Wunschkonzert (1940)

 (Request Concert)

 

Directed by: Eduard von Borsody

Produced by: Felix Pfitzner for Cine-Allianz Tonfilmproduktions GmbH

Written by: Felix Lützkendorf

Eduard von Borsody

Joseph Goebbels (uncredited)

Music by: Werner Bochmann (original music)

Eugen Jochum (musical director)

Cinematography: Günther Anders

Carl Drews

Franz Weihmayr

Edited by: Elisabeth Neumann

Distributed by: Universum Film-Verleih GmbH

Release date: 30 December 1940

Running time: 103 minutes

Country: The National-Socialist German Reich

Language: German

Box office: 7.6 million RM (equivalent to 29 million 2009 euros)

 

Starring:

 

Ilse Werner: Inge Wagner

Carl Raddatz: Herbert Koch

Hedwig Bleibtreu: Frau Wagner

Joachim Brennecke: Helmut Winkler

Heinz Goedecke: Heinz Goedecke

Paul Hörbiger: Paul Hörbiger

Heinz Rühmann: Heinz Rühmann

Ida Wüst: Frau Eichhorn

Hans Hermann Schaufuß: Hammer

Hans Adalbert Schlettow: Kramer

Malte Jaeger: Lehrer Friedrich (as Malte Jäger)

Walter Ladengast: Schwarzkopf

Albert Florath: Albert Florath: Physician

Elise Aulinger: Frau Schwarzkopf

Wilhelm Althaus: Capt. Freiburg

 

Background

 

The popular music show Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht (Request Concert for the Wehrmacht) was broadcast on the German radio network every Sunday afternoon at 3.00 from the Great Broadcasting Room of the Haus des Rundfunks on Masurenallee in Berlin. Its popularity was based in part on its claims to broadcast music requested by men in the armed forces, thus uniting the armed forces and the homefront in Volksgemeinschaft. Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels insisted that all German performers contribute to it, and concluded that a film based on it would be even more successful.

 

Plot

 

During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the young Inge Wagner and Luftwaffe Fliegerleutnant (Flight Lieutenant) Herbert Koch meet, and within a few days fall in love. They make plans for their joint future, but before they can get married, Herbert is seconded to the Condor Legion and ordered to the Spanish Civil War; he is forced to leave immediately without giving Inge any explanation. The mission is top secret and all contact with home is forbidden, including by letter, and he is unable to contact her with an explanation. When after several months the operation is over, and Herbert is recovering from a severe injury, he is at last able to write to Inge, but she has moved in the meantime and he is unable to trace her.

 

Inge meanwhile is unable to forget Herbert, and is prepared to wait for him. Three years go by. When the war begins with the Invasion of Poland in 1939, the men from Inge’s area all go off to the front, including Inge’s childhood friend, Helmut Winkler, whose proposal of marriage she has turned down, but who continues to hope for her hand. Helmut is assigned to a Squadron where he is put directly under Herbert, who has meanwhile been promoted to Hauptmann (Group Captain). The two become friends, not knowing that they both love the same girl.

 

Since the beginning of the war, a big musical event has taken place in Berlin every week, which is broadcast on the radio as Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht and provides a channel for greetings and messages between the front and home. When Herbert, remembering the beautiful days with Inge, asks for the Olympic fanfares, Inge, who is listening at home like everyone else, hears it and is encouraged by this sudden sign out of the blue to discover Herbert’s whereabouts, with renewed hope of seeing him again. They exchange letters, and arrange to meet in Hamburg.

 

However, at the last moment before the meeting, Herbert and Helmut are both ordered off on a reconnaissance flight over the Atlantic and are shot down. A German U-Boat picks them up. Meanwhile, Inge is waiting in vain. Helmut is taken wounded to the military hospital, where all three meet in his sickroom. After sorting out the confused situation – Herbert assumes that Inge and Helmut are engaged – the two lovers are reunited.

 

Music

 

Many well-known artists appear as themselves in the request concert programme section, hosted by Heinz Goedecke:

 

– Marika Rökk: „In einer Nacht im Mai“ (song from the 1938 film A Night in May (Eine Nacht im Mai)

 

– Hans Brausewetter, Heinz Rühmann, Josef Sieber: „Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern“ (song from the 1939 film Bachelor’s Paradise (Paradies der Junggesellen)

 

– Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Eugen Jochum: overture to the opera The Marriage of Figaro

 

– Weiß Ferdl: „Bin ich froh, ich bin kein Intellektueller“ (I’m so glad I’m no intellectual)

 

– Paul Hörbiger: „Apoloner, Apoloner bist Du“

 

– Wilhelm Strienz: „Gute Nacht, Mutter“