SA man fire

Movie
Original title	SA man fire
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1933
length	88 minutes
Rod
Director	Franz Seitz senior
script	Joseph Dalman Joe Stöckel
production	Franz Seitz sr. for Bavarian Film Society
music	Toni Thoms
camera	Franz Koch
cut	Gottlieb Madl
occupation
Heinz Klingenberg : SA man Fritz Brand Otto Wernicke : Father Brand Elise Aulinger : his wife Wera Liessem : Anni Baumann Max Weydner : Soviet agent Turow Hedda Lembach : Mrs. Lohner Rolf Wenkhaus : Erich, your son Josef Stöckel : Anton Huber, house owner Wilhelmine Rückert : Genoveva Huber, his wife Fritz Greiner : the old Baumann Magda Lena : his wife Otthein Haas : Max, son of both Adolf Lallinger : Ludwig, both son Manfred Kömpel : Schmitt, troop leader of the SA Theo Kaspar : Spitzer, a communist Philipp Weichand : host of the SA restaurant Wastl Witt : host of the 'Café Diana' Rudolf Frank : Factory owner Neuberg Rudolf Kunig : City Councilor Rolat Josef Eichheim : Säbelmeyer Agnes Straub : Turow's smoking lover and Robert Retzer , Noldi Ried , Karl Tischlinger

SA Mann Brand , often written SA-Mann Brand or SA-Mann Brand , also known under the title SA Mann Brand - a picture of life from our days. is a National Socialist propaganda film from 1933 by Franz Seitz senior . Fritz Brand is played by Heinz Klingenberg , his father by Otto Wernicke and his mother by Elise Aulinger . Wera Liessem can be seen in a leading role .

action

Germany, just before Hitler came to power. In the first scene of the game, several SA people sit together; one of them tells with some pathos about a dream in which a dead SA man admonishes his comrades to be loyal to and to fulfill their duties for a new, brown Germany. Then the real story begins. A group of communist thugs attacked a gathering of SA people. A tussle breaks out when the communists try to break into the meeting room of the political opponent, an inn. One of the communists is dragged into the tavern and claims to the approaching police officers that the SA men had started the riot. Thereupon the police officer in charge of the operation threatens the bar owner to close his shop soon. The brown shirts react indignantly, because they feel constantly provoked and challenged by the “communist mob” in the district. The detained communist is taken away by the police. But outside, in the politically contested city district, several communists have gathered again in a dark street corner and are planning to lure SA man Fritz Brand, a skilled worker, who has been scolded as a dangerous agitator, into an ambush. The young Anni Baumann should help them with this. But Fritz Brand does not fall for Anni's crude attempt to lure him into a pub, the 'Café Diana', which is mostly frequented by communists. When one of the communists suspects that Anni wants to betray her cronies, he shoots fire. But at the last second he can save himself in a dark doorway.

Father Brand, a long-serving but unemployed Social Democrat, is not surprised that his son is on the “ Bolsheviks ”, as he calls them, hit list . "Why does he have to take part in this Nazi spasm?" He asks his wife, who is worried about her boy. Once again, father and son get into a heated argument over their political differences. At home with her family, Anni has to listen to a lot too. Her communist brothers reproach her for warning Brand, and the rude, scornful father even beats her violently. A little later in the 'Café Diana' a certain Turow approaches Anni, because this Soviet agent wants to use her contact and her feelings for the SA man Brand for his machinations. Turow demands that she turn Brand into a communist informer. This, in turn, was able to inspire the young Erich Lohner, who lives with his mother in great poverty, for the National Socialist idea. Turow is already making plans to drive Brand into unemployment to make him compliant. He causes Councilor Rolat to put pressure on the manufacturer Neuberg, Brand's employer. In fact, Fritz Brand is fired.

After another violent political argument with his father, Brand meets Anni, who runs a small cigarette house. She confesses to him that she should recruit him as an informant on behalf of Turow and that she was only doing this to save him from being gunned down by her Communist friends. Brand pretends to get to know Turow and in turn to ask him about the intentions of the communists. For a planned action, Turow demands that Brand organize weapons and ammunition. In order to appear credible, the SA man increases the price offered by Turow for this service from RM 300 to RM 500. In the meantime, the young Erich Lohner is very happy about a present for his 16th birthday, a Hitler Youth uniform. When Brand also comes by and gives him a portrait of the “Führer” in uniform as a gift, his son and mother are overwhelmed. For Brand and Erich, it was a major setback when the German government banned the SA. But resistance is already forming in the SA people's local pub; only the communists are rubbing their hands. Meanwhile, Turow gives Brand a look into the communists' weapons depot. The SA man believes he has stolen the trust of the Soviet agent, but the latter suspects Brand's double play and is pursuing his own goals with his presumed leap of faith, since he believes this is the only way to get Brand under control.

