Tonio Kröger (1964)

Tonio Kröger, the son of a patrician family from Lübeck, lives as a writer in Italy, his mother’s homeland. While attending a play in Florence, his thoughts drift back to the past, to his schooldays—to Hans Hansen and Inge Holm. He still feels a secret longing for a bourgeois life, one he cannot lead, but whose owners he sometimes envies. Tonio finally makes up his mind: he leaves Florence, with all its temptations, and travels to Munich. His friend, the gifted painter Lisaweta Iwanowna, lives there, and he can talk with her at a high level about every aspect of art. But Tonio is restless. He leaves Munich behind and travels on to Alsgaard, a Danish seaside resort, stopping briefly beforehand at his parents’ house in Lübeck. Memories come flooding back, but after the death of the old Consul Kröger, the building was sold to the city, which turned it into a public library. In Alsgaard, Tonio checks into a small beach hotel. One evening, holidaymakers there hold a cheerful party. For a moment, Tonio thinks he sees Hans Hansen and Inge Holm dancing past. He has never forgotten either of them, for it was only for them that he secretly wrote. Whenever he received applause, he would always look around to see whether Inge and Hans were in the crowd. Long after the party is over, Tonio Kröger is still lost in thoughts of those days. Now it is only Lisaweta whom he longs to have with him. One day, he is finally able to take her in his arms.