Rosenstrasse (2003)

After the death of her father, Hannah becomes concerned with the strange behavior of her mother. As her mother's troubled childhood is revealed, Hannah realizes how little she ever knew.

Director:

Margarethe von Trotta

Writers:

Pamela Katz, Margarethe von Trotta

Stars:

Katja Riemann, Maria Schrader, Jutta Lampe

7 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Katja Riemann	...	Lena Fischer - age 33
Maria Schrader	...	Hannah Weinstein
Doris Schade	...	Lena Fischer - age 90
Jutta Lampe	...	Ruth Weinstein - age 60
Svea Lohde	...	Ruth - age 8
Jürgen Vogel	...	Arthur von Eschenbach
Martin Feifel	...	Fabian Fischer
Fedja van Huêt	...	Luis Marquez
Carola Regnier	...	Rachel Rosenbauer
Plien van Bennekom	...	Marian
Romijn Conen	...	Ben
Julia Eggert	...	Emily
Thekla Reuten	...	Klara Singer
Jutta Wachowiak	...	Frau Goldberg
Jan Decleir	...	Nathan Goldberg

Storyline

When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?

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Plot Keywords:

jewish | holocaust | historical event | 1940s | world war two | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, some violence and brief drug content

Details

Country:

Germany Netherlands

Language:

German English

Release Date:

18 September 2003 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Kvinnorna på Rosenstrasse

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$45,024 (USA) (20 August 2004)

Gross:

$732,036 (USA) (7 January 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Studio Hamburg Letterbox Filmproduktion, Tele München Fernseh Produktionsgesellschaft (TMG), Get Reel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min 136 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nathan Stoltzfus' book "Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany" (1997) was published after Margarethe von Trotta started work on the film. It is possible that it was used as source material for some of the characters and incidents in the film.

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Connections

Featured in Katja Riemann (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Ich weiss nicht, zu wem ich gehöre"
Performed by Nina Kunzendorf
Lyrics by Friedrich Hollaender (as Friedrich Holländer) / Robert Liebmann
Composed by Friedrich Holländer
© 1937 by UFATON VERLAGSGESELLSCHAFT MGM
(BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING GERMANY), München

User Reviews

Rosensrasse Goebbels Motivation in Backing Down

Goebbels motivation in backing down was not explored. In the aftermath of Stalingrad the Reich had decided to go for 'total war'. This is referred to in the film. Part of this was to use women in the war effort, which Germany had not previously done to any great extent. An SS massacre of women would have faced Goebbels with a public relations disaster of massive proportion. His preference was to make the problem go away as quietly as possible, on the basis that the Jewish men could always be rounded up later. I understand the majority survived the war.

His other problem was that the 'Red' Berlin had never been very enthusiastically behind the Nazi cause and had to be handled cautiously. Again a massacre of women could have cost the Nazis what mediocre level of support they had in their capital city.

It was interesting that the majority of SS uniforms showed patches which indicated that the men wearing them were not of German nationality, but were from German origins in other countries such as Lithuania or Latvia