Feldzug in Polen (1939)

The Campaign in Poland

 

Feldzug in Polen (The Campaign in Poland) is a 69-minute National Socialist propaganda film released in 1940 depicting the 1939 invasion of Poland and directed by Fritz Hippler. Exposing the Poles as aggressors and ethnic Germans living in Poland as an oppressed minority, the film alleges that the Poles employed unheroic tactics in the war and characterizes as senseless the defence of a besieged Warsaw. The film was often screened by German minorities overseas to clarify the German point of view.

 

French involvement was de-emphasized, in order to present Great Britain, in its attempt to encircle Germany, as the villain, to justify the German-Soviet pact. Polish provocations finally resulted in the blitzkrieg, led by Hitler; Poles were sometimes depicted as brave, to emphasize the German triumph.

 

Production

 

The film was directed by Fritz Hippler and the music was composed by Herbert Windt. Footage shot by Gustav Lantschner and Sepp Allgeier, who were working for Leni Riefenstahl’s Special Film Troop, was used in the film. In addition, Hippler made use of footage from the newsreels Ufa Ton-Woche 471/38/1939 and Ufa Ton-Woche 472/1939.

 

It was first shown to a select audience on 8 October 1939, but the military’s leadership was concerned that it did not completely reflect the army’s role in the invasion. A second version of the film was made and Joseph Goebbels made changes to the script. Adolf Hitler watched this version on 11 December, and asked for more edits. One of Hitler’s demands, as reported by Alwin-Broder Albrecht, was to have the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia coloured the same as the rest of Germany rather than having its own colour. The first version of the film only covered up to 20 September, and the second version covered up to 5 October.

 

Release

 

Its premiere was held in the Berlin Ufa-Palast um Zoo, usually used by Goebbels to present important films. It received massive media support and was officially described as „valuable from a political viewpoint,“ „artistically valuable,“ „educational for the nation,“ and „a film of instruction. It was theatrically released in February 1940.

 

Model of the New Königsplatz in Munich, designed by the Architect Paul Ludwig Troost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postcards Collection – The Olympic Games in Germany, 1936

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Reich in Photos – Berlin during the 1936 Summer Olympic Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 657, 7 April 1943

1. Germany.

 

A short newsreel entitled ‘The Reichsmarschall’s Division’.

 

– Soldiers from the division march through the gates of the barracks in the Reinickedorf district of Berlin.

 

– The gate bears the inscription: ‘General Hermann Göring’s Division’.

 

– Soldiers and officers.

 

– A view of the barracks and officers’ quarters.

 

– A close-up of an armband bearing the division’s name.

 

– Hermann Göring inspects the division, walking past the ranks of soldiers.

 

– Soldiers standing by self-propelled guns and armoured vehicles.

 

– Artillerymen demonstrate the operation of an anti-tank gun.

 

– Boarding the vehicles.

 

– Division manoeuvres at the training ground.

 

– Soldiers board half-track vehicles equipped with light anti-aircraft guns.

 

– Motorcyclists and self-propelled guns travel along the road.

 

– Soldiers cross the river in a boat.

 

– They fire machine guns, mortars and flamethrowers.

 

– Tanks are firing.

 

– Explosions in the countryside.

 

– A tank crewman in a tank.

 

– A tank crewman addresses German youths on screen, urging them to enlist in their division.

2. General Government, Breslau.

 

The funeral in his homeland of Hans Adolf von Moltke, a prominent figure in foreign policy and German Ambassador to Madrid.

 

– The coffin, draped with a flag bearing the swastika.

 

– A wreath from the Spanish Ambassador and from Caudillo Franco.

 

– German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop at the funeral; in the background, the Gauleiter of Lower Silesia, Karl Hanke.

 

– Laying of a wreath on behalf of the Führer.

 

3. Germany.

 

Berlin.

 

A memorial service for one of the leading figures in the German sports movement, the first Reich Sports Führer Hans von Tschammer und Osten (25 March 1943), in the Mosaic Hall of the Reich Chancellery.

 

– Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels delivers a speech.

 

– A wreath is laid on behalf of the Ministry of Propaganda.

 

– The coffin with wreaths, including one from the Finnish Olympic Committee, representatives from Hungary and Denmark, and one from Göring.

 

– In the hall, amongst the public, are Reichsleiter Wilhelm Frick and Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg.

 

– A funeral procession through the streets of Berlin.

 

– The coffin on a gun carriage at the Brandenburg Gate.

 

4. France.

 

The arrival of the German submarine U-177 at its home port after completing a combat mission.

 

– Sailors on the shore watch the approaching submarine.

 

– The submarine’s commander, recipient of the Knight’s Cross, Lieutenant Commander Gerhard Bilig.

 

– Fellow submariners greet their comrades-in-arms.

 

– Loading torpedoes, ammunition and provisions onto the submarine; refuelling.

 

– A submarine on a new patrol in the Atlantic.

 

– An observer.

 

– A newsreader reporting on the successes of the German submarine fleet.

 

5. Germany.

 

Adolf Hitler’s residence.

 

– The Führer receives Italian General Italo Gariboldi, commander of the Italian forces on the Eastern Front.

 

– The General is presented with a German decoration – the Knight’s Cross.

 

6. The Eastern Front.

 

The Lake Ladoga area.

 

– German soldiers travelling on a cart.

 

– In the forest.

 

– German Lieutenant-General Johann Zinnhuber, commander of the 28th Jäger Division, inspects an artillery position.

 

– Lieutenant-General Johann Zinnhuber talks to soldiers and officers.

