Company Teutonic sword

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Movie
Original title Company Teutonic sword
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1958
length 49 minutes
Rod
Director Annelie Thorndike
Andrew Thorndike
script Annelie Thorndike
Andrew Thorndike
production DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries
music Paul Dessau
camera Walter Fuchs (restoration)
Vera Futterlieb (documents)
Gustl Perin (documents)
cut Annelie Thorndike
Andrew Thorndike
occupation

The Teutonic Sword Company is a compilation film from the Archive Saying series from the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries by Annelie Thorndike and Andrew Thorndike from 1958 .

action

On October 13, 1934, the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou was buried in Paris , five days later the funeral of the King of Yugoslavia Alexander I took place in Belgrade . Both were killed in an assassination attempt on October 9, 1934 in Marseille . Behind the king's coffin, Hermann Göring , at that time the second man behind Adolf Hitler in Germany , who had conveyed the deepest condolences of his Führer and who in his vault kept the list of real helpers and accomplices in this murder, under the title company Teutonic sword , kept.

Adolf Hitler was in power in the first year. The army, navy, air force and SS were not yet fully operational, which is why he primarily spoke of peace and neighborhood in Europe in his speeches. Little did he suspect that some of the conversations with his closest confidants on Obersalzberg , which Hermann Rauschning published in his book Conversations with Hitler after his break with Hitler, could come to the public . Here it was discussed how Hitler wanted to expand his sphere of rule, including by military means. Louis Barthou suspected this and wanted to enforce the restriction of Germany to its own territory with the Little Entente , which is why he held talks in the corresponding countries and made sure that the Yugoslav king was invited to a state visit.

In order to avoid this little entente, Göring wrote a secret letter to the assistant of the military attaché at the German embassy in Paris, Captain Dr. Speidel , today's general of the NATO land forces in Central Europe. In this letter, Hans Speidel is entrusted with the organization of the Teutonenschwert company, who confirms the order on October 3, 1934, with details of the place and date of execution. The murder of Louis Barthou and Alexander I on the arrival of the king in Marseille is recorded by French cameramen.

Through this action Speidel recommended himself to be actively involved in the intelligence service of the Wehrmacht with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , which was confirmed by an affidavit from General Rudolf Bamler . In the summer of 1939 Speidel was appointed military attaché in Madrid , which proved that he was earmarked for a key position in the German secret service. But he couldn't stay there, because as an expert on France he was needed in Paris, which was occupied by the Wehrmacht. He drafted the text for the armistice agreement and took up his office for the next 600 days in Fontainebleau Palace near Paris. Here he worked out the orders and edicts by which France was governed and reported to his superiors on the measures that were carried out on Jews and Communists , including shootings and deportations .

In the spring of 1942 Speidel began his work in the east. Here he was chief of the general staff of the 5th Army Corps , later of the 8th Army with a decisive share in the decisions made. So he became lieutenant general and Hitler personally presented him with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . In April 1944, Hans Speidel became Chief of Staff of Army Group B under its Commander-in-Chief Erwin Rommel . This was accused of having been involved in the preparations for the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 , which is why he took his own life with poison. Rommel's son Manfred Rommel published an affidavit on his father's death in the Südkurier a year after his father's state funeral . In it he stated that his former chief of staff, Lieutenant General Speidel, who had been arrested a few weeks earlier, had testified that Rommel had played a leading role on July 20, 1944. This statement saved Speidel and cost Rommel his life.

The Lieutenant General Hitler became the four-star general of NATO and is at the height of his career. For the second time he moves into the Fontainebleau Palace near Paris.

production

The historical advice came from Karl Raddatz , the commentary was written by Günther Rücker .

The Teutonic Sword was developed as a black and white film and, as the second film in the Archive Saying series, had its theatrical release in the GDR on June 6, 1958. The film was previously released on May 19, 1958 in the presence of the GDR ambassador in the Hotel Warszawa in Warsaw ( People's Republic Poland ) premiered.

On August 6, 1959, the film was broadcast for the first time on German television .

background

Shortly after Speidel was appointed Commander in Chief of the NATO Land Forces in Central Europe and Four Star General of the Bundeswehr in April and June 1957, a campaign against him began in the GDR. On July 18, 1957, Hans Seigewasser , a member of the Presidium of the National Council of the National Front of Democratic Germany, presented the alleged evidence against Speidel at a press conference held by the press office at the Prime Minister of the GDR. A short time later, the news magazine Der Spiegel exposed the submitted documents as forgeries.

