The horsemen of German East Africa

Movie
Original title	The horsemen of German East Africa
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1934
length	89 minutes
Rod
Director	Herbert Selpin
script	Marie Luise Droop , Wilhelm Stöppler
production	Walter Zeiske
music	Herbert Windt
camera	Emil Schünemann
cut	Lena Neumann
occupation
Sepp Rist : Peter Hellhoff Ilse Stobrawa : Gerda Hellhoff Ludwig Gerner : Hellhoff's assistant Lossow Rudolf Klicks : Volunteer Wilm Klix Peter Voss : Robert Cresswell Georg H. Schnell : Colonel Black Arthur Reinhardt : Charles Rallis Emine Zehra Zinser : Servant Milini Louis Brody : Hellhoff's overseer Hamissi Bayume Mohamed Husen : Mustapha signal student Gregor Kotto : Selemani Vivigence Eickstedt : British officer Ernst Rückert

Die Reiter von Deutsch-Ostafrika is a German feature film directed by Herbert Selpin from 1934.

action

Farmer Hellhoff is drafted into the protection force in German East Africa at the beginning of the First World War . Meanwhile, his young wife Gerda looks after the plantation together with the teenage volunteer Klix. In 1916 the plantation is occupied by a British unit. Due to his old friendship with the Hellhoffs, the commander, Major Cresswell, tries to cover up the woman, who he knows is in secret contact with her husband, who is hiding with his comrades in the bush. Fulfilling his duty as a British officer, he had the watering holes in the area occupied in order to force the German soldiers to surrender. When Mrs. Hellhoff tries to bring them water with Klix, she is arrested and the boy is shot. But he still manages to bring the soldiers the canteens before he dies. Hellhoff and his men free Gerda, who is to be taken away for trial by a British court martial, and escape with water and horses. Before the troops seek connection to the unit of the Schutztruppe commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , they return to Klix's grave. Hellhoff promises the dead boy to come back sooner or later, which is supposed to be an allusion to the recovery of the colony lost in the First World War.

background

The film was based on the novel Kwa heri by Marie Luise Droop . Outdoor shots were shot in the former sand dunes of Berlin's Marienhöhe ("Filmberge"). Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, named in the film, was present at the premiere. Although rated as “popular education”, the heroic adventure film was banned by the Nazi censors on December 19, 1939, because the English, now “enemies of the Reich”, were too positively drawn in it. After 1945 it was also banned by the Allied military governments.

Others

The film, a Terra production, was later released on VHS. Compared to other German productions from the early Nazi era , the film appears relatively harmless politically. In contrast to pre-war films, such as B. the submarine drama Morgenrot , the emphasis on British-German male friendship is striking. However, motifs of colonial and historical revisionism that were widespread at the time are recognizable. This includes the portrayal of the Germans as strict but fair colonial masters. The positive image of the African population (apart from a jealous housemaid) fits the myth of the loyal Askari .

literature

• The horsemen of German East Africa. A Terra film. In: Through all the world, issue 3, January 1935, pp. 26–27 (with 12 illustrations).

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era
• List of films forbidden under National Socialism

Web links

• The Riders of German East Africa in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The tabs of German East Africa in the Internet Archive (formats: .mp4 and .ogv )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gisela Graichen, Horst Founder: German Colonies - Dream and Trauma. 4th edition, Ullstein, Berlin 2005, p. 411, ISBN 3-550-07637-1 .
2. ↑ https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/50988/die-reiter-von-deutsch-ostafrika