Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...
as Diederich Heßling
as Regierungspräsident von Wulckow
as Frau von Wulckow
as Guste Daimchen
as Emmi Heßling
as Magda Heßling
as Agnes Göppel
as Mrs. Göpel
as Göpel
as Father Heßling
as Mother Heßling
as Zillich
as Dr. Wolfgang Buck
as Buck sen.
as Mahlmann
as Napoleon Fischer
as Dr. Mennicke
as Kühlemann
as von Brietzen
as Major Kunze
as Landgerichtsdirektor
as Dr. Heuteufel
as Lauer
as Gottlieb Hornung
as Sötbier
as Virgin of Orleans
as Young Worker
as Young Worker
as Fritzsche
as Medizinalrat