But SA man Brand was able to outsmart Turow and one night with his comrades to dig up the communists' weapons hiding place. In an exchange of fire and several explosions, he is injured, but can escape with his people. In search of Fritz Brand, with whom she gradually fell in love, Anni Baumann went to Mrs. Lohner. She learns from her that Brand, shot by Annis brothers, is seriously injured in the clinic. But he is already on the mend and receives a visit from his worried parents. In the following SA propaganda march, Erich Lohner also took part for the first time, while many people whistled, hooted and shouted “Murderer!”, “Worker murderer!” And “Hitler crazy!” On the roadside. From the ambush, a cellar window, the young Erich is finally shot from behind. He dies in the clinic with pathetic words about dying for Germany on his lips. Then it echoes from the radio: Reich President Hindenburg has appointed Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor. In the next election, Fritz Brand's father also makes his cross with the NSDAP . Turow is arrested, manufacturer Neuberg is pressured to stop the fire and then goes to Switzerland.

“National Socialist Germany won the day. SA marches, and in their ranks proud and upright SA man Brand. From a thousand throats sounds overwhelming: ' The flag up, the ranks firmly closed, SA is marching ... ' A tremendous jubilation goes through all of Germany - the dawn of a new era is dawning. Father Brand now finds his way to his son, the brave SA man. Germany is awake. "

Production notes and background

The shooting took place in Munich from mid-April to the end of May 1933 , i.e. after the Nazis seized power on January 30, 1933. SA Mann Brand was the third's first Nazi propaganda feature film , ahead of Hans Westmar and Hitler Youth Quex (both also in 1933) Reichs . SA Mann Brand was premiered on June 14, 1933 in the UFA-Palast am Zoo .

Director and producer Seitz also took over the production management, the film construction comes from Max Seefelder .

Turow actor Max Weydner speaks to his clichéd Soviet agents with a heavy Slavic accent.

In 1933 the film received the ratings "popular education" and "artistically particularly valuable". After the war, the performance of SA Mann Brand in Germany was banned by the Allied military authorities; the production is considered a reserve film .

The targeted attempts at distortion towards the political opponent, the communists, lead to some staged absurdities:

• When saying goodbye to Anni, the Soviet agent greets Turov with "Heil Moscow!"
• In their local pub, the communists celebrate their leader Turow with three shouts of “Red Front!” When he serves a round of vodka.
• The communists are consistently portrayed as dull thugs and vulgar mobs.Only the Soviet citizen Turow always walks around in the finest thread and looks like a dandy of the Western European upper class.

Co-author Stöckel wrote some humorous scenes for his role in SA Mann Brand . He plays a house owner who is under the slipper of his wife who rejects the National Socialists, while he is himself a kind-hearted Hitler supporter who whistles the Horst Wessel song and has a big heart for others. For example, he exempts the needy lodger and brave World War II widow Ms. Lohner from renting for a month and brings her food over.

Wera Liessem , who plays the central role of the doubting communist Anni, who is finally "purified" thanks to Fritz Brand's insinuated decency, later emigrated from Hitler's Germany and followed her then partner, the writer Ödön von Horváth , who was shot in the Third Reich , into exile Paris. After his accidental death (1938), however, she returned to her old home.

Reviews

The reviews of the clumsy regime-loyal film, which, like Hans Westmar , did not meet with the public's approval and was soon dismissed as “national kitsch” even by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , were partly devastating in the Nazi state. Director Seitz was denied any qualification for the implementation of such a "big" subject.

The following verdict can be read in Der Film : "SA-Mann Brand is not a piece of contemporary history, but a mixture of films from the recent past, which is made for the viewer who is still apart from the movement today, but above all the growing youth, to give the wrong picture of Adolf Hitler's political soldiers! "

“In Munich, the birthplace of the National Socialist SA, the first German SA film 'SA-Mann Brand' was made from the days of the national uprising. [...] Franz Seitz and the scriptwriters unfortunately did not have the format and qualifications for such a big film. With an SA film epic you have to apply the highest standards, but not the standards for Seitz's earlier dozen films. We are right here at the limit of the economic kitsch. [...] The acting ensemble, an excellent profile of classes and parties, has brilliant performances down to the smallest roles. Heinz Klingenberg in the main role, Rolf Wenkhaus as Erich, the Hitler Youth and Otto Wernicke, the father of Brands, are responsible for the big event. "

- Oskar Kalbus: On the development of German film art. Part 2: The sound film. Berlin 1935, p. 119 f.

The author and critic Karlheinz Wendtland reprimanded: "The film tries to portray the militant task force of the NSDAP, the SA, as the defender of order, even though it was responsible for the murder of a large number of political opponents."

The German film 1938–1945 called the film briefly a “kitschy propaganda film”.

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era

Web links

• SA Mann Brand in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• SA Mann Brand at filmportal.de
• SA man fire. Information about the film at rothenburg-unterm-hakenkreuz.de
• SA man fire. Movie poster from 1933 at dhm.de.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to the opening credits, ie co-author Joe Stöckel
2. ↑ SA Mann Brand full film at archive.org, spelling see opening credits
3. ^ SA man Brand Wiener Illustrierter Film-Kurier No. 1964.
4. ^ Illustrated film courier. No. 1964.
5. ^ Constanze Freiin von Kettler: The Instrumentalization of Prussia in National Socialist Propaganda Feature Film. Chapter SA Mann Brand. ISBN 978-3-640-83170-8 .
6. ↑ Film under National Socialism . In: Academic papers.
7. ↑ The film. June 17, 1933.
8. ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies. Born 1933 and 1934, Berlin, Chapter: Films 1933, Film No. 56.
9. ^ Bogusław Drewniak: The German Film 1938–1945. A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 84.