Zärtliches Geheimnis (1956)

Eleven-year-old Rosmarin grows up in the household of his widowed father, the industrialist Robert von Stetten, who has so many business appointments that he hardly has any time to look after his son. One day, Stetten receives a letter from his sister Charlie, who lives in the United States. She announces that she will soon be visiting her homeland so she can show her daughter Beate the family’s ancestral castle and, on the occasion, meet her nephew Rosmarin. His father sends the boy ahead to the castle in the mountains. Early the very next morning, the boy runs down to the lake and promises the servant Franz he will be back in time for breakfast. On the shore, he meets Thymian, a boy his own age who looks remarkably like him, though otherwise rather ragged. Rosmarin learns from Thymian that he cannot remember his father and that his mother was taken prisoner during the war when he was five. The local community provides for him. To earn a little extra, he does odd jobs for some farmers. The two boys quickly become friends. They row out onto the lake in a boat, but handle it so clumsily that it capsizes. Rosmarin just manages to save his new friend and get him to shore. Then he sets off for the village to fetch help. But he is already so weak that he collapses unconscious before reaching the first houses. The fishermen who find him mistake him for Thymian and take him to Thymian’s hut. Meanwhile, the servant Franz finds Thymian and takes him to the castle. When Rosmarin comes to, he decides to pretend, for the time being, that he is Thymian. He secretly visits Thymian at the castle—after waking up, Thymian had thought he was under a spell—and asks him to keep playing his new role. Rosmarin has now been living in Thymian’s hut for several days, doing his work, though he often makes a rather poor job of it, leaving his employers shaking their heads in bafflement. For example, they cannot understand how someone can forget how to milk from one day to the next. On the other hand, in the role of Thymian, who is a rather poor student, Rosmarin astonishes the village schoolteacher with his outstanding academic performance, for instance by singing the French national anthem, which even the teacher could not recite without mistakes. When Thymian’s mother, Anna Retzer, unexpectedly returns from captivity, Rosmarin discovers something he has never known before: a mother’s love and tenderness. He is so happy about it that he continues to conceal his identity. The two children decide to secretly swap clothes at a fair that is taking place and return to their rightful lives. But their plan is thwarted by Robert von Stetten, who has by then arrived at the family estate. It is unavoidable that Robert and Anna meet. They were once secret lovers. They did not marry only because Robert’s family prevented the socially unsuitable wedding. Now, however, nothing stands in the way of bringing the family together.