Skandal in Baden-Baden is a German silent film from 1929, set in the fashionable spa society of Baden-Baden and partly shot on location in the town for its exterior scenes. The lead is played by Brigitte Helm, who had become famous two years earlier through “Metropolis”.
Plot
At the centre is the dancer Vera Kersten, who is drawn into Baden-Baden’s genteel spa society through an intrigue. After an encounter with the billionaire John Leeds, a newspaper photograph sparks rumours of an affair. Her supposed closeness to the wealthy man opens doors for her while at the same time creating new dependencies. The film thus explores themes such as self-presentation, social advancement and female self-assertion.
Production
The film was directed by Erich Waschneck and produced by Universum-Film AG (Ufa). It was shot in 1928 at the Babelsberg studios and at locations in Baden-Baden, with cinematography by Friedl Behn-Grund. It premiered in Berlin on 18 January 1929. The plot goes back to Georg Fröschel’s novel “Die Geliebte Roswolskys”, which had already been filmed once in 1921.
For the town, the film is a rare moving-image record: it shows Baden-Baden in the interwar years, when the spa business was still trying to reconnect with the glamorous era before the First World War.
Restoration and new film score
The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung restored the film. As the original film music is considered lost, the composer Elena Kats-Chernin wrote a new score that takes up the sound of the 1920s and reinterprets it.[1]
On 7 June 2026 the restored version with the new music was performed in the Weinbrennersaal of the Kurhaus (spa house). The Baden-Baden Philharmonic played under the direction of Lautaro Mura Fuentealba. The screening was part of the World Heritage Weekend, with which the town celebrates its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage.