Kolberg (film)
The film Kolberg is a German historical film made from 1943 to 1944 by director Veit Harlan , which referred to the siege of Kolberg in 1807 and was intended to symbolize the rebellion against an overpowering enemy. It was produced for and under the supervision of Propaganda Minister Goebbels and, as a propaganda film, was intended to strengthen the Germans' perseverance during the last phase of the Second World War .
The UFA's Agfacolor film is based on the play Colberg by Paul Heyse and the autobiography of Joachim Nettelbeck . The premiere of "staying film" took place on the 12th anniversary of the Nazi seizure of power , January 30, 1945 simultaneously in Berlin ( Tauentzien Palace , Ufa Theater Alexanderplatz) and in the competitive Atlantic fortress La Rochelle instead, making it the during the Nazi -Time heard German feature films premiered in the German Empire .
action
The film begins with a frame scene in Breslau in the spring of 1813, where the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Clausen) had withdrawn from French-occupied Berlin. The brisk officer August Neidhardt von Gneisenau (Caspar), at this point already major general, urged the initially reluctant king to call upon the people - who, incidentally, were moving through the streets of Wroclaw in large numbers - to actively fight against the French to support: "Back then in Kolberg, the thought occurred to me, the idea of a people's army ..." The king objects that he, Gneisenau, is considered the great "winner" of Kolberg, but things were a little different; as the viewer learns in a long flashback.
The plot jumps back to the year 1806. First, the abdication of Franz II (Herterich) as the last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation on August 6, 1806 in Vienna is shown. Then the action swings to Kolberg, where happy folk festivals are in progress. At a beer table conversation between the citizen representative Joachim Nettelbeck (George), the shipowner Gollnow (Tiedtke) and the young music student Claus Werner (Meisel), after studying a proclamation published by the emperor, a dispute arises; Nettelbeck is for resistance, the business-minded shipowner for submission. Nettelbeck then visits Werner's father, a farmer (Wernicke), and reports on the defeats at Jena and Auerstedt, which the city commandant kept secret because of the celebrations. Then the plot pans briefly to Potsdam, where Napoleon I (looking) at the grave of Frederick the Great asks whether he would have come this far if he was still alive. Back in Kolberg, Werner's daughter Maria (Söderbaum) receives her defeated brother Friedrich (Lausch), who is returning from Auerstedt and who asks his father for quarters for Lieutenant Ferdinand von Schill (Diessl) who accompanied him, who was also wounded . At the commandant's office, meanwhile, there is a verbal argument between Nettelbeck and Colonel Ludwig Moritz von Lucadou (Wegener), who refuses advice about the amount and type of storage of winter supplies: “I am here under the firm orders of my king. But that doesn't mean that I cook their cabbage soup for the citizens! ”It has also been rumored in the population for a long time that Lucadou is an incompetent and ignorant military man; Schill also learns, in the course of a love affair with Maria, that many of the cannons belonging to the defensive systems on the ramparts are no longer usable.
After that, Schill starts recruiting and training volunteers; to Lucadou, who reacts maliciously again, he proves that the king authorized him to do so. The commander's derogatory remark about why he is not acting where the war is raging, Schill counters: “I think the war will soon come to us. We don't need to run after him. ”In the city council (here“ ten-man council ”) Nettelbeck reads a letter from the governor general for Pomerania; The French do not want an attack, but a surrender of the fortifications without a fight and the citizens' representatives take the oath of Napoleon to take in Stettin. The dispute that ensued - particularly violent again between Nettelbeck and Gollnow - is interrupted by the arrival of an emissary, to whom the chairman of the meeting admittedly harshly made clear: “... The free citizens of the old Hanseatic city of Kolberg prefer to be buried under the ruins of its walls when breaking their oath on the king and lord! ”Cut to an angry Napoleon, who gives one of his officers the unequivocal order to demoralize the Kolberger or to razor the city to the ground.
Shortly after the turn of the year, the Kolberger supplied themselves with Swedish cannons through Schill, which enraged Lucadou again. And since Nettelbeck's patience breaks too, he carelessly pulls a saber at the commandant, whereupon he is arrested and sentenced to death by shooting. This can be prevented because, on the one hand, the French troops are advancing and, on the other hand, the otherwise fearful city councilors intervene at Lucadou - Nettelbeck is pardoned. Meanwhile, there is a drama at the Werners' farm, because Schill, who has meanwhile been promoted to Rittmeister, seriously suggests that the property be destroyed because it offers attackers too many advantages and protection. The farmer, inwardly bent after a binge drinking recently held by the French in his house, agrees to Maria's horror and is killed. Maria is sent to the King in Konigsberg with a secret letter from Nettelbeck; she is the only one who, as a young woman, could get through the siege ring of the French. In fact, she is fulfilling her mission, and Queen Luise (von Meyendorff) shows great gratitude for the colossal courage of the Kolberger. In the letter, Lucadou's replacement had been requested; A little later, the young and determined Major August von Gneisenau arrives in the Hanseatic city. However, the first encounter with Nettelbeck was not very pleasant for the latter, because Lucadou had informed his successor in office about the insubordination and unauthorized actions of the citizen representative. After a long dispute, the two agree to cooperate in the interests of the matter.
