The golden city

Movie
Original title	The golden city
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1942
length	110 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16 (abridged version)
Rod
Director	Veit Harlan
script	Veit Harlan , Alfred Braun , Werner Eplinius based on the play by Richard Billinger
production	Ufa (see UFA )
music	Hans-Otto Borgmann , based on motifs by Bedřich Smetana
camera	Bruno Mondi ( Agfacolor )
occupation
Kristina Söderbaum : Anna Jobst Eugen Klöpfer : Melchior Jobst Annie Rosar : Anna's aunt Dagny Servaes : Lilli Paul Klinger : Engineer Leitwein Kurt Meisel : Toni Rudolf Prack : Thomas Liselotte Schreiner : Marischka Hans Hermann Schaufuss : Nemetschek Frida Richard : Mrs. Amend Inge Drexel : Maid Julie Walter Lieck : Julie's groom Ringl Ernst Legal : Farmer Pelikan Maria Hofen : Farmer's wife Valy Arnhem : Notary Alois Wengraf Else Ehser : Anna Jobst's maid Hugo Flink : Postman in Prague Josef Dahmen : Farmer Karl Harbacher : Farmer Emmerich Hanus : Farmer

The Golden City is a German fiction film in Agfacolor by Veit Harlan from 1942.

action

Anna Jobst, daughter of a rich farmer who lives near Ceske Budejovice and whose land includes a large, unused bog, dreams of seeing the golden city of Prague one day. In this she is like her mother, who died in the moor when Anna was four years old. Her father says, "... she missed the path in the dark and got into the swamp". But people say: "... Aquarius took her because she wanted to get away from her husband and child."

The technician Leitwein, who carries out land surveys with a view to draining the bog, encourages Anna's longing for Prague. Farmer Jobst has remained a widower and has promised his groom Thomas to marry Anna and thus practically the farm as an inheritance. That's why he wants to prevent a possible connection between Anna and Leitwein. He is also against the cultivation of the bog. Now he ensures that Leitwein is withdrawn from his company without further ado and another project manager finishes the survey.

Jobst's housekeeper Marischka plans to persuade the farmer to marry her and wants to discredit Anna with her father. When Jobst and Thomas are absent for a week, Marischka offers Anna to borrow her money so that she can secretly travel to Prague.

Anna does not resist the temptation, travels to Prague and visits her mother's sister there. Her illegitimate son Toni, Anna's cousin, has hopes of becoming a rich heir to the court by marrying Anna. He urges Anna to stay longer in Prague and ultimately prevents her from returning.

After seven weeks, Anna, meanwhile pregnant, learns from her cousin that after her father's planned wedding to the housekeeper Marischka, she will no longer be the heir to the court, but will only receive the compulsory portion. Cousin Toni is then interested again in his former girlfriend Lilli, who owns a restaurant. Although the aunt knows Anna's circumstances, she asks her not to stand in the way of her son.

Anna returns home and just arrives at her father's house during the engagement party. Jobst does not greet the returning daughter, but pretends not to notice her. She feels rejected and leaves the banquet table. The guests suspect that Anna wants to go to the moor like her mother back then. When Jobst wants to leave to save Anna, Marischka forces him to choose between her and his daughter. Now he decides in favor of the daughter and takes part in the search for her.

Anna is only found as a corpse. Jobst bequeaths the farm to Thomas and instructs him to have the moor drained.

Comments on the creation and publications

Advertisement at the Rembrandt Theater (Amsterdam) (January 26, 1943)

According to Veit Harlan, the film should end positively, a corresponding ending had already been shot. Joseph Goebbels, however, insisted on the tragic end. After women are better diplomats, the film was the second German feature film in color and received several awards during the Nazi era. With 31 million moviegoers (as of late 1944), it was also one of the most successful films of the Nazi era.

The film, which was originally awarded with a screening time of 110 minutes, was banned by the Allies in 1945 and only released again in 1954, shortened to 104 minutes. The opening credits of this version begin with "The Golden City" was made during the war in 1942 and is one of the first German color films. The picture and sound negatives were relocated, they have now been found again.

The Murnau Foundation currently holds the rights to the film and has only made the shortened version available for previous DVD releases.

Reviews

“The myth of blood and soil defines this film; the robust peasants are contrasted with the depraved townspeople and the Czech Toni, the foreigner, is discredited ”- a classic of German sound films (Christa Bandmann / Joe Hembus ; 1980 Goldmann).

“After Richard Billinger's stage play - The Giant - Harlan shot a visually excellent melodrama in which gloomy mysticism, blood and soil ideology and discrimination - Slavic subhumans - enter into an unfortunate combination. Even the shortened version offered in German cinemas after 1945 could not deny the Nazi tendency. ”- Lexicon of international films (rororo edition from 1987).

"In contrast, Harlan's Agfacolor film" The Golden City "(1942) sells ideologically questionable material under the surface of a smooth melodrama."

censorship

After Germany's unconditional surrender in 1945, the Allies banned the film because of the racist statements , but it was soon released for showing again.

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zukunft-bendet-erinnerung.de
2. ^ Deutscher-tonfilm.de ( Memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ prisma-online.de
4. ^ Only with reservation: Nazi film propaganda ( Memento of November 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 427 kB), heise.de, accessed on May 29, 2012

Web links

• The Golden City in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The golden city. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation , archived from the original on February 8, 2005 ; accessed on January 12, 2016 . 
• The golden city ( memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at www.deutscher-tonfilm.de.
• The Great King / The Golden City / The Woman of My Dreams (review of the DVD releases by cinemusic.de).
• The golden city ( memento of April 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at deutsches-filminstitut.de.
• REMARKABLE FILMS FROM 1942. . . The golden city .
• The golden city at cinefest International Festival of German Film Heritage ( Memento from May 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• “The Golden City” by Veit Harlan “Racial Biology” in the National Socialist entertainment film at www.shoa.de ( Shoa.de ).
• The golden city at filmportal.de