Officers' factory

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Movie
Original title Officers' factory
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1960
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Frank Wisbar
script Franz Höllering
production Alf pond
music Hans Martin Majewski
camera Kurt Grigoleit
cut Martha Dübber
occupation

Factory of Officers is a German feature film by Frank Wisbar from 1960, based on the novel of the same name by Hans Hellmut Kirst , which was published in the same year . The story is about an idealistic first lieutenant ( Helmut Griem in his film debut) who fails to convict a Nazi ensign who has been accused of murder .

Director Frank Wisbar had previously made films about events from the Second World War with Sharks and Small Fish (German U-Boat War ), Dogs, Do you want to live forever ( Battle of Stalingrad ) and Night fell over Gotenhafen (Fall of Wilhelm Gustloff ) .

action

An army war school of the Wehrmacht in World War II: First Lieutenant Krafft has a keen sense of justice. This has often brought him into disrepute with his previous superiors, and Krafft has been transferred several times for this reason. With his new position in an officers' school, he promises to survive the war and tries to avoid further conflicts. However, Krafft is entrusted with an investigation by his general - a supervisory officer has been torn apart by an explosive charge during a pioneer exercise. Although the chief magistrate regards the man's death as an accident, Krafft reconstructs the events and proves that it was a murder case. Ensign Hochbauer, who is in the favor of the party, is said to have intentionally shortened the fuse during the blasting exercise, whereupon the supervisory officer was unable to get to safety in time.

Krafft opens a case against the staunch National Socialist Hochbauer and puts his trust in Ensign Böhmke, who is supposed to incriminate the murderer. Böhmke, a pastor's son, is blackmailed by the accused, and only after a long hesitation does he withdraw his false statement. Hochbauer then commits suicide without admitting the murder he is accused of. After this incident, the chief magistrate begins to twist the facts and tries to bring Krafft down - Böhmke had only accused Hochbauer of murder because of his National Socialist sentiments, and Lieutenant Krafft was complicit in his death. The general's apartment is then searched. Incriminating material is discovered that unmask the general as a traitor who planned an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler . Böhmke and the general are arrested. Krafft, who does not want to accept any punishment for Böhmke's sincerity, then attacks the judge and is shot by members of the Gestapo . Meanwhile, the dead high builder is buried as a victim of subversive activities.

criticism

"Director Wisbar [...] delivers a thoroughly respectable resistance drama based on the template of bestselling author Kirst [...], which is above the average of West German films that dealt with National Socialism in those years, although it has some deficiencies typical of the time : The roles of 'good' and 'bad' are all too clearly divided; the rebellion of the upright officer is determined purely individually, the way to a political morality (and thus to a critical historical awareness) is not shown. The cinema debut of Helmut Griem was impressive. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The concern is commendable, provided that the truth is to be honored here. However, this is very doubtful in the case of a script that is based on conventional ideational clichés and draws as simple black and white as this one. You cannot overcome the past of the Third Reich with such a mistake. "

- Protestant film observer

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Factory of the officers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ quoted from the officers' factory . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006, ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1