The Devil's General (film)

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Movie
Original title The devil's general
The Devil's General Logo 001.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1955
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Helmut Käutner
script George Hurdalek ,
Helmut Käutner ,
Gyula Trebitsch
production Walter Koppel
music Friedrich Schröder
camera Albert Benitz
occupation

Des Teufels General is a German black and white fiction film from 1955 based on Carl Zuckmayer 's drama of the same name with Curd Jürgens in the leading role. Marianne Koch , Viktor de Kowa and Karl John are cast in leading roles. The film was made in 1954 under the direction of Helmut Käutner , produced by Walter Koppel and Real-Film GmbH . It was premiered in cinemas on February 23, 1955. It was first broadcast on television on April 24, 1967 by ZDF .

action

Germany in December 1941. During the Second World War , the leadership of the dreaded SS sought the proximity of the famous Luftwaffe General Harras for strategic reasons . He is a highly decorated veteran of the First World War , a personal friend of the Reichsmarschall and a passionate pilot. The cosmopolitan, charming Harras does not share the ideology of the Nazi dictatorship and ridicule it. However, the ridicule never goes beyond a level that could endanger him. Besides flying, he only has affinities for women and alcohol.

At a private celebration on the occasion of a high honor for Colonel Friedrich Eilers, Harras met Dorothea, who was only 21 years old. The two immediately feel drawn to each other. During the same ceremony, SS-Gruppenführer Schmidt-Lausitz tried to win Harras over to join the SS. The attempt fails miserably; General Harras rejects it with cynical contempt. During the celebration, conversations between him and the aircraft manufacturer Mohrungen, Eilers' father-in-law, are monitored by the SD . It's about technical problems with a new type of bomber. That same night he ignored the warnings of his friend Oderbruch, who advised him to flee because the SS wanted to arrest him. Harras dismisses the warnings and still drives to his apartment, where he is immediately arrested by the Gestapo . He is locked up and is supposed to be made docile through psychological torture. With this, the SS also wants to set an example that no one can oppose it any more. Schmidt-Lausitz 'campaign is personally approved and covered by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler . After 10 days of imprisonment with humiliations and the staging of a pickup for execution, Harras is obviously broken and is freed from captivity by Schmidt-Lausitz apparently by accident. However, Harras can see through the intrigue, as he notices a furtively exchanged sign between Schmidt-Lausitz and the prison commandant Zernick. Back at the Reich Aviation Ministry , he learns that the Reich has declared war on the USA. He now realizes that the war is probably lost. In addition, there are ongoing technical problems with the new type of bomber, which is urgently needed right now. Harras is immediately contacted by Schmidt-Lausitz, who demands a decision whether Harras would join the SS. Shortly afterwards he can meet Dorothea again, but has to experience that the doctor Rosenfeld, who had successfully treated Harras years ago after an accident and was now to be smuggled out of the country by Harras, and his wife commit suicide. Shortly afterwards, the news was brought to him that Colonel Eilers had crashed with the new bomber. He himself takes care of delivering this news to the widow. In a debate, this admonishes humanity and, for the first time in a long time, ensures that Harras can admit his own responsibility without cynicism.

Harras decides to get to the bottom of the numerous crashes of the new bombers. During a test flight, he notices that his friend Oderbruch must be behind the sabotage. He confronts him, and Oderbruch confesses. He had concealed a dangerous design flaw in the aircraft under test so that they could not be used for frontline operations in order to permanently weaken Hitler's regime. The crash of Eilers was by no means foreseeable, as his squadron was equipped with the new machine contrary to Oderbruch's instructions. Almost at the same time the SS appeared and occupied the airfield. Schmidt-Lausitz forces Harras to either name the author of the design error within two hours or to sign a resignation request from all offices, which would be tantamount to self-accusation, since it would be assumed that Harras knows and covers the author of the incorrect design. Detecting the design error within this period would, however, appear completely implausible and thus ultimately lead to the same result. The previous offer to transfer to the SS is also revoked because Harras, as he contemptuously informs him, can no longer be useful for the new fatherland. Harras then confronts Schmidt-Lausitz with the accusation that he and his kind from the fatherland formed an inhumane dictatorship and chases it out of the room at gunpoint. In a discussion with Oderbruch, he accuses him of opportunism and betrayal of his own ideals. Harras acknowledges this accusation, assures Oderbruch that he will not be handed over to the SS and signs the resignation. Oderbruch suggests that he flee to Switzerland - a refueled escape machine is ready for him - but Harras insists that he must hold out his fatal pact with the devil to the bitter end - if only to protect his friends, especially Oderbruch . He starts illegally with one of the faulty machines and lets it crash into the control tower of the airport . Schmidt-Lausitz immediately reports to Himmler that Harras had died in a test flight, whereupon the Reichsführer-SS ordered a state funeral.

Emergence

Filming

The filming location was the Real-Film-Studios in Hamburg-Wandsbek , the outdoor recordings took place in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel and Berlin . The director Helmut Käutner can be seen in the film as Göring's shadow. It was difficult to find suitable old aircraft: the Messerschmitt Me 262s initially offered to Real-Film from British spoils of war had not yet been operational in 1941. Käutner justified his rejection in a different way: "Then the whole film would be called into question - because then people would say: 'If these wonderful machines had been used in time, we would have had to win the war.'" with the help of the German embassy in Stockholm to receive three old Ju 86s , built in 1936, from the Swedish Air Force . These twin-engine machines are the "K" version with Bristol-Mercury gasoline radial engines. These aircraft - some of which were built under license by SAAB - were only used by the Swedish Air Force. The scenes with Harras' death flight show, as an illustration of the hopeless situation, a gloomy, cloud-covered sky. In fact, the film was shot with broken clouds and the gloomy atmosphere was created with special filters.

template

Carl Zuckmayer's drama of the same name, which he wrote in exile in the United States from 1943 to 1945, served as a template . The figure of Harras is designed after the aviator and Air Force General Ernst Udet , who officially had a fatal accident while testing a new aircraft in 1941, but actually shot himself. Udet flew together with Hermann Göring in Manfred von Richthofen's squadron during World War I. He was friends with Zuckmayer.

