Wenn die Heide blüht (1960)

The Lüneburg Heath, 1950: Estate owner Jochen Petersen has two sons: Klaus, from his first marriage, and Rolf, from his second, who loves composing. The half-brothers are very different. While Klaus is preparing to take over his father’s estate, Rolf has no interest in farming and devotes himself to composing—a pursuit his father does not consider work. They argue again, and after a visit to an inn, Rolf packs his things and leaves for good. A short time later, Klaus is found shot dead. There is no trace of the killer, but Rolf’s sudden disappearance makes him look suspicious. Ten years later, Rolf works as a dishwasher by day in New York City and plays piano in bars at night. Just as he gets his first major engagement, he receives a telegram: the estate manager, Dirk, asks him to come home because his father is very ill. Back in his home village, Rolf learns that his brother died ten years earlier and that he himself was long suspected of being the killer. Although the case was officially closed long ago, many of the villagers still believe Rolf is guilty. Only a few people, including forester Harkort, his daughter Anne, and veterinarian Dr. Erdman, are on his side. Rolf now spends more time with Anne, much to the displeasure of his rival, Harms Brockdorf. After Harms openly accuses him of murdering Klaus, Rolf begins making inquiries. At first, he suspects old Uhl, since Klaus’s watch is found in his possession. Rolf’s inquiries revive the investigation, and during excavations the police finally find the murder weapon—a pistol that belonged to Rolf. When Rolf learns that he is now strongly suspected of the murder, he flees to Hamburg to stay with Vera, a singer he knows. The police arrive, only to tell him that the real killer has turned himself in: forester Harkort. In court, Harkort describes the circumstances of Klaus’s death. Uhl, a local resident of the heath, had—as he often did—set snares for hares, but that night a deer got caught in one of them. Drunk, Klaus had gone straight from the inn into the heath, where he found the deer and put it out of its misery with a mercy shot. Harkort, who had only just been released from a prisoner-of-war camp and had not yet returned to government service as a forester, came upon Klaus with the animal and suspected him of poaching. He wanted to arrest Klaus, but during a struggle over the pistol it went off and killed Klaus. At the time, Harkort did not yet have a license and was not actually allowed to use the rifle he had with him that day. What he had done would have cost him the government post he was about to take up. So he kept quiet about the incident, since the suspected but vanished Rolf was not in immediate danger of being arrested either. Now that this had changed, Harkort turned himself in to the police. The court acquits him because it cannot be disproved that he did not act in self-defense. As a symbolic gesture and a sign of reconciliation, Anne is chosen as the new Queen of the Heath. She and Rolf eventually become a couple after Rolf dispels Anne’s suspicion that he and Vera are together.