Benjamin und seine Väter

Benjamin Weis was born in 1919 in Frankfurt as the son of the unmarried office assistant Anna, with no trace of his father. The lawyer Fritz Bernoulli takes care of the young family, providing them with housing and support. Despite the difficult circumstances, Benjamin grows up sheltered on Bergerstrasse. He immerses himself in the world of Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe, experiencing small and large adventures with his friends. However, as his mother evasively responds to his questions about his father with fairy tales, Benjamin has to invent new fathers for himself. Heckmann paints a panorama of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany from the perspective of a child who cannot make sense of many things. Why his foster father is called a traitor to the fatherland, why no one intervenes when an alleged communist is beaten on the street, why his Jewish friend has to emigrate to America—young Benjamin still receives no answers to these questions. And so his conclusion is: "I don't care about all the fathers who have brought us such a life.".