For fans of history, this glimpse of Munich society in the 1920s will be a much-treasured event. The story revolves around an art-gallery manager who puts on a show featuring the scandalous works of a woman artist who committed suicide. He is unjustly accused of having committed adultery with her, and for some reason the authorities decide to make an example of him. He is imprisoned at about the same time that Hitler and the nascent Nazi party attempt the infamous Beer Hall Putsch, and the gallery manager's girlfriend and a Swiss writer valiantly (and unsuccessfully) attempt to get better justice for him. Nobody in authority, it seems, has the courage to take up the challenge of righting this particular injustice.
As a painter in the court of King Carlos IV, Goya has attained wealth and reputation. He believes in King and Church, yet he is also a Spaniard who dearly loves his people. This contradiction presents him with a dilemma.
Nessa notória propaganda anti-semita, Suess Oppenheimer, um ambicioso negociante judeu, ascende como o tesoureiro do duque, o qual lhe corrompe com riquezas e promessas sempre grandiosas.
Com a crescente atuação do judeu, cada vez mais descarada e elaborada, o duque acaba quase que estourando uma guerra civil.
Quando o Duque acaba por morrer de um ataque cardíaco, o judeu sofre represália e é sentenciado à morte pela Assembléia dos Anciãos, que o acusa de "manter relações carnais com uma mulher cristã".
A historical satire critical of the rising tide of Anti-Semitism in Germany. Based on the novel by Lionel Feuchtwanger, Jew Süss is the story of life in the 18th century Jewish ghetto of Württemberg. Süss (Veidt) works himself out of the ghetto and into a position of power himself with the help of an evil Duke.
