Here is Germany

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Movie
Original title Here is Germany
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1945
length 52 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ernst Lubitsch
script Gottfried Reinhardt ,
William L. Shirer ,
George Ziomer ,
Ernst Lubitsch
production Frank Capra ,
Edgar Stevenson ,
William Hornbeck
music Dimitri Tiomkin
cut Dorothy Spencer ,
Bud Sheets
occupation

Here Is Germany (also Know Your Enemy: Germany ) is an American propaganda film in the form of a documentary in black and white . It was produced by the US War Department from 1942 to 1945 .

content

Preliminary remark

This section has the task of giving a summary of the content of Here Is Germany and thus also of the views represented in the film. It is not his job to evaluate these views, even if they are controversial or even wrong in content. Such views are hardly surprising in a war authority propaganda film about a war opponent. In order to make it easier to classify the content, especially in the section on German history, links to the relevant Wikipedia articles have been added. In this regard, it should be noted that Napoleon Bonaparte is not mentioned in the film.

The film

Germany is a beautiful, prosperous and modern country with a history. A clean and orderly, educated, musical and industrial people live there. People who look like Americans and who enjoy life. They should therefore be easy to understand for Americans. Really? As a contrast, pictures from concentration camps are shown, first corpses, then freed inmates who have just survived. Piles of bones, gas chambers and the incinerators, clothes and toys that belonged to the dead and were collected for further use, and "works of art" made from human skin. Afterwards, groups of Poles, Italians and Belgians who were shot and killed by the Germans when they withdrew from their respective areas are shown, as well as another group of US prisoners of war shot. What made the Germans act like this? Hitler would have said it was German blood, but there must be another reason: Too many Americans, among them valued and heroic ones, also have German blood.

The reason lies in German history. The film presents them as follows: In the 18th century Germany was a loose collection of around 300 principalities, the largest of which was Prussia . None of these principalities had a constitution like the United States already had at the time; they were all medieval monarchies. Frederick the Great , the ruler of Prussia, introduced harsh, disciplinary laws that prevented his subjects from fighting for their freedom and that enabled him to build a strong army. He soon attacked Austria without a declaration of war, fought alone against Russia, France and Sweden for seven years , and in the end won the war. After his death, Prussian officers such as Gerhard von Scharnhorst as organizer, August Neidhardt von Gneisenau as strategist and Carl von Clausewitz as theoretician established the Prussian military doctrine. When insurgents called for a constitution, they were crushed. In the next 30 years, two million freedom-loving refugees from Prussia and the other German principalities came to the USA. Those who remained blindly obeyed their sovereigns and waited for their next leader. That was Otto von Bismarck , who first provoked and won a war against Denmark . Then he waged a war against Austria , which he also won. Eventually he attacked France and surprisingly won this war against the country that was then considered the strongest in Europe. After this victory he installed the Prussian King Wilhelm I as the absolutist ruler of the united Germany , which was now considered invincible. German industry was built up over the next few years. The world hoped for a peaceful Germany, but had forgotten the Prussian propensity for violence. German industry was more adapted to the needs of the military than to those of the economy; German students enjoyed themselves not with football, but with the deadly art of fencing . Schmisse were the new symbol of beauty. The country was now ruled by four groups, the politicians, the military, the landlords and the industrialists. These and their new leader Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern refused the disarmament treaty proposed by the great powers and waited for an occasion for the next war. This occasion was the assassination attempt on Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. So at the beginning of August 1918 the world war broke out , and the German soldiers enthusiastically marched into it. In order to conquer France, they marched into Belgium despite a neutrality treaty . They used poison gas as a weapon , which also broke a contract . And they attacked unarmed merchant ships with submarines without warning and thus got the US to intervene in the war. The coalition finally brought success, the German army disintegrated and fled the battlefields. Erich Ludendorff , the general in charge, urged an immediate offer of peace in a telegram to Berlin, since the army would not last 48 hours. A peace treaty was signed against the will of the French and General Pershing . The emperor fled to the Netherlands, Ludendorff to Sweden, and a republic was founded in Germany . The old elites had left the weak opposition in the foreground, but stayed in office, as did the industrialists and even the teachers. The army too had returned to the Reich in such a way that it appeared undefeated; enemy armies had only marched into a small part of Germany. The blame for the defeat was not placed on those who had actually lost, but on those who had signed the peace treaty. Dignitaries like Paul von Hindenburg and General von Seeckt complained that the Versailles Treaty was too burdensome for Germany. Therefore the agreed payments were waived; Germany even received financial support. And with this money rebuilt his armies. In 1933 Hitler's party became the strongest in the country. Shortly afterwards, the Nazis set fire to the Reichstag and accused the communists. This meant that Hitler could declare a state of emergency and bring parliament into line . Hitler added the group of criminals to the previously powerful groups of the military, politicians, large landowners and industrialists. These groups drove the German people back to war - and to the atrocities shown.

At the end, an inventory and an announcement of how to proceed: The thoughts of violence and superiority have been so firmly anchored in the minds of Germans that in ten, twenty or a hundred years a new leader could bring the next war. How can this be prevented? A start has been made: Germany has obviously lost the war for everyone. No German armies returned, but foreign ones. The officer corps has been disbanded, the industry is in ruins and what is left is controlled by the victorious powers. The politicians cannot flee, but are brought to justice and punished. The teaching material for schools as well as all Nazi propaganda is destroyed, and the content of the new teaching material is controlled by the victorious powers. The last time the opposition took over the government, now it is Allied officers who did not come to Germany as liberators, but as conquerors. And they will stay for ten years or twenty or forever. Until the Germans understand that they are responsible for themselves and for peace. They were freed from Hitler, but not from their history; you have to do that yourself. Until then, they are still a threat to civilization. Only when they have freed themselves from their history can Germany become the beautiful, industrial and musical country again and take its place among the peaceful nations of the world.

background

It is true that This Is Germany both a preliminary and a final credits, but both name any of the people involved in the film. One consequence of this is that different movie databases provide different information. For example, the American Film Institute names Ernst Lubitsch as the director, while other sources, such as the Internet Movie Database , name Frank Capra or Gottfried Reinhardt . The film data follow the information from the AFI.

Here Is Germany was conceived in 1942 by Ernst Lubitsch, William L. Shirer and George Ziomer as an orientation film for American soldiers and created by Lubitsch. The film, which was completed in October 1942, was rejected by the Army and therefore initially not published. In February 1944, Frank Capra suggested resuming the project, as the film could soon become useful with a few changes. In October 1944 he edited the film, which he finished on April 5, 1945.

The opening credits of Here Is Germany explain that various films were used to illustrate the statements made. German feature films were mostly used for this purpose. But news material, the archives of the war authorities and captured film material were also used. According to the AFI , German films such as Berlin - Die Sinfonie der Großstadt or Kuhle Wampe or: Who Owns the World? and American films like Nothing New in the West , Sergeant York , Four Sons or The Great Waltz . The film is therefore to be classified as a compilation film .

Here Is Germany is not part of the Why We Fight series , even if it is sometimes claimed. The AFI assigns the film to the series Know Your Ally, Know Your Enemy .

Here Is Germany was produced by the US War Department with support from 20th Century Fox . The Walt Disney Studios contributed animation. The film was released in September 1945, so it came too late for its original purpose. Instead, it was used to show the German population in the context of re-education the “US-American view of the German character with regard to its history of aggressive wars of aggression”. He was shown to German prisoners in the so-called POW Schools ( Prisoner of War , i.e. schools for prisoners of war). In May 1946 the film was shown in cinemas in the American Occupation Zone .

aftermath

  • Here Is Germany is used for training, for example by Harold Marcuse in his lectures at UC Santa Barbara or in the advanced training for teachers in Baden Württemberg .
  • The film is part of Karl Höffkes' DVD Recognize Your Enemy! - Frank Capras 'Here is Germany' .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Release certificate for Here Is Germany . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 46944 / VV). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Here Is Germany (1945). In: American Film Institute . Retrieved April 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Here Is Germany in the Internet Movie Database (English) , accessed on April 13, 2019.
  4. ↑ Film data sheet Here Is Germany . Berlinale, accessed on April 13, 2019 .
  5. ^ Clear Film on Germany . In: Motion Picture Daily . May 9, 1946, p.  2 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed April 13, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Nina Verheyen: Desire for discussion: a cultural history of the "better argument" in West Germany . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-37014-8 , pp. 71 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 13, 2019]).
  7. ↑ 'Here Is Germany,' Army Pic, Being Shown Germans . In: Variety . May 22, 1946, p.  22 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed April 13, 2019]).
  8. ^ Harold Marcuse : Film: Here is Germany (1945). In: marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb. Retrieved April 13, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Here is Germany - pictures. Further training for female teachers in Baden-Württemberg, accessed on April 13, 2019 .