Corwin Mancuso

Dr. Joseph Moser

EGE 405
2 May 2016
Dealing with the Past: An Analysis of Die Mrder sind unter uns
Rubble films, or Trmmerfilme, were a genre of movies made in the years following
World War II by citizens of countries that were greatly affected by the destruction enacted by
Nazi Germany, including and especially Germany itself. Common themes of these films include
reconstruction of bombed cities and the poverty suffered by those still residing in the ruins.
These war-torn buildings were used as backdrops for this movement, reflecting the physical
weariness, mental distress, and moral ambiguity of both the returning shell shocked German
soldiers and the citizens left behind during the war. The lives of all Germans at the time changed
drastically in these few years as the wounds left by Nazi Germany started to heal. As written by
Robert Shandley in his book Rubble Films: German Cinema in the Shadow of the Third Reich,
so bitter was the defeat, so devastating the losses, so violent the reprisals, so one-sided
the responsibility, so complete the stripping of the communitys ideals that there was very
little upon which its members could call in order to organize the complex set of emotions,
pathologies, and desires that accompanied the loss. (2001, p. 1)
The Nazis had completely taken over every aspect of everyday German life, including the
messages portrayed and the techniques utilized by filmmakers in their movies, resulting in the
production of films that were nothing more than thinly veiled propaganda, such as Triumph des
Willens or La Habanera. With the rise of fascism came massive increases in capital punishments,
rising from 393 between 1907 and 1932 to 16,560 from 1933 through World War II; the number

of crimes punishable by death increased drastically as well. Most civil liberties were restricted,
mail could be searched, and phone calls could be tapped. Women were once again relegated to
the role of housewife. Censorship and propaganda became rampant as anti-Semitism and Aryan
idealism grew (Longerich, 2010, p. 31-2). With the fall of the Nazis, German filmmakers briefly
had a glimpse of freedom not seen since the Weimar Republic of the Twenties and Thirties.
The extent of this freedom was, however, based on two factors: the reconstruction of film
studios in Germany and the censorship of new films by the Soviet Military Administration in
Germany (also known as Sowjetische Militradministration in Deutschland, or SMAD), the
ruling government of the Soviet occupation zone. In the early years, the SMAD was very strict
on the content of German films, requiring each movie to help drive the Communist agenda in
East Germany, but became increasingly more lenient as the Cold War progressed. The Soviets
established the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) in 1946 with Wolfgang Staudtes Die
Mrder sind unter uns being the first film to be produced.
Originally pitched unsuccessfully to studios in America and Britain, Die Mrder sind
unter uns tells the story of a former German military doctor, Hans Mertens, who has become a
misanthropic pessimist who drowns his sorrows and traumatic wartime memories with copious
amounts of alcohol (Fehrenbach, 1995, pp. 59-60). His own home levelled, he squats in an
apartment owned by Susanne, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, who lets him stay,
despite his caustic personality. Upon meeting Ferdinand Brckner, Hans captain during the war,
Hans plots to assassinate him as retribution for the dozens of innocent Polish citizens slaughtered
on Brckners command. Susanne prevents him from following through with his plan, stating
that judgment is reserved for the courts, not vigilantes.

This film was groundbreaking for its time, being the first anti-fascist film to come out of
Germany since the insertion of the Nazi Party into the film industry in the Thirties, as well as the
first German film to publicly criticize the atrocities of the Nazis. At the end of the war,
approximately seven million Germans had been killed, about 8% of the total population. Filmed
on location in Berlin, the stark ruined buildings reflect the will of the German citizens and
soldiers at the time: tired, decimated, and broken down. This backdrop is unique in comparison
to other films of the time, providing a scene familiar to many Germans but still alien to the
standard of living experienced before the war. The characters traverse the felled walls and rubble
without a care, representing the disconnection from Germany that many Germans felt during this
time and the apathy that loomed over Germany, but also showing the adaptability of the German
people, providing a glimmer of hope that Germany would improve and become better than ever
before.
At the time of filming Die Mrder sind unter uns, the Nuremberg Trials were still
underway, where 23 prominent Nazi war criminals were tried for their involvement with the
party, resulting in twelve executed, seven imprisoned, and three acquitted (Robert Ley
committed suicide prior to the start of the trial). The original ending of this film had Dr. Mertens
carry out his execution of Brckner and the original title was Der Mann den ich tten werde (or,
The Man I Am Going to Kill). Additionally, the original script stated that Susanne was in the
concentration camps due to her fathers Communist ideals. These were all changed due to
pressure from Alexander Dymshits, the cultural officer of the Soviet occupation zone, who
believed that such an ending would incite vigilante justice against former Nazis; in the wake of
the trials in Nuremberg, the Soviets believed that the revised ending was more responsible
(Bathrick, 2015, pp. 20-1). The ending also gives the movie a more poignant message; everyone

