The hero girl from the Vosges
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The hero girl from the Vosges |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1914 |
| length | approx. 71 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Ostermayr |
| script | Emil Herold |
| production | Peter Ostermayr for Munich art film |
| occupation | |
The hero girl from the Vosges is a German silent film war drama from 1914 with propaganda undertones. Directed by Peter Ostermayr .
action
The action begins just before the start of the First World War in the Vosges , in western Alsace , on the border with France. The French captain Dufour has sneaked into Germany to spy there. He is supposed to scout out secret routes for the French army and mark them. He found a willing assistant in the Alsatian gamekeeper Leblener. In the inn of the innkeeper in Braunschweig, he slips the traitor a note inviting him to a nightly meeting. The host's daughter Leni observes the conspiratorial activity of the two and becomes suspicious. She shares her observations with the local forester. Then suddenly the war breaks out.
The forester is entrusted with sending the drafting orders. But since he is not present, Leni offers to take on this task instead of him. On the way to the villages and farmsteads, she comes across a French patrol that has advanced into German territory. They pursued the French while at the same time the forester was captured by enemy soldiers. Meanwhile, the innkeeper in Braunschweig distributes the bridge guards in order to prevent the enemy from advancing further. Leblener also offers himself as a guard post. But since Braunschweig knew of his unreliability through Leni, he hurled in the face of the ranger that he would like to have him arrested. Leblener wants to take revenge on Braunschweig for this affront and puts Dufour's treacherous memo addressed to him in Braunschweig's jacket pocket in order to brand him as a traitor. Then he telegraphs the nearest German military post and blackens the innocent.
The landlord is arrested and sentenced to death as a traitor to the fatherland. Meanwhile, Leni has hidden in the hay while fleeing the French patrol and witnesses a conversation between the true traitor Leblener and his French friends. In this way she learns of her father's arrest and of the French plan to lure the Germans into a Vosges ravine in order to shower them with fire. Leni now becomes a hero girl when she, defying all dangers, leaves her hiding place and runs down winding paths to the commander of the German unit, Captain Scheler. She wants to warn him about the ambush of the enemy and also point out the innocence of her father, who is waiting to be shot. Leni receives a letter from Scheler with which she should go to the prison where her father is incarcerated. On the way there she meets Leblener. There is a heated argument and the ranger shoots them. Leni is badly wounded. German soldiers find her by chance and take her to a hospital. Scheler is now on his own way to save Leni's father from execution. In fact, he reached the prison in time. Landlord Braunschweig manages to take his dying daughter in his arms at the last moment. A little later the hero girl from the Vosges receives the Iron Cross from a general .
Production notes
The hero girl from the Vosges , occasionally also under the title The heroine from the Vosges, is a typical example of a cinematic snap shot as a direct reaction to the outbreak of the First World War . The film was made in Munich in autumn 1914 and was premiered in the Sendlingertor Lichtspiele in the Bavarian capital in January 1915 before the censorship test. The Austrian premiere took place on December 25, 1915. The three-act play was around 1,300 meters long.
Whether Thea Steinbrecher, who was involved here, played the main role of Leni cannot be verified. Another person involved is only named with the last name Höfer. This person could also be the actress who played Leni.
Contemporary history
In 1935, from a National Socialist point of view, Oskar Kalbus tried to classify this film genre under the heading “Feldgrauer Filmkitsch”, which experienced a real boom in the German Reich in 1914 and 1915 in particular. He writes:
“A certain trunk of experienced film manufacturers could not be frightened, however. First of all, they let their manifold relationships play out in order to be exempted from military service, because they felt called to offer the German people sensational hits "panem et circensis" in their quieter homeland, bearing in mind an ancient Roman experience : Relaxation and distraction, encouragement and encouragement. The cinema should now offer all of this. It was hoped that the general joy in the victories of our army would give rise to the desire for communication, for distracting experiences and, above all, for people to be gathered together in the “little man's theater”. In addition to the current film recordings from the theaters of war, the field-gray film kitsch - or the so-called "patriotic" film of 1914/15. "
criticism
“A splendid war drama with a harrowing effect that is supposed to be modeled on a true reality. Strong dramatic motifs, taken from war events, have a powerful effect here. "