Thursday, 3 April 2025

Der Herrscher (1937)


The Ruler

 

Directed by: Veit Harlan

Written by: Curt J. Braun, Thea von Harbou and Harald Bratt

Based on: The Ruler by Gerhart Hauptmann

Produced by: Karl Julius Fritzsche

Cinematography: Günther Anders and Werner Brandes

Edited by: Martha Dübber

Music by: Wolfgang Zeller

Production company: Tobis Film

Distributed by: Tobis Film

Release date: 17 March 1937

Running time: 103 minutes

Country: Germany

Language: German

 

Starring:

 

Emil Jannings: Matthias Clausen

Paul Wagner: Professor Wolfgang Clausen - his son

Hannes Stelzer: Egert - his youngest son

Hilde Körber: Bettina - his daughter

Käthe Haack: Ottilie Klamroth - his married daughter

Herbert Hübner: Direktor Erich Klamroth - her husband

Maria Koppenhöfer: Paula Clausen - born von Rübsamen

Marianne Hoppe: Inken Peters

Helene Fehdmer: Mrs. Peters

Max Gülstorff: Medical Doctor Geiger

Harald Paulsen: Judicial Council Hanefeld

Theodor Loos: Pastor Immoos

Rudolf Klein-Rogge: Director Bodlfing

Paul Bildt: Diener Winter

Walter Werner: Private Secretary Dr. Wuttke

Heinrich Schroth: Director Hofer

Hans Stiebner: Director Weißfisch

Peter Elsholtz: Engineer Dr. Ehrhardt

Heinz Wemper: Foreman

Ursula Kurtz: Miss Biel 

 

The Ruler (German: Der Herrscher) is a 1937 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan. It was adapted from the play of the same name by Gerhart Hauptmann. The film’s sets were designed by the art director Robert Herlth. Location shooting took place around Oberhausen and Pompeii near Naples. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.

 

Plot

 

Matthias Clausen (Emil Jannings) is the head of Clausen Works, an old and prosperous munitions firm. He falls in love with a secretary in the office (Marianne Hoppe), and his children conspire against him in order to protect their inheritance. Clausen disowns them and bestows the firm on the state, confident that one of his workers capable of carrying on his work will arise.

 

Sunday, 30 March 2025

The Military Art of the Third Reich – Part I

Paul Hähndel (1914-1941) – Fertigmachen (1941)

Readying (1941)

 

Friedrich Schwarze (geh. 1913) – Abwehr (1944)

Defence (1944)

 

Rudolf Lipus (1893-1961) – Im Graben (1944)

In the Trench (1944)

 

Herbert Schnürpel(1890-1943) – Pak im Kampf gegen Panzer (1941)

PaK Gun in Battle Against Tanks (1941)

 

Albert Janesch (1889-1973) – Finale (1942)

Finale (1942)

 

Leo Nyssen (1898-1945) – Vormarsch (1943)

Advance (1943)

 

Leo Nyssen(1898-1945) – Weichsellandschaft im Winter 1940 (1940)

Vistula Landscape in Winter 1940 (1940)

 

Albert Janesch (1889-1973) – Mühlspiel im Bunker (1940)

Mill Game in the Bunker (1940)

 

Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück (1907-1944) – Kämpfendes Volk (1942)

Fighting People (1942)

 

Hans Adolf Bühler (1877-1951) – Heimkehr (1936)

Homecoming (1936)

Thursday, 27 March 2025

Postcards Collection – Knight Cross Holders – Part X

Part X

 

Hugo Primozic

 

Erwin Fischer

 

Ernst Busch

 

Hermann Danzer



Fritz Witt

 

Karl Jörß

 

Alfred Gausse

 

von Knobelsdorff

 

Graf Strachwitz

    

Ernst Ritter

Saturday, 22 March 2025

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 607, 22 April 1942


1. Germany.

 

Solemn rally NSDAP, organised by Radio Great Germany on the occasion of the birthday of the Führer.

 

– Announcer about the programme of the evening: speech by Dr. Goebbels and a concert of the symphony orchestra. NDP auditorium.

 

– Dr. Goebbels Goebbels comes off the podium.

 

– Orchestra conducted by Furtwängler, performs Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

 

– Listeners in the box, among them Joseph Goebbels, Robert Ley, Japanese Ambassador Oshima.

 

– Violin group.

 

– Cello.

 

– Wind band.

 

– Ovation from the audience.

 

– Dr. Goebbels shakes hands with the conductor.

 

2. The Führer in his headquarters.

 

– Wilhelm Keitel and other generals.

 

– Hermann Göring.

 

– Heinrich Himmler.

 

– They are on a walk in the park.

 

– Joachim von Ribbentrop.

 

– Erich Raeder with Adolf Hitler.

 

– Delegation ‘Hitler Youth’ performs a song in honour of the Führer's birthday.

 

– Adolf Hitler and children.

 

3. Sicily.

 

German military airfield.

 

– Loading bombs in the aircraft.

 

– The plane takes off into the air.

 

– He is heading towards Malta.

 

– View of Malta from the air.

 

– Planes are bombing an English aerodrome.

 

4. Germany.

 

Italian submarines are returning from the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Sailors with flowers.

 

German U-boats are returning from the raid to the coast of North America.

 

In the harbour enters the boat of Oberleutnant Otto Ites, girls offer him flowers.

 

To date, he became the youngest Knight's Cross recipient among submariners.

 

Mail distribution.

 

Sailor with a hand white mouse.

 

A boat in the harbour.

 

The boats go into the protective bunkers that were built according to Dr Todt's plan.

 

They protect against any air attack.

 

The shipyard workers immediately start preparing the boat for the next voyage against the enemy.

 

Diesel fuel is poured into the tanks, food supplies are replenished and the boat is ready to sail again.

 

The course is west to North America.

 

5. USSR. Eastern Front.

 

German troops are preparing to land on the island of Suursaari (Gogland) in the Gulf of Finland, an important strategic point in the eastern part of the Gulf.

 

The assault units have just driven the Soviet troops off the coast of the island and cut off their escape route.

 

Soldiers are carrying a gun on a dragger, mechanised artillery is on its way.

 

Now the rest of the troops are pulling up here, they have to completely clear the enemy and occupy the island.

 

Snowploughs are clearing the way.

 

Parts go on the frozen sea.

 

The sun has melted in some places a layer of snow, cars are driving on the thawed snow of the bay.

 

Liaison platoon lay a line of communication, he rides on the car, unwinding the cable behind him.

 

The connection between the land and the island is established.

 

Abandoned Soviet boat in the snow.

 

Artillerymen take up positions.

 

The beginning of the shelling of Soviet troops.

 

Stormtroopers have to make their way through the wire barriers.

 

Infantry burst into the dense forest Suursaari.

 

Meanwhile, Finnish troops attacked from the other side of the island and drove back the enemy.

 

Another part of Finnish land is reclaimed back.

 

6. USSR. Military operations in the area of Leningrad.

 

Destroyed ‘Soviets’ railway bridge over the Narva River.

 

Repair crews during its restoration, severe frost complicates the already difficult work.

 

Soldiers are hammering in supports, installing parts.

 

In the neighbourhood of Leningrad a few days ago thaw prevailed.

 

Vehicles sneak through the muddy roads.

 

Delivery of ammunition and war materials.

 

There are horse carts, soldiers lead horses under the reins, drowning in mud.

 

Stuck in the mud cars, soldiers pull cars out of the mud.

 

The lorry is skidding sideways.

 

The chauffeur repairs the car on a country road.

 

On the streets of the village water and mud.

 

Soldiers clean the streets, cut thawed ice.

 

Artillerymen at the gun, bringing shells.

 

7. USSR. The central section.

 

Here still prevails frost.

 

Soldiers clearing positions with shovels.

 

Clearing roads from snow.

 

On the road bring ammunition.

 

Cars in the snow.

 

8. USSR. Central Precinct.

 

Police team and SD detachment pursue Bolsheviks through the snow in the forest.

 

Discovery of a partisan hideout - an abandoned bunker.

 

The Germans pelt the bunker with grenades.