 

– Wire entanglements being erected on the banks of the Neva.

 

– The shelling of Soviet positions begins.

 

– A firefight between Soviet artillery and German tanks.

 

– Soldiers run for cover.

 

– A fire is being extinguished in a German dugout.

 

– Soviet attempts to break through the German line between Lake Ladoga and Lake Ilmen are repelled.

 

– German artillery, a machine gun and light guns are firing.

 

– Soldiers are being awarded the Iron Cross.

 

– Grenadiers turn their camouflage jackets inside out, from the light side to the dark side.

 

– Tanks and infantry advance to the front-line positions.

 

– German infantrymen follow a tank.

 

– A tank fires on a Soviet bunker.

 

– The Germans are on the attack.

 

– A wounded man is being carried away.

 

– A tank and infantrymen advance.

 

– A destroyed Soviet bunker, the bodies of Soviet soldiers, and destroyed military equipment.

 

– A Soviet soldier is spotted in cover.

 

– Prisoners of war.

 

– A moment of calm.

 

– German soldiers are eating and smoking.

 

– The infantry continue their advance.

 

– A firefight in the woods.

 

– A Soviet soldier surrenders.

 

– A German fires a machine gun from cover.

 

– Soldiers with submachine guns.

 

– German artillery shells Soviet positions.

 

– A Soviet air raid on a German battery; bombs exploding.

 

– German anti-aircraft gunners fire at Soviet aircraft.

 

– A burning Soviet aircraft crashes to the ground.

 

– German aircraft at the airfield. ‘Junkers’ take to the air.

 

– A scene from an aerial battle.

 

– German artillery fires on Soviet positions.

On the Religious Origin of Runes

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 4. 1942

 

Few people imagine that the language we speak every day is not only a means of communication in human relations, but is the expression of the soul in its deepest roots. The language of the poet expresses the greatest mysteries and always influences linguistic creation. The sound of a word, its nuance, its musical content, often expresses more than logical concepts. Finally, language and writing have a religious origin, just like art. Our ancestors were aware of this. In the Edda song about the awakening of the Valkyrie, the creation of the runes, i.e. the signs that our ancestors engraved in small characters, is attributed to Odin: “Interpreted them/ Engraved them/ Conceived them Hopt”. But in Viking times, Odin was the god of warriors and scaldes and thus also the holder of the mysterious original wisdom. The myth of the essence of the runes is given to us in two verses of the Edda. Odin speaks about himself:

 

I know I’m hanging

AI ’arbre battu des vents

Nine full nights,

Sorry about a spear And given to Odin,

I myself have given,

I looked underneath,

I picked up the runes,

Screaming I picked them up,

From there, I fell back.

 

In his extreme distress, Odin delivered himself by collecting the runic characters. In the sublime poem of the Edda, The Seer’s Prediction’, there is the verse The Aesir gather .../ Remembering/ The great events/ And the ancient runes/ Of Fimbultyr’. Fimbultyr is Odin.

 

The Nobely stone, dating from around 600, attests to the same conception of the origin of the runes through the inscription: “I painted the runes from the counsellor” (Odin). For the Germans, the runes are part of creation, part of the power guiding the world.

 

The words “runes” do not only refer to the characters of the runic script, but to the sacred, mysterious signs of strength, giving divine grace, protecting from all dangers threatening body and soul, and also being able to harm and destroy. The popular belief in the immense power of runic signs continued in the northern countries until modern times, especially in cases of illness or disappointment in love. But it also lived and reigned in ancient Germany. The verb “becheren” (to give a gift) tells us this. Its original meaning was: to create or make something for someone by cutting runes. The name of the magical mandrake root (Alraun), which is endowed with mysterious powers, is also related to this. The key to understanding this Germanic folk belief lies in the questioning of fate by throwing small pieces of wood, as mentioned by Tacitus. The marks made by the spell were so powerful that the gods themselves were subjected to them; they must therefore have been powerful, sacred and come precisely from the powers of fate.

 

The ancient runes used by the old Germanic tribes.

  

 

These characters will already command respect because of their great age. For research in the last decade has probably discovered that at least a quarter, if not half, of the runes in the Common Germanic Futhark can be traced back to prehistoric symbols that have disappeared.

 

The Futhark characters cited were derived from names embracing the entire conceptual world of the Germanic people: they reflected the world of the Germanic peasants in the Germanic-Nordic settlement area. Each mark therefore corresponded to a particular word, for example the fourth rune to the word ‘anzuz’, i.e. Ase. At the drawing of lots, three small sticks were collected and a verse was written by hand from the sign-words that represented the answer to fate. But this could only be done when the sign was considered both as a sign with an initial sound, and thus as a character, whose initial sound, for example ‘anzuz’, served as the letter ‘a’. This dual aspect of the runes has only become clear in the last decade.

 

The Germans also possessed, through their predictive characters, a set of letters that could be used to communicate in writing. Who had the creative idea for this use and where did it take place are questions that remain unanswered for the time being. Some indications given by Roman authors lead to the conclusion that this art was practised very early by the spiritual leaders of the Germanic tribes.

 

However, it is clear from all this that our ancestors were aware of the religious origin of the runic script and thus also of the language. In 1938, research led to the conclusion that the runes were more than just a means of communication. Their engraving has a religious basis and a purpose similar to the ancient rock drawings: to strengthen and immortalise.

Richard Wagner – Overture to the Opera “Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen” (Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes)

Conductor: Karl Böhm

Performance: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Live recording: 1962