Operation Valkyrie (TV movie)
Operation Walküre is a two-part documentary television play (1st part initial ignition , 2nd part dead hours ) from 1971, which reconstructs the Walküre company and the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 . The historian Joachim Fest leads through the film, which mixes staged scenes and documentary recordings with eyewitness interviews.
action
A quarter of a century after the events, many contemporary witnesses were still available to testify in front of the camera, which are illustrated by scenes from the game. Some statements are only given as quotations because the witnesses feared disadvantages for their professional life due to their membership of the corresponding troops (e.g. Guard Regiment Greater Germany ). Even Otto Ernst Remer , commander of the guard regiment and not undisputed figure in post-war Germany, appears after the newsreel report on him. He told his actor, for example, that he had never worn a steel helmet himself, not even at the front.
The processes are presented in detail, explained using maps and construction plans. For example, the Wolfschanze facility with its barrier circles was recreated as a model, and it was also filmed at the (destroyed) original location. Erwin Rommel's wounding is recreated in an interview carried out in a moving convertible while driving on the French country road. It was even possible to film in the Hotel Majestic in Paris , the former seat of the German administration, although this building was cordoned off during negotiations on Vietnam. The then Lieutenant Fritz Baumgart (who later became an art historian) explains the events in his ex-office, as does the former commandant of Greater Paris. The film was also shot in the castle of La Roche-Guyon , at that time the seat of the Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief , who was supposed to repel the invasion of Normandy .
background
- The two-parter produced by Bavaria Atelier on behalf of WDR had its first broadcast on German-language television on July 18 (part 1) and July 20, 1971 (part 2) on ARD and ORF 1 .
- After the German version, a French version of the film was created with French actors and first broadcast on French television on July 19, 1973 under the title Opération Walkyrie .
Reviews
"Documentation about the Hitler assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, in which the panorama of the day is recreated by actors in original historical locations."
“Even the beginning of their two-part documentary is an event: a fictional newsreel from the end of July 1944, in which the assassination attempt and the coup d'état are assumed to have been successful and the first measures of the new regime are described. […] Of course you can see in every scene that this is a TV movie from 1971. The uniforms appear artificial, the faces mask-like, and some actors, such as Wolfgang Engels as Field Marshal Kluge, play so exaggeratedly stiff and jagged that their characters almost become caricatures. [...] But all of these shortcomings are outweighed by the overwhelming quality of the original interviews. "
“The film by Franz Peter Wirth, Helmut Pigge and Joachim Fest is half documentary, in the presentation of the locations and above all in the interviews with those involved, the other half plays out scenes of the conspiracy. But in both he has an intensity and clarity that are completely alien to newer productions. "
“The film draws its strength from the testimonies of these contemporary witnesses, many of whom have since passed away. The interviews were supplemented by game scenes that are amazingly slow from today's perspective. Sometimes the filmmakers also combined both genres and provided documentation and deconstruction at the same time: For example, the actor Karl-Heinz von Hassel in a Wehrmacht uniform costume speaks to the real, but civilly dressed Major Otto Ernst Remer - that coup opponent and Hitler admirer, Hassel in the film. "
Awards
- Helmut Pigge received the Golden Camera in the category of best author in 1971 and the Grimme Prize with bronze in 1972
Web links
- Valkyrie (TV movie) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Operation Valkyrie in the Lexicon of International Films
- Operation Walküre at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ "Operation Walküre" 1971: The true game of July 20 in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 22, 2009.
- ↑ What grandchildren believe in Berliner Zeitung from July 26, 2004.
- ↑ TV review: Operation Walküre . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 2004, p. 73 ( online ).