 

Partisans surrender, here were hidden explosives and weapons, camouflage cloth, radio.

 

The GPU agent and his henchmen are arrested by the SD. They confessed that they wanted to kill a severely wounded German pilot who had thrown himself out by parachute.

 

A woman, the agent’s wife, they are searched.

 

Harvesting timber for making planking during the thaw.

 

Making planking.

 

Destroyed bridge.

 

Aerial ropeway, built by the Germans.

 

On the front line.

 

The Germans in the trenches.

 

Skirmish with the Soviet side.

 

The attack is repulsed.

 

The corpses of Soviet soldiers.

 

9. USSR. Military operations in the Donets area.

 

Explosion of ice jams on the Donets to protect from ice drift railway bridges over the river.

 

View of the Dneproges.

 

During the retreat the Bolsheviks wanted to completely destroy the power plant.

 

However, they managed to undermine only a small part of the dam.

 

Organisation Todt at work on the restoration of the dam.

 

Divers remove debris from under water.

 

Construction and restoration work at the hydroelectric power station. panorama of the restored hydroelectric power station, its engine room.

 

At the front in the Donetsk region.

 

German infantry at rest.

 

This time in the vanguard are tanks.

 

A firefight with Soviet troops.

 

German infantry in camouflage goes forward.

 

On the snow are the corpses of Soviet soldiers.

 

German gun fires on the Soviet positions.

 

Squad at the gun.

 

‘Junkers’ in the air.

 

Infantry in the battle for the village.

 

A sniper with a telescopic rifle in a snow-covered trench.

 

The panorama of the battlefield.

 

Destroyed Soviet tanks, the corpses of Soviet soldiers.

 

German tanks on the march. 

Thursday, 20 March 2025

The Last Will of an SS Man

 

SS Corporal Leo R., in civilian life, an assistant teacher in a large Silesian city, died in a military hospital as a result of wounds suffered on the Eastern Front. He left behind a kind of “last testament”, a letter to his family, which he had written on the day he joined the Waffen-SS. This letter shows a deep insight into the view of life of an exemplary National Socialist, educator and soldier. It belongs to the eternal testaments of faith of our time, which will have an exemplary effect on future generations and show and explain to them the deeds of their fathers.

 

If I should remain on the field of battle or return in a condition where I am incapable of reason, then may this last testament serve as a summary for my family and clan.

 

I do not want conflict to arise because of material things. Later there will be a Germanic right, in which the heart also does the right thing. That is already a guideline. I want, regarding all questions of world view or ideology, for things to go as my wife and I agreed. I especially wish no interference in the ideological education of the children. We all stand in the great hand of faith we have and will continue to try to form. The life of our people is holy to us. We want to follow the wonderful rule, to be one people, that is the religion of our time.

 

I want my relatives to have some token to remember me by. In our clan, the heart is so strong, so that a just measure will naturally be found.

 

I wish from my entire heart for my wife to remarry, if she believes she has found a new life-comrade. Knowing her, I know that the children will also find a good fate.

 

I request of the friends of our clan, be godparents of the children and the friends of the family… that they fulfil the law of true friendship, which makes one happy and giving.

 

I wish that my children recognize their mother as their most precious treasure, who gave them life. Aside from that, the folk should be law and guideline. They should always be simple, loyal and true.

 

I thank my wife. Words are too small. She may know that my heart is moved when I think of the wonderful depth she has given to my life. I also hope that fate will allow her to have that which has been denied me. May concern and pain quickly go away. May she think of me with a joyous pride. She gave more.

 

Dear wife! Ponder our time together and go with full strength into the future. If there is holy salvation, then it is provided with my heart’s blood.

 

Hold the ancestors in reverence. Be true to the folk. May our people find a happy future.

 

I also thank my parents, who often had to suffer because of me. May they know all this happened while I was struggling to clarify the deeper aspects of my existence. My love will always belong to them.

 

May you all feel how I give you my hand, so that your strength will grow and you will be happy. Believe me, my heart’s desire is always to see you happy, so be it.

 

On the eve of the journey on which I’m allowed to join the long columns of those for whom only the deed counts. 

Leo R.