Sieg im Westen | |
---|---|
Directed by | Svend Noldan |
Produced by | Fritz Hippler |
Starring | Erwin Rommel Adolf Hitler |
Music by | Herbert Windt |
Release date |
|
Running time | 114 minutes |
Country | Nazi Germany |
Language | German |
Sieg im Westen (Victory in the West) is a 1941 Nazi propaganda film. [1]
It was produced by the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German Army High Command, rather than the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels. [2] Goebbels indeed sabotaged its release in minor ways, delaying its premiere and telling propagandists not to promote it. [2] Erwin Rommel has been described as enthusiastically helping to direct it. [3] French prisoners of war were used during its making. [3]
The prologue consists of the Nazi version of European history and the origins of World War II, and the rest deals with the Battle of France, a Blitzkrieg in the Low Countries and France (10 May – 22 June 1940). The movie was made largely from newsreel footage recut into a documentary. [4] The programme provided states that it is to show the audacity of the German offensive and the superiority of German arms, required because they will not be permitted to live in peace. [5] It did not give Hitler or the Nazi party a central role, thus ensuring its disfavor with Goebbels. [6]
The Nazi journal "Der deutsche Film" called Sieg im Westen "the greatest of all German newsreels." [7] Unlike many other German propaganda films, Sieg im Westen does not belittle the enemy, instead admitting that the French soldiers fought gallantly. [8]
The war is presented "from above"; the battles are depicted as smooth forward advances on the map, with results from reports at the front. [9] The "encirclement" of Germany is depicted by showing prisoners of war from far-off countries. [10]
During the shooting of the movie Black French soldiers who were prisoners of war were forced to take part in its making, at the end of the movie Germans forced them to carry out "exotic dance", most likely to underline their exotic "otherness" and as act of humiliation. [11] [12]
On 14 August 1940, more than a dozen German Generals who had (three weeks ago) been appointed Field Marshal after the successful Westfeldzug [13] were in Berlin to be presented with their ceremonial batons. While in Berlin, they were shown 'Sieg im Westen'. [14]
The Führerprinzip prescribed the fundamental basis of political authority in the Government of Nazi Germany. This principle can be most succinctly understood to mean that "the Führer's word is above all written law" and that governmental policies, decisions, and offices ought to work toward the realization of this end. In actual political usage, it refers mainly to the practice of dictatorship within the ranks of a political party itself, and as such, it has become an earmark of political fascism. Nazi Germany aimed to implement the leader principle at all levels of society, with as many organizations and institutions as possible being run by an individual appointed leader rather than by an elected committee. This included schools, sports associations, factories, and more. A common theme of Nazi propaganda was that of a single heroic leader overcoming the adversity of committees, bureaucrats and parliaments. German history, from Frederick the Great and Otto von Bismarck, and Nordic sagas were interpreted to emphasize the value of unquestioning obedience to a visionary leader.
Kolberg is a 1945 Nazi propaganda historical film written and directed by Veit Harlan. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it was intended to bolster the will of the German population to resist the Allies.
Fritz Hippler was a German filmmaker who ran the film department in the Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany, under Joseph Goebbels. He is best known as the director of the propaganda film Der Ewige Jude .
Feldzug in Polen is a 69-minute Nazi propaganda film released in 1940 depicting the 1939 invasion of Poland and directed by Fritz Hippler. Portraying the Poles as aggressors and ethnic Germans living in Poland as an oppressed minority, the film alleges that the Poles employed unheroic tactics in the war and characterizes as senseless the defence of a besieged Warsaw. The film was often screened by German minorities overseas to clarify the German point of view.
Heimkehr is a 1941 Nazi German anti-Polish propaganda film directed by Gustav Ucicky.
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.
Hans Westmar 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.
Die Deutsche Wochenschau was the title of the unified newsreel series released in the cinemas of Nazi Germany from June 1940 until the end of World War II. The coordinated newsreel production was set up as a vital instrument for the mass distribution of Nazi propaganda at war. Today the preserved Wochenschau short films make up a significant part of the audiovisual records of the Nazi era.
Wunschkonzert is a 1940 German drama propaganda film by Eduard von Borsody. After Die große Liebe, it was the most popular film of wartime Germany, reaching the second highest gross.
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.
Ohm Krüger is a 1941 German biographical film directed by Hans Steinhoff and starring Emil Jannings, Lucie Höflich, and Werner Hinz. It was one of a series of major propaganda films produced in Nazi Germany attacking the United Kingdom. The film depicts the life of the South African politician Paul Kruger and his eventual defeat by the British during the Boer War.
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.
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 propaganda of the Nazi regime that governed Germany from 1933 to 1945 promoted Nazi ideology by demonizing the enemies of the Nazi Party, notably Jews and communists, but also capitalists and intellectuals. It promoted the values asserted by the Nazis, including heroic death, Führerprinzip, Volksgemeinschaft, Blut und Boden and pride in the Germanic Herrenvolk. Propaganda was also used to maintain the cult of personality around Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and to promote campaigns for eugenics and the annexation of German-speaking areas. After the outbreak of World War II, Nazi propaganda vilified Germany's enemies, notably the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, and in 1943 exhorted the population to total war.
Nazi propaganda towards the United Kingdom changed its position over time in keeping with Anglo-German relations. Prior to 1938, as the Nazi regime attempted to court the British into an alliance, Nazi propaganda praised the "Aryan" character of the British people and the British Empire. However, as Anglo-German relations deteriorated, and the Second World War broke out, Nazi propaganda vilified the British as oppressive German-hating plutocrats. During the war, it accused "perfidious Albion" of war crimes and sought to drive a wedge between Britain and France.
Opfergang is a 1944 German film directed by Veit Harlan. It is based on Rudolf G. Binding's work of the same title, with alterations for propaganda purposes.
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.