The frozen lightning

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Movie
Original title The frozen lightning
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1967
length 166 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director János Veiczi
script Harry Thürk
János Veiczi
production DEFA , KAG "Babelsberg 67"
music Günter Hauk
camera Günter Haubold
cut Ruth Ebel
Bärbel winemaker
Karin Kusche
occupation

The frozen lightning is a German spy film of the DEFA of János Veiczi from 1967. The two-part documentary is based on the mystery of Huntsville of Julius Mader .

action

Part 1 - Target Peenemünde

Start of a V2 in Peenemünde in 1943

The year 1939: In the British embassy in Oslo a document has emerged which, when forwarded to London, causes confusion (the actually existing and later so-called Oslo Report ). It contains detailed information about the construction of a long-range missile that is being promoted in the German Reich . The report is considered implausible because of its level of detail and the unimaginable power of the missile and is ignored. Meanwhile in Peenemünde the scientist Dr. Grunwald continued his work on the further development of the rocket prototype. He is convinced of his work. His superior is Wernher von Braun , known by everyone as the “rocket baron”.

Grunwald researched the rocket for two years until it was functional. Meanwhile, resistance fighters in France and Poland have become aware of the German researchers' project. The Poles succeed in smuggling the resistance fighter Borawski into the Peenemünde camp. He can collect important information about the rocket through various middlemen, including Grunwald's housemaid and her guard Dräger. In France, important site plans are stolen from one of the scientists from Peenemünde in a brothel. All the information gathered is finally sent to Great Britain only in the middle of the Second World War, where it becomes apparent that the Oslo Report should have been paid much more attention to. In Peenemünde, meanwhile, the writer of the Oslo Report is exposed and executed. Wernher von Braun's brother was captured by the Allies earlier and is now committed to the opposing side. Dr. Grunwald, who was significantly involved in the design of the rocket, sees that he acted wrongly. He wants to leave the project, volunteers for the front, but his application is rejected. Together with his lover Inge he wants to get through the time until the end of the war. Allied bombers approach Peenemünde.

Part 2 - Password Paperclip
The Allies bomb Peenemünde. Inge is killed, and the housemaid Grundwald and with it an important spy dies. The rocket construction facility will be relocated to underground workshops in the Harz Mountains . Soon the sabotage in the production halls of the prisoners, which Grunwald covers and even actively supports, increases. When the acts of sabotage were discovered and numerous prisoners were executed as a deterrent, Grunwald left the place of execution prematurely. He is arrested, but later released at the instigation of the Brauns.

The resistance fighters succeed in salvaging a sabotaged and prematurely crashed rocket and handing it over to the British. The V2 is now being mass-produced and is used, among other things, in the attack on southern England. Wernher von Braun is visited by his brother and is offered the opportunity to flee. The Americans have expressed interest in his work. If he wanted to overrun, the password “Paperclip” would help him at any time. When the end of the war was announced, the assembly halls in the Harz were cleared. Grunwald runs over to the Allies.

After the end of the war, he and Wernher von Braun drive together in a luxurious car. Grunwald wants to win von Braun for a further collaboration, but Grunwald refuses. The US, meanwhile, drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima . At the screening of the film showing the drop, one of those present said that with this weapon there would no longer be an enemy in the world. But another makes it clear that the atomic bomb was built as a last resort against barbarism . Establishing a new barbarism with it would force others to erect a barrier - against the United States.

production

The frozen lightning was DEFA's most elaborate film project in 1967. The film was conceived as a two-part series and, with a running time of 166 minutes, is one of the longest DEFA films to be released. The basis was Wernher von Braun's rocket project in Peenemünde - "German war secrets and campaigns were extremely attractive even in the GDR". The film premiered on April 13, 1967 in the Kosmos and International cinemas in Berlin .

criticism

The contemporary criticism stated that the film should address all aspects of the event as far as possible, the resulting necessary "intellectual shortenings" sometimes lead to the viewer's disorientation: "The principle of composition lacks rigor here and does not master the abundance that is evoked".

Other critics called Die gefrorenen Blitze “a broad, expansive opus that at times blurred into indistinctness” and found: “The documentary-based film, staged and played with the means of reportage, social and adventure films, suffers from the indecision between film composition and television that is typical of the time - Continuation of the dramaturgy that escalates this year ”.

For the film-dienst , Die gefrorenen Blitze was “a dramaturgically and visually impressive feature film with a strong documentary character.” Cinema wrote that the film, “with actors from the Eastern Bloc, France and the USA, [...] looks particularly authentic. : a memorial against the Nazi regime. Conclusion: clever historical reconstruction ”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ralf Schenk (ed.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (ed.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 216.
  2. ^ Evelin Matschke in: Film-Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen , No. 2, 1967, pp. 609ff.
  3. ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 217.
  4. ↑ The frozen lightning. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 2, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ See cinema.de , accessed on August 2, 2018.