Word: herman
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Maria Braun, epitome of the country's post-war "economic miracle," proves that Germany cannot only survive, but flourish. "I prefer making miracles to waiting for them," she stoutly adjures. Married in 1944 for half a day and a whole night, her soldier-husband Herman Braun (Klaus Lowitsch) is sent off to the Russian front. Maria pledges unfailing devotion to Herman--a silent, morose type--yet her notion of love takes on strange forms...
...Still, Herman has not come back from the Front; he is believed dead. Then one day, as Maria and Bill are about to dive into bed, Heman materializes in the bedroom doorway. Lowitsch, iron-jawed, taciturn, renders the strange tableau one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. He tussels with the black soldier, and Maria clobbers Bill--fatally--with a bottle...
...ENSUING TRIAL, stolid Herman takes the rap and goes to prison in Maria's stead. For her part, she comes to visit him daily and swears loyalty to their new life once he is freed. Fassbinder deftly mingles pathos with farce in teary scenes as the couple communicates through bars during prison visiting hours...
...physician, forced by post-war stresses into drug addiction, is one example of a character who falls by the wayside. Anothers is Willi, her brother-in-law who dissipates into a broken alcoholic. Unlike them, Maria manages to keep going. In a crazy, loyal way, she keeps visiting Herman in mail, pressing upon him money, speaking fondly of the day when he will be freed...
Their problem is shared by untold numbers of Americans. According to Dr. Joseph Pursch, who has treated such notables as Betty Ford and Senator Herman Talmadge for addiction at the Long Beach Naval Regional Medical Center, overuse of tranquilizers ranks second only to alcoholism as the nation's major health problem. Says Subcommittee Chairman Edward Kennedy: "These drugs have produced a nightmare of dependence...