Ernst Thälmann - leader in his class
Ernst Thalmann - leader in its class is a German biopic of DDR -Filmproduktionsgesellschaft DEFA Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1955 under the direction of Kurt Maetzig emerged. In 1954 the first part of Ernst Thälmann - son of his class appeared .
action
The global economic crisis shook Germany in 1931 and, through the Brüning government, led to massive wage cuts among the workers. Ernst Thälmann organizes strikes of the Mansfeld and Ruhr miners , where he succeeds in uniting social democratic, communist and Christian workers in a unit of action. Nevertheless, due to the machinations of the SPD, he was defeated in the 1932 presidential election .
Even after Hitler came to power in January 1933, he continued his struggle for the rights of the working class and against fascism. He is soon arrested and later transferred to a concentration camp. After heroically enduring 11 years in prison, he was murdered in 1944.
In a parallel plot, the marriage story of two young communists, already hinted at in the first part of the film, is portrayed. The main figure of the second part is Änne's husband Fiete Jansen, who already stood by Thälmann's side as a friend and fighter in the first part. He was able to emigrate to the Soviet Union, fought for the people's cause in Spain and later in the ranks of the Red Army , where he advocated a quick end to the fascist war. His wife is killed in an air raid after being arrested for illegal work in the penitentiary.
Historical errors or forgeries
As in many propaganda films, there are also falsifications of historical facts in Ernst Thälmann - leaders of his class .
- The impression is given that the Stahlhelm and the SPD both supported Paul von Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election . In truth, the Stahlhelm had put up its own candidate with Theodor Duesterberg . In the second ballot, the Stahlhelm declared itself neutral.
- The social fascism thesis , which the KPD represented until 1935, is not mentioned. Instead, the impression is given that the KPD has always been in favor of a united front with the Social Democrats.
- The BVG strike in 1932 is mentioned, but not the associated cooperation between the Communists and the National Socialists.
- The impression is given that the SPD leadership was in favor of letting Hitler come to power in 1932/33.
- Thälmann was arrested on March 3, 1933 and not, as shown, on the evening of the Reichstag fire .
- The rejection of the Enabling Act by the SPD is not mentioned.
background
The work can be rated as one of the most important propaganda films of the GDR.
It was made in the Babelsberg studio with outdoor shots from Berlin , Leipzig and Halle as the first feature film in the world that was made with a combined stereo and optical sound process and premiered in the specially converted Babylon cinema in Berlin with this stereo spatial sound technology. This pioneering film technical achievement was based on the developments of the engineers Fritz Hodann and Dr. Ulrich Dietrich in the former DEFA company laboratory. At the same time, a multi-channel magnetic film device MA 35 was built and at AGFA - Filmfabrik Wolfen the first 35 mm wide perforated magnetic film type C-2 was manufactured. A new, special 8-ton sound wagon ("No. 5") was provided by the plant construction department to provide the tube amplifier technology required in duplicate for the stereophony. The Neumann company in Gefell had developed new M 14S type condenser microphones for this purpose with financial support from the East German Ministry of Culture .
On November 11, 1954, the first stereo flap fell on the DEFA film site. Sound engineer Schmidt sat at the sound recording desk and the sound assistants Ernst Beltz, Konrad Walle, Manfred Klahre and Rudi Schulzendorf alternately held the stereo microphone pair on long boom poles at a distance of up to 8 meters from the base. However, the stereo light tone achieved did not make the impression the technicians had hoped for at the preview performances in front of an invited specialist audience and representatives of the Ministry of Culture. The complex multi-channel sound recording and playback process disappeared again into oblivion.
The film structures were created by Willy Schiller , Artur Schwarz , Franz F. Fürst and Alfred Hirschmeier . Production management was in the hands of Adolf Fischer .
