Almost resembling Two-Face from the Batman franchise due to being wounded in World War I, Dr. Otternschlag, an odd older man who seems to mostly hang out in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, delivers the quote that is the main crux of the film Grand Hotel. Seeming a bit despondent and a little annoyed as everyone bustles around him, the Doctor sits smoking in a lobby chair after most of the main characters and their issues are introduced to the film’s viewers through the telephone calls they make in the opening scene. The Doctor then monotonously declares to no one in particular, “Grand Hotel. People coming, going. Nothing ever happens.” What is so very ironic about this quote is that the Doctor seems bored out of his mind while in the midst of the chaos of the Grand Hotel lobby. Apparently, the Grand Hotel—in Berlin—is the most expensive hotel in the city and the place where anyone who’s anyone stays. In fact, most of the characters seem to have taken up long-term residence in the hotel. What is also funny about this quote is that we the viewers have just learned that a lot is happening in the hotel. Senf, the head porter, is stressed because he is awaiting news that his laboring wife has delivered their baby. Otto Kringelein has been told by his doctor that he is terminally ill and has decided to spend his life savings on enjoying what time he has left. General Director Preysing must succeed in getting a business merger to go through or else his financial situation will become dire. Grusinskaya, the Russian ballet dancer, is suicidal because she feels alone and no longer relevant. Baron Felix von Geigern is penniless and is working with a shady group of individuals who require him to charm his way into proximity with wealthy people so he can steal from them. Flaemmchen eats only one meal a day on her stenographer’s salary and feels pressured by the men she works for to enter into sexual relationships with them in order to survive.

But, yes, Doctor, nothing is really happening at the Grand Hotel.

Or, nothing is happening without money being involved somehow. The film’s constant references to money—needing it, wanting it, spending it, etc.—direct its audience’s thoughts to the current economic struggles of the United States during the 1930s and the Great Depression. Certainly, many original viewers of the film could identify with Flaemmchen’s eating only one meal a day and with the Baron’s having served his country during WWI and ending up with a worthless title and bills he cannot pay. Both Flaemmchen and the Baron resort to selling themselves (albeit in different ways) and compromising their morality in the name of money—yet it is not the “high life” in the Grand Hotel that they are looking for. They are simply trying to survive.

On the other side of the money game is Kringelein. Though at first it seems he doesn’t have much money and will spend the little that he has before he soon dies, the viewer begins to feel as the film progresses that Kringelein is better off than most of the other characters. His struggle is physical, not moral. And yet, the more Kringelein spends and comes to enjoy his life, the more the viewer begins to wonder if Kringelein’s death is really as imminent as he believes. Having worked hard all his life under the cruel and selfish Preysing, Kringelein revolts, standing up to Preysing regarding the universal rights of human kind and offering to share his money with others. Having no real further need for acquiring money, that is indeed what Kringelein does, cleaning up at the poker table when the Baron can only lose.

Greta Garbo as Grusinskaya and John Barrymore as the Baron

For the Baron, on the other hand, money is all that matters to him—until he is caught in Grusinskaya’s room while trying to steal her pearls. Talking through the night, sharing their pasts and their future hopes with each other, the Baron and Grusinskaya fall in love. Hypothetically, love should solve the problems of each of them–it will allow Grusinskaya to feel that someone values her, and it will lead the Baron to forego his obsession with money and concentrate on the well-being of another. Ironically, though, in order for the Baron and Grusinskaya to be together and be fulfilled by loving each other, the Baron must scrape up enough money to join her in Vienna. From this point in the film, then, the Baron’s money problems become even more critical, driving him to attempt to steal Kringelein’s poker winnings. Pity and compassion for the sick old man deter the Baron, but what is troublesome is that all the Baron would have to do is simply ask Kringelein for a loan of the needed amount. Likewise, Grusinskaya has enough money for herself and her lover–and she tells the Baron this. Why then does he continue to try to obtain money for himself at any cost? (Spoiler alert!) It is very difficult, therefore, to understand the Baron’s death at the hands of the selfish Preysing. For one, Preysing has demonstrated pride and disregard for his fellow man throughout the film, but he just doesn’t seem like the brutal killer he is portrayed as in the murder scene. Similarly, it is difficult for the viewer to accept that the Baron does not have some wily scheme up his sleeve to escape from Preysing since he (the Baron) seems like a pretty smooth operator when it comes to wiggling out of awkward predicaments.

The only two characters who really end up happy, then, are Kringelein and Flaemmchen, who take all of Kringelein’s money and decide to see the world together. It’s a very odd combination of people, apparently united in their grief over the Baron’s death. But since they both knew the Baron for only a couple of days, I suppose there is hope that they will put that money to good use and really live life. Then again, Kringelein thinks he’s dying…

But, no, Doctor, you are correct; nothing really ever happens at the Grand Hotel.

For Me Then…

This film very much connects economics and personal finances to questions of morality. Is it ok for Flaemmchen to sleep with men for money in order to eat? Is it alright for the Baron to steal from others to prevent the men he works for from killing him? On the other hand, is it correct that Grusinskaya is depressed and self-absorbed when she has enough money to eat properly? Is it permissible for Preysing to be cruel to others when he is the owner of a successful business (at least until his greed leads to the failed merger)?

The odd character out in this thought process is Kringelein who has enough money but not an excessive amount, and who treasures what all the other characters seemingly take for granted–an appreciation for life as it is. Kringelein expects his life to end shortly, so he values it–something the money-obsessed characters don’t stop to think about. In that sense, then, perhaps the film emphasizes the need for gratitude for what one has. The Baron has no money in the beginning of the film, but by the end he has no life. Preysing has no business merger in the first half of the film, but at the end has no freedom. Grusinskaya has perhaps no adoring fans in the beginning of the film, but in the end she has no lasting love. The characters come close to obtaining these ideals, but each falls short.

To close then, two quotes from the film’s final moments stick with me. The first is when Kringelein lists his forwarding address as “Grand Hotel in Paris,” explaining to Flaemmchen, “Oh ho ho, there’s a Grand Hotel everywhere in the world!” It seems to me that this statement is meant to extend the situations portrayed within the movie to the situations of the audience watching the movie–not to say that everyone will someday stay in a Grand Hotel (although, come to think of it, I actually did once!), but to insist that the struggles the characters face in the Grand Hotel in Berlin occur all over the world as well. Everywhere there is lack of money, lack of morals, lack of consideration for one’s fellow humans. But in Kringelein and Flaemmchen’s relatively joyous exit from the hotel, there could be hope in the midst of our struggles. Then again, they are headed to another Grand Hotel…

The other interesting quote is from the very end of Grand Hotel and comes from the Doctor in the same monotone soliloquy as before: “Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens.” As the camera pans out from the Doctor in the lobby, the revolving door keeps turning, implying a continuity at the Grand Hotel, which is apparently a microcosm of our lives. The same problems will continue in the rest of the world as they do at the Grand Hotel. But let’s be a little more realistic about those struggles of humanity than the Doctor is. Let’s appreciate the lives we have while we have them.