The gas man

Movie
Original title	The gas man
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1941
length	85 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Carl Froelich
script	Heinrich Spoerl
production	Carl Froelich for Ufa
music	Hansom Milde-Meissner
camera	Reimar Kuntze
cut	Gustav Lohse , Johanna Rosinski
occupation
Heinz Rühmann : Hermann Knittel Anny Ondra : Erika Knittel Walter Steinbeck : Lord who doesn't want to be recognized Erika Helmke : Blond Miss Lilott Will Dohm : Brother-in-law Alfred Franz Weber : Chairman of the Court Kurt Vespermann : Public Prosecutor Hans Leibelt : Prominent defender Charlotte Susa : Beautiful witness Gisela Schlüter : Adorable little woman Reinhard Kolldehoff : First police officer Bruno Hellwinkel : Second police officer Otto Krieg-Helbig : Third Police Officer Rolf Rolphs : fourth police officer Ewald Wenck : First detective Erik Radolf : Second detective Walter Lieck : Bank servant Ernst Stimmel : bank director Hans Ulrich : Bank employee Wilhelm Paul Krüger : Flick cutter Eleonore Tappert : room landlady Manfred Meurer : Suspected young man Helmut Weiss : Romantic youth Hertha Neupert : pug face Bruno Ziener : Fine old man Oscar Sabo : Retired policeman Herbert Bach : Waiter Hugo Froelich : taxi driver Paul Bildt : Neurologist Dr. brewer Kurt Seifert : tax officer Wilhelm Grosse : Information officer Egon Vogel : Traffic Accident Officer Hermine Ziegler : Women's advisor Janette Knoll Luise Bethke-Zitzmann : Knittel's neighbor Eva Tinschmann : Mrs. Maschke Marga Riffa : Officer of the moral police Fritz Draeger : Man in the train compartment Paul Esser Wolfgang Heise Max Rosenhauer

Der Gasmann is a German fiction film directed by Carl Froelich in 1941 . The comedy with Heinz Rühmann in the leading role is based on the novel of the same name by Heinrich Spoerl , who also wrote the screenplay. The premiere took place on August 1, 1941 in the Gloria-Palast in Berlin .

action

A nervous man in pajamas asks the gas cashier Hermann Knittel on the Halle – Berlin express train to sell him his suit. After a long hesitation, he finally accepts the request of the Lord, who is offering ever larger amounts of money. He takes his check and reaches his apartment in strange pajamas and in a taxi almost unnoticed.

When he presented the check to the bank, to his astonishment he was actually paid 10,000 marks. Knittel initially keeps the unbelievable story to himself and, although married and father of two children, has fun with his girlfriend Lilott. He helps him to set up a perfumery business, but then realizes that he is only second choice for her. So he finally presented his wife with the unexpected windfall.

The latter does not hesitate to use the money for larger purchases, including a washing machine. The unfamiliar luxury life of the Knittels arouses suspicion in the neighbors, and the gas works believes in embezzlement. Since Knittel's explanations are implausible, a court hearing takes place against him.

But in the greatest desperation he receives a reassuring phone call from the unknown gentleman. This sends a lawyer with a beautiful witness. She had received a visit from the gentleman in her sleeping car compartment at night. But since his wagon had been uncoupled in the meantime, he stood in his pajamas and was only released from his compromising situation thanks to Knittel's suit. Finally, Knittel is also rehabilitated.

National socialist background

The gas man is the only film in which Rühmann uses the Hitler salute . Otherwise, the National Socialist film policy mostly avoided symbols of National Socialism - uniforms, greetings, swastikas - appearing in entertainment films. Early on in the film, gas cashier Knittel has a conflict with a woman unwilling to pay who threatens him with her supposedly good contacts with the NSDAP. He says goodbye ironically with “Well then - Heil Hitler!” At this point, however, it seems, and quite soon, to have been removed or overlooked again, and he only says: “She needs it.” Later (at the tax office and at the end of the house search) it can be heard clearly.

Furthermore, Knittel says that it would contradict his “healthy public sentiment” to invest the money in the bank to generate interest.

Reviews

• The lexicon of the international film found: "Humorous on the subject of 'double standards' in an all too staid comedy."
• Karsten Witte wrote that the comedy was shaped by the split consciousness of bringing in modernity on the one hand and using anti-modernism as an effect on the other: “The threat from state surveillance is omnipresent, which appears here in the form of henchmen in the notorious leather coats. The threat of the insolvent tenant against the gas man (“You, I have a cousin in the party!”) Was not effective, because it was derived from a comical figure. The heavy, crippling suspicion of petty bourgeois happiness was the political strategy in this comedy. "

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era
• List of German films banned under Allied military censorship

literature

• Peter Drexler: The German Courtroom Film During the Nazi Period: Ideology, Aesthetics, Historical Context . In: Journal of Law and Society . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2001, ISSN  1467-6478 , p. 64-78 , doi : 10.1111 / 1467-6478.00179 .

Web links

• The Gassmann in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The gas man at filmportal.de (with photo gallery)
• The gas man ( Memento from November 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) at murnau-stiftung.de
• The gas man at prisma.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Florian Odenwald: The Nazi struggle against the 'un-German' in theater and film 1920–1945 . Herbert Utz, Munich 2006, p. 333.
2. ↑ The gas man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 7, 2016 .  
3. ^ Karsten Witte: National Socialism. In: History of German Film. 2nd edition, 2004, p. 156.