Rottenknechte (TV movie)

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Movie
Original title Rottenknechten
Rottenknechte.jpg
Country of production GDR
Publishing year 1971
length 340 (60/63/74/83/60)
DVD: 330 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Frank Beyer
script Frank Beyer, Klaus Poche , Gerhard Stueber
production DEFA for
German television broadcasting
music Karl-Ernst Sasse
camera Günter Marczinkowsky
cut Hildegard Conrad-Nöller
occupation

Rottenknechte is a 5-piece DDR - TV film from 1971, directed by Frank Beyer . The docu-drama deals with the fate of sailors in the Navy and their NS- believing officers in the last days of World War II and the post-war period .

action

" Speedboats , manned by young German naval officers, furrow through the calm sea with foaming bow waves, point towards the camera, while Hans Albers sings La Paloma - the five-part Rottenknechte begins with sailor romance and heroic pathos ."

It is the beginning of May 1945. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz tries to negotiate a partial surrender with the Western Allies . With the troops freed as a result, he wants to continue the fight against the Soviet Union. A minesweeper is commanded towards the Baltic States , where the evacuation of SS troops is being prepared by Kapitänleutnant Hans-Helmut Klose . After the news of the unconditional surrender leaked through, some of the ship's sailors instigate a mutiny , arrest their officers and head for home. But on the way they encounter speed boats under the commodore Rudolf Petersen ( leader of the speed boats ), who arrests the deserters . A court martial sentenced eleven of the mutinous sailors to death (Kolenda, Bretzke, Peters, Rust, Kölle, Glasmacher, Ritz, Nuckelt, Prenzler, Roth and Wilkowski), four received prison sentences and five were acquitted. The death sentences were carried out on May 5, 1945 in Sönderborg Bay , at a time when British troops were already on Danish soil and the partial surrender provided for an end to all fighting on the front lines in the north. At the same time, the second speedboat of the "Schnellbootbataillon" anchored in Denmark. Some sailors set out for home on their own, but are provided by Danish resistance fighters and brought back to the base. There three of them (Wehrmann, Schilling and Schwalenberg) were shot dead on May 10, two days after the unconditional total surrender .

After the war there was no proper judicial processing of the cases. None of those responsible for the executions was convicted (like Karl-Heinz Merkel as head of the firing squad, Helmut Süß or Hugo Pahl ). Immediately after the end of the war, the officers involved served the Western Allies and continued their fight against the Soviet Union on their behalf. On behalf of the British, Klose carries out espionage operations with his speedboats and tries in vain to build a bridgehead in Courland with Baltic partisans . The former Nazi officers (like Rudolf Petersen or Hans-Helmut Klose) eventually achieved high positions in the German Navy and NATO . The representation ends with the (real) fleet parade on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the National People's Army on March 1, 1967 in Peenemünde . There three landing craft were named after murdered sailors of the "M 612".

Director Beyer explains the title as follows: “The strange word» Rottenknechte «was a technical term from the German Navy. Two speedboats formed a squad, the commandant of the first boat was the squad leader, the second the squad servant. "

Formal layout

In the film, documentary and fictional elements are linked on three levels: 1. Scenes from the game (“scenic reconstruction”), 2. Documentary film images and superimposed documents, as well as interviews with those involved and witnesses at the time. 3. Explanatory as well as evaluative narration, partly illustrated with maps and subtitles. Based on Eisenstein's assembly theory , the scenes are linked both “horizontally” in parallel assembly and “vertically” by connecting different temporal levels: for example, silent game scenes are underlaid with contemporary original sounds and later testimony, and read diary notes and photos are combined with the storyline .

“The film is epic . The course of action is repeatedly interrupted by changing scenes or by including documents. The tension is consciously shifted from the exit to the course of the action ... Certain scenic situations are repeated (sailors walking home, court hearings, etc.) and certain results of the actions are summarized in sequences in order to capture them in the consciousness of the audience. "

Production history

Rottenknechte was completed in 155 days of shooting in 1969/70. Frank Beyer, who was banned from shooting, received his first directorial assignment with this television film since his film Spur der Steine ( Trace of Stones ) was banned (1966). Beyer wasn't the first choice. The original director, Hans Joachim Hildebrand, was replaced on March 6, 1969 after a few days of shooting because of “lack of work”. The footage he shot was judged to be unusable. In addition, there had been problems with government agencies because actors in Nazi uniforms had shown themselves in the city and its bars. The production manager was also replaced. On April 2, 1969, Beyer took over the direction. The script was then completely reworked under his direction.

