The Kaiser's Lackey

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...

Cast

Werner Peters Diederich Heßling Paul Esser Regierungspräsident von Wulckow Blandine Ebinger Frau von Wulckow

Renate Fischer Guste Daimchen

Carola Braunbock Emmi Heßling

Emmy Burg Magda Heßling

Sabine Thalbach Agnes Göppel

Friedel Nowack Mrs. Göpel

Friedrich Maurer Göpel

Erich Nadler Father Heßling

Gertrud Bergmann Mother Heßling

Ernst Legal Zillich

Metadata from the source database.