deserves a trial for their crimes, no matter how severe they may be. The original ending would
have had an air of irony about it as well as an execution without trial would be reminiscent of the
recently deposed Nazi government who would execute prisoners over the slightest offense.
The execution of over one hundred Polish citizens is used in Die Mrder sind unter uns
as a representation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in their occupied territories,
particularly Poland. Millions were exiled from their homes and relocated. Of the nearly 35
million citizens of Poland, approximately 5.5 million (~16%) were killed as a result of ethnic
cleansing. German officers were permitted to kill Polish citizens without reason or discretion and
hundreds were executed daily as a result. The slaughter featured in the movie was one such
round-up, or apanka, with no citizen spared. This act haunts Dr. Mertens, causing him to drink
excessively in a futile attempt to escape his memories.
The psychological effect of World War II on those involved is indisputable, however the
phenomena of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and combat stress reaction (also known as
shell shock) was relatively unknown and misunderstood. Combat stress disorder, or CSR, is a
psychological trauma characterized by disorientation, lack of concentration, inability to
comprehend orders, and exhaustion; PTSD is characterized by long-term experiences of
flashbacks, nightmares, and changes in behavior and personality. This was especially true of
Nazi Germany, where PTSD was seen not as a psychological trauma, but rather a discipline
problem. Dr. Rudolf Brickenstein stated in 1987 that if a soldier did break down and could not
continue fighting, it was a leadership problem, not one for medical personnel or psychiatrists
(Schneider, 1987, pp. 89-90). Furthermore, displaying symptoms of PTSD or CSR was seen as a
sign of cowardice, almost certainly skewing the official perception of the disorders even further.
As approximately 5% of German hospitalizations were for treatment of a stress neurosis,

accounting for hundreds of thousands of cases. This perception of stress disorders during the
Nazi occupation of Germany is mirrored in the behavior of Dr. Mertens, who, without an outlet
to talk about his trauma (possibly out of a feeling of shame or inferiority) turns to an alternative
medication: alcohol. The scene where the doctor has a flashback upon seeing a pistol is
remarkable as it was one of the first movies ever to portray a mental problem as a legitimate
effect of war. Most movies at the time focused on physical injuries rather than mental, with Eric
T. Dean writing that military life could wear down the soldier mentally and physically, but the
emphasis [in cinema] was on deterioration of ones physical health (1997, p. 134), so this
seemed to be a way of the German public recognizing the deeper nature of these disorders as
more than just an attitude problem.
After the end of the war, Captain Ferdinand Brckner leaves behind his military past to
go into business producing pots and pans out of discarded steel helmets. The symbolism of
replacing the products of the Nazi war machine with consumer goods falls along the films antifascist message, with the economic focus put on the citizens rather than companies and military.
However, the economy did not recover for several years after the release of this film; while in
West Germany the Allied forces were contributing large amounts of money towards
reconstruction, the Soviet government in East Germany did the opposite, withdrawing large sums
of money to put towards payment of reparations. East Germany utilized a centrally-planned
economy, where the government owned all means of production and established all prices. Only
after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1952 did the economy start to repair, with factories and other
means of production starting to finally be returned to German hands. This plot point provides a
message of demilitarization, implying that Germany should move away from the war economy
of the Third Reich and towards the socialist industrial economy implemented in the rest of the

Eastern Bloc. Seeing as the steel helmets, or stahlhelme, are immediately recognizable as
German military, the conversion into pots used for holding food further drives home the
government shift from fascism to a more individual based political philosophy.
Die Mrder sind unter uns is easily one of the most important films to ever come out of
Germany, treating the still fresh wounds of Nazism not with a bandage and soft assurances, but
with a cauterization and a call to action. It tells its viewers to not act as though the past never
happened, but to embrace it and learn from the melancholy it brought to make a brighter future.
None of the Nazis atrocities are whitewashed or justified, but rather placed in full view for the
viewers to analyze freely. German soldiers are not painted in an all-encompassing color, whether
it be the ruthless killer as found in such Hollywood movies as Inglourious Basterds or the angels
of a new messiah as found in Triumph des Willens; rather, they are portrayed as living human
beings who should not be judged on the nation they pledged loyalty to but rather the actions they
committed in the name of their nation. Citizens arent portrayed as apathetic shells as in Die Ehe
der Maria Braun, but rather individuals with hopes, dreams, and unbreakable spirits. Germany
isnt portrayed as a tragic civilization come and gone with the rise and fall of tyranny, but as a
newly reborn nation, harking back to the wide-eyed ideals of the Weimar Republic and looking
forward to a future of peace, freedom, and prosperity.

Bibliography

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