A short time later Gneisenau rode a first attack against the besiegers. A few small partial successes, to which the flooding of the southern suburbs organized by Nettelbeck also contributed (although Claus Werner died trying to save his violin), the disillusionment followed. After the fall of Danzig, additional French forces became free, and the enemy is now advancing on Kolberg with a gigantic superior force. Gneisenau briefly thinks of surrender, but is changed by Nettelbeck: “We haven't fired our last bullet yet, Commander. (...) You were assigned to Kolberg, but we ... we grew up here. We know every stone, every corner, every house here. We don't let go, and if we dig into our ground with our nails, our city. We won't let go. ”Although peace negotiations are now underway in Tilsit, the French commander - driven by Napoleon's promise to give Kolberg's conqueror a title of nobility - orders the storming of the city from the flooded south side; the heavy losses enraged other officers on the French staff. A French general of the artillery orders the cannon fire on Kolberg to be stopped, and the city, although badly destroyed, is still saved. In the end, Nettelbeck consoles his godchild Maria, who had lost everything during the conflict, including the beloved Rittmeister von Schill, who had traveled by sea to Stralsund to get help.
End of flashback. The last words belong again to Gneisenau, who harassed his king in Breslau: “And when today, in 1813, six years later, the citizen gets up again, the people get up, Your Majesty, then they are inspired by that mysterious power and example that the Kolbergers once gave him. They strive to be like the citizens of Kolberg, they want to finally shake off their chains. The people stand up for the coming battle of nations, your Majesty. The storm is breaking out! "As at the beginning, thousands of people roam the streets of Wroclaw and sing fiercely:" The people are getting up ... "
production
Goebbels ordered the film in a letter to Harlan dated June 1, 1943 and carried out the desired propaganda function of the film:
“I am hereby commissioning you to produce a large-scale film 'Kolberg' . The aim of this film is to use the example of the city that gives the film its title to show that a people united in home and front overcomes every enemy. I authorize you to ask all departments of the Wehrmacht, the state and the party for their help and support, as necessary, and to refer to the fact that the film I have ordered is in the service of our intellectual warfare. "
The film was shot from October 22, 1943 to August 1944 in the Ufast city of Babelsberg . The outdoor shots were taken in Kolberg, Königsberg, Berlin and the surrounding area.
The thirteenth German color film was also the only “thoroughly propagandistic fictional film” and, at 8.8 million Reichsmark production costs, the most expensive produced by the National Socialist film policy . Thousands of soldiers of the Wehrmacht acted as extras and more than a thousand horses, which in view of the difficult war situation meant a huge effort. In order to enable the shooting of snow scenes in summer, 100 railway wagons with salt were brought to the shooting locations in Pomerania. As Wolfgang Schleif, who was involved in this film as assistant director and editor , reported in a television interview in 1979 , Erwin Lange , who worked as a pyrotechnician at Kolberg , had a budget of 400,000 RM.
Goebbels had the film shortened considerably after its completion because, in view of the devastating bombing raids on German cities, he did not want to expose the German viewer to the lavish scenes in which Kolberg citizens are slaughtered by Napoleon's overwhelming artillery. The death scene of Prince Louis Ferdinand fell victim to the cut, which was not taken into account in the printed program booklet; there the figure and the actor Jaspar von Oertzen are still mentioned.
reception
Contemporary
The premiere took place on January 30, 1945 at the same time in the La Rochelle submarine harbor enclosed by the Allies and in the Tauentzienpalast in Berlin. The film later hit cinemas in the enclosed cities of Koenigsberg , Breslau , Danzig and other major cities. It was also shown in the youth film hours of the Hitler Youth and in front of recruits of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS . In Berlin, like Münchhausen , the film was shown in two large cinemas with over 2,000 seats until April, but was less and less visited: In March 1945, on matchday 31, only 91 visitors came to the morning performance of the 1053-seat Berlin Tauentzien-Palast in the afternoon only 204, while every performance in Munchausen was sold out. The audience did not care about the content of the film. Kolberg apparently came too late to achieve the propaganda effect he had hoped for. When Soviet and Polish troops captured Kolberg on March 18, 1945 , Goebbels forbade mentioning this in the Wehrmacht report.
