Rivals of the air

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Movie
Original title Rivals of the Air - A glider pilot film
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1934
length 98 minutes
Rod
Director Frank Wysbar
script Walter Forster based
on an idea by Philipp Lothar Mayring
production Karl Ritter , Universum Film AG (UFA)
music Franz R. Friedl based
on the music by Herbert Windt
camera Hans Schneeberger
cut Willy Zeyn
occupation

Rivals of the air - a glider pilot film is a German film released in January 1934, which in 1945 was initially banned by the Allied Control Council as a National Socialist propaganda film , but was later removed from the list of " reserved films ".

action

Against the actually shallow topic of gliding and a love story as a background, the film depicts man's struggle with nature in a very heroic and pathetic way. A rivalry between two young glider pilots for records and a woman is stylized as a symbol of people fighting against the violence of the elements, but also as Germany's fighting against its supposed enemies.
The two high school students Karl and Christine are more closely connected to gliding than to school and therefore follow the gliding instructor Frahms to Rossitten to the local gliding school. Both want to acquire their gliding license there in order to take part in the annual gliding competitions in the Rhön . As a result, there was a strong rivalry between Karl and Frahms, partly because of the competition and partly because of Christine. The latter secretly starts the competition and goes off course due to a storm, whereupon Frahms saves her and wins her heart while Karl wins the competition and the prize money.

Manufacturing

The outdoor shots took place over two months at the Rossitten glider airfield of the German Research Institute for Glider Flight (DFS). Although the DFS headquarters was at the airfield on the Wasserkuppe in the Hessian Rhön at that time , the backdrop of the Rossitten location in the Curonian Lagoon not only offered the more picturesque setting, but also possessed due to its location in the " Polish corridor " from German Reich separated East Prussia also the more explosive political relevance. Only a few exterior shots were filmed on the Wasserkuppe as part of the international gliding competitions that have been held there every year since 1920.

background

For the time being, the National Socialists had to keep their remilitarization efforts going in secrecy. Any (motorized) military aviation was forbidden by the Versailles Treaty , and therefore gliding was an excellent camouflage event for the formation of a "silent reserve" of pilots even in Weimar times. Since the air force was not officially reintroduced until 1935 , the film "Rivals of the Air" , made in the early phase of National Socialism , was ideally suited to getting young people excited about aviation. There are numerous advertisements in contemporary aviation magazines (for example, Luftwelt ) calling for members of the Hitler Youth to join gliding clubs, among other things. DFS, which later in the Second World War , among other researches of the sailing behavior V1 undertook and gliders for boiler supply, presented a number of its members as a stunt pilot for the movie, such as the young Hanna Reitsch .
As a result, the apparently shallow action of the “rival of the air” appears in a different light. It is noticeable that there is often talk of “courage”, “disposition” or “masculinity”. Not least because of this embedding in the Nazi ideology, the film was initially banned by the Allies after the war .

literature

  • Giesen, Rolf & Manfred Hobsch: Hitler Youth Quex, Jud Süss and Kolberg. The propaganda films of the Third Reich. Documents and materials on Nazi films , Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, 2005
  • Liebeneiner, Wolfgang: Glückhafter Segelflug in Rossitten, in: Luftwelt , vol. 1, no. 2, 1934, p. 20.
  • Lünen, Alexander von: The German Research Institute for Gliding, in Andreas Göller and Annegret Holtmann-Mares (eds.), A century of aviation history between tradition, research and landscape management. The August-Euler-Flugplatz in Darmstadt / Griesheim , Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2008, pp. 209–239.
  • Wendtland, Karlheinz: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929-1945, with numerous artist biographies . Volume 1933 and 1934, Berlin: Self-published, 1986.

See also

Web links

  • Rival the air in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  • Rivals of the air in the database of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation (the organization that holds the rights for around 80 percent of banned Nazi films)
  • Rivalen der Luft in Filmportal.de (1933 is given as the year of publication, but that was only the year of production; the film premiered on January 19, 1934)

credentials

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025722/ , last access: January 31, 2012
  2. ^ Rivals of the Air at the Murnau Foundation
  3. ↑ Liebeneiner: Happy glider flight
  4. ^ Lünen: The German Research Institute for Gliding, p. 216
  5. ↑ Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp, Entry No. 12: Rivals of the Air (no page numbers)
  6. ^ Lünen: The German Research Institute for Gliding, p. 211ff., P. 238
  7. ^ Lünen: The German Research Institute for Gliding, p. 227
  8. ↑ Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp, Entry No. 12: Rivals of the Air (no page numbers)