Landgericht: Geschichte einer Familie is a two-part historical drama based on a true story: the life of the Kornitzer family during the years 1933-1959 (before, during, and after World War II).
This drama was shown on German television (ZDF) and released on DVD in 2017.
Here is some basic information about it:
** English title: Redemption Road
** Producer: Benjamin Benedict
** Director: Matthias Glassner
** Screenplay written by Heide Schwochow
** Based on a book by Ursula Krechel
** Language: German – no English subtitles!
** Run time: 96 + 106 minutes = 202 minutes
The Kornitzer family has four members:
** Richard Kornitzer (the father) played by Ronald Zehrfeld
** Claire Kornitzer (the mother) played by Johanna Wokalek
** Georg (the son, age 8 in 1938) played by Moritz Hoyer
** Georg (age 12 in 1942) played by Joshio Marlon
** Georg (age 19 in 1949) played by Linus Düwer
** Selma (the daughter, age 5 in 1938) played by Lisa Marie Trense
** Selma (age 9 in 1942) played by Carlotta von Falkenhayn
** Selma (age 16 in 1949) played by Julia Kranz
In other roles we can see the following:
** Barbara Auer as Esther Coen
** Saskia Reeves as Mrs Hales
** Michael Rotschopf as Philipp Singer
** Edenis Sanchez as Charidad
Ursula Krechel is a German author who was born in 1947. Her book Landgericht was published in 2012 (hardcover) and 2014 (paperback).
It was praised by many reviewers and won an important award (the German Book Prize) for 2012.
As stated above, the drama is divided into two parts.
** Part 1 covers the years 1933-1948
** Part 2 covers the years 1948-1959
Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them here.
While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here. Some details have been altered, added or excluded for dramatic reasons or practical purposes. But the basic story is true.
Landgericht is the story of a German family who was torn apart by the repression of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) and by the destruction of World War II (1939-1945).
Richard and Claire have a mixed marriage. He is a Jew; she is not. The children are regarded as half-Jews.
All four members of the family survive the war in different locations: Claire in Germany, the children in the UK, and Richard in Cuba.
But even though they find each other again after the war, they have become strangers to each other.
They cannot be united as a family again. Something has been broken, and it cannot be fixed.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 71 per cent.
On Amazon Germany there are at the moment 51 ratings of this product, including 16 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.4 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 88 percent,
In my opinion, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high.
Why?
The story is captivating, dramatic and often deeply emotional. The drama is based on a true story. It deserves more than 71 percent.
But I cannot go all the way to the top with this product, because it is not perfect. There are some flaws. Let me explain:
As stated above, some details have been altered, added or excluded. Some changes are minor. I do not want to complain about them. But others are so unfortunate that I cannot regard them as minor.
Here are some examples:
# 1. The names of the main characters have been changed.
The father is called Richard Kornitzer.
His real name is Robert Bernd Michaelis (1903-1973).
The mother is called Claire Kornitzer.
Her real name is Luise Michaelis.
The son is called Georg.
His real name is Martin Ludwig Michaelis.
The daughter is called Selma.
Her real name was Ruth Michaelis.
After the war, when she married, she became Ruth Barnett. She lives in the UK.
# 2. In the drama, the father is in exile in Cuba where he learns Spanish and works as a lawyer. He meets a Cuban woman and has a child with her.
The real father (Robert Michaelis) was in exile in Shanghai in China where he learned Chinese and worked as a lawyer. There is no evidence that he had a child with a local woman while he lived in Shanghai.
# 3. Richard served as a judge in Berlin until April 1933 when he was fired from his job, because he was a Jew. In Nazi Germany, a Jew could not be a judge.
After the war, Richard returns to Germany. He wants to build a new Germany: a democratic country with freedom and justice for all; and no racial discrimination.
According to Richard, victims of the Nazi Government should get economic compensation, while former members of the Nazi Party should be punished.
After a while, Richard is appointed as a judge at a court in Mainz. The German word is Landgericht. Hence the title of the book and the drama.
But the new Germany is not going in the direction that Richard was hoping for.
Many victims cannot get economic compensation, while former members of the Nazi Party are still working in their old positions, including judges!
