Fritz Hippler

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Fritz Hippler (born August 17, 1909 in Berlin ; † May 22, 2002 in Berchtesgaden ) was a National Socialist German film politician. Hippler produced, among other things, the anti-Semitic inflammatory film The Eternal Jew .

Short biography

Hippler grew up in Berlin as the son of a civil servant in the lower service . His father died in France in 1918 during World War I. Hippler experienced the Treaty of Versailles and its Germany-related regulations, such as the cession of the Polish Corridor , the occupation of the Rhineland and the disarmament of Germany, as an unjustified humiliation, and rejected the Weimar democracy .

As a schoolboy, Hippler became a member of the NSDAP in 1927 (membership number 62.133). He later studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin. He became a member of the striking connections Landsmannschaft Teutonia Heidelberg and Landsmannschaft Arminia Berlin. In 1932 he became a Nazi party speaker .

In 1932, Hippler was expelled from the Berlin University for disrupting "academic custom and order" after he had given an election speech from the balcony of the university and had unfurled a swastika flag. In early 1933 he was appointed district leader for Berlin-Brandenburg in the National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB). This made him the highest ranking functionary of the NSDStB in the Reich capital. On April 19, 1933, he was re-admitted to the university by decree of the new National Socialist Minister of Education, Bernhard Rust . In this decree, Rust had repealed “all disciplinary sentences against students for acts of national motivation” from 1925 onwards.

A short time later, Hippler was involved in a leading role in the book burning . On May 10, 1933, shortly before 10 p.m., he opened a demonstration with the books that were to be burned at the student house on Oranienburger Strasse with a speech. The demonstration then led from the student house on Oranienburger Strasse to Opernplatz. At the Opernplatz itself, these books were then burned with the help of Hippler during a speech by Goebbels .

A little later, Hippler got involved in a dispute about the direction of art policy. Although he agreed with the anti-Jewish orientation of art policy and the associated banishment of Jewish artists from museums and the art trade, he criticized the harsh crackdown on expressionist artists such as Nolde , Barlach and the artist group Die at a rally of the NS Student Union in Berlin in July 1933 Bridge , whose works were denounced as degenerate art by parts of the NSDAP . The painter and student functionary Otto Andreas Schreiber and Hans Weidemann stood by his side. Although Goebbels did not reject Expressionism in principle either, this dispute over direction went out after a word of power from Hitler in favor of the National Socialists, who turned against modern art across the board. Their spokesman was Alfred Rosenberg with his Kampfbund for German culture .

After receiving his doctorate in 1934, Hippler became a lecturer at the German University of Politics in Berlin. From 1936 he worked as an assistant to Hans Weidemann , who headed the production of the German newsreel , in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . Here he learned how to make documentaries. In January 1939 he took over Weidemann's position. In August 1939 Goebbels promoted Hippler again. He appointed the 29-year-old head of the film department in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda RMVP, and in February 1942 he also appointed him Reich film director . With these two functions, Hippler was one of the most important film politicians of the “ Third Reich ” behind Goebbels. In October 1942 he became ministerial conductor in the RMVP. His task was to direct, monitor and direct German filmmaking.

In 1938 Hippler was appointed SS-Hauptsturmführer . In 1943 he was already Obersturmbannführer. According to Veit Harlan , Hippler loved to wear his uniform.

Hippler also continued to produce films in his functions as a ministerial official. In 1939/1940 he was responsible for the propaganda strip The Campaign in Poland , which was also called the Baptism of Fire . In 1940 he was responsible for the production management and design of the documentary-style compilation film The Eternal Jew - according to Courtade "the most vile of the anti-Semitic Nazi films". The film historian Frank Noack assessed The Eternal Jew "as probably the most radical inflammatory film of all time". An article drawn by Hippler in the magazine Der Film about its genesis described Jews as "parasites of national degeneration". The film served as preparation and attunement of the population for the coming Holocaust and was mainly used to train police units and SS men. In the same year Hippler received from Hitler a secret special endowment of 60,000 Reichsmarks in recognition .

Goebbels could mostly rely on his young colleague. Nevertheless, he frequently complained about its inadequacies. As early as 1939 he criticized in his diaries that Hippler was intelligent, but brazen and completely contradictory. He also stated that Hippler was immature. Goebbels complained repeatedly about the disorganization of Hippler's film department, who apparently suffered from alcohol addiction. Goebbels finally dismissed Hippler in June 1943 because of his alcohol addiction and these mishaps. Hippler's admission in his memoir that he was fired when it became known that Erich Kästner, ostracized by the National Socialists , had written the screenplay for the film Münchhausen , turned out to be an apologetic statement. After his dismissal, Hippler was also deprived of his SS rank because he was accused of concealing the fact that a great-grandmother was of Jewish descent.

Hippler was assigned to a reserve rifle battalion in Strausberg and subjected to infantry training. He was then released from working with the weapon and was employed as a front cameraman until February 1945 to produce material for newsreels. On May 3, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British in Hamburg .

After the end of the Second World War , Fritz Hippler was interned and sentenced to two years in prison.

Since he was considered to be technically competent and sincere in personal dealings , he was able to gain a foothold again after his release. He worked - partly under a pseudonym - in the creation of documentary and industrial films.

