Jettchen Geberts Geschichte (1918)

Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918) ia a lost film. Set in mid-19th century Berlin, the plot deals with the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant's family, who falls in love with a delicate but penniless writer. Her family will not accept him and forces her to marry another merchant. The film was released in two parts, Jettchen Gebert and Henriette Jacoby. Mechtildis Thein starred as Jettchen, later named Henrietta and Conrad Veidt played her beloved.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 550/4. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Publicity still for Jettchen Gebert (Richard Oswald, 1918), starring Mechtildis Thein as the title character and Conrad Veidt as her beloved. The two other men are Max Gülstorff (sitting) as Uncle Eli and Leo Connard as Jettchen's father, Salomon Gebert.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 550/6. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Max Gülstorff and Helene Rietz as Uncle Eli and Aunt Minchen in Jettchen Gebert (Richard Oswald, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 220. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin. Richard Oswald.

Not accepted by her Jewish family

Georg Hermann (1871-1943) was one of the most successful German authors of his time. Particularly his double novel 'Jettchen Geberts Geschichte' (1906/1908) was broadly acclaimed by critics, regardless of confessional, political or regional boundaries. The public also loved it and a screen version followed ten years after the novel's publication.

Austrian-born director Richard Oswald adapted the novels by Georg Hermann for the screen. Max Faßbender was the cameraman. Richard Oswald's Berlin film company produced the film. Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story was made in two parts. The first episode was called Jettchen Gebert and the second was called Henriette Jacoby, just like the novels.

Set in mid-19th century Berlin, Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918) tells the story of Jettchen (Mechtildis Thein), the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant's family. She falls in love with Doktor Friedrich Köstling (Conrad Veidt), a delicate but penniless writer. Her family will not accept him and forces her to marry another merchant.

In her article 'Durchaus ein jüdischer Roman?', Franca Marquardt writes about the novel: "While antisemitism does not seem to pose a problem for the assimilated Jews of Berlin populating Hermann's novels, their fellows from the East are portraited as stereotypical 'Ostjuden', despised by the 'Western' Jews as much as by the narrator. While other forms of 'Jewishness' are hardly depicted, antisemitism appears as an attitude only of Jews towards each other." Marquardt argues that precisely this recurring pattern could appeal to both Jews and non-Jews at the beginning of the last century, but seems an unbridgeable gap to readers today.

And what about Richard Oswald's film version? Oswald was the son of a wealthy merchant and his father was also a devout Jew. Oswald had moved to Germany after anti-Semitic hostility in Austria. It would be interesting to see his view on the novel. But we will never know, while his film is considered lost. We only have the postcards with film scenes. Berlin Publisher Rotophot., the precursor of Ross Verlag, produced in the Film Sterne series two series of six sepia cards for the film.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/1. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Max Gülstorff and Helene Rietz in Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918).


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/3. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Mechtildis Thein as the title character, Leo Connard as her father Salomon Gebert and Conrad Veidt (right) as her beloved in JHenriette Jacoby (Richard Oswald, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 551/4. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Mechtildis Thein and Conrad Veidt in Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 551/5. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Publicity still for Henriette Jacoby/Jettchen Geberts Geschichte, II (Richard Oswald, 1918), starring Conrad Veidt, here with Leo Connard as Jettchen's father, Salomon Gebert, rejecting his daughter's suitor.

Sources: Franca Marquardt (JSTOR), Filmportal, Wikipedia (English) and IMDb.