Must-Watch List in the Vein of The Captain from Köpenick: Cult Guide

Dir: Richard Oswald

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Hampels Abenteuer perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A scholar defends prostitution before the World Court.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Prostitution perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

In ancient, Tsarist Russia. Fyodor Protasov's marriage to his wife Lisa is over. However, the Russian Orthodox Church does not approve of a divorce, and so Protasov fakes his own suicide, before Lisa move in with her lover Viktor Karenin. Fyodor himself becomes a "living corpse".

Dir: Richard Oswald

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Der lebende Leichnam perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Philanthropist attempts to awaken in the good side in criminals.

Dir: Richard Oswald

In the third part syphilis is also at the center of the action. This time a landowner falls ill. He proves to be a real fiend, tyrannizes his wife and seduces the daughter of the forester he employs. When the young woman thinks she can't find a way out, she seeks suicide. Finally, the despot also dies and, post mortem, takes his son with him into the misfortune. The latter believes that he too is suffering from syphilis and is soon obsessed with this delusion.

Dir: Richard Oswald

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Henriette Jacoby perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Characteristic for Hoffmann's work is his life-long fight against rationalism and for the revelation of nature morte, culminating mostly in carnival-like scenes anticipating literary techniques

Dir: Richard Oswald

Two male musicians fall in love, but blackmail and scandal makes the affair take a tragic turn.

Dir: Richard Oswald

The second syphilis film poses the moral question: namely how far an illness should be considered a human disgrace. The protagonist of this story, a young doctor, believes that only characterless people can contract the disease through reprehensible actions. At a meeting in honor of a venereologist, a violent dispute erupts between the doctor who applies moral categories and a colleague who argues more objectively. Two events make the dogmatic young doctor think: his sister marries a syphilitic who has not yet been completely healed, and he himself falls ill as a result of a kiss from a young woman who also suffers from syphilis. But the doctor is healed and reconsiders his previous attitude.