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House of Life

1952 German film by Karl Hartl

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ1590898 ↗
Source-derived summary

House of Life (German: Haus des Lebens) is a 1952 West German drama film directed by Karl Hartl and starring Gustav Fröhlich, Cornell Borchers and Edith Mill. The film's setting is a maternity hospital, portraying the stories of various staff and patients.

It was made at the Bavaria Studios in Munich. The film's sets were designed by Franz Bi and Botho Hoefer.

Cast

Gustav Fröhlich as Dr. Peter Haidt

Cornell Borchers as Dr. Elisabeth Keller

Edith Mill as Oberschwester Hedwig

Viktor Staal as Willi Kuschitzky

Hansi Knoteck as Else Kuschitzky

Judith Holzmeister as Inge Jolander

Curd Jürgens as Axel Jolander

Gertrud Kückelmann as Christine

Edith Schultze-Westrum as Josepha Spratt

Petra Unkel as Grit Harlacher

Elfriede Kuzmany as Frau Frey

Paula Braend as Frau Wilk

Claire Reigbert as Schwester Sophie

Franz Muxeneder as Hense

Erich Ponto as Geheimrat Merk

Hans Leibelt as Portier Kögl

Joachim Brennecke as Kurt Baumann

Karlheinz Böhm as Pit Harlacher

Hans Hermann Schaufuß as Vater Harlacher

Rudolf Schündler as Dr. Blümel

Viktor Afritsch as Dr. Billich

Fritz Rasp as Der Verführer

References

Bibliography

Hans-Michael Bock and Tim Bergfelder. The Concise Cinegraph: An Encyclopedia of German Cinema.

Editorial summary

“House of Life” enters the record as 1952 German film by Karl Hartl. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what House, Life and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1952—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1952. Its strongest next move is a source search built around House, Life and German.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“House of Life” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, House, Life and German provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1590898. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “House of Life”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow House of Life primary sources, House of Life archive and House research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “House of Life”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “House of Life” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.