Plot
The melodrama film begins with a young Afro-German girl being left at the doorsteps of the Rose family—white middle-class Germans—assembled for a birthday party. Initially, most family members treat the young girl with relatively welcome arms as they believe she is only giving a performance as a birthday surprise from an aunt. The family later discovers a suitcase that was left on the doorsteps and realize that the young girl, Toxi, has in fact been abandoned. Once the family learns that Toxi has been abandoned there is a shift in feelings regarding their acceptance of her; the possibility of the girl spending more time at the home than was expected forces members of the family to confront their own views on race and discrimination.
One character in particular, Uncle Theodor—the Roses' eldest daughter's husband—is very unsettled by the idea of having Toxi stay in his white household: he does not want Toxi to interact with his two daughters who are about the same age as Toxi. Unlike the other children featured in the film, Toxi is always on her best behavior as her manners and maturity level are well beyond her age. Due to Toxi's mature behavior and her inherent goodness Uncle Theodor eventually realizes that he has made a mistake with his discrimination towards her.
By the end of the film, the entire family has approved of Toxi. However, Toxi will not stay with the family, as her father—a former American soldier—shows up at their house to find Toxi and take her back to the States with him.
Heidi is a work of children's fiction published between 1880 and 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning and Heidi: How She Used What She Learned. It is a novel about the events in the life of a 5-year-old girl in her paternal grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children".
Afro-Germans or Black Germans are Germans of Sub-Saharan African descent.
Paul Hermann Bildt was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1910 and 1956. He was born in Berlin and died in Zehlendorf, West Berlin.
Effi Briest is a 1974 West German black-and-white historical drama film directed, written and narrated by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and produced by Juliane Lorenz. Fassbinder adapted the screenplay from German author Theodor Fontane's 1894 novel of the same name about a young 19th century woman whose affair with a charismatic womanizer has long-term effects on her marriage to an older man. The film uses Fontane's words in dialogue, narration and text of letters.
The House in Montevideo is a 1963 German comedy film directed by Helmut Käutner and starring Heinz Rühmann, Ruth Leuwerik and Paul Dahlke.
The Ruler is a 1937 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan. It was adapted from the play of the same name by Gerhart Hauptmann. Erwin Leiser calls it a propagandistic demonstration of the Führerprinzip of Nazi Germany. The film's sets were designed by the art director Robert Herlth. Location shooting took place around Oberhausen and Pompeii near Naples. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.
Margarete Schön was a German stage and film actress whose career spanned nearly fifty years. She is internationally recognized for her role as Kriemhild in director Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen series of two silent fantasy films, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge.
Brown Babies is a term used for children born to black soldiers and white women during and after the Second World War. Other names include "war babies" and "occupation babies." In Germany they were known as Mischlingskinder, a term first used under the Nazi regime for children of mixed Jewish-German parentage. As of 1955, African-American soldiers had fathered about 5,000 children in the American Zone of Occupied Germany. In Occupied Austria, estimates of children born to Austrian women and Allied soldiers ranged between 8,000 and 30,000, perhaps 500 of them biracial. In the United Kingdom, West Indian members of the British military, as well as African-American soldiers in the US Army, fathered 2,000 children during and after the war. A much smaller and unknown number, probably in the low hundreds, was born in the Netherlands, but the lives of some have been followed into their old age and it is possible to have a better understanding of the experience that would unfold for all of the Brown Babies of World War II Europe.
Maria Matray was a German screenwriter and film actress. Matray became a star of late Weimar cinema.
The Girl at the Reception is a 1940 German drama film directed by Gerhard Lamprecht and starring Magda Schneider, Heinz Engelmann, and Carsta Löck.
Melody of a Great City is a 1943 musical drama film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Hilde Krahl, Werner Hinz and Karl John. A young woman moves to Berlin to work as a press photographer.
The Impossible Woman is a 1936 German romance film directed by Johannes Meyer and starring Dorothea Wieck, Gustav Fröhlich and Gina Falckenberg. It was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin and partly on location in Romania. It was based on the novel Madame will nicht heiraten by Mia Fellmann.
Eight Girls in a Boat is a 1932 German musical film directed by Erich Waschneck and starring Karin Hardt, Theodor Loos, and Helmuth Kionka. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by art director Alfred Junge.
Hannele's Journey to Heaven is a 1922 German silent film directed by Urban Gad and starring Margarete Schlegel, Margarete Schön and Hermann Vallentin. The film is based on the play, The Assumption of Hannele by German author Gerhart Hauptmann. It was remade as a sound film in 1934.
Royal Children is a 1950 West German comedy film directed by Helmut Käutner and starring Jenny Jugo, Peter van Eyck and Hedwig Wangel. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich and on location in Bad Wimpfen and at Hornberg Castle. The film's sets were designed by the art director Bruno Monden and Hermann Warm. It was a major commercial failure on release.
Nora's Ark is a 1948 German comedy-drama film directed by Werner Klingler that stars Willy Maertens, Claus Hofer and Harry Meyen. It is about a young couple who go to live on a derelict boat because they lack a home.
Elfie (Elfriede) Fiegert - born April 1946, in Freising, Bavaria, West Germany - is an Afro-German film actor who became famous as a child actor for playing the lead role in the film Toxi (1952) filmed when she was five years old. This was followed in 1955 with the film The Dark Star which has erroneously been described as sequel. At the age of seventeen she had a small role in The House in Montevideo (1963).
The Dark Star is a 1955 West German drama film directed by Hermann Kugelstadt and starring Elfie Fiegert, Ilse Steppat and Viktor Staal.
Three Fathers for Anna is a 1939 German comedy film directed by Carl Boese and starring Ilse Werner, Hans Stüwe and Theodor Danegger. It was made by the German company UFA at the firm's Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, with some location shooting taking place around Passau in Bavaria. The film's sets were designed by the art director Herbert Frohberg.
Leila Negra, the stage name of Marie Nejar is an Afro-German singer and actress. She began her career as a child film actor in the 1940s, became a singer after World War II, and left performing in the late 1950s to become a nurse.
