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Menschen im Hotel

1959 film by Gottfried Reinhardt

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 revisionMay 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ3775053 ↗
Source-derived summary

Menschen im Hotel (French: Grand Hotel) is a 1959 German and French black-and-white drama film directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, and produced by Artur Brauner. It starred O.W. Fischer, Michèle Morgan, Heinz Rühmann and Gert Fröbe. The screenplay was written by Ladislas Fodor and Hans Jacoby, based on the 1929 novel by Vicki Baum. The film is a remake of the 1932 classic Grand Hotel.

Plot

The film shows two days and nights in a Berlin luxury hotel and tells the story of how the paths of various quite different characters cross. It begins with an attempted suicide by the famous dancer Grusinskaja. She is rescued by an impoverished noble, Baron von Gaigern, and falls in love with him. Von Gaigern, who makes a living as a hotel thief, learns about the corrupt dealings by businessman Preysing. He attempts to blackmail Preysing, with tragic results.

Cast

O.W. Fischer as Baron von Gaigern

Michèle Morgan as Grusinskaja

Heinz Rühmann as Kringelein

Sonja Ziemann as Flämmchen

Gert Fröbe as Preysing

Dorothea Wieck as Suzanne

Wolfgang Wahl as Max, the chauffeur

Friedrich Schoenfelder as Receptionist

Jean-Jacques Delbo as 1st doorman

Reinhold Pasch as 2nd doorman

Siegfried Schürenberg as Dr.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Menschen im Hotel” is 1959 film by Gottfried Reinhardt. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Menschen, Hotel and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1959, 1929, 1932—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1959-09-23, 1959-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Menschen, Hotel and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1959 film by Gottfried Reinhardt” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

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 May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3775053. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1929 and 1932.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. 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 “Menschen im Hotel”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Menschen im Hotel primary sources, Menschen im Hotel archive and Menschen 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 “Menschen im Hotel”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Menschen im Hotel” 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.