Richthofen | |
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Written by | Willy Rath |
Produced by | Paul Michael Bünger |
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Production company | FPG Film Production Association mbH (Berlin) |
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Richthofen (aka Richthofen, The Red Knight of the Air and Richthofen, The Red Ace of Germany) is a 1927 German silent war film directed by Desider Kertesz and Peter Joseph. The film was subsequently re-mastered with sound and music effects and re-released in the United States in 1929. The film stars Georg Burghardt, Sybil Moore and Arne Molander. Richthofen was the first film to portray the life of the First World War fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen. [1]
The life of Baron Manfred von Richthofen is chronicled. Aerial battles are recreated with the film culminating in his death. In 1925, the German Government requested that von Richthofen's body should be interred at the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin, where many German military heroes and past leaders were buried. Richthofen's body received a state funeral, which is featured in the film.
Although most of Richthofen was recreated, the actual newsreel footage of his state funeral was included. [2] A number of aircraft were used in the production: Fokker Dr.1, Nieuport 17, Albatros D.V and Airco DH.9. [3]
After its initial release, producer Bud Pollard acquired the rights to Richthofen, and subsequently re-mastered the film with sound and music. Capitalizing on the legend of Germany's "Ace of aces", Pollard renamed the film, Richthofen, The Red Knight of the Air. Later in distribution in the United States, the film was renamed, Richthofen, The Red Ace of Germany. [4]
Aviation film historian James Farmer considered Richthofen one of the first films to depict the aerial conflicts of World War I. [1]
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.
Lothar Siegfried Freiherr von Richthofen was a German First World War fighter ace credited with 40 victories. He was a younger brother of top-scoring ace Manfred von Richthofen and a distant cousin of Luftwaffe Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen.
Arthur Roy Brown, was a Canadian flying ace of the First World War, credited with ten aerial victories. The Royal Air Force officially credited Brown with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", although historians, doctors, and ballistics experts consider it all but certain that Richthofen was actually killed by a machine gunner firing from the ground.
Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 11 was founded on 28 September 1916 from elements of 4 Armee's Kampfeinsitzerkommandos 1, 2 and 3 and mobilized on 11 October as part of the German Air Service's expansion program, forming permanent specialised fighter squadrons, or "Jastas". It became the most successful fighter squadron in the Luftstreitkräfte.
LeutnantKarl Allmenröder was a German World War I flying ace credited with 30 aerial victories. The medical student son of a preacher father was seasoned in the trenches as an 18-year-old artilleryman in the early days of the First World War, earning promotion via battlefield commission to Leutnant on 30 March 1915. After transferring to aviation and serving some time as an artillery spotter in two-seater reconnaissance airplanes, he transferred to flying fighter aircraft with Jagdstaffel 11 in November 1916. As Manfred von Richthofen's protege, Karl Allmenröder scored the first of his 30 confirmed victories on 16 February 1917. Flying a scarlet Albatros D.III trimmed out with white nose and elevators, Allmenröder would score a constant string of aerial victories until 26 June 1917, the day before his death. On 27 June 1917, Karl Allmenröder fell to his death near Zillebeke, Belgium. His posthumous legacy of patriotic courage would later be abused as propaganda by the Nazis.
The Red Baron is a 2008 German-British biographical action war film written and directed by Nikolai Müllerschön about the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as the "Red Baron". The film stars Matthias Schweighöfer, Joseph Fiennes, Til Schweiger and Lena Headey. The Red Baron was filmed entirely in English to improve its international commercial viability.
The Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe was a Luftwaffe award established on 27 February 1940 by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the Reich Minister of Aviation and Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. It was officially known as the Ehrenpokal "für Besondere Leistung im Luftkrieg", or Honor Goblet "For Special Achievement in the Air War". The award was given only to flying personnel. Recipients' named were published in the periodical Ehrenliste der Deutschen Luftwaffe. German archives indicate that approximately 58,000 were given "on paper", but only 13–15,000 goblets were actually awarded according to the records. The first airman to receive the goblet was Oberstleutnant Johann Schalk on 21 August 1940.
