Heinz Ritter (cameraman)

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Heinz Ritter's last picture. Taken in June 1958 at his apartment in Buenos Aires.
PK (Propaganda Company) ID No. 0734 belonging to the war reporter Heinz Ritter
Lt. Ritter (left) as leader of his war reporter train in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, in France on the canal in 1940.
Heinz Ritter's flight log in action in Africa (excerpt)
War film reporter Ritter in the pulpit of a Ju 87 in southern Russia in 1942. Camera instead of MG.
OLtn. Heinz Ritter greets the pilot of a Fieseler stork on the southern eastern front in 1943.
1943 Heinz Ritter (2nd from right) with his father Karl (director) and his younger brother Gottfried (assistant director and editor) during the filming of “Besatzung Dora” on the Eastern Front. Karl Ritter, shot, among other things, scenes "Occupation Dora" with the 5th Luftwaffe long-range reconnaissance squadron (F) / 122 in October 1942, deep in the Soviet Union, at the Gostkino air base, 100 km south of Leningrad where the squadron 1941 for reconnaissance of the Russian northern section had been relocated. At that time the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) was in progress. The 45-man "Dora" film crew filmed there for a whole month. One of the main actors, actor Hannes Stelzer, himself a fighter pilot, who was in front of the camera in his fifth knightly film, fell in Slovakia shortly after Christmas 1944 when his plane was shot down by Soviet flak or airmen in the middle of a snow storm.
Heinz Ritter and family in Oberaudorf am Inn 1948
1954 - Wiesbaden - Heinz Ritter with the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor during the filming of the Ball of Nations .
Heinz Ritter's last film - recording work in 1957 in Chile for The Abandoned Fishing Village (La Caleta Olvidada)

Heinz Ritter (born August 6, 1912 in Munich , † July 22, 1958 in Goya , Corrientes Province , Argentina ) was a German war film reporter , press photographer and cameraman .

Life

Heinz Ritter was the eldest of three sons of the royal Bavarian pioneer lieutenant and later Ufa director Karl Ritter and Erika Ritter born. Ritter, great-granddaughter of Albert, Richard Wagner's brother .

Heinz attended the Maximilian-Gymnasium in Munich and from 1925 the Hindenburg-Oberrealschule in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. After graduating from school, he went to the Lette Verein's photographic training institute , the so-called Lette-Haus, where the famous photographer Marianne Breslauer had studied two years before, for two years to train as a cameraman. At the same time he took drawing and painting courses at the academy in Berlin.

In 1932 he was employed by Pathé-Natan in París as a still photographer and camera assistant. The Compagnie Générale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographe was a film conglomerate at the time, which, in addition to the production and distribution of films, owned 200 cinemas in France, Belgium, Spain, Russia, the USA and Japan. Pathé cameras and demonstration equipment were among the most sought-after in the industry at the time. Before the First World War , six out of ten films worldwide were shot with Pathé cameras. In the following years, however, the company ran into trouble and went bankrupt in 1939.

After his return in 1935 and until 1938, Ritter worked for Universum Film (Ufa) in Babelsberg for Ufa-Tonwoche and for Tobis-Wochenschau in Berlin. At that time, Tobis Tonbild-Syndikat AG was the largest German film production company after the UFA. It existed as an independent company from 1927 to 1942 and played a significant role in film production during the National Socialist era.

In addition, Ritter worked as a freelance photo reporter for various illustrated newspapers. During this time his tasks took him to Italy, Greece, North Africa, the Canary Islands and Egypt (Ritter spoke German, fluent English, French and some Spanish and Italian). In 1938 he shot and photographed the Legion's mission in Spain on behalf of Ufa Condor . He took part in many combat operations, such as the capture of Barcelona and Madrid, and at the same time shot the authentic material for his father's film Legion Condor , who was also assigned to this Legion as a major in the Air Force. Legion Condor - In the fight against the world enemy: German volunteers in Spain , was completed in 1939. But it was precisely at this point in time that Germany faced a particular problem: immediately after the Spanish civil war, its ideological opponents in Spain suddenly became part of the new allies with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. For this reason, all films that criticized the Soviet Union and its allies were abruptly withdrawn from circulation or their production suspended. So also the document strip "In the fight against the world enemy" which had already devoured several million marks. The film tells the story of the Spanish civil war in the 1930s from the perspective of the German volunteers who came to fight against the "world enemy", communism. It showed a glimpse behind the scenes, for example the reconnaissance activities of the air force squadron of the German Condor Legion, and offered a comprehensive insight into the latest technologies of warfare in the run-up to the Second World War.

