Great freedom No. 7
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Great freedom No. 7 |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helmut Käutner |
| script | Helmut Käutner Richard Nicolas |
| production | Hans Tost |
| music | Werner Eisbrenner |
| camera | Werner Krien |
| cut | Anneliese Schönnenbeck |
| occupation | |
| |
Große Freiheit Nr. 7 is a German feature film directed by Helmut Käutner with Hans Albers in the leading role. It was filmed by Helmut Käutner during the Second World War from May to November 1943 in the German Reich and the then Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . It is the first Agfa color film from Terra Film . After the censorship of December 1944, it was not allowed to be shown in Germany and was only released by the Allies in 1945 . It is one of the Terra Film film classics with many songs that were well known at the time.
plot
The aging Hannes Kröger, who is actually a seaman , earns his living as a guide, singer and musician in the hippodrome , which is run by his lover Anita. It is in the street Große Freiheit , a side street of the Reeperbahn in the red light district of St. Pauli . Hannes is called to his brother Jan's deathbed, with whom he fell out because he had once ruthlessly blocked his future. The on blackwater fever dying Jan. asks Hannes, he should take care of his lover he some time ago in the lurch. Hannes travels to the country and offers to come to Hamburg with the young girl Gisa Häuptlein, who is a victim of gossip there because of her relationship with the sailor Jan. After a moment's hesitation, Gisa accepts the offer to live in his room and take care of the house. Kröger also gives her a job as a shop assistant, where she meets the shipyard worker Georg Willem, who falls in love with her.
Hannes also feels affection for Gisa, whom he calls ( La ) Paloma. He wants to give up his unsteady life and start a family. He is therefore considering settling down and wants to buy a launch boat for harbor tours as a basis for marrying Gisa . But Gisa has meanwhile fallen in love with Georg and goes to dance with him one Sunday in Blankenese . Together with his seafaring friends Fiete and Jens, Hannes finds the note with Georg's invitation to Gisa and hurries after them. Only a violent thunderstorm prevents a fight between the two. However, this comes a little later, when Georg Gisa sees freedom in the Great and believes that she is Hannes' lover and also an easy girl .
Hannes' engagement preparations continue to flourish without Gisa suspecting anything. She doesn't come home the day he tries to give her the rings. She went to Georg to confront him about his remarks and ended up staying with him for the night. In the meantime, Hannes waited in vain and found out about her plan by calling Gisa's employer. He goes back to the hippodrome, says goodbye to Anita and goes to Padua with his two mates to sail to Australia the next day.
General
The film's title Grosse Freiheit no. 7 has the same street Grosse Freiheit in Hamburg's St. Pauli back, which was already created 1610th Even today there is a nightclub at this point, which is also called Große Freiheit Nr. 7 . Foreign titles of the film are: La Paloma (France), La gran libertad No. 7 (Spain), Människor i hamn (Sweden). The direction was directed by Helmut Käutner based on the script that he wrote himself together with Richard Nicolas, who can be seen in the film in the supporting role of the old admiral who gives Hannes advice about life. Werner Eisbrenner composed the music , Werner Krien was in charge of the main camera work .
The premiere took place on December 15, 1944 in front of a selected audience in Prague and only after the end of the war, on September 6, 1945, in public in Berlin. However, some copies were also available to the Wehrmacht troop support .
The shooting
- The film was originally planned and approved by the Propaganda Ministry as a tribute to the German merchant navy. It was criticized that the film did not show any “German naval heroes”. See also the Hamburg anthem . Goebbels suspected ulterior motives from Käutner , who had already had several conflicts with the Nazi rulers, because of the title of Great Freedom . The film was renamed Große Freiheit No. 7 . His actors (drunk, smoking, fighting each other, with extramarital affairs) did not correspond to the official ideal of German women and seafarers. Goebbels had previously enforced that the main character should be called "Hannes" and not "Johnny". He also thought the film was too melancholy, underlined by the music, such as B. The first time, it still hurts or could even contain political allusions, such as B. in La Paloma the words "... one day it will be over (sic!)". Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz even found the film to be “destructive to military strength”.
- In order to avoid further influences from the National Socialists, but also due to the increasing number of bomb attacks, the film recordings were moved from the Berlin studio and from Hamburg to Prague . Only the launch of Gisa and Hannes as well as some scenes at the jetties, at the Blohm and Voss shipyard and at Sagebiels Fährhaus were recorded in Hamburg. The warships lying in the port of Hamburg, which the director did not want to show, were covered with camouflage nets. But some armed cargo ships can be seen in the background. The recordings of the four-masted barque Padua were shot on the Baltic Sea, where the Padua was used as a training ship at the time.
- The film was shot largely in the Barrandov studios in Prague . There were among others. the films Clothes Make People (1940 with Heinz Rühmann and Hertha Feiler ) and the cinema operetta Die Fledermaus (1945/46 with Johannes Heesters ), but also the propaganda films Carl Peters (1940/41) and Jud Süß (1940).
reception
- The touch of melancholy and resignation that lies on the film and its poetic realism make the film a work of art. - Christa Bandmann / Joe Hembus : "Classics of German sound films (1930–1960)", Munich 1980, page 211.
- One of the most atmospheric films about the greatest German folk actor (...); with melancholy tones, but all the more convincing; a touch of poetry and St. Pauli magic. (Rating: 3½ stars = exceptional) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 323.
- Old German color film (...) Not because of the realistic description of the milieu, but in view of his moral indifference (premarital devotion) not to visit. (The previous classification 4 [“The film is rejected”] could be softened by subsequent cuts.) (Classification 3 = not to visit) - 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf ³1963, p. 169.
- Hearty seaman's yarn is combined with sober realism and violent feelings, an authentic atmosphere and a touch of resignation. The tightly staged film shows Albers as an actor and singer at his best. (...) Good old cinema , beautifully designed in Agfacolor. - “ Lexicon of International Films ” (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997.
Continuing effect
- Almost all of the hits and chansons in this film became world famous, namely: On the Reeperbahn at half past twelve , La Paloma (with a new version of the text by Helmut Käutner) and The first time it hurts .
- Hannes Kröger is also the name of a music project by the German singer Sascha Wahlbeck and the producers Peter Hoffmann and Franz Plasa . The single "Der blonde Hans" became a one-hit wonder in 1988. The dance hit contains numerous original spoken texts by Hans Albers and noises (e.g. ship siren) from the film Große Freiheit No. 7
- On September 12, 2007, the premiere of the play Great Freedom by the companies “fringe ensemble” and “phoenix 5”, which is based on the Käutner film, took place in the Theater im Pumpenhaus in Münster .
- In April 2010 Luk Perceval staged a play based on the film at the Thalia Theater (Hamburg) .
literature
- Rüdiger Bloemeke: La Paloma - The song of the century. 158 pages, over 30 pages of color and black and white illustrations. Voodoo-Verlag, Hamburg 2005.
See also
Web links
- Grosse Freiheit no. 7 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Great freedom No. 7 at filmportal.de
- der-blonde-hans.de
- deutscher-tonfilm.de ( Memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Deadline December 15, 2004: “La Paloma ade”. 60 years ago: “Great Freedom No. 7” premiered in Prague , on wdr.de
- Große Freiheit No. 7 Complete film at the Deutsche Filmothek
- In the end, Goebbels even banned "Great Freedom No. 7"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Große Freiheit No. 7. In: freddy-albers.de. July 19, 2016, archived from the original on July 19, 2016 ; accessed on January 10, 2021 .