Hälfte des Lebens

The young, brilliant poet enters the house of the Frankfurt banker Gontard to earn a living as a tutor. He teaches his four children and falls passionately in love with Gontard's wife Susette, who returns his affection. But it is a hopeless love that finds fulfillment only for a short time. Gontard expels Hölderlin from the house. After the separation, both are broken people. Susette refuses to live, falls ill, and dies in 1802, at the age of thirty-three. Her death plunges Hölderlin into deep depression, from which he never recovers.

Keywords

  • DEFA
  • desire
  • history
  • literature
  • Love
  • Made in Germany
  • relationship

Actors

  • Ulrich Mühe
  • Jenny Gröllmann
  • Swetlana Schönfeld
  • Michael Gwisdek
  • Peter-Mario Grau

Director

  • Herrmann Zschoche

Classics


1h 33min


12 FSK

DE

GDR
1985
The young, brilliant poet enters the house of the Frankfurt banker Gontard to earn a living as a tutor. He teaches his four children and falls passionately in love with Gontard's wife Susette, who returns his affection.

The young, brilliant poet enters the house of the Frankfurt banker Gontard to earn a living as a tutor. He teaches his four children and falls passionately in love with Gontard's wife Susette, who returns his affection.


But it is a hopeless love that finds fulfillment only for a short time. Gontard expels Hölderlin from the house. After the separation, both are broken people. Susette refuses to live, falls ill, and dies in 1802, at the age of thirty-three. Her death plunges Hölderlin into deep depression, from which he never recovers.

Cast & Crew