Secret files WB 1
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Secret files WB 1 |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1942 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Herbert Selpin |
| script |
Walter Zerlett-Olfenius Herbert Selpin edited by Curt Johannes Braun and Franz Weichenmayr based on the novel Der eiserne Seehund (1941) by Hans Arthur Thies |
| production | Carl W. Tetting for Bavaria-Filmkunst (Munich) |
| music | Franz Doelle |
| camera | Franz Koch |
| cut | Friedel Buckow |
| occupation | |
| |
Secret Files WB 1 is a German history and propaganda film from 1941. Alexander Golling plays the submarine designer Wilhelm Bauer, directed by Herbert Selpin .
action
In 1849 Germany was split up into numerous small states. The Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein is attacked by the Danes in the north, the German coast is sealed off by the enemy with a blockade. Sergeant Wilhelm Bauer wants to break this blockade and for this reason tries, without the support of his military superiors, to attach an explosive charge to a Danish frigate lurking off the coast. But before that happens, he is prevented from doing so by his own people and brought before a court-martial for arbitrariness. The chairman of the court, a general, shows sympathy for Bauer's brisk arbitrariness and, moreover, an interest in Bauer's plans to construct a submarine with which one can in the future unnoticed approach enemy ships in order to sink them.
In Admiral Brommy, Bauer finds an influential supporter of his daring plans. The engineer will soon have the construction plans ready. It is a good thing that the father of an old friend, Karl Hösly from Kiel, is the owner of the shipyard. This is where the first Bauer model is made, and the designer finds another supporter for his idea in the shipyard master Paul Schultze. In order to make the submarine capable of attack, Bauer picks up on Admiral Brommy's idea that the enemy should also be fired from on board. By the way, Wilhelm Bauer also finds the time to fall in love with Karl's sister Sophie. This returns his feelings.
When the boat is finally finished and ready for use, it is the English who thwart Bauer's success with an act of sabotage. Bauer's submarine wrecks and goes aground. With great difficulty, Bauer and his small team manage to escape the metal coffin alive and to reappear. From then on, Wilhelm Bauer found a generous patron in the Bavarian King Maximilian. He lets the inventor undertake further diving test drives on Lake Starnberg . On one of these occasions, Bauer met the Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaiwitsch, who was in Bavaria. He is on fire for Bauer's idea and offers him generous help without the designer losing his rights to his patent. At least that's the promise. In Kronstadt he, a farmer, could finish his submarine at Constantine's expense.
Bauer travels to Russia and builds the first fully developed submarine there according to his plans. Some time later, the German ambassador visits him in St. Petersburg and informs Bauer that there are now opportunities at home to complete his maritime invention. Bauer, a very patriot, wants to go home immediately, but the Russian Grand Duke does not want to let him go and see Bauer's invention used for the benefit of the Russian war machine. In a daring night-and-fog action, Bauer and his people, hindered by Russian soldiers, board their own submersible to flee towards Germany. With a single, precisely aimed shot, Wilhelm Bauer destroys the gate to the harbor basin, so that now only he can leave the harbor and shipyard during a dive. On the high seas, Admiral Brommy awaits him with his ship and takes Bauer on board, where Sophie Hösly takes him longingly in her arms. But Bauer sank his own invention on the seabed just inside the Russian territorial waters, as it was financed by the Russians. Of course, he saved the construction plans for a purely German new building.
Production notes
Secret files WB 1 - the WB stands for Wilhelm Bauer - was filmed from July 26th to the end of November 1941 in the Bavaria studios in Munich . There was a large water basin in which numerous scenes for "sea films" could be shot. The outdoor shots were taken on the Chiemsee and in Putbus on Rügen . The premiere took place on January 23, 1942 in Munich's Ufa-Palast. The Berlin premiere took place a little later, on February 3, 1942 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo and in the Ufa-Theater Weißensee. The film opened in Vienna on February 19, 1942.
Fritz Maurischat was in charge of the overall equipment . Under him, Fritz Lück , Bruno Lutz , Kurt Dürnhöfer and August Herrmann were busy building the film structures. Bert Hoppmann designed the costumes, Hans R. Wunschel provided the sound. The small actor Jac Diehl played two (mini) roles in the film. For Justus Paris this was the last film appearance.
The production costs of the equipment-intensive film amounted to 2,240,000 RM . This made secret files WB 1 more expensive than average. The film with its explicitly anti-British and anti-Russian notes is considered to be one of the propaganda films of the Third Reich that have largely been forgotten .
A piece of music was played: out in the harbor a ship lies in the moonlight .
Although no longer publicly shown after 1945, Secret Files WB 1 was released by the FSK in October 1981 for children from 6 years of age. A second FSK exam took place in early 1997.
Awards
The Nazi state awarded the film three ratings:
- politically valuable
- artistically valuable
- youth value
reception
“Illustrated with graphs and slides and provided with a student-like comment, the strip was at times not always an exciting educational study. (...) A libretto with strong feelings ... was provided by Herbert Selpin and Walter Zerlett-Olfenius. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “The biographical-ballad-like plot is interesting and exciting despite the lack of a conflict in the usual sense. Its designers proved to be equally lucky in terms of the performance of the actors and time characteristics, and only endangered the uniformity of the dialogues through an unnecessary variety of dialects. The presentation is quite successful in historical and technical terms, photography and sound carefully. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ according to Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme, 12th year 1942/43, 014.42, p. 44. Filmportal.de, however, names October 1941 as the end of shooting
- ↑ Secret files WB 1 in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
