The False Promise of Advancement(2025)

The False Promise of Advancement Synopsis

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.

The False Promise of Advancement (2025) is a documentary and tv movie film directed by Dirk Schneider, released on January 22, 2025 with a runtime of 1h 30m. It stars Marlen Hobrack, Scott Wempe, Natalya Nepomnyashcha and Jörg Theobald. Viewers rate it 7.0 out of 10 across 1 ratings.