Reviews
- Reclam's Lexikon des Deutschen Films (1995): “The two-part film was conceived as a 'song of praise for workers' solidarity' and aimed at pathos and monument preservation. From the heroic portrayal of Ernst Thälmann, to whom Günther Simon also endowed human traits, and his comrades-in-arms, an agitating, pathetic image of the time grew.
- Lexicon of international film : “Full of historical inaccuracies and falsifications, also more schematic and more wooden than the first part. The film, a self-affirmation of the SED, which saw itself as the executor of Thälmann's noble ideals, is at best interesting as contemporary documentary evidence of the principles of socialist realism. "
- Die Zeit : “The main actor Günter Simon is of course just as unsuccessful as in the first part of the film, turning the hero idol Teddy - as Thälmann is popularly known - into a person of flesh and blood. As the agitator's walking loudspeaker, he moves statuesque through all the scenes, and only powerful and meaningful phrases come out of his mouth like banners. Wilhelm Pieck was also allowed to give a speech twice: in 1932 after the elections and in 1944 over the trench loudspeaker of the Soviet lines. Walter Ulbricht (portrayed by an actor who played the role of Paul Löbe in the first part of all things ) speaks, as is otherwise not his way, only a few sentences in high German, but appears, contrary to all historical truth, as the initiator of an unsuccessful attempt to free Thalmann from prison. In reality, he was not in Berlin at the time, as the film shows, but as head of the KPD foreign leadership in Paris. From there he had the action prepared by the other party called off prematurely, because Thalmann seemed to him to be more useful as a martyr in prison for the party and he also wanted to get rid of an uncomfortable obstacle on his own path to power ... "
Awards
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1956: Prize to Günther Simon (best male actor).
Voices on the film
“For me, the leading idea behind these films (Ernst Thälmann I and II) was that this workers leader Ernst Thälmann had said: 'Whoever votes for Hindenburg, votes for Hitler, and whoever votes for Hitler, votes for war.' This clear statement alone justified the film, which, however, is shaped in many details by the Stalinist view of history. [...] The film tries to put Thälmann on a pedestal. And I think that's wrong, by the way, I thought back then. […] I made the film, and in my opinion the first part can be viewed within limits and also has artistic qualities, while the second part falls off more and more because of the overabundance of material and the idealization of the figure. I'm just embarrassed on many points. "
literature
- Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (ed.): Trace of the films, contemporary witnesses about DEFA . Berlin 2006.
- Heinz Kersten: The film system in the Soviet occupation zone . Bonn 1954.
- Sandra Langenhahn: Origins and Formation of the Thälmann Cult. The DEFA films “Son of His Class” and “Leader of His Class” . In: (Hrsg.): Leit- und Feindbilder in DDR-Medien ( series of media advice books, issue 5 ). Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-89331-250-1 , pp. 55–65.
- Colored teddy . In: Die Zeit , No. 45/1955
- Russel Lemmons: Hitler's Rival: Ernst Thälmann in Myth and Memory . Lexington 2012 (for details on the films, Chapter 4, pp. 157-185)
- Russel Lemmons: "Great Truths and Minor Truths': Kurt Maetzig's Ernst Thälmann Films, the Antifascism Myth, and the Politics of Biography in the German Democratic Republic." In: Framing the Fifties: Cinema in a Divided Germany , edited by John Davidson and Sabine Hake. Berghahn Books, New York 2007.
Web links
- Ernst Thälmann - leader of his class at filmportal.de
- Ernst Thalmann - leader in its class in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ernst Thälmann - leader of his class with photo gallery ( Memento from December 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Ernst Thälmann - leader of his class at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946–1955 , pp. 500 f.
- ↑ Ulrich Illing: We do everything here ... - Memories of the generation of DEFA technicians , in: apropos: Film 2000 - The yearbook of the DEFA Foundation , editor: Ralf Schenk / Erika Richter , Verlag Das Neue Berlin, 2000, ISBN 3-360-00926-6
- ↑ Ernst Thälmann - leader of his class. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .