German drawing film
| German drawing film | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | June 25, 1941 |
| resolution | October 1944 |
| Seat | Berlin-Dahlem |
| management | Luis Sehl, Gerhard Fieber , Wolfgang Kaskeline , Heinz Tischmeyer, Werner Kruse |
| Number of employees | 94 employees, 8 teachers, 151 apprentices |
| Branch | Film industry |
| Status: May 1944 | |
The Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH was an active production company for animated films from 1941 to 1944 . It was founded in the National Socialist German Reich and was to be built up as a German competitor to the globally dominating US American Walt Disney animation company . Due to the limited resources and the stresses caused by the war, this project failed.
background
As Reich Propaganda Minister , Joseph Goebbels initiated the establishment of a subsidiary of UFA . The artistic direction was initially taken over by Werner Kruse and then by Frank Leberecht. Gerhard Fieber was in charge of the drawing studio. Other studios were led by Wolfgang Kaskeline , Heinz Tischmeyer and Sergej Sesin. In the company's own drawing school, the draughtsmen were to be trained intensively in order to catch up with the lead in American animation production. The first full-length film was supposed to be made as early as 1947, but only the colored short film Armer Hansi from 1943 was completed, as the work had been relocated from Berlin to Munich and Vienna due to the increasing effects of the war. In October 1944 the company was finally dissolved.
Beginnings
Basically, as early as the 1930s there were intentions on the part of both the film manufacturers in Germany and the Propaganda Ministry to emulate the model of the brothers Roy and Walt Disney . The focus here was not on political propaganda, but on entertaining the audience. They studied the techniques used by Disney and tried to copy them. As early as 1931, before the National Socialists came to power, German illustrators started drawing cartoon characters with only four instead of five fingers due to lack of time. Here, too, they followed Disney. Hitler and Goebbels valued the Disney films as works of art:
“I'm giving the Führer 12 Mickey Mouse films for Christmas! He is very happy about it. Is very happy about this treasure. "
Before the founding of Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH there were repeated attempts to revive animated films in Germany, but ultimately there were only a few short films such as Ein Märchen (1939) by Kurt Stordel or the propagandistic animal fable Der Störenfried (1940) by Hans Held . The quality of the animations, however, lagged significantly behind that of Disney's Snow White . From the National Socialist point of view, it therefore seemed sensible to group German animators in a separate company in order to increase the quality and quantity of animation production.
Foundation and work of the GmbH
In Berlin-Dahlem the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda founded a production company for animation. Luis Sehl, who was called from Rio de Janeiro to Berlin , became the director. This production company was supposed to create an animated film about the mountain spirit Rübezahl . Due to disorganization and the inability of the management, the project failed and was discontinued.
In the newly founded drawing school, 119 apprentices were initially trained by 15 teachers. In 1943, the 17-minute short film “Armer Hansi” by Gerhard Fieber was released on the Reichswoche for German cultural films in Munich and was later used as a supporting film for the film Die Feuerzangenbowle . The animated film was able to inspire and was given the title “artistically valuable”.
The production time of two years seemed too long to Goebbels, which is why he promoted the competition instead of incorporating them into Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH. The special production of Deutsche Wochenschau GmbH had several short films made by Hans Fischerkoesen : Weathered Melodie and The Snowman based on an idea by Horst von Möllendorff and The Stupid Gänslein . In Prague, the drawing film department of Prag-Film AG produced, among other things, the film Wedding in the Coral Sea , which was also based on American models.
“They are small cinematic treasures to this day and lastingly testify to the laying of the foundation stone for an independent animation film industry. Press praise and audience response were enormous despite the circumstances. "
After the end of the war, Fischerkoesen was sent to an internment camp.
Promotion and end of animation production
Goebbels wanted to produce around 50 films a year. He ordered production studios in occupied countries to be used. For example, an anti-Semitic adaptation of Van den vos Reynaerde was made in the Netherlands . After the invasion of Normandy , animation production was largely stopped as part of the total war measures . Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH was in production at the end of 1944. It is unknown whether the films in progress have been completed. Only the puppy story Purzelbaum into life was listed by DEFA in 1946 .
Literature and publications
- Carsten Laqua: How Micky fell under the Nazis. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-499-19104-0 .
- Hans Fischinger: animation under the swastika. (= Animation under the swastika) In: Gerd Gockell: Muratti & Sarotti: History of German animation 1920–1960. Absolut Medien, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-89848-207-3 . (DVD)
- Harro Segeberg: Media mobilization. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film. Fink, Paderborn / Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-7705-3863-8 .
- Ulrich Wegenast: Hitler's dream of Mickey Mouse - animation in the Nazi era. (= History of German animation film. 2.) Absolut Medien, Berlin 2009 ISBN 978-3-89848-202-8 . (DVD, background information )
- Rolf Giesen, JP Storm: Animation Under the Swastika. A History of Trickfilm in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-4640-7 .
Web links
- June 25, 1941. Foundation of the Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH on diaf.de.
- Hitler as a cartoonist - Twelve Mickey films for the "Führer". on spiegel.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ June 25, 1941. Founding of Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on diaf.de, accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ^ Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH on Filmlexikon.uni-kiel.de, accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ^ A b Rolf Giesen, Konstantin von Reden-Lütcken, Michael Schmetz , Nicole Stang: Animation in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. An inventory. online, PDF, p. 10. ( Memento of the original dated October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Miss Mabel falls out of the ordinary - all by animation. In: Der Spiegel. January 1, 1949.
- ^ The Troublemaker on youtube.com, accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ↑ Animated 1 & 2: Traumschmelze - The German animated film from 1930 to 1950 and Animated 3: The Czech animated film from 1933 to 1945 on filmfest-dresden.de, accessed on February 22, 2015.
- ↑ Egbert Barten, Mette Peters: Stand-up men and musical car. On the trail of a cartoon. In: Filmblatt. No. 17 / autumn 2001, ISSN 1433-2051 p. 16, 23.
