Attack on Baku

Movie
Original title	Attack on Baku
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1942
length	91 minutes
Rod
Director	Fritz Kirchhoff
script	Hans Weidemann Hans Wolfgang Hillers
production	Hans Weidemann (manufacturing group) for UFA
music	Alois Melichar
camera	Robert Baberske (studio shots) and Herbert Körner Klaus von Rautenfeld H. O. Schulze (all outdoor shots)
cut	Erich Kobler
occupation
Willy Fritsch : Hans Romberg, security officer René Deltgen : Captain Percy Forbes, British chief agent Fritz Kampers : Sergeant Mathias Ertl Hans Zesch-Ballot : Baku's Police Minister Barakoff Paul Bildt : Mr. Camps, US oil magnate in Baku Lotte Koch : Sylvia, his daughter Erich Ponto : Mr. Jensen, Danish oil magnate Aribert Wäscher : Mamulian, Armenian oil magnate Walter Janssen : Mr. Hanson, Swedish oil magnate Joachim Brennecke : Ali Baba, employee of the security service Josef Kamper : Zolak, employee of the security service Wilhelm H. König : Thatul, employee of the security service Heinrich Marlow : Lord Seymour, British officer Hellmut Helsig : Richard Twinning, British agent Alexander Engel : Steffens, British agent Walter Holetzko : Richards, British agent Peter Elsholtz : British lieutenant and agent Nikolai Kolin : Russian waiter Aruth Wartan : GPU agent Willy Maertens : Notary at Jensen Boris Alekin : Turkish officer Angelo Ferrari : Turkish officer Erik Radolf : Servant at Forbes Herbert Gernot : Colonel Achmed Bey Jur species : English agent Fred Goebel : English agent Reginald Pasch : English agent Arthur Reinhardt : English agent Nico Turoff : English agent Kurt Iller : English agent Karl Jüstel : English agent Günther Ballier : Secretary Jensens Herbert Scholz : assassin Werner Völger : assassin Peter Busse : Oil magnate, guest at Camps Erich Walter : Gregor, servant at camps Lotte Hermann : dancer Lula von Sachnowsky : dancer Julius E. Herrmann : Oil magnate who signs under pressure

The attack on Baku is a German Nazi propaganda fictional film with anti-British undertones filmed in Romania in 1940/41 . Under the direction of Fritz Kirchhoff , Willy Fritsch and René Deltgen play the leading roles as opponents.

Today it is a reserved film from the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation . It is part of the foundation's portfolio, has not been released for distribution and may only be shown with the consent and under the conditions of the foundation.

action

The oil fields in Azerbaijan in 1919. The second largest oil deposits in the world are located around the capital Baku . The region is restless, and there are repeated attacks on oil fields. In the service of the United Oil Company, the German officer Hans Romberg heads the security service to protect these fields. Romberg is certain that the British are behind the attacks, as they have very solid economic interests. They want to usurp the oil fields, but none of the ruling oil tycoons is willing to sell his shares to them. Romberg's central opponent is Captain Percy Forbes, who is to drive the purchase of the fields on behalf of the English. Nobody suspects that he is acting as an agent on behalf of the British government. Forbes tries to ingratiate itself with the local oil masters and also hooks up with Sylvia Camps, the daughter of the American oil magnate George Camps. With that he gets in the way of Hans Romberg, who has already had an eye on the attractive young lady himself.

Forbes is becoming increasingly unscrupulous in its choice of means to increase the pressure on the local oil tycoons. He had pipes blown up and set entire oil fields on fire. Romberg then hires Azerbaijani citizens to strengthen the protection of the fields. When inspecting a damaged oil pipeline, Romberg was even shot at. Forbes, the arsonist, poses as an honest man. He persuades Police Minister Barakoff to deploy a Turkish expeditionary force to protect the fields and is celebrated as a savior. During the festivities, however, a catastrophe occurs. English agents incite the Christian and Muslim populations against each other. Forbes points to the Turks as responsible for these terrible incidents and offers "magnanimously" to leave the protection of the sources to him and his people. The following day, British troops occupied the oil fields.

