It is a semi autobiographical film diected by von Baky and written by returned exile Fritz Kortner. The film, like Peter Lorre's 1951 Der Verlorene or Wolf's 1968 Ich war 19 tries to describe how difficult it was to return to Germany as an exile.
The film describes the story of Prof Mauthner, played by Fritz Kortner, who is a successful exiled professor in Califonia. He yearns to return home and leaves his Californian comforts fo the rigours of post war Berlin and an academic post at a University there.
In Germany he preaches that the nation must reject the old couse and embrace a new way of thinking. This message is cruelly rejected by the students, one of which being his son, who stayed in Germany during the war and fought with the Wehrmacht.
The film, shot in English and Germany, clearly captures the difficulties of returning home. Kortner, who wrote the piece, based the story on his own expereince of returning home back to Germany following exile in California. When he wrote the film he commented to Der Spiegel that he "expected protests" from the public about the film. Many of the German characters in the film speak against him and seem such unrefomed Nazis, that they were described by Der Spiegel as "seeming to want to don their old Nazi uniforms and invade America". While this may be an exageration, the Germans are certainly shown as trucluent, and resentful of the returning Mauthner.
Kortner's experience was certainly one of difficulty when he retuned to Germany, he had to pay his own passage, and found it difficult to find work as the Theatre he wanted to work in was now in the Soviet Zone of Occupation. If Mauthner's expereince was only a "half portrait" as described by Der Spiegel it certainly reflected the experiences of those who were exiles or victims of the regime and who tried to help Germany's youth to plot a new course in the Post War world such as Konrad Wolf and Pastor Martin Niemöller. Wolf, who returned from exile wearing a Soviet Uniform and as a Soviet citizen was involved in the Soviet efforts at Denazification and reduction. He described how when he was giving a lecture to University students he arrived one day to find " Traitor to the Fatherland" chalked on his desk. Pastor Martin Niemöller, Concentration Camp victim and survivor, had a similar experience when talking to students in Munich of being barracked and shouted down.
Kortner's film is fast paced and shows that he had learnt in Hollywood, how to hold an audience. His message seems to be that you can never really expect to return home. Kortner stands out as someone who did make the transition succesfully and was able to fight through the negative experiences of the post war period, while those like Billy Wilder or Marlene Dietrich decided that Germany held nothing more for them and they remained in the US.
