The False Promise of Advancement backdrop

The False Promise of Advancement 2025 Directed by Dirk Schneider , Ariane Riecker Das falsche Versprechen vom Aufstieg

Origin sticks like shit to your shoe! That's what Marlen Hobrack says, who grew up as a working-class child in Bautzen. But the promise of the old Federal Republic was that you can become anything if you just try hard enough. But that no longer applies. So is class in Germany fixed from birth? Have we long been living in a country in which origin and family background are more important for future prospects than individual performance and commitment? In Germany, it takes six generations to rise from poverty to the middle class, in Denmark only two generations. Those affected reflect on their life stories, the burden of their social origins, the wrong and right turning points for social advancement, as classified by social researchers. They talk of pride and shame, of financial hardship and wealth, of origin and future, of growing up and moving up in this Germany with its entrenched selection mechanisms for social advancement.

Country Germany
Production Country Germany
Language German
Spoken Language German
Production Companies MDR , Hoferichter & Jacobs
Release Date 22 January 2025
90 mins
Cast
Marlen Hobrack Self - Interviewee
Scott Wempe Self - Interviewee
Natalya Nepomnyashcha Self - Interviewee
Jörg Theobald Self - Interviewee
Stephanie zu Guttenberg Self - Interviewee
Cawa Younosi Self - Interviewee
Martyna Linartas Self - Interviewee
Marcel Helbig Self - Interviewee
Michael Hartmann Self - Interviewee
Ciani-Sophia Höder Self - Interviewee
Eva Voss Self - Interviewee
Joe Kaeser Self (archive footage)
Frank-Walter Steinmeier Self (archive footage)
Sky du Mont Self (archive footage)
Harry S. Truman Self (archive footage)
Winston Churchill Self (archive footage)