Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist

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Movie
Original title Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1973
length 110 minutes
Rod
Director Günter Reisch
script Günter Reisch
Günther Rücker (scenario)
Werner Beck (dramaturgy)
production DEFA studio for feature films , KAG "Berlin"
Manfred Renger (production manager)
music Karl-Ernst Sasse
camera Jürgen Brauer
cut Bärbel Weigel
occupation

Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist is a feature film by DEFA Studio for feature films from 1973 about the German revolutionary Max Hoelz .

action

At the end of the 19th century. A narrator (Agnes) tells Ignaz Wolz's childhood and youth from the off . Ignaz is a good Christian child from poor but honest parents. In his mind a strict but just God rules the world. One day Ignaz is in a puppet theater where a performance is being shown about the life of Captain Dreyfus . Dreyfuss turns to the audience: “I'm doing an injustice. Help people, help. ”Ignaz is impressed. He grows up. Wolz becomes a land surveyor and finally a soldier .

During the First World War he had a key experience on the western front (Agnes off-screen: “The world had its order - up to this day”). Wolz is injured in the upper arm by artillery fire . In a muddy shell hole his buddy Louis wants to join him, but the association mull is not linen , but paper. Ludwig explains to Wolz: The gauze manufacturers prefer to produce “fine women's bodices ” that make more profit than bandages. Wolz swears revenge. He meets the nurse Agnes who connects him. He wants her to go with him, but she refuses.

1919. Back in Germany, Wolz begins his revolution . With some companions as the revolutionary committee and an unloaded pistol , they raid the Rohne textile factory and take the owner family prisoner. Using the books of accounts, Wolz proves that the company made large sums of money with corsetry during the war. Wolz blackmailed the owner Rohne by threatening arson to pay compensation for his war chest . Wolz hands part of the money to the mayor with the order to distribute the money to the poor.

Wolz is warned: Police are approaching from Plauen . Wolz and his men observe that they are accompanied by Rohne. When asked, the officers shoot a house where they suspect Wolz and his men. Wolz decides to arm himself and his companions as well and flees over a range of hills. He raids a police station at night and frees prisoners. Incidentally, one of them is Ludwig. Wolz wants Ludwig to participate in his group, but Ludwig warns of an unorganized revolution: “They beat you up”. While distributing food, the group meets three middle-class elderly men who have enjoyed themselves with prostitutes in the province. Wolz is blackmailing her; they too pay into the war chest.

His column grows. The committee owns cars, wagons, and weapons. In a manor, Wolz forces the manager to compensate an old servant for the tension work of the past decades. The manager refuses at first, but Wolz threatens to bring his horses to the horse slaughterer. The servant is paid. Wolz encourages the population to follow suit: With a gun in hand, you get everything.

The group runs into Agnes by chance. She wants to fight as a nurse. But Wolz does not want to include women in his group because they would only cause trouble. But Agnes refers to August Bebel and his writings on the emancipation of women, so that Wolz accepts their participation. In a brothel someone pretended to be Wolz and not paid. Wolz faces the prostitute, who confirms that he was not their customer. He meets a young prostitute who obviously likes him. The committee crosses a river. A group of strikers remained on the bank and asked him to participate. But Wolz doesn't want to strike, he wants to fight. It is now also clear to his fellow campaigners: It's a matter of life or death. In an ambush they ambush a police force that is to be used against the strikers in the mine area. Wolz disarms them, but one of his young supporters is shot by the police.

Wolz sends Agnes to Berlin with a large sum of money , where Ludwig has since joined the KPD . The money will be used to finance propaganda. Disguised, they break through a police roadblock in a carriage . Agnes delivers the money to a KPD office in Berlin, which is decorated with a picture of Lenin . Agnes tells Ludwig her life story. Her father is a ministerial director and she grew up in a boarding school . He initially forbade her to study until he finally agreed to art history , which she could not build up her own existence from. Ludwig gives her a list of literature. He would like to discuss the works listed there with her later. Agnes father wants to isolate his daughter from revolutionary political influences. She is billeted by her cousin with a major widow. Ludwig returns to Wolz, who is celebrating a victory. He brings him back the money that Agnes brought back. In Moscow, the Comintern section asks what its strategy is. Wolz should wait, in 50 years one will be much stronger. But Wolz doesn't want to know what will be in 50 years: "You can't even protect Liebknecht and Luxemburg !"

