The Wandsbek ax (1982)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The ax from Wandsbek |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1982 |
| length | 145 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Horst Königstein Heinrich Breloer |
| script | Horst Königstein Heinrich Breloer |
| production | Holger Bernitt |
| music | Annette Humpe |
| camera | Klaus Brix |
| cut | Dagmar Stawicki |
| occupation | |
| |
The Wandsbek hatchet is a German television film from 1982 . The film drama by Horst Königstein and Heinrich Breloer is based on the novel of the same name by Arnold Zweig . It is a mixture of a television play, contemporary documentary recordings and interviews with contemporary witnesses.
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 hardship is now even 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 novel is embedded in a detailed documentation of the historical background ( Altona Blood Sunday , Aryanization of the Jewish shipping companies, etc.). The filmmakers assemble historical image and sound documents, interviews with contemporary witnesses and research at the locations in Altona and Hamburg. Adam Zweig, son of the writer Arnold Zweig , reports on the writing of the novel in exile in Palestine in the late 1930s.
In 1951 there was already a DEFA film adaptation of the novel by Falk Harnack with Erwin Geschonneck , which was not performed in the GDR for a long time.
For Horst Königstein's and Heinrich Breloer's film, interviews were among others with participants in the Altona Blood Sunday , with friends of the executed Bruno Tesch , with a butcher and his customers, with the photographer Erich Andres , the shipowner Erik Blumenfeld , Albert Speer and Adam Zweig, Arnold Zweigs Son, led.
Awards
Heinrich Breloer and Horst Königstein received the special prize from the Minister of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1983 (as part of the Adolf Grimme Prize ) and the prize for the “best idea, script and direction” of a European television production at the Italian festival “teleincontro” for the film adaptation “In May 1983.
Reviews
"The film not only encourages reading the Zweig novel, but also illuminates the historical circumstances of the gradual transition from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi state."
literature
- Arnold Zweig : The ax from Wandsbek. Novel. 1938-1943 . Structure, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-7466-5209-X .
Web links
- The ax of Wandsbek in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Wandsbek hatchet on deutsches-filmhaus.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The ax from Wandsbek. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .