Murderers Among Us

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This article refers to the 1946 film. See also the 1989 television film Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story.

The Murderers Are Among Us (UK) Murderers Among Us (US) Die Mörder sind unter uns (Germany)
British movie poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Staudte
Produced by	Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft
Written by	Wolfgang Staudte
Starring	Wilhelm Borchert Hildegard Knef Arno Paulsen Erna Sellmer
Music by	Ernst Roters
Cinematography	Friedl Behn-Grund Eugen Klagemann
Editing by	Hans Heinrich
Release date(s)	1946
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Die Mörder sind unter uns was the original German title (English titles - Murderers Among Us in the United States;The Murderers Are Among Us in the United Kingdom) of the first post-World War II German film^[1] and the first Trümmerfilm. It was produced in 1945 and 1946 in the Althoff-Atelier in Babelsberg and in Jofa-Ateliers in Johannisthal. It was written and directed by Wolfgang Staudte.

The film is set in 1945 in war-torn Berlin. The former military surgeon Dr. Hans Mertens - played by Wilhelm Borchert - returns home from the battlefield to find his Berlin home destroyed. He suffers from the terrible memories of the war and becomes an alcoholic. A photographer and Nazi concentration camp survivor, Susanne Wallner (played by Hildegard Knef), finds him living in her apartment as she returns home and they soon become friends and roommates. Eventually, Mertens meets his former captain Ferdinand Brückner (played by Arno Paulsen), who had been responsible for the shooting of 36 men, 54 women, and 31 children on Christmas Eve of 1942 in a Polish village on the Eastern Front. He is now a popular citizen and a successful businessman, producing pots out of old Stahlhelme, the German military steel helmet. On the Christmas Eve of 1945, Mertens tries to kill him, but the murder is prevented by Wallner at the last minute. She convinces Mertens to have Brückner put on trial. The two want to start a new life together.

The film was shot in the ruins of the city, creating impressing images that augment the film's effect. Originally the film was supposed to be named Der Mann den ich töten werde (The Man I will kill) and Mertens was supposed to succeed in killing Brückner, but the script and the title were changed, because the Allies were afraid that viewers could interpret that as a call for vigilante justice.

Most of the reviews were positive, although some criticized the fact that the characters appeared in modern and trendy clothes, which did not reflect the reality of the living conditions of Berliners after the end of the war. In this film, Staudte was not only dealing with Germany's past, but also with his own, as he had been involved in the filming of the Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß.

Murderers Among Us debuted on October 15, 1946 in the Admiralspalast, which was at the time the home of the Berlin State Opera, in the Soviet sector. The television debut in the German Democratic Republic was on November 1, 1955 and in the Federal Republic on November 18, 1971.