Germanin - The story of a colonial act

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Movie
Original title Germanin - The story of a colonial act
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1943
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Max W. Kimmich
script Hans Wolfgang Hillers , Max Wilhelm Kimmich
production UFA-Filmkunst GmbH
music Theo Mackeben
camera Jan Stallich , Jaroslav Tuzar
occupation

Germanin is a UFA feature film from 1943 with propaganda elements based on the novel of the same name by Hellmuth Unger (published 1938). It is about the development of the suramin as a medicinal agent against sleeping sickness . The title is a product placement for Bayer AG , which sold the product under the trade name "Bayer 205" and later "Germanin ® ". The 92-minute film premiered on May 15, 1943 in Berlin .

action

A German expedition led by Prof. Achenbach is researching a serum against the deadly sleeping sickness in the African colonies. The outbreak of World War I prevents research from breaking through, as British soldiers destroy the laboratory. The research results seem lost. But the daring Dr. Hofer ensures that the research material finally reaches Germany.

Although in the middle of the First World War, Bayer AG is looking for a suitable serum in long and complex series of tests from the research material. After many setbacks, the breakthrough came in the 205th test series, and the drug was given the internal development name Bayer 205. For patriotic reasons, in order to underline the international reputation and the high level of research in Germany, the decision was made to use the trade name Germanin ® . In addition, despite the loss of the colony, the people of Black Africa will be given the benefit of the drug for humanistic reasons. But the English, who rose to rulers through the war and the Versailles Treaty , require proof of the harmless effects of the serum, even though it was developed by Bayer, before the scientists can enter Africa. Dr. Hofer can prove the harmlessness of the remedy through self-experiments.

In Africa, the work of Prof. Achenbach, who arrives with an expedition in 1923, is hindered by the British authorities and the military. The superstitious natives are turned up by the English occupying forces, which prevent Achenbach from helping the sick. Ultimately, the German sick camp as well as the research station was destroyed by the English regional commander Colonel Crosby, who was humiliated by the unstoppable medical success of the German drug and who fears the loss of his colonial authority. The stocks of the remedy are almost completely destroyed.

A nationwide epidemic ensues, which now also overtakes the stubborn Colonel Crosby. But he fears that the only remedy that is still available will go blind with tryparsamide . Prof. Achenbach, who is sick himself, gives him the last serum found by chance in return for a written promise to clear the waterfalls, the breeding flocks of the tsetse fly, in order to finally defeat the disease. While this is being saved, Prof. Achenbach succumbs to his illness. Because of his heroic sacrificial death, his employees can clear the land.

background

Germanin was shot in Italy in 1942 and in the Babelsberg Ufa studios . POWs of the French colonial troops from the main camp III A in Luckenwalde were used as "black" actors . In the propaganda film , a true story was subtly interwoven with fictional elements. It is about the development of "Bayer 205", the so-called Germanin ® . Similar to the film Robert Koch from 1939, German tropical medicine is portrayed as a national, humane, colonial success story that was a boon for Africa. The inhabitants of the former German colonies suffer from British rule and long for the Germans to return. The fictitious person of Prof. Achenbach is likely to be Friedrich Karl Kleine . With his assistant Dr. Hofer could mean Karl Rösener . The historical reality was less altruistic: Bayer kept the formula of the active ingredient a secret for economic reasons; it was only deciphered, published and thus generally accessible in 1924 by Ernest Fourneau of the Pasteur Institute .

The showing of the film was banned in 1945 by the Allied military authorities in Germany.

reception

Erwin Leiser judged that the film paints "the evil English in almost even brighter colors" than Ohm Krüger . The contrast between the arrogant, brutal British and the selfless German researchers is supposed to legitimize the imperialism and colonialism of the German Empire against the British Empire .

Germanin described the film's large personal lexicon as a "weakly staged work with anti-British tendencies."

The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “An adventure film made up in detail by the director Kimmich, who was the brother-in-law of Dr. Goebbels glorifies German heroism and stirs up hatred of Britain's enemy. "

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hellmuth Unger: Germanin. The story of a German feat. Neues Volk publishing house, Berlin and Vienna 1938
  2. ↑ Uwe Mai, Prisoners of War in Brandenburg: Stalag IIIA in Luckenwalde 1939-1945, Berlin 1999, pp. 147–156.
  3. ↑ Walter Sneader: Drug Discovery: A History. John Wiley & Sons, 2005 ISBN 9780471899792 , page 378f
  4. ↑ Ernest Fourneau: Sur une nouvelle série de médicaments trypanocides, in CR Séances Acad. Sci. No. 178, page 675, 1924
  5. ↑ Erwin Leiser : "Germany, awake!" Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, pp. 87ff.
  6. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 4: H - L. Botho Höfer - Richard Lester. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 383.
  7. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 3, p. 1291. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.