The incorrigible
Descendants is a German television series from the 1960s and early 1970s. The series is about everyday life and the life of the rather middle-class Berlin family Scholz. Inge Meysel became the “mother of the nation” through the depiction of mother Scholz in the press and among the population.
consequences
| First shipment | subtitle | length |
|---|---|---|
| * May 9, 1965 | The incorrigible | 80 ' |
| May 15, 1966 | - nothing learned | 90 ' |
| April 2, 1967 | ... and your optimism | 84 ' |
| * May 12, 1968 | ... and their worries | 105 ' |
| May 25, 1969 | ... and their knowledge of human nature | 106 ' |
| 17th May 1970 | ... and love | 109 ' |
| * May 9, 1971 | ... and their pride | 101 ' |
| Director: Claus Peter Witt Screenplay: Robert Stromberger * Mother's Day |
||
action
The incorrigible
The Scholz family consists of the parents Kurt and Käthe Scholz and their three children Doris, Rudi and Lore and in the first episode from Aunt Hertha, from episode 2 Grandma Köpcke, Käthe's mother, is added.
For the family man Kurt Scholz it is a matter of honor to watch a soccer game every Sunday, especially since his 18-year-old son Rudi is one of the best players on the home team. Since the family also regularly plays Toto , they are always eagerly awaiting the results announced on the radio when they have coffee on Sundays. This time it worked. The family is first of all looking for the ticket and then believes that mother Käthe put the cross wrongly, which is why the ticket is invalid. Ultimately, however, the mailman delivers a sum of 1,250 DM.
As usual in this family, everyone now believes that they have to buy what they consider right and important. While Käthe Scholz is buying a new sewing machine so that she can work from home, which in turn benefits the family, her husband Kurt buys a car and immediately causes a traffic accident with considerable damage to the new car. He also has some wounds himself. Rudi, on the other hand, made his wish for a new television come true and the oldest daughter Doris invested the money in a deposit for an apartment that she would like to move into with her husband Helmut. However, the accident changed the situation decisively. All expenses have to be reversed, there is hardly anything left of the money won. But the incident also makes the family think about what is really important. And there is also a surprise. Not Rudi, in whose closet father Scholz discovered baby linen, which led to the rift between father and son, but Doris is expecting offspring. And almost unnoticed by the family, Aunt Hertha moved out of Scholz's apartment.
- nothing learned
Five years later: The kicking son Rudi is 23 years his position in the post in favor of a career as a professional footballer. There are also changes for father Scholz: If he and his wife Käthe assumed that he would be asked to stay in the company beyond his 65th birthday, shortly before his retirement he is confronted with a younger colleague, his Should take place. Deeply hurt and humiliated, he hides this from Käthe and pretends to continue working. He goes out of the house every day and walks aimlessly through the streets until evening. When Käthe finds out about the matter, she confronts Kurt's former boss, but without success. Kurt now has to get used to his retirement . A colleague of the son-in-law Helmut invented by Käthe brings the salvation to the "useless" pensioner: Kurt is now supposed to repair the radios of residents of a retirement home . However, Käthe obtained these radios from a radio dealer.
Grandma Elisabeth Köpcke, Käthe's mother, moves in with the Scholzens in this episode because their house is about to be demolished and she cannot decide on another apartment.
... and your optimism
Three years later: Daughter Doris believes she has been betrayed by her husband Helmut, moves back to her parents - supported by mother Käthe - and files for divorce. Bad luck for Doris: she cannot prove the fraud and is divorced due to malicious departure. Grandma Köpcke, who has meanwhile moved into the apartment, and Doris, who has ended up at Hotel Mama with her son Michael, are now increasingly clashing. A physical breakdown of Kathe leads to the decision to take her grandmother to a home. Since you cannot afford private homes and Grandma Köpcke refuses to move into a city home, Käthe has to resort to a trick. Only now does Grandma agree, and the living situation in Scholz's apartment relaxes again for the time being.
... and their worries
A year later: Daughter Lore goes to Paris as an exchange student and the French Monique moves in with Scholzens. This brings new excitement, especially since Grandma Köpcke is stressing Käthe with her numerous visits. In addition, there are health concerns about father Scholz, who complains of severe pain in the lower abdomen, which Käthe initially considers to be imagination and therefore does not take her husband seriously. When the pain gets worse, Kurt is admitted to the hospital and operated on. It turns out that he has appendicitis , but his appendix is on his left rather than right. The strictly regulated visiting hours in the hospital cause his worried wife great problems, and the hospital staff does not inform her sufficiently about Kurt's health. Annoyed by these conditions, she lets her husband move to the private ward without his knowledge, for which she receives financial support from Rudi. Kurt eventually returns home recovered. Daughter Lore has meanwhile announced her return. When Käthe and Kurt pick them up from the train station, they experience a surprise: Instead of Lore, they meet the young Frenchman Pierre, who turns out to be her fiancé .
... and their knowledge of human nature
One year later: Kurt and Käthe Scholz want to go to Paris to visit their daughter Lore and to meet the parents of their future son-in-law. Shortly before the departure of the bus in Berlin but they got the message that Pierre is in town because he believes Lore there with her family. She only just told him that she had accepted a job in Brazil , and he now assumed that she would say goodbye to her family in Berlin and that he could speak to her again.
Kurt is tormented by financial worries: he had his pension paid out and had it invested by a dubious real estate company because of the high interest rate of twelve percent. However, this files for bankruptcy , and Kurt loses his twenty thousand marks. In order to be able to continue giving Käthe money, he delivers advertising brochures and finally takes up a post as a night porter . He lets Käthe believe that he will continue to volunteer for Rudi's football club. Only daughter Doris is privy to the situation and explains the mother. There was a discussion between the Scholzs.
Son Rudi is also in a difficult situation: his girlfriend Dagmar is unexpectedly pregnant by him and is determined to have the child against his will. However, Rudi has an offer from a Geneva football club, which pays him a cash bonus of 15,000 DM, which he uses to buy an Opel GT . He thinks first and foremost about his career and doesn't care about Dagmar. His parents try to get Rudi to stand by the child and marry Dagmar, but unsuccessfully. Kurt and Käthe alone stand by Dagmar's side in the hope that Rudi will change his mind after all. But for Rudi things get even worse: During a game, he tears his Achilles tendon and is unable to play. His career seems to be over and he is also in debt due to the treatment costs and the cash to be repaid from the Geneva Association. After the birth of their daughter Gitti, Rudi wants to apologize to Dagmar and asks her to come back to him. However, she throws him out of the apartment.
... and love
After a serious foul, Rudi's football career is over. Now he sells used cars with a manipulated speedometer to unsuspecting customers. Dagmar, with whom he moves in in the course of the episode, is not very pleased. A car accident in which Rudi hits a pensioner costs him both his driver's license and his lucrative job. His sister Doris met star architect Jürgen Hechler (Günther Pfitzmann) while looking for an apartment in which she could set up a cosmetic studio. He falls head over heels in love with the good-looking Scholz daughter, but he doesn't get along with her son Michael. The 39th wedding anniversary does not bring much joy for Scholzens either, because Kurt now does the bookkeeping for the owner of a corner shop where Käthe is a regular customer. With widow Urban, Kurt feels like he's being carried on, because he gets the attention from her that he misses from Käthe. So he's hardly at home anymore. When Käthe finds out that Kurt is just experiencing his second spring , she confronts the widow Urban, who tells her that she will move away. Kurt and Käthe dare a fresh start. Rudi has started training as a programmer , but soon sees another chance, namely to work as a football coach . Therefore, he puts the training on hold and continues to lie on Dagmar's pocket. This criticizes Rudi's attitude to life. The two come to the conclusion that they are not a match and split up.
... and their pride
Doris and Jürgen Hechler get married. However, Michael has still not come to terms with his new father. He blackens it with his grandparents by passing the invitation to the grand official wedding reception in the Hilton Hotel , to which Kurt and Käthe are not invited, to the grandparents. They are deeply hurt because they are convinced that the well-known architect is ashamed of his “poor relatives”. Since they have already given notice of their own large apartment in order to move into a cheap one from Hechler's inventory, they are now in big trouble. Nevertheless, they inform Doris that they no longer plan to move into Hechler's apartment. Now it's time to find a suitable, affordable apartment in Berlin in times of shortage of living space. When they fail again and again, Kurt and Käthe go to Jürgen Hechler, hidden from the other, and ask him for help. At Michael's birthday party, there is reconciliation, and the Scholzens now move into an apartment that Jürgen has arranged.
Dagmar has met another man and breaks off contact with the Scholzens, especially since Rudi hardly takes care of his daughter. Grandma Köpcke has meanwhile won a trip to Paris in the television lottery and would like to take it with her roommate Ms. Tannweiler, but in the end she gives it to her daughter and son-in-law, who have long wanted such a trip.
Characters
Käthe Scholz, b. Köpcke
Käthe Scholz is estimated to be in her early 50s at the beginning of the series and works as a tailor . She later became a housewife and occasionally took on sewing jobs. Käthe is the center of the Scholz family. A central point in her life are her children and her grandson Michael, whom she brings up with her after her daughter's divorce. She also takes care of her mother, which is by no means an easy task. Käthe likes to interfere in the affairs of her adult children and often goes a step too far. On the other hand, she is very helpful and caring, but often neglects her husband, which threatens to escalate in the 6th episode when Kurt tries to get close to the widow Urban. Käthe is characterized by a mostly hectic and impulsive manner. She's not afraid to speak her mind. For example, after her daughter's divorce process, she enters the courtroom and loudly explains to the judge what she thinks of unfaithful husbands. Her husband's boss also gets her opinion after he retired. Käthe's point of view is, however, consistently optimistic, with which she can on the one hand help her fellow human beings well, on the other hand she also pursues a strong "illusionary politics" by talking up many things that then do not turn out as she imagines. For example, she is convinced that Kurt, as a highly valued employee, is irreplaceable in his company and will also be needed beyond his retirement; She also firmly believes that her daughter Doris' divorce proceedings will go in her favor. Attempts to add a little variety to their marriage, which has become routine, through romantic evenings together or other activities, turn out to be difficult on Kurt's part as well. Käthe has no understanding that her children, shaped by the rising affluence, spend their holidays on Mallorca instead of in the Black Forest and that they buy luxurious items such as a bar fridge or a TV cabinet. She is also very critical of the constantly changing love affairs of her son. When Rudi abandons the pregnant Dagmar, she bravely holds up her “daughter-in-law” and gives her moral support. However, she is ashamed to think that Rudi's child is out of wedlock. Käthe cannot accept that her children are grown up and go their own way. When suddenly everyone has moved out and her husband is mostly staying with Mrs. Urban, a neighbor who is friends with the family, the ceiling falls on her head. Now she has to come to terms with coping with her everyday life largely without children.
Kurt Scholz
Kurt Scholz is in his early 60s at the beginning of the series; in the second part he celebrates his 65th birthday and retires from his company where he works as an accountant . At first he finds it difficult to get used to it, because Kurt always needs something to do. He volunteers in Rudi's football club and is passionate about repairing radios. He also helps out as an accountant in a couple of companies when he retires. At home there are often problems with his son Rudi, whose football career Kurt is very proud of. On the other hand, it goes against the grain that Rudi only fixes on his career and lets his pregnant girlfriend sit down. Kurt feels disadvantaged in relation to his children because Käthe usually pays them more attention than him. Often the two, who are married for about 30 to 40 years in the seven episodes, are not very honest with each other and keep many things secret from each other, which each time ends in an argument. Nevertheless, they keep getting together. Another theme that keeps cropping up in the series is the Scholzens' financial situation: The family lives on Kurt's manageable pension and his wife's occasional sewing work. After Kurt lost all of his savings in a financial speculation, as a 68-year-old he had to do various jobs that brought in at least 200 marks so that the household money was enough. In the first episode, Kurt Scholz is very quick-tempered and aggressive, later he is shown a little more balanced and good-natured. If there are difficulties with the grandma, for example, he is usually very diplomatic, which enables him to relax the situation. Kurt has a sister named Herta, who lives in the Scholzens' apartment in the first episode, moves out at the end of the episode, but does not appear later, but is only mentioned in the second episode as a bouquet of flowers from her to Kurts Birthday is given.
Grandma Elisabeth Koepcke
Grandma Köpcke, also called Omimi, is Käthe's mother, is only mentioned in the first episode and has her first appearance - now widowed - in episode 2. She is 74 years old and besides Käthe has two other children who are in the series but does not show up. She moves into the Scholz apartment because her house is about to be demolished and she cannot choose another apartment. Grandma always knows exactly what she wants and how she can achieve it, especially in episode 3, in which she is supposed to go to an old people's home, present herself to the care worker Miss Lehnert and claim afterwards that she was really very "miserable" . Otherwise, she often creates comic situations. She is not allowed to drink coffee beans, otherwise she can't sleep at night, and to her great annoyance, she is always served mint tea with her Sunday coffee , which is a running gag in the series . Later she finally moves into an old people's home, albeit in one of her own choice. She often turns up unexpectedly on visits to Scholz's apartment and, for example, stubbornly expresses the desire for a hearing aid , although her hearing is still fully functional. In the most unsuitable situations, she also surprisingly brings her roommates Ms. Schneider-Lützkendorf or Ms. Tannweiler with her. Grandma is cheerful and humorous and has many personal contacts in the nursing home. When she expresses herself about certain events or questions things, she brings one or the other modern wisdom into the series. When Käthe tells her, for example, that Rudi and Dagmar do not want to get married despite their child, she does not consider this to be a scandal, but explains to her daughter: “If you don't really love each other, you let it be today. You are old fashioned my child! Unfortunately, I have to tell you. ”Often, however, she feels particularly misunderstood by her daughter and even leaves the apartment once offended because nobody is listening to her. In the last episode, she wins a trip to Paris in the television lottery, which she also wants to take but then gives to her daughter and son-in-law.
Doris Hechler, b. Scholz, married Wichmann
Doris is the oldest daughter of the Scholzens and works in a perfumery. In the first episode she is estimated to be in her mid or late 20s, newly married to Helmut Wichmann and pregnant, but has marital problems that lead to a divorce in the third episode. Her son Michael therefore grows up mainly with Käthe and Kurt. Often there is an argument with Käthe, which Michael forgives very much and lets him get away with a lot of cheating about school and homework. Doris has to come to terms with her role as a divorced woman and the weekend trips that father Wichmann takes with his son. At some point, however, her divorced husband is no longer mentioned. In order to have her son around and to be able to live independently of mother Käthe, Doris completed an apprenticeship as a beautician and set up a practice in her apartment. In the process, she meets the star architect Jürgen Hechler; in the 7th episode the two get married.
Rudi Scholz
Rudi is 18 years old in the first episode and works as a postal worker. On the side, he tinkers with his career as a footballer, which is why he later quits the post office. Rudi experiences ups and downs as a footballer, but at times earns a lot of money, some of which he generously donates to his parents. In the 5th episode, an offer from a Geneva football club beckons him , but he is injured beforehand ( Achilles tendon rupture ) and is declared unable to play. Rudi often has changing relationships with women and is not looking for a permanent bond. This becomes difficult when his girlfriend Dagmar is unexpectedly expecting a child from him. Rudi just lets Dagmar sit down at first. After the birth of their daughter Gitti, the two get together briefly, but then separate again. In the course of time, Rudi pays less and less money for his daughter, which is why Dagmar breaks off contact with him. The relationship with father Scholz is very difficult in some episodes, as the father often criticizes his son's moral attitude towards football, his pregnant girlfriend and the responsibility that goes with it. Rudi cannot bring himself up to do vocational training after his injury . At the end of the series he has a job as a football coach in Cologne, but loses it and returns to Berlin.
Lore Scholz
Lore is the youngest daughter of the Scholzens. In the first episode, she is a high school student and remains seated. After graduating from high school, she worked as an office assistant in a doctor's office. In the second episode, Lore introduces her family to several men, first of all the young teacher Rocker, with whom Käthe does not agree because Lore “can do completely different games”. Therefore, Kathe is reluctant to give her permission to go out with Mr. Rocker and asks her to be home punctually at half past ten. Later, while dancing, Lore met the medical student Jürgen Lenz, who drives a sports car and whose father is the head of a Berlin clinic. Now Kathe agrees with everything and is enthusiastic when her daughter is invited to the doctors' ball. However, Jürgen Lenz has completely different intentions, because he lures Lore into his apartment before the doctors' ball and tries to get her to bed, whereupon she storms out of the apartment in a rage. She later leaves her family to go to Paris as an exchange student, and there she becomes engaged to the young Frenchman Pierre. When her parents wanted to visit her in Paris, however, she had already separated from Pierre and accepted a job offer in Rio de Janeiro. It is mentioned for the last time in the 5th episode.
Michael Wichmann
Michael is the son of Doris from their first marriage. After his parents divorced, he grew up largely with Scholz's grandparents and replaced Lore as a "permanent" child from episode 4 onwards. At first he was still in contact with his father, which later fell asleep because he was getting married. Therefore Kurt is a father figure for Michael. The series often revolves around the boy's school problems. Since he is quite lazy, he usually does not get good grades home and lets his grandma write apologies for him. There were also difficulties when Doris met Jürgen Hechler. Michael wants to wipe out the architect and sends the grandparents an invitation to the Hechler wedding reception, to which they are not invited. However, Michael and his new father later reconcile.
Production and publication
The action takes place in Berlin , but the filming locations were often Hamburg (can also be seen in the newspaper reports).
The first four episodes were shot in black and white. Originally only one episode was planned, but due to the audience success, more episodes were produced. Directed by Claus Peter Witt , the screenplay came from Robert Stromberger . The series is accompanied by music in a variety of ways, mostly with television, radio and Scholzens records . The credits of the individual episodes include Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss , Eloise by Barry Ryan and compositions by James Last . During the course of the action z. B. Der Freischütz , Hoffmanns Tales or My fair Lady played. The occasion of the broadcast was Mother's Day every year .
There was a year between the broadcast of the first and second episodes, but in the family situation of the Scholzens, a period of around five years can be determined between the first and second episode; z. B. in the first episode Michael, the son of Doris and Helmut Wiechmann, is not yet born, in the second episode he is already at preschool age.
Another sequel was planned for 1972, but since the lead actor Joseph Offenbach suddenly died five months after the last episode was broadcast, it did not come to fruition. Offenbach and Meysel had previously spoken out against a continuation at a meeting with those responsible, as both assumed that Agnes Windeck (Grandma Köpcke) would no longer be able to shoot, and without her they would not be able to continue.
In 2010, the seven episodes were published on eight DVDs along with a portrait of Inge Meysel ("Inge Meysel - The Despicable").