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War , Heinz Ritter volunteered in Potsdam in 1939 and was drafted into the Heeres-PK ( Propaganda Company ) on October 12, 1939 . 14 months later, as Feldwebel dR, he attended the Army War School in Halle and was promoted to Lieutenant (KrO) on February 1, 1941, with a simultaneous transfer to Air Force War Reporter Company 6 in Berlin Adlershof for special use as platoon leader under Major Hans von Pebal (later replaced by Captain Hugo-Peter Wiebe).

His unit was relocated from Berlin-Adlershof in 1941 via Maastrich to Le Touquet-Paris-Plage in France, where they moved into a villa opposite the soldiers' home. The area of ​​operation was the Channel coast from Calais to far beyond Dieppe. Le Touquet is located on the canal, 70 kilometers south of Calais and was occupied by German troops on May 22, 1940. The Lw. Kriegsber.Kp (mot) 6 was assigned to Luftflotte 6 . This association, whose squadron was involved in the Battle of Britain, was under the leadership of Colonel General Robert Ritter von Greim .

" Heinz Ritter's platoon was an interesting composition - writes Heinz Langer, who at the beginning of 1941 as a young soldier was transferred to PK 6 after his basic training and was assigned to Lieutenant Ritter's platoon. " Experienced editors of major newspapers, war painters, but also well trained and experienced cameramen such as Graf Hardenberg, Kurt Boecker (film reporter), and Graf Sierstorpff and Willi Antonowitz (photo reporter) formed the group. Le Touquet in France also included the Cap Gris-Nez base from which the fortifications being built on the English Channel coast were photographed daily. A task that was assigned to the private De la Motte. De la Motte became famous after his recording of March 21, 1933, "The Day of Potsdam", which shows Reich Chancellor Hitler, disguised as an honest man, bowing mendaciously to President Hindenburg, ".

In 1943, with a total of 15,000 men in the propaganda companies, a total of 219 film reporters were deployed, including 85 from the army, 42 from the navy and 46 each from the air force and the Waffen SS . On behalf of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, they shot recordings of all sections of the front for the “ Deutsche Wochenschau ”, often in the foremost combat zones and at the risk of their own lives. Between the start of the war and October 1943, the film reporters recorded 62 dead or missing, 57 wounded and four who had been taken prisoner.

The recordings delivered from the fronts were mostly sensational: war reporters drove with us on submarines and tanks, they flew with us on airplanes. The war was illustrated to the viewer of the German newsreel in revolutionary urgency.

Like the other German war reporters - photographers, journalists and radio reporters - the film reporters also went through basic military training. This should enable them to use conventional weapons in addition to their reporting work. In addition, they were ordered to special courses depending on their area of ​​activity. Numerous Luftwaffe film reporters - such as Heinz Ritter - had to complete training to become a gunner, as they replaced the relevant crew member in flight operations. German propaganda saw war reporters as full-fledged soldiers who knew how to use both rifles and cameras as “weapons”: “The German war reporters [are] not only editors, photographers, broadcasters and cameramen [...], but soldiers. This alone gave them the full confidence of the fighting troops. "

"The cameramen had to produce images of the war that, after editing and filming in Berlin, were put together into effective propaganda films and newsreels, and even served as models abroad. Although the cameramen were integrated into military structures and often direct instructions from the OKW or the Propaganda Ministry They felt relatively free and independent on site. Not only the combat situation was a challenge, but also the extreme climate, whether it was heat in Africa or cold in Russia. They were often so squeezed into planes, tanks and ships that The batteries for the drive failed in freezing temperatures, as did the oil for lubrication, which had to be replaced with kerosene. In extreme temperatures or in difficult situations, cameramen also resorted to old cameras with springs to avoid the Power supply via batteries to be dependent. Aesthetically innovative was the coupling of cameras with firearms in order to be able to show (subjective) images of direct combat (...) As a rule, the recordings of war events were silent and were synchronized with noises. After initial protests by the military that wrong sounds had been used with the various weapons (in the newsreels) , the sound archive was expanded and there were exact sound recordings for the respective weapon types in order to be able to create the most authentic sound design possible ".

At the end of May 1942, Ritter gave up the leadership of his reporting train in Blingel, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, a small village about 30 km west of Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, in order to pursue his post in North Africa, where he served in combat missions for a year. In the further course of the war he came to the southern front of Russia (1942–1944) for two and a half years and finally to Italy and the invasion front (late 1944). As a film reporter, he took part in over 60 enemy flights. On February 14, 1942 he was awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords and on May 31 of the following year the Iron Cross 2nd Class.

