Misunderstood people

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Movie
Original title Misunderstood people
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1932
length 40 minutes
Rod
Director Alfred Kell
script Wilhelm Ballier
production Universum Film AG (UFA)
Reich Association of the Deaf of Germany (ReGeDe)
camera Konrad Wienecke
occupation

Misunderstood People is a documentary film about the life of the deaf from 1932. It was banned by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for the National Socialists who came to power in Germany soon after its premiere in 1934. All copies of the film, except for one that could be secretly saved, were destroyed. It wasn't until 2010 that the film was shown to a larger audience again.

Emergence

The high unemployment in Germany - which hit the deaf in a special way as the disadvantaged in the labor market - was the reason for the Reich Association of the Deaf of Germany ( ReGeDe ) to bring out an educational film that addresses the then widespread prejudices against the deaf and about their difficult ones should clarify the social situation.

The film was produced by Universum Film AG ( UFA ) on behalf of and in cooperation with ReGeDe . The script came from the painter and graphic artist Wilhelm Ballier, the first chairman of the Deaf Association. The main location was the Israelitische Taubstummenanstalt in Berlin-Weißensee , whose director Felix Reich appears in the film. Some scenes were shot in Saxon Switzerland .

The cost of the forty-minute film in the amount of 20,000 RM was to be brought back through its distribution.

Content and presentation

The film deals with the education of the deaf, their professional opportunities in international comparison and the life of the deaf in society in the early 1930s. It shows deaf people as productive people with a wide range of interests in their free time, such as mountaineering or motorcycling, but also shows how socially disadvantaged they are. The Berlin swimmer Gerhard Hintze (1906–1972), who was very popular at the time, is an example of the capabilities of the deaf.

On the occasion of the premiere on September 21, 1932 in the Berlin film theater “Camera” Unter den Linden , the director of the Royal Deaf-Mute Institute in Berlin spoke; He pleaded for an increased social integration of the deaf and warned against the forced sterilization discussed at the time .

Prohibition and re-performance

With the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring introduced by the National Socialists 15 months later , the compulsory sterilization of the deaf was covered by law; an increasing number of publications subsequently dealt with the inheritance of deafness. In 1934 the film “Misunderstood People” was banned, all copies had to be destroyed at the behest of the new - National Socialist - chairman of the ReGeDe. References to social grievances were not welcome during the National Socialist dictatorship; the education of the deaf was portrayed as a burden on national wealth; In the course of the persecution of the Jews in Germany, the Israelitische Taubstummenanstalt was dissolved in 1942, pupils and teachers who could not save themselves by emigrating in time were deported and murdered.

The board of directors of the Hessian section of the deaf association was able to secretly hide a copy of the film and save it from the time of the National Socialist rule. In the 1950s it was shown to a small specialist audience and was forgotten again. Renate Fischer, professor at the Institute for German Sign Language , initiated another search for the film in 1993 and found what she was looking for at the State Association of the Deaf of Hesse (LVGH), which owned two copies.

The involved property rights delayed a public screening of the film: The film copies were in the possession of the LVGH, but the owner of the copyrights was the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung , which had taken over the holdings of the UFA; The German Deaf Association (DGB) as the legal successor of the ReGeDe also made claims.

The first public screening of the long-lost film in decades finally took place at a benefit event in front of around 200 spectators on January 16, 2010 in the Hotel Holiday Inn in Frankfurt am Main , almost 78 years after its premiere, one day after the company's 60th birthday of the German Deaf Association; at the same time the film was released on DVD .

Movie and reissue were the subject of a detailed report on the television program Seeing instead of listening to the Bavarian Radio .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deaf in the Third Reich ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Deutsche Gehörlosen-Zeitung, No. 4, 2007, pp. 99-104, PDF document, accessed on September 26, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taubenschlag.de
  2. ↑ Monika Sonke: The Israelitische Taubstummen-Anstalt in Berlin-Weissensee . In: "Open your hand for the dumb" - the history of the Israelitische Taubstummen-Anstalt Berlin-Weissensee 1873 to 1942 , Transit, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-88747-090-7
  3. ^ "Misunderstood people" in Frankfurt am Main - Benefit event of the LVGH about a historically valuable silent film from 1932  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Culture and history of the deaf e. V., PDF document, accessed on September 26, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kugg.de  
  4. ↑ Deaf History - The history of the deaf: Current  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Federal Association for the Culture and History of the Deaf eV, accessed on September 28, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kugg.de