In the 1970s and 1980s, Johanna von KOCZIAN (1933 - 2024) was primarily perceived as a pop singer who sang with a touch of irony about how easy housework was ("The little bit of housework takes care of itself, says my husband!"). Two decades earlier, she was a busy film star in the then still flourishing West German film industry. In the film MENSCHEN IM NETZ, Johanna von KOCZIAN even played a role as amazing as the one played today by Cameron DIAZ, for example, in BACK IN ACTION by the global streaming provider NETFLIX.
Munich, late 1950s! Gitta Mertens (Johanna von Koczian) is very excited, her husband Klaus (Hansjörg FELMY) is finally arriving in the West German city. He has been incarcerated in the notorious Bautzen prison in the GDR since the workers' uprising on June 17, 1953. At the time, Germany was divided into two countries, East and West. In addition, the comrades from the GDR's state party, the SED, had also framed him for murder. Gitta works as a translator and now wants to cut back on her work at her company. But the company sees things very differently. After all, it is a spy ring infiltrated into Munich by the GDR, which wants to continue to profit from Gitta's services. It goes without saying that her husband, who has just been released from prison, soon becomes suspicious of Gitta's numerous night shifts. A monstrous murder soon takes place!
What an unusual espionage story is being presented here in the otherwise so staid cinema of the West German film industry! The GDR, an opponent of the system, carries out industrial espionage, blackmails decent citizens and does not shy away from murder and manslaughter. The film, which attracted more than 3 million visitors to the cinemas at the time, had almost been forgotten. But the resourceful ex-BERLINALE producer Carlo CHATRIAN, while still director of the LOCARNO Film Festival, initiated the retrospective LOVED AND REPRESSED: THE CINEMA OF THE YOUNG FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY FROM 1949 TO 1963 in 2016, in which PEOPLE ON THE NET was also programmed.
The film is also an interesting example from the West German film industry. During this time, the producers Hans ABICH and Rolf THIELE (GOLDEN GLOBE 1959 for THE GIRL ROSEMARIE with Nadja TILLER) increasingly moved the productions of their FILMAUFBAU GmbH away from the tranquil university town of Göttingen to the more sophisticated Munich, where PEOPLE ON THE NET was also filmed. Shortly before shooting for his film HELDEN with O. W. FISCHER and Liselotte PULVER, director Franz Peter WIRTH received an OSCAR nomination. In addition to Hansjörg FELMY (1931 - 2007), who was already an established film star, the internationally sought-after Hannes MESSEMER (1924 - 1991) and Ingeborg SCHÖNER (celebrating her 90th birthday on July 2, 2025!!!), who was already active in Italy, also played in the spy thriller. Olga von TOGNI, Hanns LOTHAR and Paul VERHOEVEN appeared as sinister GDR agents. The screenplay was written by Herbert REINECKER (DERRICK) based on a script by Will TREMPER.
