Brandenburg Division (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Brandenburg division |
| Country of production | FRG |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harald Philipp |
| script | Harald Philipp |
| production |
Willy Zeyn-Film , CCC-Ateliers |
| music | Hans-Martin Majewski |
| camera | Heinz Hölscher |
| cut | Elisabeth Kleinert-Neumann |
| occupation | |
| |
Brandenburg Division is a West German feature film from 1960 that deals with two missions by the Brandenburg Division of the German Wehrmacht in World War II . The special effects come from DEFA trick specialist Ernst Kunstmann , who is listed in the opening credits as Willy Kunstmann. The film is based on a documentary report by Will Berthold , which appeared in the magazine Revue in 1959 and was published several times as a factual novel under the title Division Brandenburg until 1995 . The house troops of Admiral Canaris was launched.
content
The exercise
1940. A camouflaged truck drives through open terrain at night. At the stern he wears a troop identification badge with a sword , around which a snake coils and has a resemblance to the gang fight badge . The vehicle is manned by soldiers in British paratrooper uniforms who speak English . They are deployed near German flak positions and sneak up to Luftwaffe sentry posts .
The British take the outposts by surprise and break into the air force soldiers' living quarters. They take the German soldiers prisoner and drive them into the courtyard, but overlook a member of the Air Force. He opened fire on the British with a submachine gun from the window ; three of them fall. Suddenly a German Wehrmacht major in army uniform appears and, as it now turns out, lets the Brandenburger exercise break off. Brandenburger Lieutenant Czerny is held responsible for the fiasco because he overlooked the air force soldier in the barracks. The trainer is Major Ungerland.
The three fallen are buried with military honors. A chaplain calls the incident willed by God. A speaker from the off comments on the funeral:
“Brandenburg division. That was the name of Admiral Canaris' house troops . The secret that surrounded this commando, the nimbus of the doomed, their adventurous missions in the rear of the enemy, with knives, explosives and a stranglehold . Your merciless acts of retaliation, all of which led to the creation of legends . "
“They had written on their flag : 'You are supposed to be a band of robbers with whom one can bring the devil out of hell'”.
Use in Romania
In his office, a colonel who was not presented by name, adorned with a portrait of Admiral Canaris, Ungerland, Czerny and Lieutenant Pflug, explains the political and military situation. Romania is still neutral, the local oil wells in Ploieşti supply the German armed forces via the Danube . However, there are intelligence reports from the Abwehr that the British are planning an act of sabotage at the Iron Gate . They want to sink Danube barges filled with cement to block the transport to Germany. However, a war in the Balkans is currently not in German interest, so the company should be prevented from beginning. To this end, a unit of the Brandenburgers in Sulina is supposed to checkmate the British sabotage team. Ungerland is an expert on the Balkans, Pflug lived in Romania and speaks Romanian fluently .
In Vienna, Pflug hires the crane operator Kugelmann and the Danube boatman Jonas, who know the Danube shipping to Romania like the back of their hand. Jonas was born in Transylvania . At first they resist: Jonas has a wife and children, Kugelmann makes it clear that he was reluctant to accept the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938. He was a prey man and had only had a visit from the Gestapo the previous evening . But Pflug apparently has something against Kugelmann in hand, so that he finally gives in. Jonas agrees on the condition that it is a one-time, time-limited assignment.
Ungerland recruits the half-Jew Dörner in Germany . Dörner's father was a well-known scientist who apparently worked with Ungerland at the Southeast Institute. Ungerland, who is a civil professor at the institute, is jovial, but blackmailed Dörner with his Jewish mother, who is in a concentration camp . Dörner rejects the blackmail maneuver at first, but finally gives in to protect his mother. Dörner, Kugelmann and Jonas are trained in close combat and other military techniques in a barracks .
The British steamer "Mardinian" is moored in the Romanian port of Sulina . Markwitz, apparently a representative of Donau-Lloyd , but presumably also a member of the Abwehr, receives a visit from Colonel Popoff of the Siguranța , the Romanian secret service . Meanwhile, Pflug secretly examines the "Mardinian", but is not sure whether she is transporting cement. He is almost caught by crew members, but escapes by jumping overboard.
Popoff is extremely well informed about the German and British activities in Sulina. He is neutral; Romania is a free country and he will make sure that it remains free. Markwitz wants to know from him whether the "Mardinian" has loaded cement, but Popoff keeps a low profile. Ungerland appears to Markwitz as an alleged auditor to support him in the Brandenburg operation, but Popoff is already aware that Ungerland is a member of the SS .
