The Fuehrer's Face

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The Fuehrer's Face
The Fuehrer's Face Logo 001.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1943
length 8 minutes
Age rating FSK unchecked, never published in Germany
Rod
Director Jack Kinney
script Joe Grant ,
Dick Huemer
production Walt Disney
music Oliver Wallace
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Sky Trooper

The Fuehrer's Face (German: The face of the Führer ) is an American cartoon that premiered on January 1, 1943. The Walt Disney production with the audience favorite Donald Duck in the lead role was propaganda against the Third Reich and won an Oscar for best animated short film.

Naming

Originally the film was planned under the title "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land" ( English nuts for "crazy"; also the English pronounced "Nutzi" sounds like "Nazi"), but the title was changed after the previously published theme song became a great success. The expression Der Fuehrer with this upper and lower case was a fixed term in the United States since 1934 at the latest, similar to a name.

action

At the beginning of the film, Donald Duck is in his home in Germany , where he is woken up by the noise of a marching band. After greeting the portraits of Adolf Hitler , Hirohito and Benito Mussolini hanging in his apartment with a Hitler salute (or the modified form of it), he sits down at the breakfast table and takes a coffee bean from a safe hidden behind a portrait of Hitler to add some coffee flavor to its water. From his paranoid facial expression and the way it is kept in the safe, you can tell that coffee is so rare that Donald has to fear losing the bean. Then he sprays an egg-and-bacon-flavored mouth spray in his mouth and takes out a very hard loaf of bread , the grain of which is reminiscent of wood, cuts off a piece with a saw and then eats it with great effort. A bayonet comes in from the side and holds Mein Kampf under his eyes with the prompting gesture to read the book.

The second act shows the tedious and monotonous day-to-day work on the assembly line of an ammunition factory, where Donald is exposed to loudspeakers that - according to the propaganda of the time - lead him to believe that he was happy; but who also yell at him and call him a "bastard". The scene in which the grenades that Donald has to screw in the detonators is also parodic is followed by a picture of Hitler, to which Donald has to respond properly with the Führer greeting. His "Heil Hitler", croaked in quick succession, is one of the unmistakable characteristics of the film. This is followed by a drill in the company with a picture of the Alps in the background, which should give the factory worker the feeling that he is on vacation in order to get fit for the leader and to work even harder for him.

But Donald doesn't last long in the cruel factory and eventually goes crazy. The following, confused scenes show the madness of war, the personification of weapons (for example ammunition that screams "Heil", or other ammunition that takes over the function of the brass band from the beginning of the film) and materializations of people (for example Hitler as a grenade before a Donald disguised as Hitler).

Donald then wakes up in his bed in the United States , which makes it clear that the previous plot was just a nightmare . He notices a shadow on the wall next to his bed that resembles Hitler. He wants to say hello right away, but then notices that it is the shadow of a model of the Statue of Liberty and that he has woken up in his bed. He is overjoyed that he only dreamed it all.

Here the mood changes to pro-American. Donald wears the Stars and Stripes as pajamas , his curtains and wallpaper are also printed with stars. He hugs the model of the Statue of Liberty enthroned on the windowsill, kisses it and then speaks his luck - about the fact that he is a US citizen (literally: Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America!, German: Glad to be a citizen of the United States of America! ) - off.

The film ends with the last few sentences of the theme song, and a comic image of Hitler's head appears with a tomato thrown in the face.

Clichés and exaggerations

The Fuehrer's Face is full of maliciously ironic allusions to the Third Reich and supposedly “typically German” virtues and customs. The film's intention at the time was to portray the everyday life of an average German as negatively as possible in order to demonstrate the propagated superiority of the United States. The following representations are used:

  • The wallpaper pattern in Donald's room, the trailer on the roller blind, the bushes and trees in front of the house, the fence, the electricity pylons, the digits of the alarm clock, a hydrant , the clouds and the mill wheels on the windmills in the background are in the shape of swastikas .
  • The cuckoo from the -  typically German  - cuckoo clock stands at the top of a pole made of swastikas, raises his hand in the Hitler salute and shouts “Heil!” With his little beard and parting on the side, he looks very much like Hitler.
  • The rooster in front of the house also wakes up with a Hitler salute.
  • Donald Duck's house caricatures Hitler's face with skillfully used shadows (as a crown), roof gables and the window (as a beard).
  • The alarm clock wears a spiked hat , its hands indicate a Hitler salute and he moans softly "Heil Hitler".
  • A picture with the inscription "Heil Sweet Heil" hangs on the wall.
  • The brass band from the first scene caricatures the "marching music loving Germans". She marches with goose-step .
  • Mein Kampf is presented as required reading for all Germans.
  • Donald receives briefly shouted instructions from a German soldier ("Up, now!" "Hurry up!" "Out, piggy!"). If he doesn't obey immediately, a bayonet is used to help.
  • Donald has only one bean available to make a cup of coffee, which he dips into the water a few times and immediately locks it back in his safe behind a picture of Hitler, as he fears that it might be taken away from him.
  • Since there are no eggs and ham in “Nutzi Land”, he has to at least spray the taste down his throat with a spray. He also needs a saw to cut the hard bread.
  • Before Donald is shown in the factory, it says “Welcome Workers of Nutzie Land ! What a glorious privilege is yours to be a Nutzie who works 48 hours a day for the Fuehrer. ”(“ Welcome, Workers from Nutzie Land ! What a glorious privilege to be a Nutzie and to be allowed to work 48 hours a day for the Fuehrer . ").
  • While Donald manufactures the ammunition for mostly large-caliber but also small-caliber guns in the factory, he has to show the Fiihrer's salute for every picture of Hitler that passes on the conveyor belt. Once, when he muttered his anger at this futility, the guards said, “ What's that you say, bastard , damn ass? Hail Hitler! "
  • The mouthpieces that yell at Donald in the factory symbolize the propaganda that lied to the Germans an ideal world in World War II .
  • During the gymnastic exercises that Donald has to do during his “vacation” (in the factory, in front of a picture of the Alps ), his arms and head form the swastika. The hard drill of the Germans is also dealt with here, "so that one can work harder for the Fuehrer" ("[...] so that we can work harder for the Fuehrer").

On the other hand, there is the presented, ideal American world, in which Donald wakes up at the end of the film after the extremely delirious dream. Similar to the swastika before, the US flag and various other national American symbols (Statue of Liberty, "Home Sweet Home" lettering, pajamas) are predominant and exaggerated for the better.

Due to the fact that Donald is temporarily portrayed as a National Socialist in the film, the film was kept under lock and key by Disney for a long time. It has been available in the US since 2004 on the double DVD Walt Disney: On the Front Lines , but was never officially released or performed in Germany.

The song

In addition to the film, there is also a song of the same name, sung by " Spike Jones and his City Slickers ". It can be heard in the first scene of the film and was very popular in the 1940s. The first edition of 100,000 records was sold out within ten days. The song can also be heard in Das Tribunal .

The song is also sung by Alan Alda in his role as "Benjamin 'Hawkeye' Pierce" in the fifth episode of the second season M * A * S * H in a shortened version.

Awards

  • 1943 - Oscar for Best Short Film (Cartoon) of 1942

Similar films

In the same month as Der Fuehrer's Face was Education for Death premiered. It is also a cartoon produced by Walt Disney that contains anti-Nazi propaganda.

Publications

  • Walt Disney on the Front Lines. The War Years . Series Walt Disney Treasures . 2 DVD set. Walt Disney Home Video 2004 (US release on RC1 in the original English version)
  • The Chronological Donald. Volume Two . Series Walt Disney Treasures . 2 DVD set. Walt Disney Home Video 2005 (US release on RC1 in the original English version). Not included in the German edition.

literature

  • Carsten Laqua: How Micky fell under the Nazis. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-499-19104-0
  • Jerry Beck (Ed.): The 50 Greatest Cartoons. As Selected by 1000 Animation Professionals. JG Press, Layla / North Dighton 1998, ISBN 1-57215-271-0
  • ehapa COMIC COLLECTION: Disney 75 years Donald Duck Superstar (page 6) EGMONT, Cologne May 15, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7704-3271-4

Web links