The outdoor shots were shot in the Greifswalder Bodden and on the island of Rügen , where the boats were moored in the small port of Lauterbach . The film also shows shots of the seaside resort Lubmin , Parow , Wieck (Greifswald) , the port of Stralsund and scenes that were filmed off the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula . A mine-laying and clearing boat (MLR boats) of the Volksmarine of the “Habicht” type served as the minesweeper “M 612”. Two decommissioned speedboats of the Volksmarine of the type " Project 183 ", which were driven by crews of the 6th Flotilla of the Volksmarine during the shooting , were converted into the Kriegsmarine speedboats used by Klose. The then frigate captain Horst Schulze (1917–2008) was an expert advisor.

Background and reception

The script for Rottenknechte was preceded by a long-term propaganda campaign by the GDR against the German Navy and a large number of West German naval officers and naval judges who were referred to as "Nazis" and "war criminals". Between October 29, 1966 and May 26, 1967, the FDJ newspaper Junge Welt (JW) published a 29-part series of articles, the articles of which were reprinted in numerous GDR newspapers. The West German magazines Stern and Der Spiegel also took up the topic. The main author of the series of articles was the JW journalist Gerhard Stuchlik (alias Gerhard Stueber), who also wrote the film scenario for Rottenknechte . The articles drew a line from the actions of these people in World War II to their current activity, once again directed against the Soviet Union and its allies. Another focus was the description of unlawful naval court martial proceedings and their lack of processing and punishment in the Federal Republic .

The Kriegsmarine speedboats later used by Klose (1945)
TV press conference February 1971, Frank Beyer left

The Rottenknechte script is based on real events, which were exploited for propaganda purposes, but which, as far as we know today, essentially correspond to the facts. However, the various individual processes are connected with each other dramatically.

Parts 1–3 closely follow the story of the “ Mutiny on M 612 ” on May 5, 1945 and the execution of the mutineers, the so-called “Murder in Möllebucht”. In contrast to the representation in the film and in post-war representations of the GDR, in the real case the sailors did not hoist a red flag during their action . Furthermore, the case of the sailor Fritz Wehrmann and his comrades is retold. Most of the names used in the television film correspond to those of real people, such as those of the executed sailors, that of the flotilla chief Hans-Helmut Klose and that of the commodore Rudolf Petersen , war judge in the "Wehrmann u. A." Case. Parts 4–5 deal with the history of the Klose Schnellbootgruppe . This was a secret service and espionage unit led by Hans-Helmut Klose, which was active from 1949 to 1956. From 1948 Klose worked for the Gehlen organization . On behalf of the British secret service MI6 , he smuggled agents into the Baltic States and Poland with his speedboat association . The boats were camouflaged as the British Baltic Fishery Protection Service (BBFPS). Klose later became the commander of the German Navy.

Rottenknechte premiered from January 8 to 17, 1971 on the DFF , the state television program of the GDR, and met with great public interest. Two weeks later there was a television press conference on the subject of “Cooperation between the imperialist powers against the Soviet Union after 1945”, in which, among other things, the events covered in the last two parts of the television film were discussed and in which director Frank Beyer took part. The television broadcast and the article Hans Helmut Klose, which appeared in the Berliner Zeitung on January 24, 1971 - the personified continuity between the Hitler Army and the Bundeswehr, led to investigations in the Bonn Defense Ministry . The representations were rated as a "hate campaign". Regardless of this, Rottenknechte was later used temporarily by the Bundeswehr as a teaching and training film.

