Hans Westmar

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Movie
German title Hans Westmar
Original title Hans Westmar - one of many. A German fate from 1929
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1933
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK according to a reserved film
Rod
Director Franz Wenzler
script Hanns Heinz Ewers , Paul Beyer, Dr. CI brown
production Robert Ernst - Volksdeutsche Film GmbH (Berlin)
music Giuseppe Becce (illustration music); Ernst Hanfstaengl (various compositions)
camera Franz Weihmayr
cut Alice Ludwig
occupation

Hans Westmar - One of many is a National Socialist propaganda film that was shot in Berlin in 1933 under the direction of Franz Wenzler . He is anti-communist and anti-Semitic . The novel Horst Wessel served as the script . A German fate from Hanns Heinz Ewers , who also worked on the script and direction.

action

Closely based on the novel Horst Wessel by Hanns Heinz Ewers, the film depicts the life and murder of Horst Wessel in Berlin and his work for the SA and NSDAP . However, the historical events are massively distorted to bring Wessel and Westmar together To stylize heroic martyrs : The corps student and SA member Hans Westmar is supposed to advertise for the NSDAP voters in the working-class district of Berlin-Friedrichshain , although the Communist Party has many supporters in this quarter. When Westmar succeeds in his efforts, supporters of the communist party decide to assassinate the political opponent. Westmar is shot at the door of his apartment. His funeral procession through Berlin turns into a parade of his party comrades.

Anti-communism

According to Erwin Leiser , three types of communist leaders are depicted in the film: the chief bonze who takes advantage of social misery and passes on the Soviet slogans, the cowardly agitator with "Jewish features" and the idealist (horse), whose clenched fist is in the final scene, in which the SA organizes a torchlight procession on the occasion of the " seizure of power " , opens to the Hitler salute. As in Hitler Quex was in Hans Westmar of communism itself a dangerous opponent of Nazism, the individual communist but a potential party member. On the occasion of a communist street demonstration, Hans Westmar declares - in the spirit of Nazi propaganda - that this involves all of Germany, and that we must fight hand in hand with the workers; at this point there are no more classes .

According to Leiser, the communists' tone among themselves corresponds to the National Socialist mentality: In Bismarck, Bismarck speaks of the “ German Michel ” with the same disdainful smile as the leader of the communist leadership in Hans Westmar . In addition, the communist slogan "Nazi verrecke" was copied from the National Socialist "Judah, verrecke!"

Historical background

Original SA storms appeared in the film, as well as Jews who worked as extras for a fee, police units and student corps of the Berlin SC in the KSCV . Advisors for the film were SA-Obersturmführer Richard Fiedler and SA-Standartenführer Hans Breuer. It is possible that Joseph Goebbels also appeared personally in the first version of the film, which, however, has not survived.

After Hitler took office on January 30, 1933, the "Horst Wessel case" was used in multimedia to anchor the ideology of National Socialism in people's minds using a "heroic" personality. The SA terror against communists should also be ideologically legitimized.

Prohibition of the first draft

The film was originally called Horst Wessel, like the book . A German fate and was forbidden by Joseph Goebbels immediately after the premiere in the Berlin " Capitol " on October 6, 1933 (in front of invited guests), because Horst Wessel's person was against the will of Goebbels et al. a. had been depicted in the Christian and pimp milieu. The reason given by the film inspection agency was that the film would "neither be in the form of Horst Wessel nor the nat. social movement as the bearer of the state ".

Goebbels also justified this as follows:

“We National Socialists do not attach great importance to our SA marching on the stage or on the screen. Their territory is the street. But if someone approaches the solution of National Socialist problems in the artistic field, then he must be clear that in this case, too, art does not come from willingness, but from ability. Even an ostentatiously displayed National Socialist sentiment does not replace the lack of true art. The National Socialist government never demanded that SA films be made. On the contrary: it sees a danger even in its excess. [...] National Socialism does not mean under any circumstances a license for artistic failure. On the contrary, the bigger the idea that comes to the design, the higher the artistic demands must be placed on it. "

The film was only released under the name Hans Westmar - One of Many after a complete makeover . A German fate from 1929 released by film censors. The premiere of the new version took place on December 13, 1933 in the Berlin “Capitol” in the presence of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler . This version was 5 minutes shorter than the original.

Margarete Wessel , Horst Wessel's mother, tried to prevent the performance until the end. On December 2, 1933, she telegraphed Hitler personally to forbid the film because it meant “desecrating” her son.

reception

The film was not well received by the National Socialist leaders, especially Joseph Goebbels. One generally saw the memory of Horst Wessel impaired. The film was therefore rarely shown and thus a financial disaster for Hanns Heinz Ewers and Ernst Hanfstaengl , the sponsors of the Volksdeutsche Film GmbH founded especially for the film.

Jules Sauerwein wrote about the original version in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung : "One of the best films I have ever seen."

Parts of the film are often used in documentaries today because of their authentic character. The film was banned by the Allied Control Commission in 1945. From 1966 to 1994, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation wrongly claimed that it was the legal successor to Ufa as the owner of the rights to the film. Since then, its public performance has only been possible to a limited extent with the approval of the Federal Archives / Film Archives - in accordance with a reserved film . The version preserved today is eight minutes shorter than the original version that has not been preserved.

literature

  • Daniel Siemens: The Making of a Nazi Hero. IB Tauris, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-78076-077-3 .
  • Original script for the "Horst Wessel" film (typescript) in the Heinrich Heine Institute (Düsseldorf), Hanns Heinz Ewers branch.
  • Martin Loiperdinger : Hans Westmar. Settings protocol (= IHSA working paper. No. 12, ZDB ID 982132-6 ). Filmland-Presse, Munich 1980, DNB 850235456 .
  • Martin Loiperdinger (ed.): Martyr legends in Nazi films. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1991, ISBN 3-8100-0700-5 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erwin Leiser : "Germany, awake!" Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 31.
  2. ↑ Leiser 1968, p. 32.
  3. ↑ Leiser 1968, p. 35.
  4. ^ Alfred Bauer: German Feature Film Almanach 1929–1950. New edition 1976, p. 190.
  5. ↑ Quoted from Erwin Leiser : “Germany, awake!” Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 30.
  6. ^ Richard Taylor: Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. IBTauris, London 1998, p. 157.
  7. ^ Daniel Siemens: Horst Wessel: Death and Transfiguration of a National Socialist . Siedler, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-88680-926-4 , p. 147
  8. ↑ David Welch: Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. IBTauris, London 2001, p. 62.
  9. ^ Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , Norddeutsche Buchdruckerei and Verlaganstalt, October 3, 1933.