The Kaiser's Lackey

The Kaiser's Lackey

1951 · 109 min · ★ 6.7 · Drama, History, Comedy

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...

Directed by Wolfgang Staudte · Written by Wolfgang Staudte

Your Rating

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

Make it a double feature

3h 21m together

The Kaiser's Lackey

Destination Death

Both from Wolfgang Staudte.

More from Wolfgang StaudteSee all →

The Adventures of Fridolin

The Adventures of Fridolin · 1948

The Adventures of Fridolin

A decent small-town citizen named Fridolin Biedermann travels to Berlin and wants to finally experience something. And he succeeds. First he falls into the hands of a couple of crooks who rip him off terribly, and - back home - the law...

Der eiserne Gustav

Der eiserne Gustav · 1979

Der eiserne Gustav

The stern and reserved Gustav Hartmann, known as "Iron Gustav", is the last Berlin cab driver. At the end of the 1920s, his time is over as horse-drawn cabs are replaced by automobile cabs. He is threatened with impoverishment. His family wants to have him incapacitated. So he sets off on one last great journey that takes him from Berlin to Paris and back. A reporter with a nose for a big story accompanies him, Gustav becomes famous, returns to Berlin in triumph and, having become a gentle and approachable person, reconciles with his family.

Heimkehr ins Glück

Heimkehr ins Glück · 1933

Heimkehr ins Glück

After a burn-out Karl spends time in his home region, the Black Forest. His car gets lost and is picked up by penniless magician Amadori who enjoys posing as wealthy entrepreneur Karl while Karl reunites with the love of his youth, Liesl.

Destination Death

Destination Death · 1964

Destination Death

A group of West German men on a stag party find themselves stranded in a Montenegrin village inhabited only by vengeful women since all their men were shot during the war.

The Commissioner

The Commissioner · 1969

The Commissioner

SeriesDramaCrime

Der Kommissar is a German television series about a group of detectives of the Munich homicide squad. All 97 episodes, which were shot in black-and-white and first broadcast between 1969 and 1976, were written by Herbert Reinecker and starred Erik Ode as Kommissar Herbert Keller. Keller's assistants were Walter Grabert, Robert Heines, and Harry Klein who, in 1974, was replaced by his younger brother Erwin Klein.

MS Franziska

MS Franziska · 1978

MS Franziska is a German television series.

Die Pawlaks

Die Pawlaks · 1982

Gentlemen in White Vests

Gentlemen in White Vests · 1970

Gentlemen in White Vests

MovieComedyCrime

Bruno Stiegler, a boxing promoter with a disreputable past, returns from America to Berlin to make some big things again with his friends. Fatally, he is always preceded by some gentlemen from better circles who are developing amazing criminal activity in their old days. They are led by Oberlandesgerichtsrat a. D. Herbert Zänker, whom it still hisses, that he could bring in his term Bruno never behind bars.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front · 1930

All Quiet on the Western Front

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

The Sea Wolf

The Sea Wolf · 1971

SeriesAction & Adventure

Writer Humphrey van Weyden is thrown overboard in a shipwreck in the Bay of San Francisco, and is rescued by the seal-hunting schooner 'Ghost' under the command of the brutal Captain Wolf Larsen.

The Hussy

The Hussy · 1978

MovieWesternAdventure

An unemployed engineer working as a driver at an oil company hears about a lost Inca treasure and goes in search of it.

Lockruf des Goldes

Lockruf des Goldes · 1975

Lockruf des Goldes

SeriesAction & Adventure

America at the end of the 19th century: news spreads like wildfire that gold has been found in the Klondike. Half of America is in an uproar. Among the adventurers is the young lawyer Elam Harnish from San Francisco. Over the next few months, he experiences unique adventures with the hard search for gold, the merciless nature and the shrewd stock market sharks of the big city...

The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel · 1930

Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.

Roses for the Prosecutor

Roses for the Prosecutor · 1959

Roses for the Prosecutor

MovieDramaComedy

April 1945. Because he stole two bars of chocolate, the soldier Rudi is sentenced to death by the court-martial judge Dr. Schramm. Rudi manages to escape from the firing squad at the last minute, and since the end of the war has been making a meager living as a street peddler. Years later, Dr. Schramm is now a respected public prosecutor. By chance, he runs into Rudi one day on the street. Afraid that Rudi will blow the whistle on him, Dr. Schramm wants to scare him out of town. He has Rudi arrested and bullied by the police.

Cannon Serenade

Cannon Serenade · 1958

Cannon Serenade

Schließfach 763

Schließfach 763 · 1975

Schließfach 763

MovieCrimeTV Movie

Erik Hoopen’s “Oversea Travel Agency” in Hamburg fronts an international gold‐smuggling ring. Couriers hide gold bars in special vests, exporting them to black markets in Cairo, Khartoum, Hong Kong, and Singapore and returning with suitcases of cash. Fierce underworld competition leads to thefts and murders. Central to the intrigue is mysterious locker #763, tying the criminal network together.

More Like This

The Wages of Fear

The Wages of Fear · 1953

The Wages of Fear

MovieDramaThriller

In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.

Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City · 1945

Rome, Open City

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

Once Upon a Time in America

Once Upon a Time in America · 1984

Once Upon a Time in America

MovieDramaCrime

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Scarface

Scarface · 1932

MovieCrimeAction

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

City Lights

City Lights · 1931

MovieComedyDrama

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

First Blood

First Blood · 1982

MovieActionThriller

When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

The Murderers Are Among Us

The Murderers Are Among Us · 1946

The Murderers Are Among Us

MovieDramaRomance

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.

The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon · 1980

The Blue Lagoon

MovieAdventureDrama

Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and Richard make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty. But will they ever see civilization again?

Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves · 1948

Bicycle Thieves

Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath · 1940

The Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.

Gaslight

Gaslight · 1944

MovieThrillerDrama

A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.

Fury

MovieCrimeDrama

Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter