The finest hour of her life

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Movie
Original title The finest hour of her life
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Erica from Moeller
script Ulla Ziemann
production Juliane Thevissen
music Andreas Schilling
camera Sophie Maintigneux
cut Renata Salazar Ivancan
occupation

The best hour of her life is a German television film from 2014. It was first broadcast on May 21, 2014 on the First German Television . The project by Juliane Thevissen was directed by Erica von Moeller . Ulla Ziemann wrote the screenplay based on the genesis of Article 3 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in the Parliamentary Council . The film has also been on the market in a DVD version since May 23, 2014.

action

The lawyer Elisabeth Selbert travels to Bonn from her home in Kassel . She is one of four women on the Parliamentary Council , which from September 1948 drafted the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany . At the opening event in the Koenig Museum, the SPD politician immediately met her future secretary Irma Lankwitz and also met her second comrade Frieda Nadig as well as Helene Weber ( CDU ) and Helene Wessel ( center ).

Two days later she realizes that there is nothing in the Herrenchiemsee minutes on the subject of equality, which her SPD colleague Carlo Schmid succinctly dismisses by pointing out that women are missing there. She would like a clear formulation for the Basic Law: “Men and women have equal rights.” In contrast to the formulation “equal civil rights and duties” (as in the Weimar Constitution ), this sentence does not only refer to the criminal law. Nadig points out the consequences for the BGB , but Selbert is determined. Lankwitz, who lost her partner Georg in the war, speaks to her cousin Lore Mertens, with whom she works in Bonn. She reveals her interest in the MP Heinrich Bode.

At a meeting of the technical committee on October 25th, Selbert presented her request for equality under Article 3, paragraph 2, but the representatives of the conservative parties CDU and Center, including Weber and Wessel, respond negatively. The SPD politician then quietly ponders Bebel's views of 1903 on the “liberation of mankind”. Four days later, she uses Lankwitz, who was denied education as a woman during the Nazi era , as an example to convince her comrades in the SPD office. The secretary goes on a rendezvous with Bode while dancing on Friday evening and tells him about Georg.

In the days that followed, Selbert was confronted with great resistance to her plan. She decides to appoint Lankwitz as her personal secretary, but expects full commitment. On November 22nd, she told her about her career, to which she was encouraged by her progressive-thinking husband. As a woman, she received her license to work as a lawyer before the Nazis banned it. But she is skeptical about Lankwitz's affair with Bode. While her opponents agree to want to stop Selbert, she tries in vain to convince the critics a few days before the meeting of the main committee in conversation with Weber and Wessel. Then she has to go home temporarily after a message from her son Gerhart, because her husband Adam has suffered a sugar shock , but he insists that she return to Bonn quickly. There Lankwitz saw Bode with another woman and shortly afterwards she was dismissed by Selbert because of her negligent work.

At the first reading in the main committee on December 3, Selbert threatened to use all women in Germany for their project, but their application for Article 3 was rejected with 9:11 votes. She then suffers a nervous breakdown in the toilet in front of Lankwitz's eyes. While she is being looked after in bed, Lankwitz gets a visit from Bode, who talks about the fact that his relationship is not a real marriage. His wife Tamara was not noticed by the Gestapo as a baptized Jew , but was picked up during his time at the front and now she is in a mental hospital. Lankwitz throws him out and ends the affair. That night, Lore Mertens' missing husband Kurt comes home, which is why Irma has to leave the apartment of the two women.

On her return to Bonn, Selbert is confronted in the SPD office with the news that the conservative representatives in the council are now rejecting equality even more vehemently and want to delete the alternative wording in the legal text. However, she remains persistent and receives support from Lankwitz, who, according to the latest impressions, now wants to work hard for equality. Selbert plans to address groups of women in several major German cities. Your secretary points out the women's radio, which Selbert inspires, and on December 15, the SPD politician will be on the air right away. Selbert and Lankwitz travel across the country to reach as many women as possible. Your conservative opponents are angry because they see popular participation as an attack on the competence of the council. Shortly before Christmas, Selbert also receives angry letters from men and Weber is also critical because society is not yet ripe for so much equality. Adam visits his wife for Christmas and praises her for her commitment.

On January 3, Lankwitz surprised her boss and showed her that the post was delivering sackfuls of letters from women who supported the plan for equal rights. The male critics around Albert Finck are just as stunned as the two conservative politicians in the council. At the second reading in the main committee on January 18, Selbert's motion for Article 3, Paragraph 2 was finally adopted with 35 votes in favor and one abstention. The next day she speaks about her success on the women's radio, where Lankwitz now works. On January 23, Konrad Adenauer, as chairman of the Parliamentary Council, announced the completed Basic Law.

Despite her success, Selbert is not proposed to the Bundestag by the SPD . Instead, she continues to work in Kassel as a family law attorney. In the following years, the BGB will also be adapted with regard to equality. The implementation is tedious.

Film bug

The historical chamber play contains some film errors , for example:

  • When Elisabeth Selbert enters the Parliamentary Council building at the beginning of the film, the flags of the German states are waving on the gable above the entrance , including the flag of Baden-Württemberg , which only existed more than a year after the state was founded in 1952.
  • Contrary to what is shown in the film, the address at the opening ceremony was not given by the future Federal President Professor Theodor Heuss.
  • The political wall map, in front of which Irma Lankwitz has her desk, shows the state borders from 1957 with the unified Baden-Württemberg and the Saarland, which is already part of the federal territory.
  • In the final scene, Konrad Adenauer reads the Basic Law passed by the Parliamentary Council. While Elisabeth Selbert can be seen in the picture, Adenauer also reads out Article 3, Paragraph 2, Clause 2 of the Basic Law: “The state promotes the actual implementation of equality between women and men and works towards the elimination of existing disadvantages”. This so-called equality clause was only inserted into the Basic Law in 1994 and was not included in the version passed by the Parliamentary Council on May 23, 1949.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Official website of the producers for the film