The False Promise of Advancement

Directed by Dirk Schneider, Ariane Riecker
2025    90mDocumentary, TV Movie
7.0
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.

Where to Watch The False Promise of Advancement

  • Marlen HobrackSelf - Interviewee
  • Scott WempeSelf - Interviewee
  • Natalya NepomnyashchaSelf - Interviewee
  • Jörg TheobaldSelf - Interviewee
  • Stephanie zu GuttenbergSelf - Interviewee
  • Cawa YounosiSelf - Interviewee
  • Martyna LinartasSelf - Interviewee
  • Marcel HelbigSelf - Interviewee
  • Michael HartmannSelf - Interviewee
  • Ciani-Sophia HöderSelf - Interviewee
  • Eva VossSelf - Interviewee
  • Joe KaeserSelf (archive footage)
  • Frank-Walter SteinmeierSelf (archive footage)
  • Sky du MontSelf (archive footage)
  • Harry S. TrumanSelf (archive footage)
  • Winston ChurchillSelf (archive footage)
  • Dirk SchneiderDirector / Writer / Animation
  • Ariane RieckerDirector / Writer
  • Michael SchönherrProducer
  • Thomas KeffelDirector Of Photography

The False Promise of Advancement Trivia

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