Bismarck (1940)

Directed by: Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Produced by: Heinrich Jonen (executive producer)

Willi Wiesner (executive producer)

Written by: Rolf Lauckner, Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Music by: Norbert Schultze

Cinematography: Bruno Mondi

Edited by: Walter von Bonhorst

Release dates: 1940

Running time: 118 minutes

Starring:

Paul Hartmann: Otto von Bismarck

Friedrich Kayßler: King Wilhelm I

Lil Dagover: Empress Eugénie

Käthe Haack: Johanna von Bismarck

Maria Koppenhöfer: Queen Augusta

Walter Franck: Emperor Napoleon III

Ruth Hellberg: Crown princess Victoria

Werner Hinz: Crown prince Friedrich

Margret Militzer: Countess Marie von Bismarck

Karl Schönböck: Emperor Franz Joseph

Günther Hadank: Minister Moltke

Hellmuth Bergmann: Minister von Roon

Karl Haubenreißer: Dr. Rudolf Virchow

Otto Gebühr: King of Saxony

Jaspar von Oertzen: Prince Friedrich Karl

Harald Paulsen: Benedetti

Karl Meixner: Loewe

Hans Junkermann: Field Marshal Wrangel

Otto Graf: Mr. von Keudell

Franz Schafheitlin: Fürst Metternich

Bruno Hübner: Count Rechberg

Paul Hoffmann: Count von Blome

Otto Stoeckel: Prime Minister Beust

Otto Below: Lothar Bucher

Eduard von Winterstein: General von Manstein

Karl Fochler: Graf Karolyi

Wilhelm P. Krüger: Lackey Kuhn

Summary:

Bismarck stars Paul Hartmann (Ich klage an) as Otto von Bismarck, the creator of Germany’s Second Reich following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It follows the Prussian chancellor’s fortunes up to the founding of the German Empire in 1871. The film was directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner (Ich klage an) and co-stars Friedrich Kayssler as Wilhelm I and Lil Dagover as Eugénie.

Ufa, Germany’s leading studio, produced the picture as one of their Staatsauftragsfilme (“state-produced films”), which indicated overt political content. Similarities between Bismarck, the architect of the Second German Reich, and Adolf Hitler, who created the Third Reich, are underscored throughout, but as all countries produce hagiographic works on their founding fathers, one is ill-advised to dismiss treatments of Frederick the Great or Bismarck with the pejorative label “propaganda” unless one is prepared to do the same with pictures about Washington or Lincoln.

Bismarck’s sumptuous production values made it the second most popular film made during the Third Reich. Only Veit Harlan’s Der grosse König, a profile of Frederick the Great starring Otto Gebühr, achieved greater success; Die Entlassung (The Dismissal) and Herbert Maisch’s Friedrich Schiller, the third and fourth most popular, were also lavish, celebratory biographies. The picture was a huge hit in Germany, earning almost 2 000 000 Reichsmark. Dr. Goebbels’ propaganda ministry quickly commissioned a sequel, the superior Die Entlassung (The Dismissal), released the following year. Also directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, it starred the always-superb Emil Jannings as an elderly Otto von Bismarck.