The devil from Mühlenberg

Movie
Original title	The devil from Mühlenberg
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1955
length	84 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Herbert Ballmann
script	Kurt Bortfeldt , Anneliese Probst
production	DEFA
music	Joachim Werzlau
camera	Götz Neumann
cut	Liselotte Johl
occupation
Eva Kotthaus : Anne Hans-Peter Minetti : Jörg Willy A. Kleinau : Bergmüller Werner Peters : Schulze Bangebös Gerhard Frei : Burgvogt Raufer Heinz Kammer : Rat, the soldier Johannes Arpe : Blacksmith Anselm Marianne Rudolph : Marthe, his wife Jupp Stauder : Servant Konrad Gertrud Paulun : Maid Marie Hans Klering : Waldmüller Lotte Loebinger : Waldmüllerin Werner Tronjeck : Farmer Melchior Kurt Ulrich : Farmer Martin Georg Niemann : Farmer Thomas Trude Brentina : Else Brigitte Lindenberg : Margrit Alfred Maack : the gray charcoal burner Aribert Grimmer : the black charcoal burner Willy Semmelrogge : the red charcoal burner Wolf von Beneckendorff : Crier Johannes Maus : Farmer Schütt Kurt Sperling : Farmer Großkopf Jochen Thomas : Farmer Günter Rettschlag : Peter, son of the blacksmith Uwe Müller : Georg Helmut Fiedler : lean twigs Willi Endtresser : Faggy Kuno Renate Schwetasch : Kathrin Hedwig Appel : grandmother

Der Teufel vom Mühlenberg (alternative title Der Steinerne Mühlmann ) is a DEFA fairy tale film by Herbert Ballmann from 1955. The plot is based on legendary motifs from the Harz Mountains .

action

The greedy mill owner, whose mill is on a mountain, wants to force the farmers in the area to have their grain milled by him. Since the forest mill, a water mill in the valley, is closer and is therefore used by the farmers, he disguises himself with the Vogt and the village mayor as a devil on a thunderstorm night, steals the flour from the mill in the forest and then sets the forest mill on fire. A short time later he returns to the blazingly burning mill, ostensibly to help the farmers who had rushed to extinguish the fire. The forest mill burns down completely. The mountain miller announces that the forest mill was bewitched and confirms the forest miller's son Jörg, who reported that he had seen the devil's shadow during the fire. In future, farmers will have to have their grain ground in the mountain mill.

The miller couple from the forest mill, Jörg and the maid Anne, who are both unacknowledged in love with each other, only survived. The millers move away. They leave the orphan Anne unsupervised. Jörg wants to look for his livelihood at the castle, and the mountain miller offers Anne to employ her, whereupon she horrified flees into the forest. Three gigantic spirits live there, known in the common people as “the good charcoal burners”. Deep in the forest, they all agree that the mountain miller's misdeeds are now full and they want to punish him and his cronies. For this they need the help of courageous, cohesive people. Anne, sunk in the forest, exhausted, hears their voices and decides to turn back. She accepts the mountain miller's offer and enters his service. Neither Jörg nor Anne are happy with their employers.

The farmers suffer hardship because, as they believe, their supplies of flour were destroyed in the mill fire. The mountain miller sells them completely overpriced flour. While filling the portions, Anne discovers the stolen sacks of flour that the miller had fetched from the forest mill before he lit them. Anne tells the farmers about her discovery and is surprised by the Vogt. He locks her in the dungeon of his castle, which is on a neighboring mountain to the mountain mill.

Jörg is able to free them and together they flee from their pursuers, supported by the three forest spirits. Your escape ends in front of the ruins of the forest mill. On the advice of the spirits, the two start rebuilding the mill, in which the farmers are increasingly taking part. When the harvest time approached, the mill was rebuilt.

The mountain miller, who reminds the farmers to have their grain ground in the nearest mill, is angry when he learns that the forest mill has stopped again. Together with Schulzen and Vogt, he is now forging new plans. Schulze wants to take rent from Jörg and Anne. If neither of them can pay, the mill would be his. However, the greedy mountain miller kills Schulzen because he believes himself to be the owner of the mill. He goes to the mill with the bailiff to collect the interest. The forest spirits give Jörg and Anne the gold they need. Since the mountain miller does not want to share with the Vogt, he snatches the gold from Anne's hands and flees on his horse. In a hurry he manipulated a wooden bridge that the steward who was chasing him had to cross with his sticks .

When the robber castle people fall into the abyss, the gold pieces in the hands of the evil miller turn into hot coals. Lightning strikes the mountain mill, the mill man's property burns to rubble and ashes, the earth flames open. The criminal court of the good Koehler turns the mountain miller to stone and so he can still be found today as a warning in the Harz Mountains.

production

The Steinerne Renne, a location for the film

The devil from Mühlenberg was filmed in the vicinity of Wernigerode . Among other things, the stone race west of Hasserode served as a film set. Individual outdoor scenes were created on the outdoor area of ​​the DEFA studios in Babelsberg. The Harz village of the film was created entirely in the studio, as the children's actors in the film were not allowed to shoot in the remote Harz. The trick shots of the scene in which the miller turns to stone were created by Ernst Kunstmann .

The film premiered on April 7, 1955 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin and the DEFA film theater on Kastanienallee. A total of around 4.3 million cinema viewers visited the film, making DEFA a great success.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films wrote: “A simply narrated film, not free from ideological influences, based on a medieval legend from the Harz region. Visually quite impressively staged and played effectively. "

The film observer was less critical and attested "a remarkable routine in the choice of the landscape, the costumes, architecture and, last but not least, the excellent trick photography." In contrast, the dialogue was criticized, "which fluctuates between Hans Sachs and socialist drama".

literature

• The devil from Mühlenberg . In: Eberhard Berger, Joachim Gliese (Ed.): 77 fairy tale films. A movie guide for young and old . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00447-4 , pp. 34-37.
• The devil from Mühlenberg . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032589-2 , pp. 30-35.

Web links

• The devil of Muhlenberg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Der Teufel vom Mühlenberg in the online film database
• The devil from Mühlenberg at filmportal.de
• Der Teufel vom Mühlenberg - entry in the film archive of Cinema
• The devil from Mühlenberg at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The devil from Mühlenberg . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 33.
2. ↑ The devil from Mühlenberg. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 10, 2016 .  
3. ↑ quoted from: Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen, Norbert Stresau : Lexikon des Fantasyfilms, Munich 1985, p. 507