Script and cast

The plot of the film is not true to the original , but a free adaptation with general power of attorney Zuckmayer. In addition to adding new scenes, deleting secondary characters and adding others, characters were also changed: The cultural director Dr. Schmidt-Lausitz is now on an equal footing with General Harras and not “the subaltern man endowed with power ” of the play. Oderbruch is not only an engineer, he also took part in the First World War as an aviator, was wounded and carries awards. The faulty aircraft are held back and the test pilots are instructed to parachute themselves to rescue. The machine in which Friedrich Eilers had an accident belongs to a group that went to the front against the will of Oderbruch and Harras. In contrast, a sister machine that has not yet been used is ordered back in one piece. Oderbruch flies one of the faulty machines together with Harras and prevents the crash. After landing there is a discussion in which he admits that he had not reported a design fault on the trim tab . Käutner's claim to this role was: "... when Oderbruch appears on the screen, a wave of sympathy must strike against him, regardless of what source it comes from." Originally, the role was to be cast by Dieter Borsche , who Oderbruch is already successfully embodied on stage had a "Oderbruch with house music and Holderlin ". It was only after Borsche canceled that Karl John got involved. Curd Jürgens as General Harras, on the other hand, was the preferred cast, as he embodied all of Harras' qualities in the audience's imagination: “Jürgens has the magic of frivolity that dresses all heroes as well as Egmont . And then he has this heavenly Berlin diction . "

  • A Junkers Ju 86 K of the Swedish Air Force (photo from 1976)

  • Ernst Udet, the role model for Harras (1940)

  • Helmut Käutner 1960

  • Zuckmayer in a photo from 1920

Awards

Reviews

“Käutner's film is not designed to be a salvation of honor for anyone [sic], it is a clear mirror that we should look into. It shows the tragedy that ruled over us and shines through to our present. "

- THE TIME from 03.03.1955.

“Formally remarkable, but defused in its political dimension, the film adaptation of Zuckmayer's play, which facilitates unreflected identification with the hero. Despite the realistic description of the time background, a 'rehabilitation film', which therefore remains rather ambivalent. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The script has not taken any of its critical substance from the original. On the contrary: 'The film usually tends to water down its theatrical presentation. Käutner has it peppered '(Gunter Groll). Various scenes have been resolved to make a film, others have been added. The most convincing thing about these changes was the profile of the opponent Schmidt-Lausitz, who was now granted sharp intelligence and brilliant malice. "

- Reclam's film guide

“A remarkable, serious contemporary document from the Third Reich based on Zuckmayer's play of the same name. For people who research the background and ask further questions where the film has nothing more to say. "

- Protestant film observer

literature

  • Carl Zuckmayer : The devil's general. Drama in three acts . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010, 173 pages, ISBN 978-3-596-90248-4 .
  • Tobias Temming, Resistance in German and Dutch Fiction. Historical images and culture of remembrance (1943–1963), De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston, 2016, pp. 134–165. ISBN 978-3-11-045631-8 .
  • Ulrike Weckel: Secrets of a box office success: The film adaptation of Des Teufels General 1955 . In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The century of pictures . Vol. 2: 1949 to date . Göttingen 2009, pp. 130-137.
  • Ulrike Weckel: Limited ambiguity: The film adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer's theatrical success Des Teufels General (1955) . In: WerkstattGeschichte 39, 2005, pp. 89-101 ( online ).
  • Tobias Temming: Resistance in German and Dutch feature films. Historical images and culture of remembrance (1943–1963). De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2016, pp. 134–165. ISBN 978-3-11-045631-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutsches Museum: Messerschmitt Me 262 A, 1944 (accessed December 1, 2016)
  2. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 4/1955: TEUFELS GENERAL - The Oderbruch Complex p. 33. (Aircraft procurement )
  3. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 4/1955: TEUFELS GENERAL - The Oderbruch Complex p. 33. (filming)
  4. ↑ Carl Zuckmayer: As if it were a piece of me. Frankfurt / Main: Fischer Verlag, June 2006 ISBN 978-3-596-17208-5 p. 622 f.
  5. ↑ DVD: Des Teufels General , Kultur SPIEGEL Edition German Film 2009, from 1:28:00 (Harras receives news of Eiler's death)
  6. ^ Carl Zuckmayer: Old version p. 153 ( Des Teufels General , Bermann-Fischer Verlag Stockholm / Schönbrunn-Verlag Vienna 1947) / New version p. 137 (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 36th edition 2008)
  7. ↑ DVD: Des Teufels General , Kultur SPIEGEL Edition German Film 2009, from 1:36:50 (test flight from Harras and Oderbruch / Oderbruch admits the sabotage)
  8. ↑ a b DER SPIEGEL 4/1955: TEUFELS GENERAL - The Oderbruch complex
  9. ↑ The devil's general. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ↑ Reclams Filmführer, 5th edition, 1973, p. 521.
  11. ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 258/1955.