People with wings
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | People with wings |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Konrad Wolf |
| script |
Karl Georg Egel , Paul Wiens , Willi Brückner (dramaturgy) |
| production | Siegfried Nürnberger , DEFA Studio for Feature Films, Artistic Working Group (KAG) "Heinrich Greif" |
| music | Hans-Dieter Hosalla |
| camera | Werner Bergmann |
| cut | Christa Wernicke |
| occupation | |
| |
People with wings is a DEFA - feature film by Konrad Wolf from 1960. The focus of the present action is the aircraft project 152 . At the same time, the air forces of the National People's Army , which were also involved in the production, are advertised. Since the construction project was discontinued six months after the premiere of the film, People with Wings did not come back to the performance afterwards. The present-day framework is interrupted by numerous flashbacks to the years 1933, 1936, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1954 and 1958.
The film was shown for the first time on April 27, 1960 for the delegates of the cultural conference 1960 in Berlin. The public premiere took place on May 8, 1960 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin . The film was released in GDR cinemas on August 26, 1960.
action
1933. Ludwig Bartuscheck is a mechanic at the Sperber-Werke and a member of the KPD . His boss, Dr. Dehringer, is well disposed to him. After the National Socialists came to power, he offered to support him, but only if he left the party. But Ludwig remains true to his ideals. He goes into hiding and goes into exile, apparently to Spain . His wife Betty is arrested, the little son Henne is taken in by his befriended couple Friedrich.
During the Spanish Civil War , Ludwig was Commissioner of the International Brigades . In combat operations with the Condor Legion , he takes his former boss Dr. Dehringer who works for the Legion in Spain. However, Dehringer escapes when General Franco's Moroccan auxiliaries attack the interbrigade. Ludwig is wounded, but Soviet comrades help him. The Soviet officer Aljoscha, knowing that he was an aircraft mechanic, describes him as a "man with wings".
After the end of the civil war, Bartuscheck travels to the Soviet Union . In World War II he fought on the side of the Red Army . In 1944 he was flown from Tashkent on a special mission to the Hanover area , where parts of the Sperber factory are now located. In the guise of the French foreign worker André, who allegedly came from Alsace , he is supposed to establish contact with former work colleagues and organize the resistance against the Nazi regime. The mission is prepared by Aljoscha, who calls Ludwig again as a "man with wings".
The Sperber-Werke are now producing at full speed. The Reichsmarschall ( Hermann Göring ) preferred Sparhawk to the Arado company . Sparhawk is now working on a jet fighter , which is already being tested. Ludwig succeeds in establishing contact, but he is arrested by the SS as part of an anti-sabotage operation and sent to a concentration camp . However, he manages to keep the legend of “André” alive.
Ludwig lives in a barrack in the concentration camp with the American soldier Dave. Dave is said to be shot due to an order from the camp administration. Ludwig and other inmates persuade the Kapo to present that of a fellow inmate who had just passed away instead of Dave's corpse, which happens. Dave is carried on in the camp under the legend "Karl".
Meanwhile, Henne has become a member of the Hitler Youth and is drafted into the Volkssturm . An SS officer wanted to burn all construction documents in the Sperber factory, but instead, employees burned documents from the company archive so that the construction plans could be saved.
In the concentration camp there is an uprising under communist leadership; Dave ("Karl") also participates and shoots the SS guards with an MG 42 . The swastika flag over the camp is torn down. Soviet battle tanks roll up. They are led by Aljoscha, who is greeted by Ludwig. Dave receives his military coat from a Russian soldier. The American says goodbye to Ludwig and asks for his address. Ludwig tells him that he only has to write “Communist Party Germany, Central Committee”, the letter will always arrive.
Ludwig meets Henne who has been captured. During the interrogation, Ludwig realizes that Henne is his son. It turns out that Betty Bartuscheck died in 1942. In the concentration camp there was also a Spanish girl, Ines, with whom Henne falls in love.
In the old Sperber factory, the workers want to resume aircraft production right away, but Ludwig makes it clear to them that cooking pots and other vital products must first be made.
Henne is studying and is doing his engineering degree. Then he becomes a pilot in the National People's Army. He flies a MiG-17 . The new passenger aircraft is now being tested in the aircraft factory. At the Leipziger Messe there is a meeting with Dr. Dehringer, who rebuilt the Sperber-Werke in West Germany. He wants Dr. Poach Lampert, but he decided in favor of socialism.
With his MiG, Henne intercepts an American helicopter that is forced to land. The American officers demand to be brought before Soviet officers of the occupying power. Also in the helicopter is Dave, who has since become an Air Force officer. Dave hastily writes a letter to Ludwig and gives it to Henne.
The prototype of the passenger aircraft takes off, the crowd of factory workers flocks to the edge of the airfield to watch the flight. The film ends with a stroll by Ludwig and his grandson, little Ludwig, as the acceptance of a parade in front of a row of aircraft.
Production background, trick technology
Since general conscription in the GDR could only be introduced after the building of the wall in 1962, the NVA was dependent on strong advertising. On the feature film level, this was done through productions such as Im Sondervertrag , Step by Step (1960), they called him Amigo or five cartridge cases .
The figure of the communist radio operator Ludwig Bartuscheck of the Imperial Navy comes from the film Das Lied der Sailors , played by Hilmar Thate. Thate thus plays his “film son” in People with Wings .
As far as is known, a real “152” was never used for the film, but a model was used. The flight scenes when the American helicopter was intercepted were created using rear projection .
According to the screenwriter Vienna, the Sperber-Werke are synonymous with the work of Hugo Junkers and the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in an interview in Filmspiegel .
criticism
“… With this work Konrad Wolf once again proves to be the most sensitive, most detailed of our directors. There is nothing too "fat"; every hint is clear, every accent precise, every movement, every gesture justified, every change of tempo sensibly considered; and every actor - while maintaining his or her individuality - 'led' ... It is a great film, a sheet of fame in the history of democratic German film art ... "
“Here, in the simple narrative of a working-class life, in the moving portrayal of a real fate, the film has its deepest and most lasting effects. Ludwig Bartuschek went through life fighting, he missed a lot, but he did not get poorer or even broken. But his face speaks a clear language. "
Ralf Schenk found that the film failed “artistically because of its bold gestures”. The film wanted to “legitimize the existence of the GDR from the anti-fascist past of its executives” and go “in the lowlands of the didactic theses cinema”.
Lore
As far as is known, the film was never broadcast on television (as of 2018). In October 2018, a Konrad Wolf work edition by Studio Hamburg Enterprises appeared on DVD , which includes people with wings , so that the film is accessible to the public for the first time in 58 years.
See also
literature
- Helmut Pelzer: Once upon a time there was a long way to go , in: Filmspiegel No. 8 of April 8, 1960, pp. 3–5 (interview with Paul Wiens).
- Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler : People with wings , in: Filmspiegel No. 18 of August 26, 1960, p. 5.
- Heinz Hofmann: A hero of our time , in: Neues Deutschland from August 30, 1960
- Ralf Schenk (editor): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA-Spielfilme 1946-1992 , Berlin 1994, p. 146, 400. ISBN 3-89487-175-X
Web links
- People with wings at filmportal.de
- People with wings in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Wind tunnel model from the film at skybird-ev.de
- Copied model of the 152 in the film at skybird-ev.de
- Cover picture of the film brochure of "Progress" at flimmerkiste.bplaced.net
- People with wings at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ralf Schenk, The Second Life , p. 146.