Vacation on word of honor (1938)

Movie
Original title	Vacation on word of honor
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1938
length	86 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Karl Ritter
script	Charles Klein based on the short story by Walter Julius Bloem
production	Karl Ritter
music	Ernst Erich Buder
camera	Günther Anders
cut	Gottfried Ritter
occupation
Ingeborg Theek : Inge, nurse Fritz Kampers : Heini Hartmann, private Rolf Moebius : Walter Praetorius, lieutenant Berta Drews : Anna Hartmann René Deltgen : Emil Sasse, grenadier Heinz Welzel : Gustav Jahnke, recruit Carl Raddatz : Dr. Jens Kirchhoff, grenadier Jakob Sinn : Peter Schmiedecke, grenadier Ludwig Schmitz : Rudi Pichel, grenadier Karl Wagner : Karl Lemke Hans Reinhard Knitsch : Kurt Hellwig, recruit Willi Rose : Julius Krawutke, grenadier Wilhelm H. König : Ulrich Hagen, grenadier Kurt Waitzmann : Dr. Hans Wegener, private Franz Weber : Schnettelker, NCO Otz Tollen : Falk, captain Hadrian Maria Netto : von Treskow-Dyrenfurth, first lieutenant Heinrich Schroth : Lieutenant Colonel Käte Haack : Maria, nurse Evi Eva : Dolores Schulze, artist Iwa Wanja : Ilonka, Hungarian artist Ruth Störmer : Vera Georgi, sculptor Otto Graf : Prof. Knudsen, sculptor Eduard Bornträger : Prof. Hasenkamp Lotte Werkmeister : Mrs. Krawutke Ewald Wenck : Hans-Georg Krause Christine Grabe : Adelheid, Jahnke's friend Margot Erbst : Fritzi, Sasse's friend Elisabeth Wendt : Lulu Frey, Dr. Kirchhoff's girlfriend Herbert Weißbach : Hector Hasse Hellriegel Herbert Gernot : Rostowski, Lulu's friend Ilse Fürstenberg : Mrs. Schmiedecke Fritz Klaudius : 1st crook Josef Dahmen : 2nd crook Beppo Brem : Bavarian Gustav Mahncke : Märker Charly Kracker : Hamburger Heinz Förster-Ludwig : Cologne Walter Schramm-Duncker : Saxons Oscar Sabo : Orje Piesecke, furniture transporter Kai Möller : 1st deputy officer Karl Hannemann : 2nd deputy officer Martha von Kossatzky : owner of the artist pension Klaus Pohl : Artist in the pension Aribert Grimmer : patient in hospital Horst Teetzmann : Young communist Trude Lehmann : Cook Hildegard Fränzel : tram attendant Charly Berger : Major Margarethe Lehmann : Adelheid's little sister Michele Danton : Lulu's friend Eva Genschow : Hartmann's neighbor Anneliese Impekoven : Hartmann's neighbor Paul Dahlke : director of the manor house Georg Georgi : porter of the manor house Berndt Werner : Soldier with accordion Jac Diehl : artist with accordion Leo Sloma : artist with guitar Paul Walker : short artist in the pension Anni Andreae : 1st artist in the pension Valerie Borstel : 2nd artist in the pension Cläre Giln 3rd artist in the pension Arthur Reppert : Artist in the pension Clemens Wrede : Innkeeper Anni Becker : waitress Robert Forsch : 1st guest in the café Heinrich Krill : 2nd guest in the café Brigitte von Bülow : music student

Urlaub auf Ehrenwort is a 1937 German war film with a propaganda tendency by Karl Ritter based on the short story of the same name by Walter Julius Bloem . The film, set in World War I , dramatizes the tension between the fulfillment of military duties and the civil pursuit of private satisfaction in the National Socialist sense. The main roles are played alongside Rolf Moebius as Lieutenant Walter Prätorius, Fritz Kampers , Ingeborg Theek , Berta Drews and René Deltgen . Felix Lützkendorf worked on the script.

After 1945 the film was put on the list of films not released for public screening by the Allied Control Council , which is responsible for film censorship . It was not included in the list of reserved films .

action

Based on the autobiographical short story of the same name by Walter Julius Bloem jr. (alias: Kilian Koll ), the film is set in late 1918 in the final phase of the First World War . A platoon of German infantrymen under the command of Lieutenant Praetorius is to be moved to the Western Front. The mood is bad. War fatigue and a vacation ban reduce the soldiers' morale when they come to Berlin on their way. The military leadership fears the revolutionary climate in the city, which is why the young lieutenant Praetorius is ordered not to give his men any leave during their stay in Berlin. Nevertheless, he gives his men, who come mainly from the city, for six hours of vacation. Before that, he takes their word of honor from them to be ready for the departure of their train at Potsdam train station .

