Johann Baptiste Lingg (1920)

Germany, toward the end of the 18th century. The young and impetuous ensign Johann Baptiste Lingg bids farewell to his parents and visits the young, blonde Marie Braun in Hersfeld, whom he would like to marry. Marie is fond of him, but her father objects to the match and is displeased to see the young man hanging around his only daughter. Instead, he plans to marry Marie off to Wolleck, an unattractive man considerably older than she is. This hard-hearted, devious fellow holds the respectable position of estate manager, which would enable him to support a family. Lingg must now say goodbye to Marie, who gives him a talisman for protection, because he is entering the service of the 5th Baden Regiment. While Wolleck hopes he will finally have a clear field with Marie, who is repulsed by him, Lingg’s father is appalled that Johann Baptiste is joining the French along with the Badeners, and breaks with his son. The lovers meet once more at the town ruins, where they swear eternal fidelity and Johann Baptiste promises Marie that he will marry her when he returns. In the meantime, he will write to her regularly. The devious Wolleck, who has secretly followed Marie to her rendezvous, overhears all this and resolves to intercept and destroy the letters Lingg sends to Marie. Meanwhile, Johann Baptiste Lingg advances in his military career and is soon promoted to officer. Josef Wolleck, his rival for Marie’s affection, whose hand in marriage her father has also promised him, now intercepts every letter Johann Baptiste sends to Marie and throws them all into the fire. In his final letter, Lingg announces that he will no longer write to his beloved, since she never replies. Marie, who has never received any word from her beloved, is inconsolable. She is carrying his child. Believing that her Johann Baptiste has forgotten her, she throws herself into the waters of the Mühlbach in an attempt to kill herself, but people from Hersfeld pull her out a little later. After recovering, she eventually gives in to the advances of the scheming Wolleck, and her parents hold an engagement celebration. Wolleck does not miss the opportunity to write to Lingg, who has been promoted to lieutenant, and tell him that he and Marie have married. Johann Baptiste is plunged into despair and believes that Marie has betrayed their love. Twenty years have passed since then. Terrible times have come to Lingg’s Hessian homeland. The French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte have continued their campaign of conquest, and the Corsican has ordered the occupation of Kurhessen and the disarmament of its troops. At the behest of the French usurper, Wilhelm I, Elector of Hesse, is to abdicate. French soldiers are forcibly billeted with German families, including Lieutenant Joui, who is quartered with the cloth finisher Pforr. The Frenchman cannot keep his hands off Pforr’s foster daughter, Hedwig. Elsewhere, too, the French commit outrages against German women, and resentment soon boils over as the locals begin to rise up against the French occupiers. When Hedwig tells her beloved Karl Schröder about the misery Joui is causing her, Karl angrily reaches for his weapon and wants to settle the matter his own way. Only with difficulty can his mother and Hedwig stop the hotheaded young man from doing something reckless. Although Karl and Hedwig are together, Joui still will not keep his hands off her. In an unwatched moment, he attacks her and tries to rape her, but Karl returns just in time and drives the French villain away. Soon the whole town is in turmoil, and this grows into an uprising against the Napoleonic occupiers. The freedom-loving people of Hersfeld and the French troops exchange fire in a fierce shootout in which many participants are killed. Joui flees to his commander, General Barbot, and gives a highly self-serving account of the cause of the uprising in Hersfeld; above all, he conceals his own dishonorable role in provoking it. Outraged, Barbot orders Lieutenant Colonel Lingg to reinforce the garrison there with his men and await further orders. Meanwhile, Napoleon is beside himself when he hears of the Hersfelders’ insubordination and issues the following order: “The town is to be plundered and set on fire at all four corners and in the middle!” Lingg is to carry out this imperial order. Karl Schröder, meanwhile, must expect to be arrested. The first French terror measures now begin: the first to be shot is the townsman Schüßler. Hedwig wants to ask Lingg to spare the town and her fiancé, and goes to the new commander. He can scarcely believe his eyes, for Hedwig looks like Marie’s twin. And indeed, she introduces herself as Hedwig Wolleck, Marie’s daughter. Johann Baptiste Lingg is utterly shaken. Hedwig tells him that her mother died in childbirth and that her father then became a drunkard. After her father’s death, the cloth finisher Pforr took her in. Hedwig falls to her knees and earnestly begs Lingg to spare Hersfeld and not burn it down, contrary to Napoleon’s orders. Lingg promises to do everything he can, and first destroys the arrest warrant General Barbot has issued for Pforr. He then informs the town leaders of the order to plunder the town and advises them to move everything of importance out of Hersfeld beforehand. To comply with the imperial order nonetheless, he chooses four houses at the town’s outer corners that are suitable for setting alight. Just before leaving town, Lingg gives Hedwig a letter and asks her not to open it until after his departure. He makes Hersfeld available to his soldiers for plunder, as ordered, but at the same time says that he does not intend to command a horde of robbers in future. The French soldiers then hold back. Once the first fires have been set, the soldiers quickly withdraw on Lingg’s orders, allowing the people of Hersfeld to rush to the waiting fire engines and extinguish the blazes at once. Hersfeld expresses its heartfelt gratitude to the German lieutenant colonel in French service, while Napoleon, having heard that his order was disobeyed, summons Lingg to bring him to judgment. When His Majesty hears from Lingg himself of his noble, patriotic motives, Napoleon understands his actions and lets him go. Lingg then resigns his commission, returns to Hersfeld, and gives his blessing on the steps of the town hall to Hedwig’s marriage to Karl.