Hans Westmar. Einer von vielen. Ein deutsches Schicksal aus dem Jahre 1929 | |
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Directed by | Franz Wenzler |
Written by | Hanns Heinz Ewers |
Produced by | Robert Ernst |
Starring | Emil Lohkamp Paul Wegener |
Cinematography | Franz Weihmayr |
Edited by | Alice Ludwig |
Music by | Giuseppe Becce Ernst Hanfstaengl |
Distributed by | Siegel-Monopolfilm |
Release date |
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Running time | 132 minutes |
Country | Nazi Germany |
Language | German |
Hans Westmar (full title: Hans Westmar. Einer von vielen. Ein deutsches Schicksal aus dem Jahre 1929 "Hans Westmar. One of many. A German Fate from the Year 1929") was the last of an unofficial trilogy of films produced by the Nazis shortly after coming to power in January 1933, celebrating their Kampfzeit – the history of their period in opposition, struggling to gain power. The film is a partially fictionalized biography of the Nazi martyr Horst Wessel.
Originally, the film, based on Hanns Heinz Ewers's novelistic biography, was named Horst Wessel. Goebbels temporarily banned it but eventually allowed its release with alterations and with the main character's name changed to the fictional "Hans Westmar". [1] One reason may have been to avoid "de-mystifying" Wessel. [2] Part of the problem was that authentic depiction of Stormtroopers, including picking fights with Communists, did not fit the more reasonable tone that the Nazis adopted in power and would undermine Volksgemeinschaft . The fictionalised Westmar, unlike Wessel, does not alienate his family. [3]
The film was, however, among the first films to depict dying for Hitler as a glorious death for Germany and as resulting in his spirit inspiring his comrades. [4] His decision to go to the streets is presented as fighting "the real battle". [5] Along with SA-Mann and Hitlerjunge Quex , Hans Westmar was the last of the trilogy of films released in 1933, and designed to present an idealized account of the Nazis' heroic struggle to come to power in Germany.
The film concentrates on the conflict with the Communist Party of Germany in Berlin in the late 1920s. When Westmar arrives in Berlin, the communists are popular, hold large parades through Berlin and sing "The Internationale". When he looks into the cultural life of Weimar Berlin, he is horrified at the "internationalism" and cultural promiscuity, which includes black jazz music and Jewish nightclub singers. That scene dissolves into images of the German fighting men of World War I and shots of the cemeteries of the German dead.
Westmar decides to help organize the local Nazi Party and becomes, through the course of the plot, responsible for its electoral victories, which encourages the Communists to kill him.
While communism as such is depicted as the foe, the communists fall into three categories. [6] The party boss shamelessly transmits the party line from Moscow, and the short Jewish official incites violence and then flees, and both are directly responsible for the murder.
However, one communist is presented as an idealist fighting for the proletarian, [6] and the last scene, on seeing a Nazi torchlight procession on the eve of the Nazi seizure of power, he is moved to salute the new Germany since Hans Westmar's example has inspired him. [7]
The movie was originally called Horst Wessel. Ein deutsches Schicksal and was banned immediately after it was first shown in October 1933, since Horst Wessel was shown in prostitution and in a Christian milieu. According to the Nazi Film Review Office the film "does neither do justice to Horst Wessel's personality nor to the national socialist movement as the leader of the state". [8]
Goebbels justified the ban as follows:
Only after the film was revised could it pass the censors.
The "Horst-Wessel-Lied", also known by its opening words "Die Fahne hoch", was the anthem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis made it the co-national anthem of Nazi Germany, along with the first stanza of the "Deutschlandlied".
Nazi songs are songs and marches created by the Nazi Party. In modern Germany, the public singing or performing of songs exclusively associated with the Nazi Party is now illegal.
Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, who became a major propaganda symbol in Nazi Germany following his murder in 1930 by two members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After his death Joseph Goebbels turned him into a martyr for the Nazi Party.
