines a life in the GDR, finally lead the seamstress to resolve to flee to the West. She wants to make a fresh start in the Federal Republic with her son and Carl. In a final act of desperation, she also manages to persuade her grandfather to leave the East and the family home he has cherished for so long and paid for with such difficulty. On the crucial night, Willi Becker waits at the agreed meeting place and loads the clothes and other belongings into the truck; Jochen is hidden in the vehicle. Carl and Anna, like the grandparents at another location, plan to cross the border on foot. For safety, Willi gives Carl his pistol. On the way, Mischa crosses the path of the two lovers. He calls out to Anna without success and follows them on his bicycle. They flee into an old munitions factory. Mischa arrives there, too. In the darkness, Carl panics and shoots Mischa, who is handling his submachine gun. Mischa is fatally wounded; in his hand he is holding the travel permit for Anna and her son. Carl and Anna continue fleeing and are spotted by Soviet border guards. They are fired upon, and the alarm is raised. Carl is hit and collapses, dying, already on the western side. The West German border guards also take notice and shoot at their opponents and at anything that moves. Anna sees Carl lying there, turns back, and is fatally shot from the western side. They lie on the ground with their arms outstretched, their hands just failing to touch.