Riddle of the jungle hell

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Movie
Original title Riddle of the jungle hell
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1938
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Otto Schulz combat handle
script Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, Gerd Kahle
production Otto Schulz combat handle
music Franz R. Friedl
camera Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, Gerd Kahle
cut Otto Schulz combat handle
occupation
  • Otto Schulz combat handle
  • Gerd Kahle
  • Gerhard Krause

Rätsel der Urwaldhölle is a German documentary that the UFA released in cinemas in 1938. It consists of black and white film recordings made by the NSDAP and SS researcher Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel as the leader of an expedition to the Amazon region from 1935 to 1937. The expedition was called the Amazonas-Jary-Expedition and also served the goal of securing a German bridgehead in South America for the National Socialists .

Under the same title as the film, a book by Schulz-Kampfhenkel was published as an expedition report by Deutscher Verlag in 1938 . It bears the subtitle Advance into unexplored primeval forests of the Amazon River .

description

The 17-month expedition started at the Santo Antonio waterfall, which is located on the lower reaches of the Amazon tributary Jary , and moved up the Jary towards French Guiana . The Germans enlisted the help of several Indians, especially for transport purposes. The film also describes the hunt for jungle animals, the life of the Indians and how the expedition travelers had to drag their heavy boats with their equipment past waterfalls through the jungle in order to overcome the waterfalls.

The expedition was also funded by the NSDAP ( NSDAP / AO ) foreign organization and the Brazilian government and took place on behalf of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology .

During the expedition, Schulz-Kampfhenkel and his companion Gerd Kahle drew up a plan for how the Third Reich could conquer French Guiana and the neighboring colonies, which were later named Guiana and Surinam . The plan that Schulz-Kampfhenkel later unsuccessfully submitted to Heinrich Himmler is not mentioned in the film.

production

Originally, the video and audio material recorded during the expedition was only intended to be used for evidence and evaluation purposes; it was only later that the decision was made to turn it into a movie. The footage also comprised 2,700 meters of 16mm film . These were edited into the movie in the summer of 1937 in the Babelsberg studio, with the significant contribution of Schulz-Kampfhenkel and his expedition companion Gerd Kahle. Schulz-Kampfhenkel himself spoke the comments in the film. The composer Franz R. Friedl accompanied the film with dramatic orchestral music.

publication

The film company UFA promoted the film with film posters that also featured bare-breasted Indian women from the Amazon region. The popular magazine Illustrierter Film-Kurier dedicated a cover story to the film. The premiere of the film was on March 11, 1938. In German cinemas it ran for several weeks in the main program. In UFA advertising materials, the film was touted as a "large-scale research film" and a "large-scale cultural film". The film received high praise from German contemporary critics. The Brazilian consul in Danzig, however, criticized the Brazilian Foreign Ministry in 1938 for the fact that the film was endangering Brazil's reputation. For the German journalist Jens Glüsing in his book about the expedition, published in 2008, it was clear that Schulz-Kampfhenkel had used the film for propaganda for German research abroad.

Also in 1938, Schulz-Kampfhenkel's report on the expedition was published in book form by Deutscher Verlag . Over 100,000 copies of the first two editions were sold. The following year the book was published in English under the title "Riddle of Hell's Jungle".

After the Second World War, the book and the film were republished in modified, denazified versions. There were now no references to Schulz-Kampfhenkel's Nazi past. The revised book was published by Ullstein-Verlag in 1953 . The film was used as teaching material in schools and universities.

literature

Further:

  • Sören Flachowsky, Holger Stoecker (Ed.): From the Amazon to the Eastern Front: The expedition traveler and geographer Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel (1910–1989). Böhlau Verlag , Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-41220-765-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mystery of the jungle hell. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 5, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ a b c d Glüsing 2008, p. 192 ff.
  3. ↑ Release Info , in: IMDb , accessed on March 5, 2017
  4. ↑ Glüsing 2008, p. 197
  5. ↑ Glüsing 2008, p. 193
  6. ↑ Glüsing 2008, p. 233