1914, the last days before the world fire
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | 1914, the last days before the world fire |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Oswald |
| script |
Heinz Goldberg Fritz Wendhausen |
| production | Richard Oswald |
| camera | Mutz Greenbaum |
| cut | Paul Falkenberg |
| occupation | |
| |
1914, the last days before the world fire, is a historical film by Richard Oswald made in 1930 , which tells the dramatic development of the last 39 days before the beginning of the First World War . The model was the story published in 1928 The critical 39 days from Sarajevo to the world fire by the historian Eugen Fischer-Baling .
action
On June 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were murdered in the street by the Serbian assassin Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo . The Austrian Privy Council then met in Bad Ischl to discuss the consequences and reactions. The Austrian Foreign Minister Count Berchtold and Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf recommend a military punitive action against Serbia , while the Emperor and the Hungarian Prime Minister Count Tisza are skeptical about a war.
The German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm II , represented by Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg , signals to Vienna military and political backing and thus a free hand towards Serbia, but initially hopes to be able to limit the upcoming armed conflict to the Balkans . Assured of this blanket power of attorney, Count Berchtold wrote a diplomatically sharp protest note with harsh conditions to the Serbian King Peter I , which he was originally prepared to accept in order to avoid a war. But his Prime Minister Paschitsch and Crown Prince Alexander insisted that it be rejected and turned to the Russian Tsar Nicholas II with a request for assistance.
With the tsarist empire at their back, Serbia dares to snub Austria-Hungary, whereupon Vienna calls for mobilization . Wilhelm II, however, who finds the Serbian answer “brilliant”, tries to mediate. But even in Russia, the warmongering forces around Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich and his generals have gained the upper hand, while the Tsar is still hesitating. Influenced by his surroundings, however, the monarch can ultimately be persuaded to also proclaim mobilization.
Things soon get completely out of hand. France is now also beginning to prepare for an armed conflict against Germany, while England is initially waiting and waiting. But there, too, mobilization finally follows. With the death of declared war opponent Jean Jaurès , who fell victim to an assassination attempt by the nationalist Raoul Villain in the Parisian Café du Croissant , the last hope of peacekeeping disappears.
Production notes
The film was shot from October to early December 1930 in the UFA studios in Neubabelsberg . Since the Foreign Office intervened, an explanatory introduction by the historian Eugen Fischer-Baling was filmed in the Efa studio on January 6, 1931 and added to the film. The premiere from 1914, The Last Days Before the World Fire, took place on January 20, 1931 in the Tauentzien Palace. Alternative work or loan titles were Europe 1914, July 1914, The last days before the world fire, The 39 days before the World War, The shots of Serajewo and (in Austria) The Lords of the World .
The buildings were designed by Franz Schroedter . The film was financed by Christoph Mülleneisen junior . Producer Oswald also took over the production management. The manager was Walter Zeiske .
The proceeds from the premiere in the Tauentzienpalast were transferred to the widow of the actor Hans Peppler , who died on December 20, 1930 . Peppler had played the German ambassador to Russia. Numerous personalities from the political life of Germany, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland - ministers, ambassadors and ministerial directors - attended the premiere. On March 3, 1931, the film was shown at 9 p.m. in the German Reichstag .
Reviews
Hans Wollenberg wrote on January 21, 1931 in the Lichtbild-Bühne , issue: No. 18: “In terms of internal ethical volume, the subject of“ 1914 ”is no greater than the subject of“ Dreyfus ”. The Dreyfus fate, the struggle for law and justice, is not one iota less of human concern. In terms of external dimensions, “1914” (to be more precise: the content of the 39 days before the start of the war) is infinitely expansive. Between five great powers and Serbia the dice of world history rolled around the fate of nations, of millions - around the globe. […] This prerequisite for cinematic effectiveness was the first thing that Oswald's authors, Heinz Goldberg and Fritz Wendhausen, dared to create: the creation of personal, human individual fate. And here, right here, the line between reportage and dramatic film, between performing and performing divorce in “1914” becomes blurred. […] From the figures of the political foreground of the stage in July 1914, the authors picked out the Tsar and his surroundings. They chose that group of main actors on whose shoulders they rightly saw the greatest historical responsibility borne, the people who, in their uniquely absolutist situation, seem most interesting to the psychologist and the sensation nerve and - under whose tragic fate history has long since come to an end pulled. In this way they made the Tsar's court, its characters and figurines the main setting and the main roles in the 1914 drama. […] Oswald implemented these correctly planned ideas of the authors with consistency and success. A great performance was at his side: Reinhold Schünzel as Tsar. The warning that has been expressed for years in these columns that a character actor like Schünzel wasted himself on clowning to the detriment of German film art is confirmed in his first and immediately compelling speech film design. His Nikolai II, overwhelmed by the compulsion to pose for omnipotence, torn between wife and grand duke, between war and peace (which he wants to hold and which slips away from his weak hands), becomes the human power center of the whole film. "
By Hans Field is the same day in the Film-Kurier , Issue No. 17 to read as follows: "The film covers, starting on the assassination of Sarajevo, the political complex;. those shots of the "Serbian dogs". [...] A drama of passive heroism dawns. Leaders unable to see combinations; Those responsible who didn't want it to be afterwards. Diplomats, with all the pomp of sovereignty ideology. Little players - whose use the peoples paid for with decades of blood and misery. The spotlight is on Petersburg. Its beam of light scans the interrelationships between politics and the army, which are also valid for other countries. On the Neva, people are convinced of the need for armed conflict and are working towards it. In France nothing is done to prevent it. England, as the only power, does not participate and leaves the responsibility to the others. And the other side, Germany-Austria? The expert, Dr. Eugen Fischer, connoisseur of the relevant literature. Just recently he said to representatives of the press: "There is no question that the imperial governments of Germany and Austria are partly guilty. Opinions are divided on the extent to which the authors of the film" 1914 "take the milder direction." "
In the Third Reich, the film was panned and poisoned against Richard Oswald, mainly because of the Jewish faith of its maker:
In Oskar Kalbus ' Vom becoming German film art , it says in 1935: “In his“ Documentary Film ”“ 1914 ”Richard Oswald also tried his hand at the political arena as a boom. The donors of scientific education of yore suddenly “interested” the last days before the world fire. While Magnus Hirschfeld and Iwan Bloch once stood by his side for abortion, homosexuality and syphilis in the film, now Dr. Eugen Fischer, the secretary of the Reichstag committee for research into war guilt, advised. Oswald went straight back to the whole thing, so that the first version of the "critical 39 days" had to be banned by the censors. The forbidden film was reworked and the genesis of the world war was portrayed in a more “objective” and “more neutral” manner. The film has no plot. It is only a dry, fleetingly thrown cross-section through official documents, through the European cabinets. In his lack of directing skills, Oswald once again relies on his prominent actors. "
Post-war criticism hardly concerned itself with 1914 :
The film's large lexicon of people wrote: Oswald "tried to recount the background to the causes that led to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 on film."
Web links
- 1914, the last days before the world fire in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- 1914, the last days before the world fire at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme, 2nd year 1931. Berlin-Berchtesgaden 1989, p. 223
- ^ Wollenberg criticism in filmportal.de
- ^ Field criticism in filmportal.de
- ↑ On the development of German film art. P. 79
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 6: N - R. Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 89.