In addition to television reviews for the right-wing extremist press, Hippler wrote numerous books in which he tried to refute the thesis of Germany's sole guilt for World War II and in some cases justified the anti-Semitism of the National Socialists. He put the responsibility for his work The Eternal Jew on his employer Joseph Goebbels because he - Hippler - had to reluctantly obey Goebbels' orders.

Filmography

  • 1938: word and deed . A film document (direction). A film about the annexation of Austria
  • 1938: yesterday and today . A film document (production)
  • 1939: The West Wall (director)
  • 1940: Campaign in Poland (Director)
  • 1940: The Eternal Jew . "Film contribution to the problem of world Jewry " (direction, coordination)
  • 1941: several short films for the Frontschau (director)
  • 1941: Victory in the West (producer). A film about the campaign against Denmark, Norway, the Benelux countries, France and the allied Great Britain.
  • 1944: Orient-Express (producer)

Books by Fritz Hippler

  • Considerations on filmmaking. With a foreword by C. Froelich and a foreword by E. Jannings. 2nd Edition. Hesses Verlag, Berlin 1942.
  • The entanglement: also e. Film book ...; Settings u. Flashbacks. revised 2nd edition. Düsseldorf 1982.
  • Opinion training? a cheerful, critical television diary. Kurt Vowinckel Verlag , Berg / Starnberger See 1985.
  • Criminal man? Observations by the historian Johannes Scherr. Türmer-Verlag , Berg / Starnberger See 1987.
  • Schopenhauer today - food for thought and tastings. Türmer-Verlag, Berg / Starnberger See 1988.
  • Corrections. Searching for traces of contemporary history, with a difference. Publishing company Berg , Berg / Starnberger See 1995
  • Objection to your honor - pillory the zeitgeist. New news from the German provinces. Publishing company Berg, Berg / Starnberger See 1999.

Literature about Fritz Hippler

  • Hans-Jürgen Brandt: Nazi film theory and documentary practice: Hippler, Noldan, Junghans (= media in research teaching. Series A, 23). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1987, ISBN 3-484-34023-1 (also: Frankfurt am Main, Univ., Diss., 1985).
  • Felix Moeller: The film minister. Goebbels and the film in the Third Reich. Henschel, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89487-298-5 .
  • Roel Vande Winkel: Nazi Germany's Fritz Hippler, 1909–2002. In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Vol. 23, No. 2, 2003, ISSN  0143-9685 , pp. 91-99. doi: 10.1080 / 0143968032000091040 (English)
  • Wonder weapon film. Contemporary witnesses report: Reichsfilmintendant Fritz Hippler. DVD film documentation. ZeitReisen, Bochum 2007, ISBN 978-3-941538-19-1 .
  • Willi A. Boelcke (Ed.): War Propaganda 1939–1941. Secret ministerial conferences in the Reich Propaganda Ministry. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1966.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franck Noack: Veit Harlan: Des Teufels director . Munich 2000, according to Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 252.
  2. ↑ Rainer Eisfeld (Ed.): Participation: Theodor Eschenburg's participation in " Aryanizations " during National Socialism , Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-07215-5 , p. 61.
  3. ^ Michael Grüttner : The student body in democracy and dictatorship. In: Michael Grüttner among others: The Berlin University between the world wars 1918–1945. (= History of the University of Unter den Linden. Volume 2). Berlin 2012, p. 237 f.
  4. ↑ Werner Tress: Against the un-German spirit. Burning of books in 1933. Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932529-55-3 , p. 84.
  5. ↑ That was just a prelude ...: Book Burning Germany 1933: Requirements u. Consequences. Exhibition d. Akad. D. Arts from May 8th - July 3rd 1983. Medusa Verlag, 1983, p. 46 and Werner Treß: Against the undeutsche Geist. Burning of books in 1933. Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932529-55-3 , p. 124.
  6. ↑ Paul Ortwin Rave : Art dictatorship in the Third Reich . Hamburg 1949, p. 59ff.
  7. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 251.
  8. ^ A b Felix Moeller: The Film Minister. Goebbels and the Cinema in the Third Reich. Stuttgart / London 2000, ISBN 3-932565-10-X , p. 53.
  9. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 252 as well as Goebbels in his diaries
  10. ^ Heinrich Detering: Political taboo and political camouflage in Erich Kästner's Münchhausen screenplay . 1942, In: Michael Braun Ed .: Tabu and Tabu Breach in Literature and Film . Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3341-4 , p. 55.
  11. ^ Roel Vande Winkel: Nazi Germany's Fritz Hippler. In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Vol. 23, No. 2, 2003, p. 93.
  12. ↑ The entanglement: also e. Film book ...; Settings u. Flashbacks. revised 2nd edition. Düsseldorf 1982, p. 255.
  13. ↑ Felix Moeller: "I am an artist and nothing else." Film stars in propaganda use. In: Hans Sarkowicz (ed.): Hitler's artist. Culture in the service of National Socialism. Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 135-175 / 141f.
personal data
SURNAME Hippler, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION National Socialist German film politician
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 2002
Place of death Berchtesgaden