Overview

Country Dr. Robert Koch is desperate: a tuberculosis epidemic is decimating the children in his district and no one is able to do anything about it. Every fourth child is already sick and the parents must helplessly watch as their young ones die. Now Koch is undertaking to find the cause of the tuberculosis --- something he has already been working on for years --- which has been causing this plague of illness. His work is made more difficult by envy; for example, that of his teacher, who was wounded defending his honor. But his greatest obstacle is the famous Berliner scientist and Reichstag deputy, Privy Councilor Rudolf Virchow: He is extraordinarily skeptical of Koch's theory, that the cause for tuberculosis is a bacteria.

Top Cast

Emil Jannings

Dr. Robert Koch

Werner Krauss

Geheimrat Rudolf Virchow

Viktoria von Ballasko

Schwester Else

Hilde Körber

Frau Göhrke

Theodor Loos

Dr. Georg Gaffky

Bernhard Minetti

Sprecher der Gesundbeter

Paul Bildt

Baron von Kossin, Reichstagsabgeordneter

Elisabeth Flickenschildt

seine Frau

Paul Dahlke

Lehrer

E

Eduard von Winterstein

Prof. Ernst von Bergmann

Lucie Höflich

Kochs Patientin Frau Paul

Hubert von Meyerinck

Fähnrich Graf