Titanic (1943)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Titanic |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Herbert Selpin , Werner Klingler |
| script | Herbert Selpin, Walter Zerlett-Olfenius |
| production | Willy Reiber |
| music | Werner Eisbrenner |
| camera | Friedl Behn-Grund |
| cut | Friedel Buckow |
| occupation | |
| |
Titanic is a German propaganda film from 1943 by Herbert Selpin , completed by Werner Klingler , who tells of the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912. Sybille Schmitz , Hans Nielsen , Kirsten Heiberg , Ernst Fritz Fürbringer and Karl Schönböck play the leading roles .
Making the film
In 1939 the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda demanded that the film studios develop anti-British materials. In 1940 Tobis Filmkunst GmbH presented a script based on the novel by Josef Pelz von Felinau , written by the author and Werner Bergold. The story is based on the statements of Max Dittmar Pittmann, who claimed to have been a third officer on the Titanic . Pelz von Felinau stated that he himself was on the RMS Carpathia , which he later revoked with regret. Since Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels called for extensive changes, Pelz von Felinau left the project again.
In 1941, the educationalist August Christian Riekel submitted a new script under the pseudonym Harald Bratt, which, however, differed greatly from the original version. For the director was Herbert Maisch announced. But this refused because he was busy with other projects. Other sources claim that Maisch disapproved of the clumsy draft of the script. Other directors also turned it down because they did not trust themselves to portray a disaster film under these guidelines. In the end, the decision fell on Herbert Selpin . The decisive factor is said to have been that Selpin already had experience with maritime films. However, he thought Harald Bratt's script was inadequate and demanded that his friend Walter Zerlett-Olfenius be consulted. Selpin and Zerlett-Olfenius revised the script again. Selpin estimated 87 days of shooting, which would have been a very high standard even for large Hollywood productions. Four million Reichsmarks (approx. 17 million euros in 2016) were made available for production.
The shooting turned out to be difficult from the start and was overshadowed by "fateful incidents". Even during the filming in Gotenhafen there were "riots, excessive drinking and arguments". This was also due to the fact that you had to work with a lot of extras who had no experience in film work.
action
The film portrays the catastrophe in the form of anti-British propaganda. The White Star Line was on the verge of bankruptcy and therefore bribed the captain to cross the Atlantic with the Titanic in record time to give the shipping company the fame of the “ Blue Ribbon ” (the award for the fastest passenger ship between the English Channel and New York City) financially. Only the German first officer Petersen (in reality there was no German officer on board) recognizes the danger; however, its warnings are ignored. There are several romantic stories in the subplot that touch on the topics of true love, old love, new love, love triangle, engagement, marriage, and sacrifice.
During the sinking, rich passengers and also the shipping company president Bruce Ismay try to bribe the captain to give them seats in the lifeboats. The German passengers and crew members showed the greatest courage and character during the disaster. When Captain Smith tells the crew members they are free and everyone is trying to save themselves, at the last moment Petersen saves a British girl who has been left alone in a cabin and puts her in a boat. The passengers in the boats watch the sinking of the Titanic in shock.
In the court scene at the end of the film, Petersen accuses the president of being primarily responsible for the misfortune. The judicial commission rejects this view, because from a legal point of view only the (drowned) captain was in command.
Production and Background
The film falsified both the causes and the course of the catastrophe: The old rumor that the Titanic had gone to ruin out of record addiction had long since been refuted by the time of the film. In terms of its engine performance, the ship was not designed to break the speed record, but rather for luxury through the lowest possible vibrations. The film also falsely stated that the Titanic could reach a speed of 26.5 knots. On the other hand, she could "only" reach a top speed of 23 to 24 knots, and the actual cruising speed was around 21 knots. The White Star Line was not on the verge of bankruptcy either, otherwise it would not have been able to continue to exist until the merger with the Cunard Line in 1935. The fact that Bruce Ismay could have persuaded the captain to arrive in New York a day earlier than planned for PR reasons is, however, quite credible.
Another mistake that is less used for propaganda is the subject of the plot that Bruce Ismay will marry a woman named Gloria after arriving in New York. Ismay was already married, but never to a woman named Gloria.
Forty-year-old Herbert Selpin was arrested while filming on July 31, 1942, after he had spoken critically about the Wehrmacht and the war over dinner in private ; Walter Zerlett-Olfenius had denounced him. Selpin was found hanged with suspenders on August 1st in his cell at Alexanderplatz police headquarters . Whether it was really suicide or murder by the Gestapo could never be clarified. Goebbels wrote in his diary: August 1, 1942: “Selpin killed himself in his cell. He came to the decision that the court would have made. ”The film was completed by Werner Klingler on the orders of Goebbels .