The Brandenburgers suspect that the "Mardinian" not only loaded cement, but that her crew also consists of selected personnel who are supposed to carry out the act of sabotage. To turn them off, Pflug, Czerny, Kugelmann and Jonas organize a celebration with the help of Romanian prostitutes under the leadership of Nina in the tavern "In the red pelican". While Dörner is playing the piano, the rest of the people from Brandenburg prepare Romanian schnapps with sleeping pills, which the prostitutes serve. The port inspector Mitropoulos plays a dubious role, he has not escaped what is going on in the city and in the pub: "If you have an eye, you see, you have ears, you hear". Kugelmann mixes the drinks and calls the already drunk Czerny a diaper crap. The first officer of the "Mardinian" appears in the pub and looks for his crew. The German plan works until Czerny, completely drunk, loses his self-control and begins to swear loudly in German , which warns the British.
Popoff appears at Markwitz and advises him to persuade Pflug to flee Romania. The colonel apparently paralyzed the tugboat by removing the Romanian staff, but the British have their own staff from the "Mardinian". However, Pflug has prepared an alternative plan for this case.
Jonas and Kugelmann attacked a Romanian harbor police station on the Danube and now pretend to be Romanian police officers. When the tug, which consists of a tugboat and several barges, arrives at the level of the station, a British secret agent recognizes Jonas from Sulina. Jonas and Kugelmann are incapacitated by the British, but Pflug manages to break the connection between the tugboat and the tugboat, so that they are caught in the current. The boats run aground or sink due to explosions. The British sabotage plan for the Iron Gate has failed, Romanian oil can still be transported to Germany.
Operation Barbarossa
Germany, spring 1941. Back from Romania, Ungerland asks the colonel for a new assignment. The colonel refuses at first; he distrusts the academic Ungerland. Finally he explains to him Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union . A bridge that was strategically important for the German advance must be occupied and held in peacetime so that the Red Army cannot blow it up. The colonel admits that it is a suicide mission , but Ungerland commands surprisingly, the lead the "Company Panthersprung" to take over.
Kugelmann, Jonas, Dörner, Czerny and Pflug survived Romania, Pflug was promoted to captain and received the Knight's Cross . Kugelmann and Jonas absolutely want to be released. Eventually they both agree to continue to serve. Jonas wants to end the war before it starts and therefore blow up the bridge. Dörner, on the other hand, believes that the invasion of the USSR will usher in the downfall of the Nazi regime and therefore wants to stick with it; besides, as a Brandenburg citizen , he is no longer a Jew, but an “honorary Aryan ”. Ungerland learned from the colonel that Dörner's mother had since died in the concentration camp, but withholds this information so that Dörner can continue to blackmail. Pflug also learns about it, but does not explain to Dörner either because he needs him at the company.
Ungerland explains the situation to the commandos. Since they are wearing Soviet uniforms, no consideration under international law is to be expected in the event of arrest. The Brandenburgers therefore receive cyanide capsules in order to be able to commit suicide if necessary .
The squad penetrates over a river on Soviet territory and run by a patrol of the Red Army discovered that they can eliminate, but unmasked by and circled slowly by Soviet units. While Pflug believes the company has failed and wants to break through to the south, Ungerland insists on the execution. Czerny is caught by Soviet soldiers (or the NKVD ), shot and his body is hung by his feet. Dörner breaks his thigh in an accident and is unable to move. Ungerland therefore insists that Dörner take the cyanide capsule so that he cannot testify to the Soviets if he is captured. When Ungerland disappears after an argument with Pflug, Pflug also insists on taking the capsule, but Dörner continues to refuse. Pflug now informs him that his mother had already perished in the concentration camp. Dörner realizes that he was betrayed. In view of the hopelessness of his situation, he swallows the poison and dies.
Pflug takes command, as Ungerland has apparently lost his nerve and has disappeared. A member of the group wants to break away, but is killed by Kugelmann with a knife. The Brandenburgers reach the bridge, switch off a Soviet double guard and take over its "role". The first refugees appear, finally the expected demolition squad of the Red Army. A fight ensues, the demolition squad is eliminated. In the chaos, Jonas manages to work his way to the explosive device under the bridge. While Kugelmann and Pflug are trying to stop Jonas from blowing it up, Ungerland suddenly appears and shoots his three subordinates. The major triumphs; the bridge is saved. In his Soviet uniform he happily storms towards a column of the Wehrmacht, which is rolling towards the bridge. She is led by an armored car . A machine gun salvo from the tank kills the major. The column moves further east.
Performance dates
The film was broadcast on West German television in the 1970s / 80s. In 1991 a VHS edition was published by Munich-based TaurusVideo GmbH . A DVD edition is still not available.
Further technical data
- Film trick: Ernst Kunstmann (as Willy Kunstmann)
- Synchrontitel: Division Brandebourg - La vanité de la guerre ( France ), División Brandenburg ( Mexico ), I mystiki stratia tou vou kanari ( Greece ), Divisioona Brandenburg ( Finland ), Sabotaggio - Divisione fantasma Canaris ( Italy ), Division Brandenburg ( Denmark ) .
- German premiere: September 15, 1960, Cologne, "Residenz"
- international distribution: Union-Film