After a skirmish with the police, Wolz's revolutionary troops are scattered to the wind. He changed his appearance with a beard and is making bomb attacks. His next assassination attempt is planned on the Victory Column in Berlin, but an acquaintance asks him to blow up a prison in which fellow combatants are incarcerated beforehand. But as soon as the bomb has exploded, the police appear and pursue Wolz. He is caught and arrested in a mining area. Wolz is sentenced to life imprisonment. The KPD arranged a sham marriage with Agnes in prison, that Wolz visit can receive and its isolation is broken. But even now Wolz shows himself unreasonable towards the party: “Discipline is shit”. After the announcement of her marriage to Wolz, Agnes is disinherited by her father and expelled from the family. She becomes an agitator of the party and travels across the country. Arthur is responsible for their safety. Ludwig and Agnes fall in love.

Wolz is put in a cell with a musician. His dream is to build a real violin . When he finally succeeds and he plays classical music, the guards break into the cell and smash the instrument. The musician kills himself the following night. Wolz is horrified. Agnes works with the party for an amnesty for Wolz. The demonstrations lead to clashes with the police and the SA . When the amnesty comes, Wolz is excluded. He rioted in his cell and was put in a straitjacket. Agnes wants to free him by force, but Ludwig warns: "You pay for such stupid things with blood".

Wolz was given an amnesty a year later. Hardly out of prison when two beer drivers recognize him. You are still enthusiastic about him and celebrate his freedom with him. Wolz's revolutionary drive is unbroken. From the Reichstag he wants nothing more political than confrontation place: "The Pestbude I will blow up." Agnes visits him. She and Ludwig fought for him for seven years. Wolz now takes part in KPD events where the Red Front Fighters Association appears. Wolz is enthusiastic: With 2000 “red soldiers” he will drive the government to hell. However, the party requires a study of history and politics. But Wolz doesn't want to study, he wants to fight. Agnes is desperate because he does not want to learn from the party's struggles and experiences.

Wolz grew a beard again and tried to win old friends for new activities. But the innkeeper he visits now sympathizes with fascism : socialism, yes, but nationally. Wolz now sees only one way out: overseas. There he wants to make a revolution. He meets the young prostitute again in the pub. She wants to be with him, but not overseas. She is only willing to accompany him to the train station. Wolz shortens the path through a river, despite the girl's warnings about trying to stop the " captain ". Wolz gets deeper and deeper into the swampy underground. Agnes off-screen: “We have never forgotten him”.

background

The film premiered on January 31, 1974 in the Kosmos cinema in Berlin .

The German speakers for the Soviet and Czech actors were Gerry Wolff (for Regimantas Adomaitis ), Justus Fritzsche (for Stanislaw Lubschin ) and Peter Sturm (for Václav Kotva ).

criticism

“For years Günther Rücker intended to make a film about the famous German anarchist, rebel and communist Max Hoelz, in the context of historical experiences and trends. But "Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist" ... seems ambivalent, despite the dialectical view, respect and aesthetic beauties: too late for arguments, perhaps too early for wisdom. "

“... The actual addressees of the cinematic lesson are likely to be those parts of the radical young left in the West who believe that they can change society with revolvers and homemade bombs, and neither of patient party work and discipline nor of long-term political Keeping strategy… ”“… Author… and director… wanted to make a parable out of the material that the life of this uncomfortable, tragic personality between Robin Hood and Che Guevara offered and therefore only hinted at the historical background of the 1920s. Far from all didactics, the character of the title hero, convincingly embodied by the Soviet actor Regimantas Adomaitis, is drawn with understanding sympathy. Thanks to its artistic design, this is once again a DEFA production that is worth discussing. "

Quotes

  • I am not a thinker, but a pre-fighter. (Wolz)

publication

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Wischnewski: Dreamers and Ordinary People. 1966 to 1979 . In: Schenk: The Second Life , p. 256.
  2. ↑ Heinz Kersten: So many dreams , p. 67f.

literature

  • Film for you , Progress-Filmverleih, No. 8/1974.
  • Annual film bibliographic report 1974 .
  • Interview Margit Voss with Günter Reisch: The ABC of a simple robber , in: From Theory and Practice of Film , 5/6 1980, pp. 64–71.
  • Günter Rücker: Texts from seven feature films , Berlin (Henschel) 1988.
  • Klaus Wischnewski: Dreamers and ordinary people. 1966 to 1979 , in: Ralf Schenk (ed.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA-Spielfilme 1946-1992 , pp. 212-263, Berlin (Henschel) 1994. ISBN 3-89487-175-X
  • Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist , in: Christel Drawer (ed.): So many dreams. DEFA film reviews from three decades by Heinz Kersten , Berlin (Vistas) 1996, p. 67f. ISBN 3-89158-170-X

Reviews

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