Oliver Colin LeBoutillier was an American aviator and flying ace. Serving with the British Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force in the First World War, LeBoutillier scored 10 aerial victories, witnessed the death of Manfred von Richthofen and was a vigorous proponent of Captain Roy Brown as the victor over Richthofen. Post war, he became a stunt pilot for movies, a skywriter, and an aviation instructor whose most famous student was Amelia Earhart. Later, he became a civil aviation inspector.
Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the "Red Baron", was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I and one of the most famous aviators in history, as well as the subject of many books, films and other media. The following is a list of mentions of him in popular culture.
Hauptmann Wilhelm "Willi" Reinhard was a German pilot during World War I. Reinhard became a flying ace during the war, credited with 20 confirmed aerial victories. After commanding two successive fighter squadrons, he was picked to replace Manfred von Richthofen as commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 when the Red Baron fell in combat. Reinhard died on 3 July 1918 while testing a prototype fighter.
Von Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used and embedded in basic historic facts, the story by Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington makes no claim to be historically accurate, and in fact is largely fictional.
Leutnant Kurt Wüsthoff was a German fighter ace credited with 27 listed confirmed victories during World War I. Enlisting prewar at age 16 1/2, after learning to fly during the events leading to the war's start, he was posted as a flight instructor until adjudged old enough for combat. He then flew two-seater reconnaissance craft for a year and a half during 1916 and 1917 before training as a fighter pilot in June 1917. Assigned to Jagdstaffel 4, he shot down 24 enemy airplanes and three observation balloons between 15 June 1917 and 10 March 1918. Promoted to command of his squadron on 10 January 1918, he proved immature and plagued by combat stress reaction. Relieved of his post on 16 March 1918 by Manfred von Richthofen, he returned to combat duty with Jagdstaffel 15 in June, only to be shot down and captured on the 17th. He survived the war and a long convalescence, only to die after crashing while performing aerobatics on 18 July 1926. He died of his injuries five days later.
Oberleutnant Eduard Ritter von DostlerPlM, MOMJ was a German World War I fighter ace credited with 26 victories. On three consecutive assignments during World War I, Dostler was entrusted with the combat leadership of German jagdstaffeln.
Otto Brauneck was a German World War I flying ace credited with ten confirmed and five unconfirmed aerial victories. Originally assigned to fly on the Macedonian Front to support Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire, between September 1916 and April 1917 Brauneck shot down four enemy observation balloons and three aircraft, with a further five claims going unproven. Transferred to the Red Baron's Jagdstaffel 11 in France, Brauneck scored a further three victories before being killed in action on 26 July 1917.
Tom Rees was a British Army officer who served in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. Joining the military in early 1915, Rees was raised to the rank of lieutenant before his 21st birthday, and eventually reached captain on the day of his death. He was killed on 17 September 1916 while flying as an observer in an F.E.2b aircraft, which was shot down by Manfred von Richthofen, the German flying ace who was later known as the "Red Baron". The aircraft was the first of Richthofen's 80 credited aerial combat victories.
Conquest is a 1928 American aviation drama film, based on the short story Conquest by Mary Imlay Taylor. The film was made using the Vitaphone sound process. Conquest was directed by Roy Del Ruth, and stars Monte Blue, H.B. Warner and Lois Wilson. The film is a melodrama about an aircraft crash in Antarctica. Conquest is now considered a lost film, although the complete soundtrack exists on Vitaphone discs.
A Romance of the Air is a 1918 American silent drama film based on the book En L'air (1918), by Bert Hall, one of America's first combat aviators, flying with the famed Lafayette Escadrille in France before the United States entered World War I. Directed by Harry Revier, the film was heavily influenced by the exploits of Hall, who was featured in the film and took an active role in promoting and marketing A Romance of the Air.
Pour le Mérite is a 1938 propaganda film produced and directed by Karl Ritter for Nazi Germany. The film follows the story of officers of the Luftstreitkräfte in the First World War who were later involved in the formation of the Luftwaffe. Pour le Mérite propagates the "stab legend", which consigns the German military defeat in World War I to an alleged treason in the homeland. At the same time, Ritter also glorifies the former fighter pilots as heroes of National Socialism.
Georg Zeumer was a German World War I fighter pilot known primarily as the man who taught the Red Baron to fly. Zeumer served in the famed Jasta Boelcke, which produced a number of German World War I aces. He shot down four confirmed planes before dying in combat in 1917.