His rich experience was used for the training of the next generation of film reporters by temporarily calling him to the OKW as a film specialist (Luftwaffe). On March 1, 1943, Ritter was promoted to first lieutenant in the Air Force. His war reporting activity was only interrupted twice when he was shooting his father's Stukas and Crew Dora films in 1940 and 1941 . Crew Dora was filmed largely on the Russian front.

Military career and awards

  • Special Leader (November 10, 1939)
  • Private (December 1, 1939)
  • Promotion to Sergeant in the Reserve (May 1, 1940)
  • Promotion to sergeant d. Res. (August 1, 1940)
  • Attended the Army War School in Halle
  • Promotion to lieutenant d. Res. (War Officer) (February 1, 1941)
  • Spanish cross in bronze without swords (deployment in Spain in 1938 as a civilian cameraman)
  • Aviator badge (Luftwaffe rifle license 1941)
  • Front flight clasp in bronze (20th front flight)
  • War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords (February 14, 1942)
  • Promotion to First Lieutenant (Kr. O.) (March 1, 1943)
  • Iron Cross 2nd Class (May 31, 1943)
  • Front flight clasp in silver (60th front flight)

post war period

After the war - he had already been released from the American troops on July 6, 1945 - he initially made his way as an art and antiques dealer. His wife Anne-Eva Bahr, the daughter of the Berlin publisher Eugen Bahr, whom he married in 1941, and his daughter Monika spent the last few weeks before the end of the war in Oberaudorf am Inn, where they had fled only shortly before the Soviet troops occupied Berlin. His two sons Peter and Michael were born there in 1945 and 1946.

Until 1948 Ritter worked as a freelance photo reporter for illustrated magazines such as Ufer , Taurus , Quick and Revue and from 1948 to 1950 as a cameraman for the company Film-Studio Walter Leckebusch and Co. in Munich. There, in addition to some industry and advertising films, Ritter produced the strips Eine Affenidee and It happened in Nuremberg . In mid-June 1948, Heinz Ritter was denazified as "not affected" by the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Chamber of Justice.

On August 27, 1950, Ritter and his family emigrated to Argentina . There he shot the feature film Das Paradies (El Paraíso) with his father in 1952/1953 . This was followed by other Argentinian feature films, cultural and documentary films, such as u. a. the film The Unlucky One (El hombre señalado) shown in the Berlinale 1957 and the film The Abandoned Fishing Village (La caleta olvidada), which he shot in Chile, also shown in Berlin in 1958 . His reputation as a color specialist and director of photography ( cinematographer ) extended far beyond the borders of Argentina. He was also used to film state visits, such as the trip of the former Argentine President Eugenio Aramburu to Bolivia. Heinz Ritter visited his old homeland Germany for the last time in 1954 to shoot the film Ball of Nations with his father in Wiesbaden .

His enthusiasm for expedition films - especially the north of Argentina with its high plateau in the northwest and its tropical splendor in the northeast - made his wish come true to make his own big cultural film in color. In July 1958, he went to Corrientes Province to prepare for this film. Here his tragic fate overtook him. During a reconnaissance flight in a single-engine sports machine of the Piper type , which was flown by a large landowner who was also a flight instructor for the local aeroclub, the machine's engine failed during take-off. The pilot and Heinz Ritter, who survived the Second World War despite many daring ventures, died in the crash.

Filmography

Still photos

camera

as an actor

cut

  • 1933: In the photo studio (short film)

literature

  • Hasso von Wedel: The Propaganda Companies of the Wehrmacht. In: Die Wehrmacht , special edition, July 6, 1940, pp. 23–24.
  • Barkhausen, Hans: Film propaganda for Germany in the First and Second World War. Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 1982.
  • Obituary Heinz Ritter. In: Die Wildente, December 19, 1958, pp. 70–71 ( Die Wildente, information sheet for former members of the Propaganda Companies (PK) of the Wehrmacht , in A5 format in Hamburg by the freelance journalist and former first lieutenant (Army PK) The magazine published by Günther Heysing appeared irregularly (only 28 issues from 1952 to 1966 in total) with an edition of last only 5,200 copies)

Web links

Commons : Heinz Ritter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Barkhausen: Film propaganda for Germany in the First and Second World War . Olms Presse, Hildesheim 1982, p. 235.
  2. ^ Hasso von Wedel: Die Propaganda-Kompanien der Wehrmacht . In: Die Wehrmacht , special edition, July 6, 1940, pp. 23–24.
  3. ^ Daniel, Ute (Hrgb): War reporting from the 18th to the 21st century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen, 2006. pp. 173 and 176.
personal data
SURNAME Ritter, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German war film reporter, press photographer and cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1958
Place of death Goya , Corrientes Province , Argentina