The East German short TV film series Gewissen in Aufruhr, directed by Günter Reisch and Hans-Joachim Kasprzik, describes the story of an officer and head of his regiment, Oberst Joachim Ebershagen. It is based on the autobiography of Oberst Rudolf Petershagen, published in the 1950’s, who was head of the 92. Panzergrenadierregiment , which was raised in Greifswald, and who surrendered the same city as an Open City to the Soviets in 1945. The film is part of a 5 part series beginning in the war and carrying on in to the 1950’s. This paper covers the first episode where he is an officer in the 6th Army who is wounded in the Stalingrad pocket but is evacuated from the encirclement and certain capture because of his wounds. He flies out of Stalingrad on one of the last flights out and while convalescing in an officers’ field hospital he attempts to reach out to the Russian staff by learning their language and holding simple human conversations with them. It is in the hospital that Ebershagen is confronted, possibly for the first time, with the inhumanity of his own army, when all the Russian staff are rounded up and shot as a result of partisan activity.
This confrontation with inhumanity sows the seeds of doubt about the righteousness of his nation’s cause. Following his convalescence he is appointed as town commander of his home town, Greifswald. He is responsible for the defence of the city and his honourable defence is contrasted by that of the Gauleiter who commands the Volksturm urging Ebershagen to fight to the last bullet, while at the same time making arrangements to flee. Faced with a pointless and hopeless defence of the city he loves, Ebershagen puts his people above his oath as an officer and offers the city as an open city to prevent its destruction and the slaughter of its people. He has to negotiate the surrender of the city while fending off the SS field courts which have orders to execute him for high treason.
The city is in Nazi terms dis-honourably surrendered but its destruction prevented and Ebershagen then helps the Russians to negotiate the surrender of a neighbouring town. He is offered the chance of avoiding captivity as a POW and staying on in Greifswald as part of the Soviet administration. He chooses, however, to go with his troops in to captivity where his martyrdom begins as he is shunned by his fellow officers for having betrayed his oath as a German officer.
This is episode 1 and the following chapters cover his experience as a POW, as a citizen of the GDR, and then as a political prisoner in West Germany.
The whole series can be found on Veoh, which seems to have a lot of film material that isn't available elsewhere. Click here to go to the right pages.
