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| A scene from the 1959 West German Film "Dogs..Do You Want to Live for Ever?" |
In East Germany the 1950’s started badly for the SED, 1953 saw an uprising in Berlin and elsewhere that was suppressed with the aid of Soviet forces. As in the West the people "leaned towards pacifism" but also established its army, the NVA, and became a member of the Warsaw Pakt forces.
The 1950’s was a rich time for war film production in Germany but with 2/3rds of all war film production taking place in West Germany. Film makers also diverged in their treatment of the war, with the East making Anti Fascist films and the West concentrating on Combat and Anti War films.
The Decade could be characterised as on of Combat, Resistance and Holocaust films.
The Bridge (1959)
Die Brücke
Die Brücke
West Germany
Dir:Bernhard Wicki
Dir:Bernhard Wicki
Here you can find many of the stereotypes of German war films, the training, the piano player who dies, the Grammar school class that is slaughtered, the Wolzow character and the Holt character. It tells the story of group of Grammar School boys who are conscripted in 1945 and ordered to defend an unimportant bridge. They fight and die pointlessly defending the bridge against the advancing Americans. It is the quintessential anti war film and references All Quiet on the Western Front.
The director Bernhard Wicki has said that he wanted to make the film to show that the children were innocent of war and the adults guilty. It is an angry film which much like Wilfred Owen's great poem "Dulce et decorum est" kicks against the notion that it is glorious to die for ones country. It shows the German youth as the victim of their eduction, their parents and above all of the war. Wiki's angry film was showered with prizes but his notion may have back fired on him as the success of the film brought him to the attention of Hollywood and he was employed to direct the German speaking sections of the 1962 war epic the Longest Day.
This film is available from amazon.co.uk here
Dogs, do you want to live for ever? ( 1959)
Hunde wollt ihr ewig Leben?
Hunde wollt ihr ewig Leben?
West Germany
Dir: Frank Wisbar
Frank Wisbar, the director of this film was one of the many film makers who fled Germany for Hollywood during National Socialism. After a successful career in US television he did not return to Germany until the 1950's where he made a slew of "cold war", war films which seem to redeem the German soldier, portray the soldier as a victim and the Soviets as a dangerous enemy.
The film opens, like many German war films with a section of Nazi newsreel to set the scene and the glory of the newsreel is undermined by the a narrator's voice over who tells us that if is of supreme indifference to dead soldiers who won or lost the war. The story tells the story of Hauptmann Wisse who is sent to the Russian Front as a liaison officer between the Wehrmacht and the Nazi's allies the Rumanian Army. Wisse is a brave and honourable soldier, who like Holt, moves from a position of passively supporting the regime to understanding its criminal nature. The film again contains a number of other stock stereotypes, Wisse acting as the Holt character, it has a Wolzow character and a piano player. The film also contains a stereotype which is typical amongst West German films, that of a doomed and improbable relationship between Wisse and a Soviet woman. This relationship seems to be there to redeem the German soldier and to show that without the war they could easily have been lovers.
Wisse is also used as a device to show the humanity of the German soldier as he is led away to an uncertain and long Soviet captivity. He marches with his men, the WehrmachtChaplain and his commanding officer, with his head held high. This is in contrast to the faceless Soviets who guard and oppress the prisoners and it is also in contrast to the film's vision of Hitler. Hitler who is shown in shadow and when told about the loss of Stalingrad and of a whole army says simply, "what is an army, simply recruit another....."
The film is available in the US or can be seen online, with English subtitles, here.
