Hallgarten Scout Troop

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Movie
Original title Hallgarten Scout Troop
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1941
length 77 (current version) minutes
Rod
Director Herbert B. Fredersdorf
script Kurt E. Walter
Herbert B. Fredersdorf
production Germania Film, Munich-Berlin
music Anton Profes
camera Eduard Hoesch
cut Walter Fredersdorf
occupation

as well as the Mittenwald mountain hunters and mountain pioneers

Spähtrupp Hallgarten is a German war film made in 1940 in honor of the German mountain troops involved in the Norwegian campaign . Directed by Herbert B. Fredersdorf play René Deltgen the title role, and Paul Klinger , Maria Andergast and Rudolf Prack also star. Above all, the propaganda film was supposed to sing the song of praise for the virtue of inviolable camaraderie among mountain troops in war (see reception).

action

1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War . The film begins with a unit of the mountain troops who roam a Bavarian town with swastika flags , cheered by the village population. In the evening the soldiers come to dance, including Hannes Hallgarten and his best friend, elementary school teacher Sepp Eberle, who are both in love with the innkeeper’s daughter Christa Hambacher. The fact that Oberjäger Unterkirchner, who asks Christa to dance, also shows interest in her, bothers the two friends badly. In the dispute between Hannes and Unterkirchner, both of whom are excellent mountaineers, a foolish bet is made about climbing the top of the Hörner over the dangerous west face. Promptly something goes wrong and Hannes can no longer pull up the Sepp hanging in the rope due to lack of strength. The two are saved with the help of Unterkirchner, but the rumor is spreading that Hannes Hallgarten might want to get rid of Sepp (and thus a competitor for Christa's favor) in this way.

September 1939, the war has started. Hannes and Sepp are patterned and come to the mountain hunters. Hannes receives three letters at the front from Christa, while Sepp comes away empty-handed - a sure sign that she has decided on Hannes, even if her father doesn't like to see this in view of Hallgarten's behavior on the rock face back then. One day Hannes Hallgarten receives an order from his sergeant to assemble a patrol in occupied Norway. Of course, he chooses Sepp as his companion, as the friendship between the two also means that one can blindly rely on the other in the event of danger. The plan is to break the last pockets of resistance of the British expeditionary forces in Norway. In fact, the two men get caught in the British barrage, in which Sepp is seriously wounded. Hannes wants to carry him away, but he no longer has the strength to do so. Sepp tells Hallgarten to save himself and leave him behind. Hannes promises to come back with relief after his return to the troops in order to rescue Sepp. In the German camp, the old, new suspicion arises again that Hannes only left his friend seriously injured in order to have Christa to himself in the future. Sepp is reported missing, and Hannes, who once again accuses his old rival, Unterkirchner, of lacking camaraderie (Unterkirchner zu Hallgarten regarding Eberle: “You wanted to let him die because it suited you!”), Then starts talking to his Superiors, Captain Pfennig, violent self-reproaches. The captain, who believed that Hallgarten could no longer be of any use to him in this condition, sent him home, where the replacement battalion needed a new instructor.

At home, Christa is very worried because she has not received any mail from her loved one for a long time. Her father tries to calm her down a little. Hannes returns to Bavaria, but does not visit Christa. Her father believes that this could only be due to Hallgarten's guilty conscience, as he once again abandoned his best friend Eberle in an emergency. In the meantime, the Germans in Norway overran the British and also seized their infirmary. There they find Sepp Eberle lying in bed with a head wound, but still alive. He is amazed that Hallgarten has been accused of abandoning him. He makes it clear to everyone that Hannes left him in the snow and ice at his own request. Still full of self-reproach, Hannes explains the first time he meets Christa, who has now also begun to doubt him that he wants to return to his unit. There, after Unterkirchner has recognized his error in the Eberle case, there is also reconciliation with his once strongest critic. Meanwhile, to recover, Sepp Eberle returns to Bavaria and visits Christa. Hallgarten and his men came under heavy fire on a new section of the front, at which Hallgarten, who had outsmarted the British by telephone with a wrong order in English, was killed. While the unsuspecting Christa in her distant home Sepp declares that she will always wait for Hannes, his people sing after a pathetic speech ("His soldierhood was crowned by the devotion of his life. He died so that our people could live.") her top officer at Hallgarten's grave the soldier's song “ I had a comrade ”.

Production notes

Filming began on September 23, 1940 with the studio recordings in the Althoff studio in Babelsberg , which ended in early October of the same year. The outdoor shots, which were made in Mittenwald, Schliersee and at Spitzingsee, began on October 13, 1940. Work on the film was probably finished the following month. The premiere took place on March 14, 1941 in Vienna, the Berlin premiere was on May 13 of the same year.

Ernst Garden and Alfred Bittins were the production managers . Alfred Bütow and Heinrich Beisenherz designed the film buildings. Eugen Hrich took care of the sound.

In addition to the traditional soldier song “I had a comrade”, two other songs were played: “A girl must be loyal” and “When the sun shines”. The latter was performed by a children's choir.

After the war ended in 1945, this film was banned by the Allied military authorities.

useful information

A dispute at the highest level developed about this film in 1940/41, which reached up to the top of the German government. At first the Wehrmacht censorship had raised several points of criticism of the script, then the producing Germania intended to advertise the pompous title “large film” to Spähtrupp Hallgarten , which the Wehrmacht censors also objected to. The case was even brought before Hitler , whose adjutant in the Wehrmacht, Rudolf Schmundt , announced the following on February 27, 1941: “The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht postponed the decision on the title after the film“ Spähtrupp Hallgarten ”was presented. The guide wishes to see the film after completion and will then decide for himself whether the addition 'A large film ...' is to be added to the title or not. " In the end, this title was not awarded, as was any other prestigious title.

reception

In Der deutsche Film 1938–1945 it is said that the title-giving soldier in the Hallgarten reconnaissance group is “an example of comradeship ready to make sacrifices” and thus follows the intention of this war propaganda film. The constellation "two men woo a woman" is incidentally "a very popular and very often copied scheme in the German war films of the time."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938–1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 393 f.
  2. ↑ ibid., P. 394

See also

Web links