The Thorndikes used the documents presented for their film in 1958. When the English version of Operation Teutonic Sword was to be performed in Great Britain, the British Board of Film Classification refused approval. Due to a narrow majority decision by the London City Council, the film was finally shown in the British capital. Speidel then filed a lawsuit against the distribution company Plato Films Ltd. which was close to the Communist Party of Great Britain . The party asked the SED for support, which then contributed to the costs of the litigation, but ultimately had to admit that it did not have any original documents. General Speidel won the case in 1962 because the authenticity of the documents could not be proven.

reception

By order of the Deputy Minister for Public Education Gertrud Bobek on June 18, 1958, the visit of the film was made compulsory for all pupils in grades 7 to 12 of the general and vocational schools as well as for graduates of the teacher training institutions.

criticism

In the Critique of the New Age –rz wrote:

“Here, with diligence and skill, a surprisingly rich image material has been compiled, photos, film clips, newspaper images, and original documents finally from the Goebbels secret archive. A portrait was created, true to history: the life path of a man who began as a little espionage officer by Hitler's grace, whose career is marked by assassinations, regicide, hostage shootings, denunciation and murderous distress and who is now commander in chief of the NATO land forces in Central Europe. It's Dr. Hans Speidel, an honest man in a soldier's coat, a gentleman with well-groomed manners, a 'citizen-general' as from the army service regulations - and yet a criminal! This film proves it, seamlessly and consistently. "

In the Berliner Zeitung , university preacher Gerhard Kehnscherper said :

“You can't see the film Teuton Sword the way you normally see a film: for entertainment, for instruction, for enjoying the art of the actors and for critical discussion. This film attacks your conscience and immediately demands a moral decision. (…) Nobody can ignore the facts of the film [however]. These documents and affidavits will work in France, Norway, Denmark and Egypt. But this film will also awaken the consciences of the people in those countries that are hindered by an imperialist government from realizing the truth. "

In the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit , Erika Müller begins her report on this film as follows:

“The Defa documentary 'Operation Teutonic Sword', through which the East Berlin rulers wanted to prove that General Speidel, the commander of the NATO forces in Central Europe, was the organizer of the murder of the Yugoslav king, has been running for some time in the zone and in the Eastern Bloc countries Alexander and the French Foreign Minister Barthou. For this purpose, the film makes use of three documents, the authenticity of which has been questioned many times and with good reason when it was first published in 1957. "

Since this criticism would go beyond the scope of this article in terms of length, but is only further in depth as a whole, it can be read in full as a web link.

The German magazine Der Spiegel writes about this film:

“'The Teutonic Sword Company' belongs to the series of so-called documentary films with which the rulers of the GDR attempt to expose prominent Federal Republicans as Nazis, warmongers and criminals. The peculiar name, as the East Berlin weekly newspaper "Sonntag" explained, was 'the cover name for a political double murder that was staged by Speidel on behalf of Hitler and Goering'. "

A large part of this article deals with the actual assassins in Marseille and the ban on showing the film in London. It can also be accessed in full as a web link.

publication

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland, August 5th, p. 6
  2. ↑ Documents prove: General Hans Speidel prepared the assassination attempt in Marseille in 1934 . Berlin 1957.
  3. ↑ Cover word Teutonic sword . In: Der Spiegel from July 31, 1957, pp. 16-20.
  4. ^ Henning Hoff: Great Britain and the GDR 1955–1973. Diplomacy in a roundabout way . R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-486-56737-3 , pp. 308-309.
  5. ^ Matthias Steinle: From the enemy image to the external image. The mutual representation of FRG and GDR in the documentary. With a foreword by Marc Ferro, (CLOSE UP series, vol. 18), UVK, Konstanz 2003, ISBN 978-3-89669-421-8 , p. 141.
  6. ↑ No. 38/58 in: Orders and communications of the Ministry for National Education 6 (1958) No. 13, p. 101.
  7. ↑ Neue Zeit of June 10, 1958, p.
  8. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of June 18, 1958, p. 7
  9. ^ The time of February 13, 1959
  10. ↑ Der Spiegel from April 15, 1959
  11. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of July 29, 1958, p. 3
  12. ^ New Germany of November 13, 1958, p. 2