''Everyone Dies Alone'' / '' Alone in Berlin'' (Original title: ''Jeder stirbt für sich allein'') is a 1976 West German

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 ...

adapted from the Hans Fallada novel '' Every Man Dies Alone''. The book was based on the story of two ordinary Germans, Otto and Elise Hampel, who committed acts of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizenship, citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be cal ...

against the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

, were caught and sentenced to death.

Synopsis

The film takes place in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1940, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

is at the height of his power. Anna and Otto Quangel, a working class couple, live in Berlin in simple circumstances and are not particularly interested in politics. Then, their only son is killed in action during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

and as they grieve for their son, the desire to resist the Nazi regime grows within them. When a Jewish neighbor is also killed, Anna decides to join the German Resistance. She begins writing very personal flyers on postcards, which she at first alone and then with her husband, leaves in public places and slips into mailboxes. The two are discovered, arrested and eventually sentenced to

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

. Otto Quangel commits suicide in the courtroom with a cyanide pill; his wife is executed two months later.

Reception

The ''Lexikon des deutschen Films'' published in 1995 by German publisher Reclam called the film Vohrer's most challenging work, stating further, "albeit somewhat sentimental, but without sensationalist moments, this film adaptation comes near Fallada's original. Especially haunting is the focused and unadorned performance by Hildegard Knef."

Other screen versions

There are two earlier screen adaptations of Fallada's book and one later. The first filmed version was

Falk Harnack Falk Harnack (2 March 1913 – 3 September 1991) was a German director and screenwriter. During Germany's Nazi era, he was also active with the German resistance to Nazism, German Resistance and toward the end of World War II, the partisans in Gr ...

's 1962 television play, '' Jeder stirbt für sich allein'' produced and broadcast in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. Anna and Otto Quangel were played by Edith Schultze-Westrum and Alfred Schieske. In 1970,

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...

produced a three-part miniseries, '' Jeder stirbt für sich allein'' in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, directed by Hans-Joachim Kasprzik. Elsa Grube-Deister and Erwin Geschonneck played the main roles and supported by Wolfgang Kieling and Fred Delmare among others. In 2004, a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

version, ''I ve smrti sami'', was produced as a television miniseries, directed by

Dušan Kleina Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Душан) is a Slavic names, Slavic given name primarily used in the former Yugoslavia and the former Czechoslovakia. The name is derived from the Slavic noun ''duša'' "soul". Occurrence In Serbia, it was the 29th most po ...

and broadcast in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Cast

* Hildegard Knef as Anna Quangel * Carl Raddatz as Otto QuangelBiographie Carl Raddatz
Film Museum Potsdam. Retrieved March 5, 2012 * Martin Hirthe as Escherich * Gerd Böckmann as Schröder * Sylvia Manas as Trudel Baumann * Peter Matić as Enno Kluge * Heinz Reincke as Emil Borkhausen *

Beate Hasenau Beate Hasenau (April 15, 1936 – October 1, 2003) was a German film actress, film and television actress.World filmography, 1967 p.145 She also worked frequently as a voice actress. Selected filmography * ''Jack and Jenny'' (1963) * ''Hot Paveme ...

as Karla Borkhausen * Hans Korte as Obergruppenführer Prall * Alexander Radszun as Otti Quangel * Rudolf Fernau *

Brigitte Mira Brigitte Mira (, 20 April 1910 – 8 March 2005) was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, and on many occasions, with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Believed to have been born in Hamburg, she moved when young to Berlin. Mira's moth ...

* Heinz Ehrenfreund * Edith Heerdegen * Wilhelm Borchert * Pinkas Braun * * Kurt Buecheler * Dietrich Frauboes * Jacques Breuer * Wolf Goldan * Renate Grosser * Heinz Spitzner * Klaus Miedel * Arnold Marquis * Otto Czarski

References

Sources

* Hans Fallada: ''Jeder stirbt für sich allein. Roman''. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin, ungekürzte Neuauflage 2011, 704 S.,

External links

*
''Jeder stirbt für sich allein''
Filmportal.de
''Jeder stirbt für sich allein... (mit Hildegard Knef, Hans Korte)''

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Everyone Dies Alone 1976 films 1976 drama films German drama films West German films 1970s German-language films Films set in Berlin Films based on German novels Films about the German Resistance Films about capital punishment Films directed by Alfred Vohrer Films scored by Gerhard Heinz Constantin Film films 1970s German films Films based on works by Hans Fallada