Bismarck (1990)

Movie
Original title	Bismarck
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1990
length	180 minutes
Rod
Director	Tom Toelle
script	Helmut Pigge
music	Peer ravens
camera	Jan Kališ
occupation
Uwe Ochsenknecht : Bismarck Gottfried Lackmann : Bucher Rudolf Donath : Prince Wilhelm of Prussia Ulli Philipp : Princess Augusta Ulrich Pleitgen : Minister of War von Roon Volkmar Kleinert : Major von Moltke Adelheid Arndt : Johanna von Bismarck Fritz von Hardenberg : Herbert von Bismarck Dieter Schaad : King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Heikko Deutschmann : Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Bismarck is a German film biography in three parts by Tom Toelle from 1990. Uwe Ochsenknecht plays the main role of Otto von Bismarck . The television film had its first broadcast on April 29, 1990 on ARD .

content

Germany, 1890: Otto von Bismarck, deposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II , looks back on the most important stages of his life at Friedrichsruh Palace near Hamburg.

In 1848 the revolution had reached his estate, which led him to go to Berlin. There he inaugurated Princess Augusta , the mother of Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, in the plan for his coup.

In 1862 his brother Wilhelm I ascended the throne when Friedrich Wilhelm IV abdicated. However, its military reform met with stiff resistance. There is a stalemate - the state becomes ungovernable. Bismarck seizes the opportunity and becomes Prussian Prime Minister. His saying "The questions of the time are not decided by talking [...], but by iron and blood!" Went down in history.

Four years later there was a war between Prussia and Austria . When the Bavarian King Ludwig II signed the imperial letter in 1871 after the turmoil caused by the war against France , Bismarck had reached his goal: the German Empire was founded - with him as Chancellor.

reception

Henric L. Wuermeling, head of the BR editorial team for politics and current affairs, said the film wanted to "neither set a new monument to Bismarck nor throw him off his pedestal again". The trilogy sees itself rather "as an approach to a historical figure, to the people and politicians". He emphasized the portrayal of Ochsenknecht, the "factual direction" and the "authentic script".

In the television lexicon by Michael Reufsteck and Stefan Niggemeier (as of 2005), however, it is said that the film is - "apart from the title role with Ochsenknecht as a drinking, eating and choleric politician - a boring, dust-dry retelling of history."

Der Spiegel judged that the film was “pleasantly different from historical ham”. In addition to the “glorious statesman, rabid power politician and Arch Prussia”, the “complaining and complacent Junker comes into the picture”. At the same time, the “personifying style of the film” conveys the “popular fallacy that men are making history”. In addition, the viewer learns “nothing about the domestic political crises”.

Web links

• Bismarck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Bismarck at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pidax history classic: Bismarck - The complete three-parter (2 DVDs). In: amazon.de. Retrieved August 4, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Bismarck. In: fernsehserien.de. Retrieved August 4, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Sunday. Der Spiegel 17/1990, April 23, 1990, accessed on August 4, 2015 .