''Buddenbrooks'', released also as ''Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family'', is a

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Heinrich Breloer Heinrich Breloer (, born 17 February 1942 in Gelsenkirchen) is a German author and film director. He has mainly worked on docudramas related to modern German history and has received many awards. Breloer's 2005 docudrama ''Speer und Er'' was descr ...

, adapted from the 1901 novel of the same name by

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

. Set in the 19th century, the film portrays the decline of a wealthy family of grain merchants in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

, the Buddenbrooks, and with them a whole way of life as Germany changed radically. It stars

Armin Mueller-Stahl Armin Mueller-Stahl (born 17 December 1930) is a retired German actor who also appeared in numerous English-language films since the 1980s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''Shine (1996 film), Sh ...

as the family's patriarch Consul Jean Buddenbrook,

Iris Berben Iris Renate Dorothea Berben (, born 12 August 1950) is a German actress. Biography Berben was born in Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia. She grew up in Hamburg, where her parents ran a restaurant. Berben has appeared in about 150 film and televi ...

as his wife Bethsy Buddenbrook, and Jessica Schwarz, Mark Waschke and

August Diehl August Diehl (; born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009) and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, ...

as their children Tony, Thomas, and Christian Buddenbrook, respectively. ''Buddenbrooks'' was released in Germany on 25 December 2008, and by July 2009 it was seen by more than 1.2million viewers. The film had its American premiere at the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and feature ...

in June 2009. In 2010, it was released as a two–episode

television miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

, which was shown on the

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

on 23 and 24 December, and on the

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...

on 27 and 28 December.

Plot

The film tells the story of the Buddenbrook family over three generations — Jean Buddenbrook and his wife Bethsy; their sons Thomas and Christian; their daughter Tony; and Thomas' son Hanno. Even though he dearly loves them, Jean Buddenbrook expects his children to subordinate their personal happiness to the welfare of the family firm. The first to learn this is Tony who, after a holiday romance with a medical student from a modest family, is married off to Bendix Grünlich, a prominent businessman in Hamburg who shortly after goes bankrupt: Jean brings her home. Her brothers have meanwhile been learning their trade in Amsterdam and London. Crushed by Tony's marital disaster and several unlucky transactions, Jean Buddenbrook makes over the business to Thomas, the elder son. Thomas leaves his secret mistress, a florist's assistant, and although he does not love her marries Gerda, a Dutch heiress who is more interested in playing the violin and in consorting with aristocrats. After having spent time in Valparaiso, Christian returns to Lübeck but shows no interest in the firm, preferring to drink and haunt the theatre, especially the actress Aline. The patriarch Jean dies, and his widow Bethsy holds the family together. The divorced Tony catches the eye of Alois Permaneder, a cheerful Bavarian hop merchant who marries her and takes her off to his home in Munich. His fondness for drink and for the maid leads her to return shortly to Lübeck. She suggests to Thomas that he could expand the business by buying grain before harvest from the estates of Prussian aristocrats. He buys a whole crop that is than destroyed by hail, losing all his outlay and denting his reputation. Gerda at length gives birth to a son Hanno, who proves to be a gifted musician but has no interest in the family or the business. Thomas is elected a senator, like his father but, after the extraction of a troublesome tooth, collapses and dies. His will requires that the near-moribund firm be liquidated. Hanno dies in his teens and Gerda returns to the Netherlands. Tony and Christian, after selling the family home and contents, go their separate ways.

Cast

* Jessica Schwarz as Antonie "Tony" Buddenbrook * Mark Waschke as Thomas Buddenbrook *

as Christian Buddenbrook *

as Consul Johann "Jean" Buddenbrook *

as Elisabeth "Bethsy" Buddenbrook * as Gerda Buddenbrook *

Alexander Fehling Alexander Fehling is a German film and stage actor. He is best known for portraying Master Sgt. Wilhelm in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino World War II film '' Inglourious Basterds'', and as Jonas Hollander season 5 in the Showtime original series ' ...

as Morten Schwarzkopf *

Justus von Dohnányi Justus von Dohnányi (born 2 December 1960) is a German actor, best known for portraying Wilhelm Burgdorf in 2004 film '' Downfall''. Life and career Born in Lübeck, von Dohnányi is the son of conductor Christoph von Dohnányi and actress Re ...

as Bendix Grünlich * as Alois Permaneder * Nina Proll as Aline Puvogel * as Hanno Buddenbrook *

Sylvester Groth Sylvester Groth (born 31 March 1958) is a German theater, television, and film actor. He is best known to international audiences from his appearances in Hollywood movies including '' Inglourious Basterds'' and '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E''. Furt ...

as Kesselmeyer *

Fedja van Huêt Fedja van Huêt (born 21 June 1973) is a Dutch Stage (theatre), stage and film actor, best known for the 2022 horror film ''Speak No Evil (2022_film), Speak No Evil''. Van Huêt was born in The Hague and received his professional training at th ...

as Hermann Hagenström * as Julchen Möllendorpf *

Sunnyi Melles Princess Sunnyi of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn (née Melles, born 7 October 1958) is a Swiss- Hungarian actress active in Germany and Austria. Biography She is the only daughter of Austrian orchestral conductor Carl Melles and Hungarian noblewoma ...

as Mrs. Möllendorpf * as Senator Möllendorpf * as René Maria von Trotha * Maja Schöne as Anna Iwersen *

Tonio Arango Tonio Arango (born 31 January 1963) is a German actor. Born in Berlin, Arango is the son of a German mother and a Colombian father and grew up in Wilmersdorf, then part of West Berlin, surrounded by East Germany, with his brother Sascha Arang ...

as Stefan Kistenmaker * as Doctor Giesecke *

André Hennicke André Hennicke (born 21 September 1958) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1984. Hennicke was born in Johanngeorgenstadt in Saxony. He was awarded a German television award for best actor for ''Something to ...

as Gosch * as Ida Jungmann * as Consul Lebrecht Kröger * Michael Abendroth as Doctor Grabow * as Kai von Mölln * as Diener Anton

Awards and nominations

Home media

''Buddenbrooks'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on 11 September 2009.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2008 films German drama films 2000s German-language films 2000s German television miniseries German epic films Films based on German novels Films based on works by Thomas Mann Films set in Germany Films set in the 1840s Films set in the 1850s Films set in the 1860s Films set in the 1870s Films shot in Germany Television shows based on German novels Warner Bros. films Films shot in Bruges Films shot in Cologne Films about businesspeople Films about families Remakes of German films German-language television shows 2000s German films Works based on Buddenbrooks