The Strauss Dynasty (German: Die Strauß-Dynastie) is an Austrian biographical film in six parts from 1991. It depicts the careers of Johann Strauss (father), the composer of the Radetzky March, and his son Johann Strauss (son) ("Schani"), the composer of the waltz The Blue Danube, who, despite his father's resistance, also became a musician and competed with his father as a waltz composer.
It was broadcast in Austria by ORF III, in Germany by ZDF and in Italy by RAI.
Plot
First part
Johann Strauss befriends Joseph Lanner at one of his concerts. The superficial dance music of the aristocratic balls gives Johann Strauss the idea of founding an orchestra with Lanner.
Both of them immediately get a job with the inn owner Streim. While his daughter Anna flirts with Strauss and Lanner at the same time, the businessman Karl Friedrich Hirsch convince the two musicians to play music in parallel in Streim's inn and in other places.
Anna becomes pregnant and marries Strauss; at the wedding Lanner breaks away from Strauss. Despite his professional success, Strauss is plagued by fears about the future. When Anna gives birth to their son Johann ("Schani"), Strauss prefers to play with the Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini, who has shown enthusiasm for his music.
Little Schani develops his first musical inclinations, while his father becomes soon more successful than Lanner, despite the last one is appointed music director to the imperial court. During a cholera epidemic, Strauss plans with Hirsch a concert in Schönbrunn to draw the emperor's attention to his music. Despite his absence, the concert is a success and Strauss chooses a waltz queen from the audience, the young . The troops of the emperor dissolve the concert due to health concerns, even with the use of force; in their escape, Strauss and Emilie kiss.
Prince Metternich summons Strauss at court and sent him on a concert tour to England for the coronation of Queen Victoria. In return, he promises Strauss that he would find a post at the imperial court for him when he is back in Vienna.
Second part
Because his lover Emilie Trampusch gives birth to a son, Strauss decides, despite the homesickness of his orchestra, to prolong his concert tour to France. When he prospects to continue the journey to New York, Strauss is abandoned by his musicians.
Resigned, Strauss and Hirsch return to Vienna, where Strauss sees his grown-up son Schani and his brothers again. Strauss is unable to work, while Anna does not know how to support her family. Frustrated, Strauss forbids his sons to become musicians in order to spare them the disappointments he had to experience himself. When the musicians of his previous orchestra return to Strauss, at Anna's insistence he start working again.
Strauss moves in with Emilie and agrees to pay Anna's family maintenance only if his sons abide by his music ban. For this reason, Schani attends business school, but, with the support of his mother, secretly turns back to music. Moreover, he falls in love with Lanner's daughter Kathi, who arranges for him violin lessons with her father. After Johann Strauss finds out about the lessons, Anna forbids any further interference from her husband and sends her son to take composition lessons with the organist Joseph Drechsler; Schani earns the necessary money at night working in a factory. However, Schani does not enjoy Drechslers' lessons on fugues and would rather, contrary to his mother's plans, compose waltzes and set up an orchestra with his friend Gustav Levi.
Lanner dies unexpectedly; due to Prince Metternich's influence, Strauss becomes his successor as music director to the imperial court.
After initial difficulties, Schani gets permission to found an orchestra with the help of his mother, who de facto signs as his guardian. Although Johann Strauss threatens to boycott all café owners who let Schani play with them, Schani celebrates a successful debut at . Johann Strauss congratulates his son and offers him a tour together; Schani's mother, however, vehemently refuses.
Third part
Prince Metternich worries about public order because of the rivalry between father and son. When a young woman dies in a dispute between the supporters of father and son, Schani plays at her funeral despite the official prohibition. Prince Metternich urges Strauss to end the conflict with his son, but then, at Hirsch's suggestion, sends Schani as a cultural ambassador to Romania.