Rose Bernd (1957)

After being driven from their Silesian homeland, Rose Bernd and her father find a new home in a small town in western Germany. Rose works as a maid for the landowner Christoph Flamm and also cares for his paralyzed wife, Henriette, with great devotion. Rose is hardworking and cheerful, and by now she has become almost indispensable on the Flamm estate. For her father, who belonged to the church council back home, religion and his Bible mean everything. The young, very pretty woman is desired by Arthur Streckmann, an excavator operator who keeps lying in wait for her, even though he is having an affair with Marie Schubert. In town, Streckmann is regarded as a womanizer. Rose is at once repelled by the attractive man because of his emotional coldness, yet, on the other hand, strangely drawn to him. There is another man in Rose’s life, the printer August Keil, who has genuine feelings for her but whom she does not take seriously, since he is considered a weakling. Rose’s father, however, would be only too pleased to see his daughter marry Keil. He brushes aside her objection that Keil need not wait for her, because she wants nothing to do with him, now or later. One night, after visiting an inn, Flamm comes drunkenly into Rose’s bedroom and stammers that he would marry her on the spot. He loves his wife dearly, he says, but she has been confined to a wheelchair for six long years. Although Rose has feelings for Flamm, she gets away from him and flees to the inn, where she dances exuberantly with Arthur Streckmann. “He is a handsome man,” she teases, “but only to look at.” Other men on the dance floor are also vying for Rose’s attention. Later that night, when the young woman returns to her room, Flamm is sitting on her bed and says that Streckmann certainly will not marry her. Rose replies that she does not know what is wrong with her. The landowner then speaks to Rose soothingly and says that there is nothing to be done about it now: he is simply terribly fond of her. She was still a child when she came to his estate, he says, and even then her honesty and straightforwardness impressed him. Rose replies that she is nothing compared with him; she could never speak so cleverly, and how could she possibly be his happiness? Although Flamm tells Rose that all she has to do is say “No,” and he will leave her room at once, Rose does not say the word. At the same time, Streckmann speeds down the road with Marie Schubert riding pillion and has a serious accident. Marie pays for the ride with her life. The secrecy Rose must maintain toward Henriette Flamm, whom she is very fond of, weighs increasingly heavily on her in the time that follows. Another problem troubles Rose: Streckmann, now discharged from hospital, has accidentally discovered her relationship with Flamm and is blackmailing her with what he knows. When Rose also discovers that she is pregnant, she no longer knows what to do. When Henriette Flamm asks her what is wrong, Rose cannot bring herself to confide in the older, more experienced woman. In her desperation, Rose sees only one way out: to accept August Keil’s proposal after all, especially since Flamm has abandoned her and made it clear that she should have an abortion. Rose tries to give Streckmann her savings book in exchange for his promise to stop pursuing and threatening her, but the attempt fails. “I’ll get you where I want you yet,” he says. “You’re no saint, after all.” Rose runs into a field of grain, and Streckmann follows her. Despite resisting at first, she eventually gives herself to him. Shortly afterward, an incident occurs in which Father Bernd reproaches Streckmann over Marie’s death, and Streckmann refuses to take the blame. He hints that people should put their own house in order before getting worked up about others. The grain may be silent, he says, but it can tell a thing or two; Rose, at any rate, has not ridden pillion with him alone. And they should ask Flamm, too—he can tell them a thing or two as well. This leads to a fight between Streckmann and August Keil, who is also present, and Keil loses an eye. Father Bernd, self-righteously convinced that Streckmann is lying, brings a defamation suit against him and thereby indirectly forces his daughter to swear a false oath. Rose is far too ashamed to admit in court that she has had relationships with two men. When the truth comes out through the testimonies of Streckmann and Flamm, Rose stubbornly ignores the court summonses, until she is threatened with being brought in by force. Her father insists that she attend the newly scheduled hearing, saying that justice and punishment must now take their course and that perjury carries a prison sentence—so her child will probably be born in prison. Rose throws the blue baby jacket she has been knitting into the fire and burns it. On the train journey to the court hearing, Rose goes into labor. When the train stops, she gets off and flees through the cold, snowy countryside to a spot beneath a bridge. As the train rumbles noisily away, she gives birth to her child there in agony. Three days later, Rose turns up at the Flamm home, where she is told that they have searched for her everywhere. When they tell her that a warrant has been issued for her arrest, Rose replies listlessly that none of it matters to her anymore. She only wants the key so she can collect her things; her child is dead. When it was born, she says, it did not even have a roof over its head. Then she turns away and leaves. When Flamm tells his wife that they cannot leave Rose alone with that weakling—meaning Keil—she merely replies, “You say that? She isn’t alone.” Keil is meanwhile running after Rose; his love endures.