In the drama, Richard presides over a case against Philipp Singer, an official who is accused of stealing public funds in order to help victims of the Nazi Government.
Singer is found guilty. He is sentenced to serve time in prison. He must also pay a fine.
This case is based on a true story:
Philipp Auerbach is the real name of the defendant. He was tried in 1952 in Munich (München) (not in Mainz). Michaelis did not have anything to do with it.
Auerbach was a Jew, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
After the war, he was appointed as an official in charge of compensation to victims of the Nazi system.
But the conditions were so complicated and so demanding that most victims could not get any compensation. Auerbach tried to help them.
In his free time, Auerbach was a Nazi hunter. But the new German authorities did not like this. They told him to stop it. They assigned a public prosecutor to “get him.”
He was charged with several crimes. In the end, he was found guilty of several minor crimes. The major charge, the stealing of public funds, was dropped.
He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison. In addition, he had to pay a fine of 2,700 Marks. At the time, this was a lot of money.
By now, Auerbach was a broken man. Two days after the verdict was passed, he wrote a farewell letter and killed himself. In the drama, the suicide is not mentioned.
In the drama, Richard asks his colleagues to let him take this case. Why does he want it?
Because, he explains, we do not want a former member of the Nazi Party to be the presiding judge in a case against a concentration camp survivor.
But this is exactly what happened!
Josef Mulzer, the judge presiding in the case against Auerbach, had been an important official in Nazi Germany: Oberkriegsgerichtsrat.
Clearly, Auerbach was not going to get a fair trial in this court. Two years later, he was rehabilitated by an official commission which looked into his case again.
# 4. In the drama, we see Richard and Claire in Berlin in December 1938. While walking down a street, they pass a shop which is owned by a Jew. The huge glass windows of the shop are painted with the Jewish star.
What is wrong with this picture?
This scene is set just after Chrystal Night (November 1938) during which members of the Nazi party smashed the windows of Jewish properties all over Germany.
Had the owner of this shop already bought and installed new glass windows? I do not think so. This is not very likely.
The windows of this shop would have been smashed in November 1938. One month later, in December 1938, the window frames would have been boarded up.
The first and the last items on this list are not major flaws. I am ready to ignore them. But the second and third items are different. They cannot be described as minor.
I have to remove one star because of them. I think this drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. Landgericht: Die Dokumentation is a documentary film which was shown on ZDF in 2017 as a companion to the historical drama.
It is about the making of the historical drama and about the Michaelis family. This film, which runs for 35 minutes, is no longer available on the ZDF website.
PS # 2. The following items are available online:
Andreas Platthaus,
“In der Sache Kornitzer,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine
03 October 2012
A review of the book
Martin Bernd Michaelis,
“Die Geschichte vererbt sich an die Kinder,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine
26 December 2012
The author is the son of Martin Ludwig Michaelis and the grandson of Robert Michaelis
Christoph Sydow,
“Der unerwünschte Nazi-Jäger,”
Der Spiegel
30 January 2013
About Philip Auerbach (1906-1952)
Arno Widmann
"Ausgerechnet Deutschland,"
Frankfurter Rundschau
02 February 2019
Also about Auerbach
Peter-Philipp Schmitt
"Zum Tod von Philipp Auerbach,"
Frankfurter Allgemeine
16 August 2022
PS # 3. Robert and Luise’s son Martin, did not want to talk about the past. Ursula Kerchel sent him a letter while she was working on her book. He did not respond. When she sent him a second letter, he did not respond. When she tried to call him, he hung up.
Martin’s sister Ruth took another approach. She wanted to talk about the past. She even wrote a book about it. The title is:
Person of No Nationality:
A Story of Childhood Loss and Recovery
Her book was published in 2010.
A German edition was published in 2016.
*****
Landgericht
A historical novel
by Ursula Kerchel
(2012 hardcover)
(2014 paperback)
*****
The German author
Ursula Kerchel
(born 1947)
*****
The Michaelis family:
The father and the mother
flanked by their children:
The son on the left
The daughter on the right
*****
Ruth Michaelis
(born 1935)
After the war,
when she married,
she became
Ruth Barnett
*****
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