The shooting of the traitor Ernst S.

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Movie
Original title The shooting of the traitor Ernst S .;
German: The shooting of the traitor Ernst S.
Country of production Switzerland
original language German , Swiss German
Publishing year 1976
length 99 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Dindo ,
Niklaus Meienberg
script Richard Dindo,
Niklaus Meienberg
camera Rob Gnant ,
Robert Boner

The shooting of the traitor Ernst S. is a documentary film by Richard Dindo and Niklaus Meienberg about the Swiss Ernst S. (full name Ernst Schrämli ), who was sentenced to death during the Second World War for treason in favor of the Third Reich and on November 11, 1942 was shot near Oberuzwil .

content

Based on testimony from contemporary witnesses and a few written sources, photos and newsreel excerpts, the shooting of traitor Ernst S. traces the life story, trial and execution of the Swiss soldier Ernst Schrämli. He had stolen four artillery grenades and one tank grenade from an unguarded ammunition depot of the army and handed them over to a German agent he knew . He also made sketches of artillery and bunker positions, which the investigating judge, however, assessed as inaccurate.

Ernst Schrämli, who came from difficult circumstances (early death of his mother, alcoholic father) repeatedly came into conflict with the authorities; his life was marked by guardianship , an educational institution, labor camp , military disciplinary punishments and a conviction for attempting desecration . People close to him, on the other hand, portray him as a cheerful, enjoyable, art-loving, but also somewhat naive person. In the film one comes to the conclusion that he did not act out of political conviction, but out of a personal dependence on the German agent.

Dindo sees the Ernst Schrämli case - similar to Niklaus Meienberg , on whose report the film is based - as an example of how an example was made of some representatives of the working class and the soldiers in Switzerland during the Second World War (a total of 17 death sentences were passed enforced), while the arms trade by Emil Georg Buehrle was tolerated by the Nazis and harbored various representatives from government and military sympathies for the third Reich. He supports the criticism of the Federal Councilors Philipp Etter , Giuseppe Motta and Marcel Pilet-Golaz , of Colonel Gustav Däniker and Colonel Corps Commander Ulrich Wille with a detailed interview with the historian Edgar Bonjour , who summarizes Dindo's thesis in the sentence: «De Chliner hangs more than the bigger one. " (High German: "The smaller one hangs more than the bigger one."; Analogously: "The small ones are hung, the big ones are let go.")

effect

The shooting of the traitor Ernst S. is a key film for the New Swiss Film . For the first time, the theme of the Second World War, which had disappeared from Swiss films in the 50s and 60s, was taken up again, and for the first time this topic was treated extremely critically. Also noteworthy is the method of oral history , which at that time was hardly used in academic historiography .

The public debate about the film, which was highly controversial, was particularly exceptional. The first reviews after the premiere at the Solothurn Film Festival on January 31, 1976 were positive overall, and after the German premiere on October 7, 1976 at the Mannheim International Film Week , the film was even awarded the Mayor of Mannheim's special award for documentary films awarded with special socio-political commitment. The latter led to a protest by 18 Bern professors in the form of an open letter to the Lord Mayor of Mannheim, in which the film's class struggle tendency was criticized. As a result, various articles were published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that criticized the film as one-sided, polemical and factually flawed.

At the end of 1976, the then Federal Councilor Hans Hürlimann decided not to award the film any quality premium, justifying this with the manipulative and ideological tendencies of Dindo's work. The film was also refused the Film Prize from the Canton and City of Zurich by the then Zurich Education Director , Alfred Gilgen . In both cases, the responsible politicians disregarded the recommendation of the responsible commission of experts.

In connection with the broadcast on German-speaking Swiss television on June 3, 1977, legal action was also taken against the film: The Wille and Mettler families obtained legal action to have passages that were defamatory in their opinion have been cut out or changed.

After Meienberg and Dindo, the subject of the traitors executed in Switzerland was taken up in particular by Karl Lüönd and Peter Noll . Lüönd saw a comparatively minor offense in the Ernst Schrämli case, but the case was not representative. For the criminal lawyer Noll, Schrämli's betrayal was one of the easiest cases; the judgment was legally justifiable, but still problematic, since on the one hand the grenades were most likely already known to the Germans and on the other hand too little attention was paid to the psychiatric report.

literature

  • Niklaus Meienberg: Death by shooting 1942–1944 (Part II) . In: Tages-Anzeiger Magazin 33/1973, p. 16 f.
  • Niklaus Meienberg: Ernst S., traitor (1919–1942). In: Niklaus Meienberg: Reports from Switzerland. With a foreword by Peter Bichsel . Darmstadt: Luchterhand, 1975, pp. 162-239.
  • Hans M. Eichenlaub: Ernst S. or the litmus sample: "The shooting of the traitor Ernst S." by Richard Dindo and Niklaus Meienberg. In: Cinema 1/1976, pp. 65–71.
  • Niklaus Meienberg: The shooting of the traitor Ernst S. With an afterword by Richard Dindo. Darmstadt / Neuwied 1977.
  • Karl Lüönd: Espionage and treason in Switzerland. 2 vols. Zurich: Ringier, 1977, ISBN 3-85859-062-2 .
  • Peter Noll: traitor. 17 CVs and death sentences 1942–1944 . Frauenfeld 1980, ISBN 978-3-7193-0681-6 .
  • Walter Ruggle : Mindless national defense: History of the impact of the documentary "The shooting of traitor Ernst S." In: Martin Durrer u. Barbara Lukesch (ed.): Biederland and the arsonist: Niklaus Meienberg as an occasion. Zurich: Limmat, 1988, ISBN 3-85791-143-3 , pp. 57-82.
  • Niklaus Meienberg: The shooting of the traitor Ernst S. Revised and expanded edition. Zurich: Limmat, 1992, ISBN 978-3-85791-201-6 .

Web links

Individual documents and notes

  1. ↑ Michael Hug: The executioner's place. In: The Rheintaler. May 2, 2011, accessed September 5, 2011 .
  2. ^ Martin Schlappner: Well-founded rejection of a quality premium: The film ‹The shooting of the traitor Ernst S.› Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 3, 1977.
    Alfred Cattani : ‹The shooting of the traitor Ernst S.› Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 7th 1977.
    Hugo Bütler : Class Justice? Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 7, 1977.
    Georg Kreis : Writing history with film and class struggle: On the controversy surrounding the “traitor Ernst S.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 7, 1977.
  3. ↑ Ernst S., Television and Published Opinion. Documentation. Ed .: Radio und Fernsehen DRS, press and information service. (mach.). Zurich 1977.