Character Relationship Map: Germany, Year Zero

Characters

• Edmund (played by Edmund Moeschke) — protagonist

  Twelve-year-old protagonist navigating post-war Berlin. He attempts to support his destitute family through black market work, interacts with his former teacher, and ultimately poisons his bedridden f...

• Father (played by Ernst Pittschau) — protagonist

  Mr. Köhler is Edmund's ailing, bedridden patriarch. Plagued by illness and despair, he views himself as a burden and expresses suicidal thoughts. After a temporary hospital stay, he returns home and d...

• Eva (played by Ingetraud Hinze) — supporting

  Edmund's adult sister who struggles to survive in occupied Berlin. She secures cigarettes by accompanying Allied soldiers but firmly resists the pressure to prostitute herself for the family's benefit...

• Karl-Heinz (played by Franz-Otto Krüger) — supporting

  The Köhler family's older son and former soldier. He hides from authorities to avoid punishment for his wartime service, eventually surrenders to the police, and returns devastated to learn of his fat...

• Eva's Friend (uncredited) (played by Alexandra Manys) — supporting
• Teacher (played by Erich Gühne) — supporting

  Herr Henning, Edmund's former schoolmaster, secretly harbors Nazi ideology. He manipulates Edmund by giving him a Hitler recording to sell and espouses a ruthless survival of the fittest philosophy, l...

Key Relationships

• Teacher → Eva (Unknown Indirect Influence)
• Teacher → Father (Conflict Ideological Influence)
• Edmund → Teacher (Professional Former Student)
• Eva → Karl-Heinz (Family Sibling)
• Father → Karl-Heinz (Family Father)
• Father → Eva (Family Father)
• Edmund → Karl-Heinz (Family Sibling)
• Edmund → Eva (Family Sibling)
• Edmund → Father (Family Father)
• Eva's Friend (uncredited) → Eva (friend)

Story Analysis

A young boy's moral corruption and ultimate destruction in post-war Berlin.

Plot Progression

1. Survival in the Ashes
2. Ideological Poison
3. The Fatal Decision
4. Descent into Ruin