The film then follows four soldiers of different ages and social origins, the personal joys and needs of the soldiers and their families. Infantryman Ulrich Hagen is a composer. He visits his music teacher, who asks him not to sacrifice his talent for a lost war. Private Hartmann, a middle-aged man, surprises his young wife Anna and their four children. Anna bears all the burden of looking after the family. In addition, she is required to work as a tram driver. She asks her husband to stay. The third, a young man, learns that his only relative has died. He meets a girl and falls in love for the first time in his life. The fourth, infantryman Emil Sasse, is a “left-wing intellectual” and is fed up with the war. His friend Fritzi has joined a revolutionary group and prints anti-war leaflets. Above all, there is the question of which of them gives in to the desire to escape the war. Each of the four soldiers will find their own answer.

background

The screenplay was developed in collaboration between Charles Klein and Felix Lützkendorf, with the two suggestions from Walter Julius Bloem and his father, the writer Walter Bloem being processed. The initiative for the production of the film came from the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , (RMVP). Here Karl Ritter was able to assert himself against Max Winkler's preferred film “Public Enemy No. 1” with Joseph Goebbels with his suggestion for “Vacation on word of honor” . As with all such state-commissioned films , Goebbels had a personal influence on the content and production. He wrote in his diary this on August 6, 1937: "Yesterday: Vacation on word of honor studied. Manuscript in dialogue and erotic scenes still too clumsy. Must be reworked. [...]." The film was made by Universum-Film AG Berlin under the production and Production management produced by Karl Ritter. The buildings are by Walter Röhrig , the costumes by Maria Kühr. The filming took place from August to October 1937 in Berlin and on the open-air site in Neubabelsberg near Potsdam . The production costs amounted to 598,000  marks , the film played 2 , 65 million marks in. The film inspection agency granted leave on its word of honor on December 31, 1937, the release “youth free from 14” First performed in 938 in the UFA-Palast am Zoo . At the premiere, the Air Force Cadet Orchestra played the overture to Richard Wagner's opera Rienzi, the last of the tribunes .

The propaganda film fliers, radio operators, gunners was shown in the opening program. A combination of propaganda and feature film was limited to special occasions, which is seen here in the preparation of the population for the attack on Poland .

reception

The contemporary press praised the film as a "German film victory". and as "a great achievement of German filmmaking". Gerhart Weise described the film in 1937 as the best “contemporary” representation of “soldier virtues”. Goebbels even called him the “winner of the national film award”, which actually went to Leni Riefenstahl for the Olympia - Festival of the Nations, Festival of Beauty . He gave Knight with a silbergerahmten photo of himself with the dedication: "In grateful recognition of his pioneering contribution to the exemplary German film on the occasion of the great success of his film holiday on parole ." The film received from the film testing the predicate "state politically and artistically very valuable" . At the Venice Film Festival he won the “Mussolini Cup” for best foreign film.

After the end of the Second World War, all copies of the film were confiscated by the high command of the victorious Allied powers and the performance was banned. Today the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation claims the evaluation rights.

Rainer Rother called Urlaub on his word of honor the standard film of German National Socialism, which, contrary to contemporary demands and representations, lacks realism, a genuine atmosphere and absolute faithfulness to reality.

A remake of the film " Urlaub auf Ehrenwort (1955) " was filmed in 1955 by Wolfgang Liebeneiner with Claus Biederstaedt and Paul Esser in the leading roles, with Liebeneiner relocating the plot to the Second World War.

See also

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

Web links

• Holidays on parole in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Vacation on word of honor at filmportal.de
• Vacation on word of honor at the Murnau Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vacation on word of honor at the Murnau Foundation
2. ↑ Jay W. Baird: To Die for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon. Indiana University, Bloomington 1990, ISBN 0-253-31125-X , p. 181.
3. ↑ Jay W. Baird: To Die for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon. Indiana University, Bloomington 1990, ISBN 0-253-31125-X , p. 181.
4. ^ Felix Moeller: The Film Minister: Goebbels And The Film In The Third Reich. Henschel Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-89487-298-5 , p. 180 f.
5. ^ Rolf Giesen: Nazi Propaganda Films: A History and Filmography. McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina / London 2003, ISBN 0-7864-1556-8 , p. 227.
6. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels . KG Saur, Munich, 15 volumes 1993–1996, ISBN 3-598-21920-2 . Volume 3 (1937-1939), August 6, 1937.
7. ↑ David Welch: Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. I. B. Tauris, 2001, p. 269.
8. ^ Bernhard Chiari, Matthias Rogg , Wolfgang Schmidt (eds.): War and the military in the film of the 20th century. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-486-56716-0 , p. 227.
9. ^ Rolf Giesen: Nazi Propaganda Films: A History and Filmography. McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina / London 2003, ISBN 0-7864-1556-8 , p. 227.
10. ^ Bernhard Chiari, Matthias Rogg, Wolfgang Schmidt (eds.): War and the military in the film of the 20th century. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-486-56716-0 , p. 408.
11. ↑ Ludwig Eberlein in Berliner Morgenpost , Deutscher Verlag, Berlin of January 21, 1938.
12. ^ Albert Schneider in "Lichtbildbühne", Munich, vol. 38 (January 20, 1938), p. 26.
13. ^ Eva Züchner: The missing journalist. A German story . Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8270-7293-1 , p. 100.
14. ^ Harry Waldman: Nazi Films in America, 1933–1942. Mcfarland & Co, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7864-3861-7 , p. 164.
15. ↑ Jay W. Baird: To Die for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon. Indiana University, Bloomington 1990, ISBN 0-253-31125-X , p. 293, fn. 27.
16. ↑ David Welch: Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. Oxford University-Clarendon, Oxford 1983, ISBN 0-19-822598-9 , p. 320.
17. ^ Venice Film Festival 1938 (in the Internet Movie Database) (accessed July 21, 2014).
18. ^ Rainer Rother: "Stukas". Timely film under war conditions. In: Bernhard Chiari, Matthias Rogg, Wolfgang Schmidt (Eds.): War and the military in the film of the 20th century. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-486-56716-0 , p. 353.
19. ^ Vacation on word of honor at filmportal.de