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...
Werner Peters
as Diederich Heßling
Paul Esser
as Regierungspräsident von Wulckow
Blandine Ebinger
as Frau von Wulckow
Renate Fischer
as Guste Daimchen
Carola Braunbock
as Emmi Heßling
Emmy Burg
as Magda Heßling
Sabine Thalbach
as Agnes Göppel
Friedel Nowack
as Mrs. Göpel
Friedrich Maurer
as Göpel
Erich Nadler
as Father Heßling
Gertrud Bergmann
as Mother Heßling
Ernst Legal
as Zillich
