Linen from Ireland (1939)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Linen from Ireland |
| Country of production | German Empire |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Heinz Helbig |
| script | Harald Bratt |
| production | Heinrich Haas |
| music | Anton Profes |
| camera | Hans Schneeberger |
| cut | Margarete Steinborn |
| occupation | |
| |
Linen from Ireland is a German feature film from 1939 with anti-Semitic undertones. Otto Tressler embodies a Bohemian textile manufacturer, whose Jewish manager, played by Siegfried Breuer , wants to destroy domestic cloth production shortly after the turn of the century in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy by importing cheaper linen from abroad, thereby exposing factory workers to unemployment. Other leading actors were Irene von Meyendorff , Rolf Wanka and Karl Skraup . The film is based on the play of the same name (1929) by Stefan von Kamare .
action
Prague in 1909. The textile company Libussa AG wants to achieve a monopoly position in the Habsburg Empire and therefore buys up all the companies in the country that deal with the manufacture of linen. Behind this maneuver is a certain Dr. Kuhn, General Secretary of the group who belongs to the venerable Kommerzialrat Kettner. The Jewish ambitious Kuhn wants to expand his position of power within the company and to make himself indispensable for Kettner. The aged company president has no idea what Kuhn's real intentions are. The linen producer Alois Hubermayer is now to be bothered, and Kuhn is planning to take over his company in the Bohemian town of Warnsdorf next. He also has no choice but to sell to the company, which is really pushing its competitors against the wall. But Alois resolves not to leave it at that and wants to defend himself. Such a shameful end to a 150-year-old family business breaks his heart. Alois is convinced that Libussa, under Kuhn's management, will completely stop linen production in the Reich à la longue in order to buy more cheaply abroad. The consequences would be devastating for Austria-Hungary's linen weavers. While the linen producers elsewhere will fill their pockets, the factory workers at home end up on the streets with no wages or bread.
Meanwhile, under Kuhn's leadership, Libussa is submitting an application to the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Commerce. Dr. Kuhn wants to ensure that Libussa can import linen from Ireland duty-free in the future. The young Ministerial Secretary Dr. Franz Goll. In order to influence the straightforward official with cunning and trickery, Kuhn ensures that Goll and Kettner's daughter Lilly get to know and love each other. With Lilly as his “trump card”, the Secretary General hopes that Dr. Goll will not decide against the interests of Lilly's father Kettner and thus against Libussa. But Franz is honest and cannot be manipulated. Although he is pressured by his superior from Vienna to support Kuhn's request not to issue a permit, since Goll recognizes the catastrophic consequences for the Bohemian workforce. Soon the decent official comes under pressure from all sides: the ministry expects approval of the petition, and old Kettner would inevitably welcome this too, especially since, under contrary circumstances, he would hardly be able to give Lilly Goll to his wife. Franz Goll sees only one possibility: he maintains his composure and submits his resignation.
Little does Lilly suspect that Goll left the ministry and believes that Franz submitted to her father's will when the Libussa petition was approved. The minister himself approved the application. Lilly Kettner is very disappointed by Franzens alleged lack of principles and turns her back on him. Alois Hubermayer has meanwhile managed to get to Kommerzialrat Kettner and convince him that Dr. Kuhn only works in his own interest and harms the fatherland with his unscrupulous actions. When Kuhn believes that he has reached the goal with all his strings and intrigues, he asks his chief boss for Lilly's hand. The old Commercial Council, who has since been clarified by Lilly about the background, dismisses his unscrupulous manager. At home in Warnsdorf, Alois Hubermayer is celebrated as a hero by his fellow citizens, and Kettner agrees to seek an amicable solution to the linen issue. Lilly learns that she has done her Franz an injustice and immediately drives to the train station to prevent him from leaving. The two seal their engagement with a kiss.
Production notes
Linen from Ireland was filmed from May 3, 1939 in the Rosenhügel studio in Vienna and the Schönbrunn studio for an inexpensive 744,000 Reichsmarks and premiered on October 16, 1939 in the Berlin Capitol . By April 1941 the income amounted to 1.283 million RM. This made linen from Ireland a moderate box office success.
Vienna's Styria film producer Heinrich Haas also took over the production management. Robert A. Dietrich and Artur Günther designed the film structures, Alfred Kunz designed the costumes. Philipp von Zeska took over the dialogue direction.
The 17-year-old Oskar Werner can be seen here in one of his first short film appearances.
The film received the state film awards "politically valuable" and "artistically valuable".
reception
According to Erwin Leiser , Leinen from Ireland, along with Robert and Bertram, is one of the “most important anti-Jewish propaganda films” of the National Socialist era.
Film historian Boguslaw Drewniak recalled that in this film the "conditions of the Habsburg monarchy ... were pilloried again" and counted Leinen from Ireland among those films that were "garnished with more or less anti-Semitic accents".
This result was fully in line with the Nazi film policy intention, because as the Film-Rundschau noted in its November 1, 1939 issue, the film should "have a serious tone, an ideological problem and a political note, unlike the original".
On film.at one could read: “Harald Bratt had reworked Stefan von Kamare's comedy model into a Nazi propaganda piece in his script. The economic misery of a region is revealed solely through the machinations of a Jewish antagonist - Dr. Kuhn - evoked. "
See also
Web links
- Linen from Ireland in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Linen from Ireland at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme 10th year 1939. P. 118 f. (062.39), Berlin 1999
- ↑ Erwin Leiser: "Germany, awake!" Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 67.
- ^ Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 302
- ↑ ibid., P. 316
- ↑ Linen from Ireland on film.at