Before 1990, the television film was repeated several times on GDR television and also shown abroad, for example on Danish and Swedish television . After reunification , it was broadcast on ORB and MDR in 1992, 1999, 2006 and 2013, with the last broadcasts only showing the first three parts.

literature

  • Press department of the German television station (ed.): Rottenknechte. A five-part television film by Gerhard Stueber, Klaus Poche, Frank Beyer. Television service special edition, undated [Berlin (GDR)] 1970.
  • Peter Hoff: Rottenknechte. The first victims of the Cold War. In: Ralf Schenk (Ed.): Director: Frank Beyer. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89468-156-X , pp. 196-202.
  • Frank Beyer: When the wind turns. My films, my life. Econ-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-60218-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ d. i. the journalist Gerhard Stuchlik (* 1927), also involved in the film as a speaker.
  2. ↑ more detailed crew lists on filmportal.de and fernsehenderddr.de (accessed on August 12, 2013).
  3. ↑ Peter Hoff: Rottenknechte. The first victims of the Cold War. In: Ralf Schenk (Ed.): Director: Frank Beyer. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, pp. 196–202, quotation p. 196.
  4. ↑ Speedboats do not have a “ battalion ”; presumably " flotilla ".
  5. ↑ Der Augenzeuge 1967/12 , DEFA-Studio for newsreels and documentaries, March 17, 1967 (accessed on August 12, 2013).
  6. ↑ Frank Beyer: When the wind turns. My films, my life. Econ, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-430-11477-2 , p. 171.
  7. ^ Film and television art in the GDR. Traditions, examples, tendencies. College for Film and Television of the GDR , Berlin (GDR) 1979, p. 449 f.
  8. ↑ a b c Ingo Pfeiffer: Opponent against his will. Confrontation between the People's Navy and the Federal Navy at sea. Hartmann, Miles-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-937885-57-5 , p. 316.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Sigurd Hess: Enlightenment and Propaganda. Agitations by the GDR against the German Navy during the Cold War. Part 2. In: MarineForum 3/2008, p. 53 f.
  10. ↑ Eberhard Fensch : “So and only better.” How Honecker wanted television. Ed. Ost, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-360-01047-6 , p. 131.
  11. ↑ S-130, S-208 and post-war boats of the herring gull class
  12. ^ Obituary by Horst Schulze (accessed on August 12, 2013).
  13. ^ A b Sigurd Hess: Enlightenment and Propaganda. Agitations by the GDR against the German Navy during the Cold War. Part 1. In: MarineForum 1-2 / 2008, pp. 45–47.
  14. ↑ Hugo Braun: The Rottenknechte. A crime, its history and its exposure in the Junge Welt in 1967. In: Junge Welt , June 29, 2013, p. 15.
  15. ↑ Dieter Hartwig: At the end of the war - commemoration of eleven victims. In: Jens Graul, Michael Kämpf (Ed.): Dieter Hartwig - Marine history and security policy. Winkler, Bochum 2003, ISBN 978-3-89911-019-7 , pp. 124-128 (first in MarineForum 4/1990).
  16. ^ Günther Gribbohm: May 5, 1945: Mutiny on M 612 - contemporary history from a legal perspective. In: Military History , Volume 10 (2000), Issue 1, pp. 9–15.
  17. ↑ Norbert Haase: Justice terror in the Wehrmacht at the end of the Second World War. In: Cord Arendes , Edgar Wolfrum , Jörg Zedler (eds.): Terror to the inside. Crimes at the end of the Second World War. Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0046-0 , pp. 80-101, here p. 96 f.
  18. ↑ Frank Junghänel: Death on the Sea . In: Berliner Zeitung of May 7, 2005 (accessed on August 12, 2013).
  19. ^ Hermann Zolling, Heinz Höhne: Pullach intern (8th) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1971, p. 142–161 ( online - 8th continuation). Sigurd Hess: The "British Baltic Fishery Protection Service" and the "Schnellgruppe Klose" 1949–1956. In: Hartmut Klüver (Ed.): Stations of German Navy History (II): German Sea Associations 1945–1956 (Lectures of the 2nd Forum Wilhelmshaven on naval and shipping history from November 3-4, 2000), Düsseldorf 2001, pp. 75– 93.
  20. ^ Bundeswehr information and media center (ed.): Bundeswehr training films. o. O. o. J., bundesarchiv.de (PDF 907 kB), accessed August 10, 2013.