Scharnhorst (TV series)
Scharnhorst is a five-part television series by the DFF about the activities of the Prussian military reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst in the period from 1806 to 1813 during the wars of liberation . It was also broadcast by some television stations in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1981 . The military advice was given by Colonel of the NVA Hans-Jürgen Usczek and the Military History Museum Dresden .
Further technical data
Production management: Hans Bentzien
Scenario: Hans Pfeiffer
Editor: Beate Winker
Costumes: Doris Haußmann, Margarethe Salow
Assistant director: Christine Panse
Camera assistance: Rainer Fresdorf, Peter Wednesday, Rainer Krugler
Sound: Udo Kroll, Lothar Schwarze
Location management: Ingeborg Kühnert, Volker Holecek, Reinhard Saczewski, Susanne Jacobson
Pyrotechnics : Rainer Henkel, Lothar Schönberg
Cascadeurs : Hans-Joachim Blumenthal, Hans Grzesznak, Bernhard Schirmer, Wolfgang Steinert
Content of each episode
1. The disaster
In the fight against lack of freedom and backwardness, the reform-minded Prussian officer Scharnhorst found in Freiherr vom Stein an ally against the outdated, conservative generals of the Prussian army . Scharnhorst meets with von Stein in the house of Countess Brühl. He is accompanied by the young lieutenant Carl von Clausewitz, who is in love with Marie, the countess's daughter, but cannot marry her due to the differences in class.
The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. is initially against Scharnhorst's reform efforts . Due to the backward structure, the Prussian army experiences a defeat against the troops of Napoleon I.
2. The general attack
Due to the defeat against France , King Friedrich Wilhelm III. forced to push reforms and moved Freiherr von Stein to return to office. The peasant liberation is enforced against the will of the nobility . In the army, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Clausewitz and Boyen enforce the abolition of corporal punishment and create a people's army . The Krümpersystem undermines the Prussian troop reduction intended by Napoleon I. An attempt by Queen Luise to get Napoleon I on better terms for Prussia in the Peace of Tilsit , however, fails.
3. The crisis
Marie finally receives her mother's consent to marry Clausewitz. The wedding takes place in Berlin's Marienkirche. Under pressure from Napoleon I, Prussia concludes an alliance with France against Russia , whereupon Boyen, Clausewitz and Gneisenau enter Russian services. Stein stumbles upon an intrigue by the French secret police and is released again by King Friedrich Wilhelm under pressure from Napoleon. He also flees to Russia via Austria . Scharnhorst remains in Prussia in order to be able to influence the king locally.
In Russia, Gneisenau advises Tsar Alexander I in the fight against the invading French and suggests a defensive strategy that lures the enemy more and more into the vastness of the Russian territory. The Russian army leaves Napoleon a burning Moscow .
4. The survey
Napoleon's hope for peace with Russia is not fulfilled. During the retreat, the Grande Armée is almost completely destroyed. Napoleon flees to France. The French retreat is to be covered by Prussian troops under General Yorck. General Diebitsch and his adjutant Clausewitz succeed in convincing Yorck of a change of alliance, which Yorck implements against his king in the Tauroggen Convention . Yorck is celebrated as a national hero.
The reformers are now able to implement their ideas of a people's army with the help of the population. Scharnhorst returns to the Prussian service and has close contact with the king. He succeeds in persuading them to form an alliance with Russia, which is concluded in Kalisch on February 28, 1813.
5. Hope
Scharnhorst convinced the king of the necessity of a Landwehr . He himself renounced the supreme command of the Prussian troops in the planned campaign against France and was able to persuade the king to win General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher for this task. Although Prussia and her allies lose the Battle of Großgörschen , Napoleon does not achieve an effective victory. Scharnhorst is wounded in the knee in the battle. However, he did not allow the wound to heal because he wanted Austria to join the alliance against Napoleon and died in Prague of wound fever . Napoleon is defeated in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig . In the city, Stein experienced the misery of the wounded who were not helped by the people of Leipzig. The reformers are frustrated.
In 1830 Gneisenau visited Clausewitz in his house. While the two men see their efforts for the popular movement as having failed, Marie von Clausewitz argues that their time has not yet come, but that later generations will complete this task.
Production history
The preparatory work for the series by Hans Pfeiffer began as early as 1972 and was based on in-depth study of sources such as the evaluation of letters, memoirs, memoranda, edicts and contracts. Many quotes and dialogues are taken verbatim from the sources. The original title “The General Attack” was rejected by SED functionaries.
According to director Panse, the series served to satisfy a need for tradition that existed in the GDR . The NVA's military advisor, Colonel Usczek, was only involved in the scenario and not in the shooting. Advisers from the Military Museum in Dresden were also brought in for historical details. The series was filmed in over 50 locations in 55 days. It was the DFF's first television series that was not recorded on film , but with MAZ technology.
criticism
“The script doesn't draw very much real characters. The characters only play roles, mostly depicting types. The message comes mainly through the word, through numerous dialogues. If the director hadn't brought such an excellent ensemble of actors together and allowed them to act as freely as possible, the storyline, which is also loaded with many quotes from letters or memoirs, etc., would certainly have turned out to be much more inanimate due to the close connection to the sources. It is thanks to the artistic capacity of the director and the actors that the Marxist-Lenist interpretation patterns hardly seem artificial, but rather seem to result from the actions of the protagonists. "
Lore
In 1996 the Federal Agency for Civic Education produced a two-part video edition that is still available in public educational institutions today. In August 2001 the series was re-broadcast by MDR . In April 2016, DDR TV-Archiv released a three-part DVD edition.
See also
literature
- Peter Meyers: The GDR television production Scharnhorst , in: Federal Center for Political Education (ed.): The change in the image of Prussia in the GDR media , Bonn 1996, pp. 70–84. ISBN 3-89331-246-3
- Uta Becher: "Scharnhorst". Interview with Wolf-Dieter Panse , in: ibid., Pp. 36–48.
- Scharnhorst , in: Filmobiographischer Jahresbericht 1978 , Berlin 1981, pp. 111f, 307.
- Hans-Jürgen Usczeck: Scharnhorst. Theorist, reformer, patriot. His work and its impact in his and for our time , 1st edition Berlin (Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic) 1972.