As a first measure, Percy Forbes has himself appointed as the new governor of Baku, forcing the local oil masters to transfer their sources to the English government. Barakoff, appointed by Forbes as the new head of the security service, realizes too late that he too is only a pawn for the British. He tries to save what can be saved and asks the deposed German Romberg for help. The locals team up with the Germans and after fierce fighting they can finally drive the British out. In a man-to-man duel, Romberg can catch Forbes and kill him. Romberg and his buddy and best friend, Sergeant Ertl, are celebrated as the saviors of Baku, as liberators from the yoke of the “ perfidious Albion ”. Both men just want to go home, back to Germany.

Production and Political Background

Filming began on November 4, 1940 in the Romanian oil fields of Moreni and Maicoi. Other outdoor shots were taken on the Baltic Sea as well as in choir cells and Trebbin . The studio recordings were made between January 9th and May 5th 1941 in the Ufastadt of Babelsberg . Further outdoor and studio photos were taken on individual days in May and June 1941. After considerable difficulties with the film inspection agency, the censors released the attack on Baku for performance on August 18, 1942. The premiere finally took place on August 25, 1942 in four Berlin cinemas.

The film was conceived from the beginning as an anti-British propaganda piece and received an anti-Russian note as a result of the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Bogusław Drewniak's Der deutsche Film 1938-1945 says:

“Here, too, the 'evil English' were at work. The press commented: The money that England rolled into Baku in 1918 smelled of oil, which the British Admiralty wanted to own, and of the blood of innocent victims of the riots that English agents unleashed to fish in troubled waters. With the director Fritz Kirchhoff, forty German filmmakers went to Romania in November 1940 - Lotte Koch was the only actress in this film. The Romanian authorities supported the German oil film expedition extremely generously. The general staff alone made 500 riders of the royal guards cavalry and 300 infantrymen available for four weeks. And Fritz Kirchhoff reported: “We captured the biggest oil fire of all time in front of the camera, countless explosions, burning towers and over a thousand people from the surrounding villages as a amazed and terrified crowd.” “Attack on Baku”, initially as an anti-English propaganda film thought, should soon have an anti-Soviet effect. There were numerous changes and repeated censorship proposals, and it was not until August 18, 1942 that the film was allowed to be shown. Three days later a combat group of the 1st Mountain Division hoisted the Imperial War flag on Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Caucasus. "

- Quoted from Bogusław Drewniak 1987

For the film star Willy Fritsch, who subscribes to charming gallants and heartbreakers in comedies and romances, the attack on Baku was one of two excursions (the other was Junge Adler ) in Nazi propaganda film. Director Kirchhoff, otherwise more of a specialist in the light muse ( My friend Barbara, Three wonderful days ), made his debut as a propaganda film director with the attack on Baku . Immediately afterwards, still in 1941, he staged another propaganda material: The war-glorifying soldier drama June 5th .

The film structures were designed and implemented by the experienced team of architects Otto Hunte and Karl Vollbrecht .

The production costs were quite high compared to other German productions of those years and were around 3,085,000 RM due to the cost-intensive foreign shoots . By March 1943, 2,371,000 RM had been made at the German box office.

Although a politically motivated commissioned production, the attack on Baku did not receive a single film award. In 1945, the Allied military authorities banned the film from showing in Germany.

Criticism / reception

The contemporary criticism mainly referred to the current relevance of the topic. The Film-Kurier said: "At this point in time, when the German and allied troops are penetrating ever deeper into the Caucasian oil areas, a film with the title" Attack on Baku "is of course of particular interest from the outset."

Kay Wenigers The large personal dictionary of the film called the film a "brown-colored propaganda production".

After the end of World War II, it was classified as a reserved film because of the National Socialist propaganda it contained . Since then, its public performance has only been possible to a limited extent. Today the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation claims the evaluation rights.

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era

Web links

• Attack on Baku in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Attack on Baku at filmportal.de
• Attack on Baku near the Murnau Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cit. based on Bogusław Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945. A complete overview. Page 333 f., Düsseldorf 1987.
2. ↑ Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme 12th year 1942/43, page 20 f., Berlin 2001.
3. ^ Film-Kurier of September 21, 1942
4. ↑ 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 4: H - L. Botho Höfer - Richard Lester. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 393.