Multimedia Collection

The Kaiser's Lackey (Der Untertan)

DVD
105 min
1951
PT2625 .A43 U52 2007 DVD

As a child and young man, Diederich Hessling (Werner Peters) learns an important lesson for an ambitious man: one must first serve power to gain power for oneself. From then on, his modus operandi is to bow to superiors and kick underlings. This historical satire, set in the 1890s, is based on Heinrich Mann's world-famous novel, Der Untertan, considered a key text on the "authoritarian personality." The film - a bitterly comic classic by one of Germany's great directors - was banned in West Germany for five years, before being released in an edited version which leaves out the final scenes. The Kaiser's Lackey is ranked by film critics among the 100 Most Significant German Films of all time.

Cast: Werner Peters (Diederich Hessling), Renate Fischer, Sabine Thalbach, Paul Esser, Carola Braumbock, Emmy Burg, Friedrich Maurer. Director Wolfgang Staudte.

German dialogue with English subtitles.

Distributed by DEFA Film Library.

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