Dir: Frank Wisbar
The film opens, like many German war films with a section of Nazi newsreel to set the scene and the glory of the newsreel is undermined by the a narrator's voice over who tells us that if is of supreme indifference to dead soldiers who won or lost the war. The story tells the story of Hauptmann Wisse who is sent to the Russian Front as a liaison officer between the Wehrmacht and the Nazi's allies the Rumanian Army. Wisse is a brave and honourable soldier, who like Holt, moves from a position of passively supporting the regime to understanding its criminal nature. The film again contains a number of other stock stereotypes, Wisse acting as the Holt character, it has a Wolzow character and a piano player. The film also contains a stereotype which is typical amongst West German films, that of a doomed and improbable relationship between Wisse and a Soviet woman. This relationship seems to be there to redeem the German soldier and to show that without the war they could easily have been lovers.
Wisse is also used as a device to show the humanity of the German soldier as he is led away to an uncertain and long Soviet captivity. He marches with his men, the WehrmachtChaplain and his commanding officer, with his head held high. This is in contrast to the faceless Soviets who guard and oppress the prisoners and it is also in contrast to the film's vision of Hitler. Hitler who is shown in shadow and when told about the loss of Stalingrad and of a whole army says simply, "what is an army, simply recruit another....."
The film is available in the US or can be seen online, with English subtitles, here.
Resistance
Shared by by both sides of the Iron Curtain the Resistance genre was a key part of both Germany's attempts to find a "usable hero". For those brought up on a diet of the BBC's spoof resistance comedy series ALLO ALLO or perhaps branched out to the German films about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, the 1950's resistors will come as a bit of a shock. Resistors in the East are young people and soldiers, who have seen the "light" to support the Soviets and perhaps fight for them or in the West are aristocratic officers, who always knew that Hitler was doomed.
In each country these films have the difficult task of not only creating legitimate resistance heroes but in attempting to rehabilitate the notion of resistance to National Socialism as an honourable position. This rehabilitation was a necessary effort in a country where in the mid 50’s “53% of war veterans and at least 30% of the population at large were convinced that resistance to Hitler was….treason” (Köppen, 2010, 62).
Canaris (1954)
West Germany
Dir:Alfred Weidenmann
Dir:Alfred Weidenmann
History through rose tinted glasses. It tells the story of the Head of the Nazi secret service Admiral Canaris.
The lead actor O.E.Hasse, who played many of these avuncular and noble resistance types portrays Canaris as a man who always knew that the Nazis and Germany was doomed if it went to war against the whole world. Hasse plays a man who was really a master spy who can use his forces to outwit the tea obsessed British and at the same time persuades the Nazi High Command to abandon its plans to invade Britain.
In this version of bending History Canaris becomes almost a proto James Bond with his gadgets and beautiful women. Canaris is shown actively resisting Hitler and plotting against him for the good of German and who ultimately pays for his life for his independence and outspoken nature.
The film takes part in West German debates about the rearmament by showing an honourable officer, proving the Officer Class can once again be trusted to lead the new military. It also shows how skillful the German secret Service really is. Watch it and be persuaded, almost that the German Secret Service actually won the war....
It is available at amazon.de here
Holocaust
Stars (1959)
Sterne
Sterne
East Germany
Dir: Konrad Wolf
Dir: Konrad Wolf
It tells the story of a Transport of Greek Jews who are being sent to Auschwitz. En route they pause in Bulgaria and one of the prisoners, Ruth, begs for help from a German NCO. He tries to help as much as he can and falls in love with Ruth in the process.
His love for Ruth causes him to question everything he has been told about the Jews and about his upbringing. He is not, yet, prepared to join the resistance and only wants to save Ruth from the Transport to Auschwitz. Only once he has done this was he able to abandon his duty and join the resistance.
The film is part of the East German "Anti Fascist" film tradition. It deals with the Holocaust that is merely brushed over in the West and as the East German censor reported in 1959 "In the current international situation, where facsism is growing again in the West, is an extremely useful endevour...We are completely clear that for the German film goer it will be a hard film to watch because it clearly shows the depth of German guilt..." (Quote taken from Defa Film HV-Unterlagen, BArch DR1-Z, Ordnungsnummer 24/59).
The film is available here on Amazon.de
