Charité at War (2019)

Charité is a German drama television series based on the real life hospital in Berlin – established in 1710 and now Europe’s largest hospital. The second season, written by Dorothee Schön and Sabine Thor-Wiedemann, is set in 1943 during the Second World War and covers a two year period. As with the previous season, fictional characters are blended with those from real life, such as Ferdinand Sauerbruch, a world-renowned surgeon. Charité at War, premiered on 23 February 2019 on the German channel Das Erste, and was distributed internationally through Netflix. Sadly, Netflix UK did not renew its licence for the show and it left the streaming platform in 2022.

Charité at War takes place in 1943 during the Second World War and the political situation means the staff do not know who to trust and the viewers are also kept in the dark until the story progresses further. Things have progressed since the first series where Ida Lenze was unable to become a doctor in the 1880s and we are introduced to Anni Waldhausen, a medical student, who is studying eugenics. Heavily pregnant, Anni is taking a break from medicine until her baby is born and is concentrating on her thesis which deals with the topic of self-mutilation. When Anni learns Paul Lohmann, a former soldier, may have shot himself in the leg to avoid being sent back to the front, she is keen to interview him but things get uncomfortable when her mentor, Max de Crinis, head of psychiatry, accuses Paul of deliberately shooting himself to avoid being sent to the front and he is sentenced to death for treason.

When Otto Marquardt, Anni’s brother who has recently returned from the front, finds out what Max has done, he takes it out on his sister who ends up going into labour. After a difficult delivery, Anni gives birth to a daughter, Karin, who initially shows no signs of life but the doctors manage to revive her. When the air raid alarm sounds, the patients have to be evacuated to the basement where a new surgeon, Adolphe Jung, reveals there have been reports on the British radio that patients are being deliberately killed in Charité and the Nazis are experimenting on disabled people. After the bombing comes to an end, Anni is allowed to go home with Karin but is upset when her husband tells her the child has hydrocephalus. Mala Emde is excellent as Anni throughout the entire season but she really goes through all the emotions when she realises that the euthanasia programme is real and her daughter’s life is in danger. Anni is further shocked when she goes through her husband’s papers and learns Artur has been using disabled children as test subjects.

On Christmas Eve, Nurse Christel passes out lyric sheets where the words to Silent Night have been altered to praise the Führer but it becomes obvious which members of staff don’t support the Nazis when they sing the correct version of the song. Later, Otto tells Martin Schelling, a male nurse, that he is in love with him but Martin has already lost a lover to a concentration camp and is reluctant to pursue another relationship even though he feels the same way. Things get more complicated when Nurse Christel develops a romantic interest in Otto and tells him she wants to marry him. When Otto rejects her, she reports him to the authorities for having a relationship with Martin. Otto tells them that Nurse Christel is being spiteful because he rejected her and he is later released. Martin is released after Anni gets Max to confirm both men are firmly heterosexual by flirting with him.

Having been successfully treated for her hydrocephalus, Karin seems to be doing well but Anni is dismayed when the baby’s brain pressure begins to increase again leading to her being hospitalised. Professor Bessau suggests the child should be sent to a speciality clinic but Artur knows he is taking about a place that euthanises children and persuades him to try one more therapy first. The therapy fails and Artur finally agrees to send her to the speciality clinic without telling Anni. When Anni discovers what is going on, she manages to grab Karin before she is transported and hides with her in the bombed staff quarters in the attic of the hospital. Anni can no longer trust her husband so she keeps her daughter’s whereabouts a secret from him.

As the final months of the war take their toll on the hospital, the staff struggle to operate on wounded soldiers and civilians. The bombing on Berlin has increased to the extent a make-shift surgery has been set up in the basement but medicine, water and electricity are limited. The relationship between Anni and Artur continues to be awkward, and she steals his key to the hospital supplies area to steal food for Karin and Otto who is also now hiding in the attic. Artur treats a boy with severe burn wounds, ignoring the fact he is Jewish, and the boy’s father gives him a yellow star which he says will protect him when the Russians come. Nurse Christel leads a group of underage German soldiers to the hospital but Martin tricks them into the basement and locks them in. When Nurse Christel protests, he tells her the boys’ mothers will thank him later.

Magda Goebbels asks Max for potassium cyanide so she can poison herself and her children but he tells her he only has enough for himself and his wife. He advises Magda to anaesthetise the children first to avoid having to see their spasms. A short time later, Max and his wife commit suicide as the Soviets surround the hospital. The Soviet soldiers hold the medical staff at gunpoint, but they do not harm anyone once they learn about Sauerbruch’s medical abilities. Sauerbruch and the other medical personnel tend to the wounded Soviet soldiers. Otto is shot by a stray bullet after fleeing the attic but Martin rescues him and takes him to the bunker for treatment. Nurse Christel isn’t so lucky. When news of Hitler’s suicide circulates, the rest of the city surrenders. As the series comes to an end, Anni reveals she divorced Artur after the war and her daughter went on to live a happy life despite her disability. Otto and Martin remained together and were mostly left alone.

There are some very strong themes in this season which are invariably tied to the Nazi regime as the topics of eugenics and euthanasia are at the forefront. The Kinder-Euthanasie programme claimed that lives of thousands of children who were taken to special children’s wards. The Nazis excused this practice by claiming it had been carried out at the specific request of the parents of the children. Medical professionals were also required by law to report certain conditions to the authorities and one of these was hydrocephalus with which Anni’s daughter is diagnosed. Some of the children were used for medical experimentation prior to being euthanised and their brains removed for further research.