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UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA, is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. The original UFA was established as Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft on December 18, 1917, as a direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda. UFA was founded by a consortium headed by Emil Georg von Stauß, a former Deutsche Bank board member. In March 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and later minister of the economy and minister of agriculture and nutrition in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, purchased UFA and transferred ownership of it to the Nazi Party in 1933.
Veit Harlan was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the highpoint of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film Jud Süß (1940) makes him controversial. While viewed critically for his ideologies, a number of critics consider him a capable director on the grounds of such work as Opfergang (1944).
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a German film legend. Rühmann is best known for playing the part of a comic ordinary citizen in film comedies such as Three from the Filling Station and The Punch Bowl. During his later years, he was also a respected character actor in films such as The Captain from Köpenick and It Happened in Broad Daylight. His only English-speaking movie was the 1965 Ship of Fools.
Nazism made extensive use of the cinema throughout its history. Though it was a relatively new technology, the Nazi Party established a film department soon after it rose to power in Germany. Both Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, used the many Nazi films to promote the party ideology and show their influence in the burgeoning art form, which was an object of personal fascination for Hitler. The Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power, courting the masses by means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. The Department of Film also used the economic power of German moviegoers to influence the international film market. This resulted in almost all Hollywood producers censoring films critical of Nazism during the 1930s, as well as showing news shorts produced by the Nazis in American theaters.
Erich Knauf was a German journalist, writer, and songwriter. He was executed for making jokes about the Nazi regime.
Such a Rascal is a 1934 German comedy film and starring Heinz Rühmann, Ellen Frank and Annemarie Sörensen. It was shot at the EFA Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Karl Böhm and Erich Czerwonski. Based on the novel Die Feuerzangenbowle by Heinrich Spoerl, Rühmann starred in the double role of the brothers Pfeiffer in this lesser known movie a decade before playing Hans Pfeiffer in the more popular 1944 version.
Die Feuerzangenbowle is a 1944 German film, directed by Helmut Weiss and based on the book of the same name. It follows the book closely, as its author, Heinrich Spoerl, also wrote the script for the film. Both tell the story of a famous writer going undercover as a student at a small-town secondary school after his friends tell him that he missed out on the best part of growing up by being educated at home. The story in the book takes place during the time of the Wilhelmine Empire in Germany. The film was produced and released in Germany during the last years of World War II and has been called a "masterpiece of timeless, cheerful escapism." The film stars Heinz Rühmann in the role of the student Hans Pfeiffer, which is remarkable as Rühmann was already 42 years old at that time. The title comes from the German alcoholic tradition of Feuerzangenbowle. Rühmann had also starred in So ein Flegel, a 1934 version of the same novel.
Jud Süß is a 1940 Nazi German historical drama/propaganda film produced by Terra Film at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. Considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time, the film was directed by Veit Harlan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eberhard Wolfgang Möller and Ludwig Metzger. It stars Ferdinand Marian and Kristina Söderbaum with Werner Krauss and Heinrich George in key supporting roles.
Peter Paul Brauer was a German film producer and film director.
Albert Peter Adam Florath was a German stage and film actor.
Quax the Crash Pilot is a 1941 German comedy film directed by Kurt Hoffmann and starring Heinz Rühmann, Karin Himboldt and Lothar Firmans. It is also sometimes translated as Quax the Test Pilot. It features the popular song "Homeland, Your Stars".
William Tell is a 1934 German-Swiss historical drama film directed by Heinz Paul and starring Hans Marr, Conrad Veidt and Emmy Göring. It is based on the 1804 play William Tell by Friedrich Schiller about the Swiss folk hero William Tell. It was made in Germany by Terra Film, with a separate English-language version supervised by Manning Haynes also being released. It was shot at the Marienfelde Studios of Terra Film in Berlin with location shooting in Switzerland. While working on the film Veidt, who had recently given sympathetic performances of Jews in Jew Suss (1934) and The Wandering Jew, was detained by the authorities. It was only after pressure from the British Foreign Office that he was eventually released. It is also known by the alternative title The Legend of William Tell.
Helmut Weiss was a German actor, screenwriter, and film director. He was notable for directing Tell the Truth, the first film produced after the Second World War in what was to become West Germany. It was made in Hamburg in the British Zone of Occupation. Much of the film had already been made at the UFA studios in Berlin shortly before the arrival of the Red Army, but Weiss dramatically re-shot it. The film was significant in its use of outdoor locations in common with other post-war rubble films.
Ewald Daub was a German cinematographer who shot more than a hundred films during his career. Daub entered the film industry during the silent era, with one of his first films being the biopic Martin Luther (1923). Over the next two decades he was to work on a number of Harry Piel thrillers and Heinz Rühmann comedies. He died in 1946 following an operation.
The Gasman is a 1941 German comedy film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Heinz Rühmann, Anny Ondra and Walter Steinbeck. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin and premiered in the city's Gloria-Palast. The film's sets were designed by Walter Haag. It was made by Froelich's separate production unit, and distributed by the major studio UFA.
Karin Himboldt (1920–2005) was a German film actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the Heinz Rühmann comedy films Quax the Crash Pilot (1941) and Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944). Her career was damaged in 1944 when the Nazi regime banned her from filming: Himboldt had denied the Nazi salute at the premiere of Die Feuerzangenbowle and was also married to a so-called "Half-Jew". She retired from film acting in 1959 and married the boss of a chemical concern in Basel.
Spoiling the Game is a 1932 German comedy film directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Heinz Rühmann, Toni van Eyck, and Hermann Speelmans. Its hero is a young cyclist who enters a race.
Quax in Africa is a German comedy adventure film produced from 1943–1944 and released in 1947, directed by Helmut Weiss and starring Heinz Rühmann, Hertha Feiler, and Lothar Firmans. It is a sequel to the 1941 film Quax the Crash Pilot.
The Terra Studios or Marienfelde Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Marienfelde.
Eiko Film was a German film production company of the silent era. It was established in 1912 by the producer Franz Vogel and swiftly became one of Germany's more important companies. Having initially produced its films at the Rex Film studios in Berlin, the company moved to construct the Marienfelde Studios in the suburb of that name. A glasshouse studio, it was part of Germany's growing film infrastructure. During the First World War era, when foreign imports were largely excluded from the German market, the company enjoyed success with its productions. In 1922, the company and its Marienfelde Studios were acquired by Terra Film, although the name Eiko was used by productions released by the rival National Film until later in the decade.
References
- ↑ Eiko-Atelier (in German) Archived 2011-08-28 at the Wayback Machine , Berlin film studios. A small encyclopedia (source title translated from German via Google).
- ↑ Dumont, Hervé (1987). History of Swiss film. p. 137.
- ↑ The time step in the "New Era": A Swiss film company in the Third Reich. Basler Zeitung, 4 May 1991.
- ↑ UFA-Templehof (in German) Archived 1997-06-02 at the Wayback Machine , Berlin film studios. A small encyclopedia (source title translated from German via Google).
