Der Grosse König / The Great King (1942)

Directed by: Veit Harlan

Written by: Veit Harlan

Gerhard Menzel

Hans Rehberg

Cinematography: Bruno Mondi

Edited by: Friedrich Karl von Puttkamer

Release date: 3 March 1942

Running time: 118 minutes

Country: The Third German Reich

Language: German

Starring:

Otto Gebühr: Frederick II

Kristina Söderbaum: Luise Treskow

Gustav Fröhlich: Treskow

Hans Nielsen: Niehoff

Paul Wegener: General Czernitscheff

Paul Henckels: Grenadier Spiller

Elisabeth Flickenschildt: Spiller's Wife

Kurt Meisel: Alfons

Hilde Körber: Elisabeth

Claus Clausen: Prince Heinrich the Elder

Klaus Detlef Sierck: Prince Heinrich the Younger

Herbert Hübner: Count Finkenstein

Franz Schafheitlin: Colonel Bernburg

Otto F. Henning: General von Finken

Reginald Pasch: General Manteufel

Plot

Filmed at the height of National-Socialist Germany’s triumph, in late 1940 and early 1941, The Great King was Germany’s most ambitious film to date. Both Goebbels and Hitler were fascinated by Frederick the Great, and had frequently invoked him in their propaganda as a proto-National-Socialist hero, in terms calculated to enhance Hitler’s own prestige and authority. Amidst vividly realized battle scenes, Frederick is shown rallying his armies back from crushing defeat, leading Prussia’s way to brilliant triumph in the Seven Years War. His generals counsel capitulation, and his subjects succumb to despair. But Frederick soldiers on; his strength of will is Prussia’s safeguard and salvation. The film’s concluding montage underscores this message, showing an omniscient Frederick, his gigantic eyes looming over homeland and people, in an unmistakable reference to Germany’s own Führer. Yet what seems most striking about The Great King today are its frank depictions of popular war-weariness and complaint, served up by the everyday Prussians – miller’s daughters and foot soldiers – who foreground the film’s storyline. Otto Gebühr, who had long specialized in Frederick roles on screen and stage, plays the lead; director Harlan’s wife, the inimitable Kristina Söderbaum, the miller’s daughter. Directed by Veit Harlan; music by Hans-Otto Borgmann; featuring Otto Gebühr, Kristina Söderbaum, and Gustav Fröhlich.