Menschen untereinander (1926)
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Directors
Cast
Alfred Abel, Aud Egede Nissen, Eduard Rothauser, Renate Brausewetter, Berthold Reissig
A Berlin tenement’s residents reveal the hardships and divisions of a society in crisis.
The story
In a Berlin tenement in the 1920s, residents from sharply different economic circumstances occupy distinct levels of the same building. A jeweler and a lawyer live on the lower floors; a widow and a civil servant share another floor. Above them, a dance school and a marriage-brokerage office operate, while the poorest tenants—a balloon seller and a piano teacher impoverished by inflation—live beneath the roof. Their separate stories unfold in episodes, set against the building’s visible class divisions. Although their social milieus differ, the tenants share experiences of love, happiness, and disappointment, bringing their individual struggles into focus.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
At the center of the story is a typical Berlin tenement building from the 1920s. A jeweler and a lawyer live on the lower floors. The next floor is shared by a widow and a civil servant. Above them are two business premises: a dance school and a marriage-brokerage office. At the very top, directly beneath the roof, live the poorest tenants: a balloon seller and a piano teacher left penniless by inflation. In this way, the building reflects society, its hardships, and its class divisions. The film tells the tenants’ stories in episodes, contrasting their different social milieus. But all the tenants share fundamental experiences such as love, happiness, and disappointment. These common experiences soon make the representatives of each class seem like individuals who are suffering in concrete ways—from the consequences of an economic and social system that has gone off the rails.
Genres
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