Der Hitlerjunge Quex is a 1932 Nazi propaganda novel by Karl Aloys Schenzinger based on the life of Herbert “Quex” Norkus. The 1933 film Hitlerjunge Quex: Ein Film vom Opfergeist der deutschen Jugend was based on it and was described by Joseph Goebbels as the "first large-scale" transmission of Nazi ideology using the medium of cinema. Both the book and the film, like S.A.-Mann Brand and Hans Westmar, which were released the same year, fictionalised and glorified death in the service of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler.
The Great Love is a 1942 German drama film directed by Rolf Hansen and starring Zarah Leander, Viktor Staal and Grethe Weiser. It premiered in Berlin in 1942 and went on to become the most commercially successful film in the history of the Third Reich.
Heimkehr is a 1941 Nazi German anti-Polish propaganda film directed by Gustav Ucicky.
The Hymn of Leuthen is a 1933 German film depicting Frederick the Great, directed by Carl Froelich starring Otto Gebühr, Olga Tschechowa and Elga Brink. It was part of the cycle of nostalgic Prussian films popular during the Weimar and Nazi eras. The title refers to the 1757 Battle of Leuthen.
Refugees is the 1933 German drama film, directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Hans Albers, Käthe von Nagy, and Eugen Klöpfer. It depicts Volga German refugees persecuted by the Bolsheviks on the Sino-Russian border in Manchuria in 1928.
Sieg im Westen is a 1941 Nazi propaganda film.
Otto Gebühr was a German theatre and film actor, who appeared in 102 films released between 1917 and 1954. He is noted for his performance as the Prussian king Frederick the Great in numerous films.
The Great King is a 1942 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan and starring Otto Gebühr. It depicts the life of Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786. It received the rare "Film of the Nation" distinction. It was part of a popular cycle of "Prussian films".
The Fox of Glenarvon is a German propaganda film from the Nazi era portraying the years of the Irish fight for independence during World War I. It was produced in 1940 by Max W. Kimmich and starred Olga Tschechowa, Karl Ludwig Diehl, Ferdinand Marian and others. The screenplay was written by Wolf Neumeister and Hans Bertram based on a novel of the same title by Nicola Rhon that had been published by the Ullstein publishing house in 1937. It was made at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin, with sets designed by the art directors Wilhelm Depenau and Otto Erdmann. The shoot lasted from December 1939 to February 1940. It passed censorship on 22 April 1940 and had its debut in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo two days later.
Frisians in Peril is a 1935 German drama film directed by Peter Hagen and starring Friedrich Kayßler, Jessie Vihrog and Valéry Inkijinoff. Made for Nazi propaganda purposes, it concerns a village of ethnic Frisians in Russia.
The Red Terror is a 1942 Nazi propaganda film directed by Karl Ritter.
My Life for Ireland is a Nazi propaganda movie from 1941 directed by Max W. Kimmich, telling a story of an Irish nationalist family and their involvement in the Irish struggle of independence over two generations. The movie was produced for Nazi-occupied Europe with the intent of challenging pro-British allegiances; yet in some cases it had the unintended effect of making audiences identify the Irish struggle with their own resistance against the Nazis.
Ich klage an is a 1941 Nazi German pro-euthanasia propaganda film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and produced by Heinrich Jonen and Ewald von Demandowsky.
The Stars Shine is a 1938 German musical revue directed by Hans H. Zerlett and written by Zerlett and Hans Hannes.
Die Entlassung is a 1942 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner about the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck. It was one of only four films to receive the honorary distinction "Film of the Nation" by the Reich Propaganda Ministry Censorship Office.
Hitlerjunge Quex, in English Hitler Youth Quex, is a 1933 German film directed by Hans Steinhoff, based on the similarly named 1932 novel Der Hitlerjunge Quex by Karl Aloys Schenzinger. The film was shown in the US under the title Our Flag Leads Us Forward.