Ottilie von Faber-Castell - Eine mutige Frau (2019)

After her father’s death, Grandfather Lothar von Faber entrusts the still-underage Ottilie with running the A. W. Faber company after his own death. Lothar dies shortly afterward, and his widow acts as Ottilie’s guardian until she comes of age. During an accident on the factory floor, Ottilie is rescued by foreman Johann, who loses his right hand in the process. She grants him the right to live in the mansion for the rest of his life, where he becomes friends with Ottilie’s maid, Anna. Two men court Ottilie: Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen and his younger friend Philipp Brand von Neidstein. Since she has fallen passionately in love with Philipp, Alexander challenges his friend to a duel and is defeated. Philipp spares his life and gives up Ottilie. In 1898, Ottilie and Alexander marry after Philipp has stopped contacting her without explanation. After their first children are born, Alexander and Ottilie’s grandmother push her out of the company’s management. Disappointed, she grows distant from Alexander, who then begins an extramarital affair. Ottilie, in turn, secretly meets with Philipp. When their first son dies in infancy while his parents are on a business trip in Paris, their marriage enters a severe crisis, which worsens after Alexander is called up to serve in the First World War. During an unannounced leave at home, Ottilie tells him she wants a divorce. As a result, she loses her children and her company to Alexander and leaves the house alone and almost penniless. Only Anna and Johann remain by her side. Text shown at the end states that Ottilie and Philipp had a happy marriage. She was able to contact her children only through Anna, and they did not reunite until 1928, after Alexander’s death.