The scenes in the film, which take place on the night of sinking and show the boat deck of the Titanic , were made on board the Cap Arcona . This German ship actually sank on May 3, 1945 after being hit by Allied bombers in the Bay of Lübeck ; several thousand concentration camp prisoners on board were killed.
The realistic representation of the ship with the help of an animation technique that was highly developed for the time and the use of a 6 m long model was used again in the film The Last Night of the Titanic from 1958, as well as scenes with buildings by Fritz Maurischat.
publication
After the film was finished in 1943, the war situation had developed so unfavorably for Germany that Joseph Goebbels feared defeatist effects and did not release the work for German cinemas. However, the author and critic Karlheinz Wendtland stated that it is no longer possible to say with certainty today whether the film actually ran in Germany before the end of the war or whether it was only released abroad. However, Goebbels undoubtedly recognized that the film emanated a “doom and gloom”. German film viewers could only all too easily have associated a shipwreck with the imminent fall of the German Reich, so that the film was only released in 1950 in a shortened, but successful version regardless of the sometimes nonsensical plot. According to other sources, the film is said to have premiered in a Berlin district theater without causing a stir. After the Allies were banned, the FSK released the film in an abridged version in 1950. However, the Allies banned it again (see list of films banned under National Socialism ).
The film premiered on September 24, 1943 in Prague, in France it was shown on November 10, 1943 and in Finland on December 12, 1943. On January 28, 1944 it was shown for the first time in Sweden. It was released in cinemas in the Soviet Union on August 27, 1949, and in the Federal Republic of Germany on February 7, 1950. In the German Democratic Republic, it was shown for the first time on April 8, 1950 at the Babylon Film Theater in East Berlin. The film was not finally approved by the FSK until the spring of 1955, after the Federal Republic of Germany had regained its sovereignty. The West German version ends with the sinking of the ship, while the eastern, complete version, which was also shown on arte , ends with the subsequent court hearing in New York.
criticism
After a detailed review of the film, the critic of the French film portal SensCritique comes to the following conclusion: “The Titanic version from 1942, which represents a double interest, is on the whole a film that is entertaining to watch despite its old age. […] Titanic is indeed a highly recommendable disaster film (even by current standards), the romantic aspects of which undoubtedly inspired James Cameron (almost certainly with regard to certain scenes). But it is also the archetype of a propaganda film in wartime [...] in a genre where one would not necessarily expect it. One should look at it with curiosity and without reservation, both in terms of the story presented and in terms of the historical context in which the film was shot ”.
The author and critic Karlheinz Wendtland wrote that this “anti-British film” leaves you “strangely cold”. Wendtland took offense at the criticism of Reimar Hollmann , which Joe Hembus took up at the time , who said: " Titanic is one of the large number of third-class films that second-class directors made in the Third Reich." Wendtland was indignant: "An upright man like the director of this film, Herbert Selpin, who also stood in front of Goebbels and in Gestapo custody about his insulting remarks about the German Wehrmacht and who made interesting films, has to be insulted today as a 'second-rate director' who made 'third-rate films'. Apparently from a man who belongs to a film 'art' direction, whose copies of unperformable films pile up in mountains that cannot be overlooked. "
Further films
see → RMS Titanic - Film Adaptations
Web links
- Titanic in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Titanic at filmportal.de
- Titanic full movie
- Die Nazi-Titanic (2012) OT of the documentation about the creation of "The Nazi Titanic" (120 min., Translation and adaptation)
- Hemma Marlene Prainsack: This is how the Titanic sank. Anti-British propaganda in the National Socialist feature film. Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2013.
- Malte Fiebing-Petersen: The Nazis and their Titanic film (with illustrated film stage No. 2833 and pictures from the film) - titanicfiles.de
- Rosie Waites: Five Titanic myths spread by films
Individual evidence
- ↑ Titanic movie poster at dhm.de.
- ↑ What would a Reichsmark be worth? In: Freie Presse, accessed on September 1, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies. Born in 1943, 1944 and 1945, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, Film 65/1943, ISBN 3-926945-05-2 , pp. 60–61.
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↑ Hans Schmid: The Third Reich in self-experiment - Part 6: The Russians are coming! But where?
In: Telepolis, May 24, 2010, at heise.de. Retrieved April 26, 2017. - ^ Felix Möller in The Film Minister, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-932565-10-X , p. 170.
- ^ Reclam's film guide. 2nd edition 1973.
- ↑ Realistically drowned . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1950 ( online ).
- ↑ Navire de propagande, Avis sur Titanic SensCritique.com., April 9, 2012, accessed September 12, 2017
