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.
Harlan and Alfred Braun, who also worked on the screenplay, based the film on the autobiography of , mayor of Kolberg in Pomerania, and on Paul Heyse's later play adapted from the book. Joseph Goebbels participated in writing the screenplay but was not credited. He insisted that a romantic interest be added; this is the figure of Maria. on the dangerous journey to Königsberg, whither the Court of Prussia has retreated. She is to meet with the King and with Queen Louise. Napoleon had described the Queen as "the only man in Prussia". Maria meets with the Queen alone and persuades her to order Gneisenau to Kolberg.
Gneisenau confronts Nettelbeck and emerges as the top leader – in accordance with the Führerprinzip that there had to be one leader – but the two work together with the army and the citizens to save the city from the French. After Kolberg is saved when the French retreat (this is not historically true), the film returns to 1813 after the Convention of Tauroggen. Napoleon had been defeated in Russia, and Prussian leaders wonder whether it is time to confront him. Gneisenau convinces Frederick William to do so; he writes the proclamation An Mein Volk ("To my People") announcing the Wars of Liberation.
Cast
- Kristina Söderbaum as Maria, a farmer's daughter who gains audience with the Queen
- Heinrich George as
- Paul Wegener as
- Horst Caspar as August Neidhardt von Gneisenau
- Gustav Diessl as Ferdinand von Schill
- Otto Wernicke as Farmer Werner
- Kurt Meisel as Claus
- Claus Clausen as Frederick William III of Prussia
- Irene von Meyendorff as Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- Greta Schröder as Sophie Marie von Voß
- Franz Herterich as Emperor Francis II
- Jakob Tiedtke as Shipowner
- Paul Bildt as Rector
- Charles Schauten as Napoleon
- Theo Shall as Louis Henri Loison
- Werner Scharf as Pietro Teulié
- Jaspar von Oertzen as Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, a role edited out.
Production
Joseph Goebbels began planning for Kolberg in 1941, and the film entered production in 1943. He hired Veit Harlan, the director of Jud Süß, to make the film on 1 June 1943. It was made in Agfacolor and cost , not as is often stated.
Principal cinematography took place from 22 October 1943 to August 1944. The exteriors were shot in and around the cities of Kolberg, Königsberg, Treptow, Berlin, Seeburg, and Neustettin. Harlan said that the "law of madness" applied during the film's production, and that Adolf Hitler and Goebbels believed the film "could be more useful to them than even a military miracle, because they no longer believed in victory in any rational way". Goebbels worked on the film as an uncredited screenwriter.
Kristina Söderbaum, the director's wife, was cast as Maria, a farmer's daughter and one of the lead roles in the film.
Harlan claimed that 10,000 uniforms were made for the film, and that 6,000 horses and 187,000 soldiers were used for it. Harlan stated that he was given 4,000 sailors for a scene of a French attack across flooded fields after appealing the Kriegsmarine's rejection of his demand. The film's extras amounted to perhaps 5,000 soldiers; hundreds of Kolberg people participated for a daily fee of . The number of extras is commonly exaggerated at 187,000, and claims of entire divisions of troops taking part are completely false.
Goebbels sent a memorandum from script supervisor Hans Hinkel requesting changes on 6 December 1944. These demands included the cutting of "all the mass battle and street scenes" in favor of "scenes featuring the familiar characters", a scene of a woman giving birth, and "the hysterical outburst of the brother Klaus". One-fourth of the film's budget was spent on scenes cut by Goebbels. 100 railroad cars were used to transport salt to be used as snow in the film.
Release
The film was approved by the censors on 26 January 1945, and premiered for German forces in the defense zone in occupied La Rochelle, France on 30 January. The city was liberated by Allied forces two months later.
It opened in a temporary cinema (U.T. Alexanderplatz) and at Tauentzien-Palast in Berlin. It ran under constant threat of air raids until the fall of Berlin to Soviet forces in May 1945. Simultaneously with the opening in Berlin, it was airdropped and shown to the crew of the naval base at La Rochelle at the Théâtre de la Ville. It was also screened in the Reich Chancellery after the broadcast of Hitler's last radio address on 30 January. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it never went into general release.
The city of Kolberg was declared a Festung ("fortress town") as Soviet forces neared it on 24 February 1945. Within a month of the film's opening Kolberg was under full siege by the Red Army and the First Polish Army, with around 70,000 trapped German civilians and military personnel. House-to-house fighting caused devastation. Kolberg fell to Soviet and Polish forces on 18 March 1945. Many civilians escaped by sea. The Soviet Union permanently expelled all who survived the siege, along with all Germans in east Pomerania. The ruined city of Kolberg became part of the postwar Polish People's Republic. The city is now known as Kołobrzeg.
After World War II the film was released in Argentina as Burning Hearts and in Switzerland as The Renunciation. It was theatrically released by Atlas Films in West Germany in 1966.
See also
- List of German films 1933–1945
- Nazism and cinema
References
Notes