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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. Its name derives from Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, a major German film company headquartered in Babelsberg, producing and distributing motion pictures from 1917 until the end of the Nazi era. The name UFA was revived by Bertelsmann for an otherwise unrelated film and television outfit, UFA GmbH.
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 his 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 Ship of Fools in 1964.
Nazism created an elaborate system of propaganda, which made use of the new technologies of the 20th century, including cinema. Nazism courted the masses by the means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. The Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power. The interest that Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels took in film was not only the result of a personal fascination. The use of film for propaganda had been planned by the Nazi Party as early as 1930, when the party first established a film department.
Erich Knauf was a German journalist, writer, and songwriter. He was executed for making jokes about the Nazi regime.
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 and propaganda film produced by Terra Film at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. It is considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time. The film was directed by Veit Harlan, who wrote the screenplay with Eberhard Wolfgang Möller and Ludwig Metzger. The leading roles were played by Ferdinand Marian and Harlan's wife Kristina Söderbaum; Werner Krauss and Heinrich George played key supporting roles.
Heinrich August Franz Schroth was a German stage and film actor.
Peter Paul Brauer was a German film producer and film director.
The Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, based in Wiesbaden, was founded in 1966 to preserve and curate a collection of the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau as well as a collection of other German films totaling to about 6,000 produced between 1890 and 1960.
Hilde von Stolz was an Austrian-German actress.
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".
Ralph Scotoni (1901–1955) was a Swiss businessman notable for his involvement in the German film industry. He was the son of Eugen Scotoni. Between 1930 and 1935, when it was nationalised by the German government, he oversaw his family's interest in Terra Film – the second most important German production company behind UFA. Scotoni automatically became a member of the Nazi Party but never picked up his membership card. Many of his later films depicted similarities between Switzerland and Nazi Germany. He left Germany in 1935 after the nationalization of Terra.
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 in what was to become the future West Germany after the Second World War. 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.
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.
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 infastructure. 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), 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), Berlin film studios. A small encyclopedia (source title translated from German via Google).
