Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald

Early 1930s Vienna. The middle class is withering away. The certainties, the promises of advancement, the ambitions in the “middle of society” are disappearing, and radicalisations are on the increase. Downward mobility is the pervasive trend. Marianne, the daughter of a toy shop owner who is struggling to keep his business going, is to be married to Oskar, whose butchery is still doing well by comparison. But she backs out of this planned union and falls in love with Alfred, a gambler who has been betting on horse races with money borrowed from Valerie, the tobacconist. They have a child together, but Alfred is a reluctant father, so Marianne tries to gain financial independence by working as a nude dancer in a variety show. But in this world there is no way she can support herself and her illegitimate child. The infant’s murder is something of a collective act intended to shelter and protect this small society in the “quiet street in the 8th district” from the future. The child is a senseless victim of a society that is unable to stop its own deterioration in the face of an emergent fascism.