Die vier Gesellen / The Four Companions

Directed by Carl Froelich (1938)
German; English Subtitles. 96 minutes.

Marianne, Käthe, Lotte, and Franziska, four friends and graduates of an industrial design school in Berlin, join forces to establish their own advertising and graphic design agency. Their passion, talent, and optimism are tested as they struggle to establish themselves in a male-dominated field. What initially appears to be a breakthrough commission is eventually revealed to have been orchestrated by their former teacher and mentor, Kohlund, who had advised the women upon graduation to pursue marriage rather than careers. As differing ambitions and romantic entanglements create tensions within the group, Marianne (Ingrid Bergman) is ultimately forced to choose between the company and a different future.

Shot and premiered in 1938, the film initially presents a relatively emancipatory vision of young women in the Nazi state: these characters seek financial independence, professional recognition, and success on their own terms. With women increasingly participating in the workforce after the economic recovery from the global financial crisis, such aspirations were not entirely unusual. Yet the film ultimately reinforces the gender roles prescribed by Nazi ideology, suggesting that a woman’s proper place is alongside a man.