Junge Frau von 1914 (1970)

Summer 1914. A couple spends their vacation in a farmhouse in the mountains. They are Leonore Wahl, the daughter of a Potsdam banker, and the writer Werner Bertin. The assassination in Sarajevo takes place during this idyllic time. The two are subjected to a police inspection because the villagers suspect them of being spies—and only because Leonore talks to her dog in an imaginary language. They live and love, learn and work. Heated debates revolve around art and the role of the intellect in Europe. When Werner Bertin pays a formal introductory visit to his fiancée’s family, he is met with cold rejection. A penniless writer and son of a carpenter could never be acceptable to the bourgeois Wahl family as a son-in-law. The outbreak of the First World War takes them completely by surprise. It sweeps almost the entire population into its maelstrom, and Bertin suddenly discovers his patriotism. The aesthete becomes a nationalist. He is conscripted in the spring of 1915, has to undergo basic military training in Küstrin, and is then assigned as an Armierungssoldat—that is, a soldier without weapons training. During one of Leonore’s visits to Küstrin, an incident occurs between him and his longtime lover. Although Bertin is a sensitive, considerate, and somewhat impractical young man, the few weeks in the barracks have made him so brutal that, during a walk together, he rapes his girlfriend. But it is not this violent sexual assault that brings Leonore’s relationship with Bertin to a crisis; that comes only with the pregnancy that results from it. Since her parents are still opposed to a relationship between Leonore and Werner, she sees no other choice but to have an abortion. With the help of her younger brother David, who is still in secondary school, plays the piano, and hopes to study music, she finds a private clinic in Berlin where the illegal procedure is performed. The cost of the clinic stay is also covered by an advance on one of Bertin’s plays that arrives just in time. But the real rift between Leonore and Werner comes only after the abortion, when Werner visits his lover at the clinic but refuses to stay for a few more days to support her. Over the next few months, Leonore undergoes a strange transformation. She takes a firm stand with her parents in favor of making her relationship with Werner official. First, she manages to get engaged to him because the Wahls consider it useful to have a family member at the front, since this might delay David’s conscription. An impending son-in-law in the family would also be good for the banker’s business ties with the Prussian military leadership. When Bertin’s unit is finally due to be transferred to Verdun, Leonore looks for a way to have him exempted from military service altogether, but is told only that a wedding will guarantee him leave. With the help of her liberal grandfather, she gets her parents to agree to her marriage to Werner and actively pursues leave for her fiancé. After more than a year of military service, Bertin is granted a full four days’ leave for his wedding. He marries Leonore in Berlin and spends two days of their honeymoon with her at the Wahl family’s villa in Potsdam. He then has to return to duty at Verdun, and Leonore sees him off at the station.