German Film Club - Buddenbrooks

Embark on a captivating journey back to 1920s Germany by watching Gerhard Lamprecht's silent film from 1923, based on Thomas Mann's classic novel Buddenbrooks from 1901. With authentic archive footage from Lübeck and insights into the era's complex grain trade practices, Lamprecht creates a vivid picture of the world in which Mann's epic unfolds.

While Mann's novel follows four generations of the Buddenbrook family, the film primarily focuses on the three siblings Thomas, Christian, and Tony and their individual struggles with family loyalty, love, and self-realization. Christian proves unsuited to business, yet is nonetheless forced into the family firm he never wished to be part of. The silent film became a turning point for Lamprecht and marked the first screen adaptation among many later versions. It won international acclaim for both direction and acting performances — though Mann himself was less enthusiastic, harshly criticizing what he saw as a reduction of his work to a "trivial commercial drama".

Watch for yourself and decide who was right: Mann or the critics. The film is shown with English subtitles and is preceded by a brief introduction.