The film shows marching people who, based on the poem Men and Boys by Theodor Körner, sing: “The people stand up, the storm breaks!” Goebbels used almost the same words at the end of his sports palace speech in February 1943 : “Well, People, get up, and storm, break loose! ”.
Kolberg was the last film to be awarded the title “Film der Nation”, the highest award for films in National Socialist Germany .
post war period
The film was banned in all four zones of occupation after 1945 . It was released in 1965 under the title Kolberg - January 30, 1945 . The new version was provided with documentary inserts, which were intended to make the parallels to National Socialist propaganda clear to the audience at the appropriate points . In the accompanying material, Veit Harlan was quoted with untrue claims about the making of the film (alleged direct instructions from Hitler, withholding the submission from Paul Heyse), the number of extras (allegedly 187,000 men or 18 Wehrmacht divisions) and the historical background (alleged occupation of Kolberg by the French after the Tilsit Peace ), which have since been passed on unchecked in other publications. The film was canceled after a short time due to numerous protests.
The television station Arte showed the original version of the film on March 22, 1998 on the occasion of a theme evening on Heinrich George following a documentary on the history of its creation. On December 4, 2017, Kolberg was broadcast again on ARTE as part of the retrospective “100 Years of UFA” in a version reconstructed by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. It was preceded by the newly produced 10-minute documentary Propaganda in Agfacolor .
Kolberg can only be shown as a reserved film with the consent of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation and under its conditions. The foundation provides “working materials” for those interested, which are based on the accompanying material from 1965. The text repeats the untrue assertion of the "subsequent entry of the French" into Kolberg after the end of the siege.
literature
- Paul Heyse : Kolberg. Historical drama in 5 acts . 446-450. Thousand. Cotta, Stuttgart 1935.
- ATLAS film booklets. Double issue 61, 1965, ZDB -ID 43739-6
- Bogusław Drewniak: The German Film 1938–1945. A complete overview. Droste, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-7700-0731-X , p. 196.
- Ulrich Gehrke: Veit Harlan and the Kolberg film. Film direction between history, Nazi propaganda and coming to terms with the past. Self-published, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-033289-0 .
- Klaus Kreimeier : The Ufa story. History of a film company = Ufa. Hanser, Munich et al. 1992, ISBN 3-446-15214-8 .
- Frank Noack: Veit Harlan - "The Devil's Director". Belville, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-923646-85-2 .
- Rolf Giesen , Manfred Hobsch : Hitler Youth Quex, Jud Suss and Kolberg. The propaganda films of the Third Reich. Documents and materials on Nazi films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89602-471-X .
- Günter Brittinger: Ferdinand von Schill in the time of National Socialism. In: Veit Veltzke (ed.): For freedom - against Napoleon. Ferdinand von Schill, Prussia and the German Nation. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20340-5 , pp. 305–339, esp. 309–322 (with numerous illustrations)
- Joachim Schroth: History as a legitimation strategy or the question of the tradition of perseverance film. An analysis of three period films from a historical-cultural perspective. LIT, Berlin / Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-13409-7 .
Web links
- Kolberg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Kolberg at filmportal.de
- Kolberg at the Murnau Foundation
- Video excerpt, 1945 (in original AGFA / UFA color) on the website of the RBB production "Prussia - Chronicle of a German State" ( RealPlayer )
- Summary of contents, history of origin, photos of scenes and film sequences
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Erwin Leiser : “Germany, awake!” Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1968, p. 104 f.
- ^ CineGraph - Lexicon for German-language film - Veit Harlan
- ↑ So Gert Koshofer in the review: Dirk Alt: "The color film marches!". Early color film processes and Nazi propaganda 1933–1945. Munich 2013 . H-Soz-Kult , February 13, 2015.
- ↑ Gert Koshofer in the documentation Münchhausen - Ein Mythos in Agfacolor , contained on the DVD Münchhausen. Transit Classics - Deluxe Edition .
- ↑ Articles on www.dhm.de and www.preussen-chronik.de also speak of 5,000 soldiers.
- ^ Film archive Kay Less .
- ↑ http://www.jenspeterkutz.de/IFK_2.jpg .
- ↑ Drewniak (see list of literature), p. 196.
- ^ Contribution by Gehard Schoenberner, p. 122 in: Friedemann Beyer (Ed.): Working materials for the National Socialist propaganda film: Kolberg, compilation and text by Dr. Gerd Albrecht , Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden 2006 (Compactdisc).
- ↑ In earlier editions and in the first edition with a different spelling Colberg , s. Zeno.org online library : Paul Heyse, Colberg ; accessed December 1, 2017.
