Oswalt Kolle: Das Wunder der Liebe (1968)

The film begins with a deliberately serious discussion between Kolle, sex researcher Hans Giese, and psychologist Wolfgang Hochheimer. Giese explains that the church, the state, and the judiciary all agree on the urgent need to provide the public with sound information. Hochheimer adds that, in 1968, it is high time to defend a more nuanced understanding of sexuality in marriage, especially since millions of people are dissatisfied because they cannot come to terms with their sexuality. Giese, in turn, hopes that Kolle’s film will be seen as helpful and that “at this level, much more sexuality can and must now be brought into film than is usually the case.” The first dramatized scenes follow. In a light-hearted discussion, two case studies of sexual difficulties in marriage and their causes are talked through. A newly married couple, on the one hand, and a couple who have been married for seven years, on the other, discuss their problems. Their words are illustrated with dramatized scenes, interspersed with frequent brief comments pointing to the consequences of inadequate sex education. For newlyweds Petra and Thomas, the husband’s premature orgasm is a source of distress for his wife, since she misses loving foreplay and afterplay. The second husband, Martin, an architect who is now the father of two children, neglects his wife Claudia in favor of his career. She resists the blatant advances of a motorist, but reproaches her husband for neglecting her. At last, Martin understands the situation and takes Claudia to the hotel where they had once been happy together.