The Wandsbek ax (1951)

Movie
Original title	The ax from Wandsbek
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1951
length	110 minutes
Rod
Director	Falk Harnack
script	Hans-Robert Bortfeldt , Falk Harnack , Erich Conradi
music	Ernst Roters
camera	Robert Baberske
cut	Hilde Tegener
occupation
Erwin Geschonneck : Albert Teetjen Käthe Braun : Stine Teetjen Gefion Helmke : Dr. Kathe Neumeier Willy A. Kleinau : Hans Peter Footh Arthur Schröder : Dr. Koldewey Ursula Meißner : Annette Koldewey Helmuth Hinzelmann : Colonel Lintze Blandine Ebinger : Aga Lintze Hilde Sessak : Anneliese Blüthe Claus Holm : SA Storm Leader Trowe Erika Dannhoff : Lene Prestow Fritz Wisten : Siegfried Mengers, convicted Albert Garbe : Otto Merzenich, convicted Hermann Stövesand : Friedrich Timme, convicted Gert Karl Schaefer : Willi Schröter, convicted Friedrich Honna : Otto Lehmke Maly Delschaft : Mrs. Lehmke Gina Presgott : Dörte Lehmke Charlotte Küter : Geesche Barfey Claus Peter Lüttgen : Tom Barfey Raimund Schelcher : Karl Prestow Gisela May : worker woman Albert Venohr : Tramer Annemarie Hase : Mrs. Schmermund Kurt Mikulski : costume distributor Harry Riebauer : SA man Fiete Gustav Püttjer : Shoemaker Helene Riechers : Mrs. Michalke Herbert Richter : Chief Constable Klaus Miedel : Tailor Nico Turoff : 1st garbage can carrier

The Wandsbek ax is a German film drama by Falk Harnack from 1951 based on the novel of the same name by Arnold Zweig . It was the first DEFA film with a performance ban; an early example of the so-called basement films .

action

Hamburg 1934: Adolf Hitler is expected in the city, but before that there is still a "flaw" to be removed: Four communists sentenced to death have not yet been executed. An executioner is currently missing in the city. The successful shipowner and SS-Standartenführer Footh hopes that the problem will be solved by a higher-ranking Nazi functionary. It was convenient for him that his old comrade from the First World War , the butcher Teetjen from Wandsbek , asked him for financial help to modernize his butcher's shop.

Footh offers Teetjen 2000  marks if he takes on the role of executioner. After a night to think about it, Teetjen agrees with the condition that his act remains secret. He is doing his job, but luck would have it that the crime and the perpetrator get around. Customers from his district are disgusted and are now increasingly staying away from his shop. Footh ignores another request for help and turns away from Teetjen. The financial need is now greater than before. Short-term support from his comrades in the SA comes too late, his wife Stine hangs herself, whereupon Teetjen shoots herself.

background

The Wandsbek hatchet was made in the Babelsberg studio with exterior shots in Babelsberg and the surrounding area. There were heated discussions about the film. The DEFA commission demanded that the executioner's guilt should not only be exposed as his personal failure, but as the guilt of the fascist system. There were also objections from the Central Committee of the CPSU : The film arouses pity for the murderers and should therefore be removed from the program.

“The mistakes of critical realism are even more blatantly revealed in the film“ Das Beil von Wandsbeck ”, which does not make the fighters of the German working class the main heroes, but their executioners. The filming of this material was a serious mistake by the DEFA commission and the DEFA board. "

- SED Politburo

The Wandsbek hatchet could only run for one month, and it had 800,000 visitors. On July 7, 1951, the film was withdrawn. Bertolt Brecht made unsuccessful suggestions for changes to the film in order to settle the dispute. A version shortened by twenty minutes was released in 1962, and in 1981 the entire film was restored for Erwin Geschonneck's 75th birthday. Falk Harnack left the GDR after the conflict in 1952 .

In 1982 there was a remake by Horst Königstein and Heinrich Breloer .

Reviews

“Harnack's film, his directorial debut and probably his best film work, follows the novel written by Arnold Zweig in exile in Haifa and first published in 1943 (in Hebrew). A few weeks after the start in several cities in the GDR, the DEFA production (Neues Deutschland: 'A work of art') was withdrawn from distribution on the grounds that the film aroused pity for a Nazi. It was not until 1962 that Harnack's debut - heavily shortened - made it back to the cinema on Zweig's recommendation. "

- Lexicon of international film

literature

• Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (ed.): Trace of the films, contemporary witnesses about DEFA . DEFA Foundation, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 .

Web links

• The ax of Wandsbek in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Wandsbek hatchet at filmportal.de
• Wandsbek's ax at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Alfred Bauer: German Feature Film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 172.
2. ↑ For the upswing in progressive German film art. Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. In: Neues Deutschland from July 27, 1952, p. 6.
3. ↑ Werner Hecht: Brecht Chronicle 1998-1956. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998 p. 964.
4. ↑ The ax from Wandsbek. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 28, 2016 .