The torchbearer (1957)

Movie
Original title	The torchbearer
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1957
length	82 minutes
Rod
Director	Johannes Knittel
script	Friedrich Karl Hartmann Walter Jupé
production	DEFA
music	Gottfried Madjera
camera	Günter Eisinger
cut	Johanna Rosinski Wally Gurschke
occupation
Hermann Kiessner : Dr. Singer Loni Michelis : His wife Friedrich Gnaß : Gustav Kabischke Harry Hindemith : Dr. Hartmann Horst Kube : Johannes Müller Ruth Maria Kubitschek : Dora Georg Thies : Gottfried Margret Homeyer : Ingeborg Baumbach Norbert Christian : big head, assessor Charlotte Brummerhoff : Bittrich Horst Schönemann : Dr. Schleitz Wolf von Beneckendorff : Attorney General Hans W. Hamacher : Senator Annemarie Hase : Ziebusch Wolfgang Erich Parge : Schulze III Gerd Michael Henneberg : Schulze IV Egon Vogel : registrar Paula Ronnay : Lady in the S-Bahn Günther Ballier : Gentleman on the train Gustav Püttjer : Railway workers Herbert Mewes-Conti : 1st police officer Erik S. Klein : People's Policeman Johannes Maus : Taxi driver Augustin Kovacz : Railway policeman Wladimir Marfiak : Oskar Oskar Höcker : Police sergeant Albrecht Bethke : Chairman Charles Hans Vogt : Justizwachtmeister Valentin Klaus : Conductor Elisabeth Bartels : dispatcher Paul Pfingst : Silent Police Officer Kurt Getke : Lamb cutter Isolde Eckhoff : passer-by Hubert Temming : Zapfer Theo Mack : Chief of Police Ursula Weiß : secretary Hans Knorr : 2nd police officer Brigitte Gorzelanny : Girls on the train Hans Appel : Workers Walter Killmann : Worker Perzy Werner : Judge Walter Salow : Judge

Der Fackelträger is a German feature film from the DEFA studio for feature films by Johannes Knittel from 1957 .

action

Senior Public Prosecutor Eitel-Friedrich Sänger from West Berlin comes home from a meeting with the Senator for Justice and finds the door in the elegant apartment building in which he lives unlocked. An immediate complaint to Mr. Kabischke, the caretaker, does not succeed, because he is in a pub to get drunk because his wife is currently away. His anger intensifies when he notices in his apartment that the maid Dora is getting an evening off in the middle of the week to become engaged to Johannes Müller, the senator's driver. But then he tells his wife about the meeting in the Senate and that he is hoping for a promotion to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe .

Caretaker Kabischke cannot pay the bill in the restaurant and leaves his ID with the landlady with the promise to deliver the money the next day. In his drunkenness, he confused the S-Bahn at Berlin Gesundbrunnen station , drove in the wrong direction and started an argument with Johannes, who was on his way home after the end of his engagement party. Kabischke rampage continues and by the GDR - Transport Police retrieved from the train, which is now located in East Berlin. Once again in the western part, Johannes is reported by a lady to the western police and arrested as a robber because he is said to have handed over the caretaker to the eastern police.

After his sobering up, Kabischke is released back home, where the Chief Public Prosecutor Dr. Singer suspects that he was recruited as an informant by the Eastern authorities. In the middle of the conversation, Dr. Singer visit by Assessor Großkopf and Dr. Schleitz, who entrusted him with litigation against Johannes Müller on behalf of the Senator. Since Müller is the senator's former driver, he has a strong personal interest in the conviction. The chief public prosecutor is planning a sensational trial that will help him on his way to Karlsruhe. When he learns that the arrested miller is the fiancé of his maid Dora, she is immediately released. But he still does not know who the kidnapped in the east is.

In order not to run into problems during the process, Dr. Singer to appoint the lawyer Lammschneider, who is known to be willing, as official defender . Ingeborg Baumbach, a friend of Dora's who wants to marry her fiancé Gottfried at the weekend, has in the meantime hired the well-known lawyer Dr. Hartmann asked for the defense. Johannes is supposed to be the best man at the wedding and Ingeborg is known that Dr. Singer the Dr. Hartmann definitely doesn't want to see him in the courtroom. He speaks to the prosecutor in the run-up to the trial and makes it clear to him that the West Berliner abducted in the east is the caretaker Gustav Kabischke, who has been home for a long time. After everything has been cleared up, the chief public prosecutor has no choice but to dismiss Johannes Müller.

Senior Public Prosecutor Dr. Singer is in the process of writing his resignation due to the defeat when the attorney general informs him personally that he has been transferred to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe with immediate effect. The superiors Dr. Sängers have recognized that it is better not to let go of this one with his great background knowledge.

Production and publication

The torchbearer was completed in 1955 as a black and white film and had its premiere on October 25, 1957.

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Hans-Joachim Wallstein .

criticism

Das Neues Deutschland quotes critics in the article , where are you? the first sentence of a short review of this film in the newspaper Freiheit of the Halle district leadership of the SED , which says that the torch bearer has his weaknesses.

The Lexicon of International Films writes that the film is a curious attempt to expose the illegal methods of the West Berlin judiciary. The jumble of doctrinal seriousness and cramped satire is artistically completely insignificant.

literature

• F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 156 .

Web links

• The torch bearers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The torchbearer at filmportal.de
• The torchbearer at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from November 12, 1957, p. 4
2. ↑ The torchbearer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 11, 2017 .