Unsterbliche Geliebte (1951)

A summer party is being held aboard a hotel ship in Hamburg. Dr. Talma is among the guests. At the event, he meets the young Angelika von Hollstein. Her face reminds Talma of a portrait of a woman that he recently submitted to an auction house for sale. Angelika cannot explain the coincidence, so the two of them set out to uncover the mystery of the enigmatic painting. Their trail leads to the Hallig island of Oland in Schleswig-Holstein. There they learn more about the young woman in the portrait, who was called Katharina von Hollstein and was apparently one of Angelika’s ancestors. Flashback to the eighteenth century: Katharina and the gifted young painter Johannes once shared a youthful romance, but Katharina’s brother Wulf abruptly brought it to an end. To save the family estate from impending ruin, he insists that his sister marry their neighbor, von der Risch, a stiff-necked young nobleman. In the meantime, Johannes has left for Paris to advance his painting studies. While he is away, the elderly Count Hollstein, once Johannes’s most important patron, dies of a stroke. Johannes soon returns and is delighted to discover that Katharina has remained faithful to him and resisted both her brother’s pressure and von der Risch’s marriage proposal. But the hot-tempered and violent Wulf is far from giving up, and from then on makes his sister’s life a living hell. To get Katharina out of Wulf’s line of fire, Johannes sends his beloved with a letter to an abbess in Itzehoe, the dead count’s sister. There, the harried young woman is to find peace and wait until Johannes can finally make her his wife. On his way back, Johannes stops at a forest inn, where he encounters the furious Wulf. The shamelessly drunken von der Risch is there too. Wulf von Hollstein eventually sets his fierce dogs on Johannes, forcing him to flee. With great difficulty, he finds shelter in Katharina’s room in the count’s castle. Katharina has also returned, and they spend a night together. The next morning, hoping Wulf has calmed down, Johannes asks her brother for Katharina’s hand. But Wulf’s hatred of the gentle painter is still boundless, and he simply shoots Johannes. To cover up his despicable deed, he promptly drags the wounded man to a forest ranger’s cottage. Once recovered, Johannes tries again to contact his beloved Katharina. She does not respond, because his letters to her are intercepted and never passed on. Johannes then believes that Katharina has bowed to her brother’s will and returns to Paris, disappointed. Katharina, for her part, assumes that her undying beloved is now truly dead and, to escape further violence from Wulf, places herself under the protection of Pastor Georg Bonnix. He lives in the middle of nowhere in Schleswig-Holstein, on the Hallig island of Oland. As a result of the dramatic circumstances of her one night of love with Johannes at Hollstein Castle, Katharina promptly becomes pregnant. Shortly before she is due to give birth, the pastor marries her so that the young woman will not become a mother in a “state of sin.” One day, Johannes returns to his old home, driven by longing for his great, undying love for Katharina. He does not know where to look for her; she has vanished. By chance, Johannes is commissioned to paint a portrait of Pastor Bonnix. He sees a four-year-old boy at the parsonage and immediately thinks he recognizes in the child’s eyes those of his undying beloved, his Katharina. She feels much the same when she sees the unfinished portrait of her husband. The brushwork, the coloring—everything seems to breathe the art of the painter friend believed dead. Far from pleased by this turn of events, the pastor tells Johannes to leave again as soon as possible. Then Johannes sees Katharina playing in the garden with the child, his son. Katharina too sees the father of her child, but she is so overcome by her feelings that she does not want to speak to Johannes in the four-year-old’s presence. So the two lovers go to the small church on the Hallig to finally talk things through. Then fate strikes mercilessly: In a moment when he is left unsupervised, the little boy wanders too close to the water and drowns. Johannes, utterly convinced that he is to blame for his son’s death, asks Pastor Bonnix if he may paint the dead boy, laid out in state. Instead of his name, he inscribes the painting with the initials C.P.A.S. (Culpa patris aquis submersus)—“drowned in the water through his father’s fault.” Johannes then leaves the ill-fated place. But at last, after the pastor has released his wife, the tragic lovers are together forever.