Sündige Grenze (1951)

The Rabatzer make plenty of headlines with their smuggling activities in the German-Belgian-Dutch border region—particularly profitable contraband is black-market coffee, which is heavily taxed in early postwar Germany. They are mostly socially neglected teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16. The group also includes 16-year-old Marianne Mertens, whose father is currently serving a three-month prison sentence for smuggling, and her younger brother Heinz, who is only 13. Once again, an operation involving around a hundred teenagers is about to take place. The customs officers guard the border as well as they can, but each time it is crossed illegally they can catch, at most, about ten children, so the cost-benefit calculation usually works out in leader Krapp’s favor. This time, Jan Krapp has entrusted Marianne with her own “strike team,” and she manages to reach her contact, black-market dealer Mielke, unharmed, on the grounds of an abandoned factory and complete the job—to smuggle drugs this time—to her employer’s satisfaction. Meanwhile, the police have picked up nine children that night, and customs inspector Dietrich is questioning them. This time, little Heinz is among them. During questioning, they all lie through their teeth and even give false names. A young man has arrived on the scene hoping to write his doctoral dissertation on the problem of children’s smuggling gangs. The committed student is called Hans Fischer, and he will soon prove to be the very embodiment of a compassionate pastoral counselor. He increasingly shifts from detached observer to empathetic helper in this youth drama. The kind-hearted teacher, Miss Jansen, whose classroom is constantly missing numerous children whenever they are out on another smuggling run, has long since given up. It becomes clear that many of the Rabatzer children are being pushed into border smuggling by their good-for-nothing parents. Marianne suddenly turns up in class to report her brother Heinz “sick.” Fischer smells a rat and visits the Mertens family. Marianne greets him with the greatest suspicion. Krapp uses the weekend dance to make new contacts for more lucrative smuggling operations. For the next profitable job, Krapp, very pleased with Marianne’s previous performance, again puts the girl in charge of a Rabatzer crew. Fischer suspects something and follows her. At the Rabatzers’ meeting place, the old factory, he finds Marianne, while Krapp has made himself scarce in time. Fischer tries to talk Marianne, for whom he has feelings, out of what she is doing. Father Mertens has been released from prison early, supposedly reformed, and from then on forbids his two underage children to “rabatzen.” In a rage, he beats his rebellious daughter. But Marianne has long since become independent and will no longer take orders from her old man. She runs away with Heinz and intends to carry out the job Krapp gave her. This time, however, the customs police have been tipped off. They use tracking dogs to hunt the minors through the railway area. One dog breaks loose and chases the startled children into a tunnel. As an express train bears down on them at full speed, one child stumbles in panic and is nearly hit. Only the quick intervention of a customs officer saves the child’s life, while the officer loses his own in the daring rescue. The children return home and spread a rumor around the village that someone had tried to drive them to their deaths. Tempers flare, and the villagers gather angrily outside the customs office. Then a vehicle arrives carrying the dead customs officer, and everyone falls silent in embarrassment. Marianne still sees her future as the “right hand” of Krapp, the gang leader she admires. He has a “really big job” planned with her: he intends to smuggle especially valuable goods beneath the border, through a tunnel the Rabatzer children have dug beforehand. First, Marianne is to break into the customs office and check the duty log to find out exactly when the shift changes take place. She does so, but cannot lock the duty-log cabinet again with the duplicate key, which is later noticed. The shift changes are then rescheduled. Marianne and Krapp fall into the customs officers’ trap. Krapp is wounded in a shootout, but Marianne escapes through the underground passage. She discovers that the valuable contraband consists of precious church treasures that have apparently been stolen shortly beforehand. After reaching the Belgian side of the border, she is hit by a bullet fired by a Belgian border guard. She is found unconscious by the roadside by her contact there, a receiver of stolen goods, who takes her away. Later, he claims he found none of the expected stolen goods on her. In Belgium, she is treated like a piece of meat, without a will of her own. Back home in Germany, Marianne’s parents are meanwhile deeply worried. Her father is about to call the police when the girl returns. Marianne is deeply shaken, and she says nothing. But at least she begins to reconsider the life she has led so far, and Hans Fischer too believes she might manage to break out of this life of crime. Meanwhile, Krapp has undergone intense questioning. He is told to his face that he stole the church treasure, but Krapp is ice-cold and denies everything. During a transfer, he escapes from his guards at an opportune moment. Cilly, Krapp’s Rabatzer girlfriend—a girl who is just as foolish and promiscuous as she is compliant—helps him escape. Marianne wants to come clean by confessing to Inspector Dietrich, but Krapp intercepts her first. He tells her to help him escape. Cilly, Marianne’s fiercest rival, has now become the new crew leader and directs her Rabatzer children, dressed in carnival costumes, to hide stolen silver cutlery beneath their costumes and cross the border that way. This time, however, the customs officers have been warned and manage to apprehend the crew. Krapp flees again, but is soon caught. A shootout with the police follows, and Krapp is killed. Cilly collapses in tears. For the Rabatzer children, this ending comes as a salutary shock.