The Military art of Hans Liska - Part III

„Frauen schaffen für euch“ Postcards – Part I

(Women working for you)

№ 653

Title: „Die Zugschaffnerin“

(The Train-conductress)

Artist: Becker

№ 654

Title: „Die Postbotin“

(The postwoman)

Artist: Becker

№ 655

Title: „NSV-Kindergärtnerin“

(NSV Kindergarten Teacher)

Artist: Eva Hahmeyer

№ 656

Title: „NSV-Helferin im Bahnhofsdienst“

(NSV Helper in the Train Station Service)

Artist: Eva Hahmeyer

№ 663

Title: „Die Postbeamtin“

(The Post Office Worker)

Artist: Becker

№ 664

Title: „Die Laborantin“

(The Laboratory Assistant)

Artist: Becker

№ 665

Title: „Bei der Ernte“

(During the Harvest)

Artist: Becker

№ 667

Title: „Die DRK-Schwester“

(The German Red Cross Sister)

Artist: Becker

№ 668

Title: „Kraftwagenführerin“

(Car Driver)

Artist: Becker

№ 666

Title: „In der Maschinenfabrik“

(In the Machine Factory)

Artist: Becker

Adolf Hitler's Triumphal Return from Memel – Munich, 1939

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 687 – 03 November 1943

- Frick Inaugurated as Reich Protector of Bohemia-Moravia;

- Göring Inspects Air Defense Forces;

- Hitler Decorates U-Boat Commanders;

- German Invasion of Kos Island Routs Allied Forces.

What Should be Our Child’s Name?

Source: SS Leitheft. Year 10, Issue 7, 1944

Already many weeks before the birth of a son or little daughter, the parents occupy themselves with the question what name they should call their child. In the past, the task of name selection was usually solved by the expectant mother holding a Christian calendar and selecting a few boy’s and girl’s names whose sound appealed to her. She would take care that these names were used in the area or among the relatives, and so perhaps a list like this might emerge: Fritz, Hans, Klaus, Karl-Heinz, Peter for a boy and Ursel, Gisela, Annemarie, Bärbel or Gerda for a girl. Then she discussed this with the father. He might also look at a calendar and add his list to that of the wife, and then they agreed on two or four names, each according to whether the expected children were blond or dark or resembled this or that side of the family. The remaining names were not discarded, rather just postponed.

Yes, most of the parents meant well, but nonetheless did not think enough. Above all, they did not consider the name’s historical origin and its special meaning.

On the list of the mother, which we here discuss, there are indeed nothing but common names, but they have diverse origin and meaning. Fritz, as a short form of Friedrich, is an old German name and is formed from two Germanic vocal syllables: “frid” and “richi”. “frid is related to “froh” [happy] and “frei” [free]. “Fro” is the old word for free man, master. “Frowe” means the free woman, the mistress. “Friedrich” is one who is rich in peace of well-founded power. When our ancestors in the pre-Christian period could form such splendid names, we can directly deduce from that the high standard of their life-feeling, their life-order. So when the parents with full consciousness intended to give a son the name Friedrich, that is really a name-giving, a reference to essence, a designation of kind. Emst Wasserzieher writes in his booklet “Hans und Grete”: “The name Friedrich has been extremely popular since the Hohenstaufen period due to the saga-surrounded figures of Friedrich Barbarossa and Friedrich II, and more recently since Friedrich der Grosse [Frederick the Great], the ‘Old Fritz’.”

Usually, however, when the German name Fritz is conferred, as little thought is given to origin and meaning as for example with the name Hans and others. Very few people know that “Hans” is only a Germanized short form of the Hebraic “Johannes” [Joseph], Johannes means “Jehova is merciful”. All biblical names that start with “Je” and “Jo” like Jeremias, Joachim, Job, Jonas and Joseph contain in this syllable in shortened form both names of the Jewish god Jehova and Jahwe. What about Klaus? Klaus is the short form of Nikolaus; this name, as a Greek name, is also brought from afar. Karl- Heinz? Both Karl as well as Heinz are oldest German names. Karl designates a capable “Kerl” [fellow], a free man not of the knightly class, the free peasant on his hereditary farmstead. Heinrich comes from Hagenreich, the master of enclosed grounds.

Peter is a widespread Christian standard name; popular songs further spread it. Peter stems from Petrus, the rock, a Roman name that was added to the apostle Simon as the first pope.

At present the Hebrew name Michael pops up very frequently. Many an upright citizen believes he names his son after an incredibly powerful arch-angel, and gives him a very timely name. But like all parents who today still give their children foreign names, they do not do well; for their children grow in a period of the final return to their own kind and will later ask their parents the painful question: How could you, in 1944, eleven years after the National Socialist revolution, still give us Jewish names?

To the five girl’s names on our mother’s list ,this is to be said: Ursula is Latin and means “little bear”. The name has become popular due to its pleasant sound. Bärbel, a pet name version of Barbara, is of Greek origin and means “the strange one” (“the barbarian”). Annemarie is in both parts Jewish.

Given the great number of beautiful, native names, we no longer have to put our poverty on display by calling the girls of our folk by these and similar names and their hundred-fold pet name versions like Micke, Mia, Maja, Ria, Mimi, Miezel, Anke, Änne, Antje, Annchen etc. The same goes for the widespread oriental names Margarete and its short forms from Marga to Grete.

Our name-selecting mother has chosen six foreign, mostly Jewish, names out of ten and only four native ones.

After this critical examination of a careless name selection, that is still common, we want to set these maxims for a native, racially-conscious name selection:

First, first and nick names are affirmation of one’s own racial and folkish kind, are wish and task for coming generations. Knowledge of character values and consciousness of clan, of folk and of God are expressed in them.

Second, we have the task to give our children native names and to finally end the tradition of foreign names that still exists here and there.

Third, each first name has a distinct racial origin and meaning. We distinguish primarily between: North Germanic first names (Harald, Sigurd, Astrid, Thora), German ones (Albert, Heinrich, Gertrud, Irmgard), Roman ones (Anton-ius, Martin- us, Paul-us, Pet(e)er-us; Agnes, Klara), Greek ones (Georg, Eugen; Lydia, Monika) and Jewish ones (Jakob, Joachim, Johann, Joseph, Matthias, Michael, Thomas; Anna, Elisabeth, Eva, Edith, Gabriele, Magdalena, Martha, Maria, Susanne).

Fourth, the name should be taken from the treasure of names of the parent’s homeland. In Frisia different names are common than in Bavaria. The name must correspond to the kind. Thus it is obvious to us to first inquire about the significance of the name, before we give it to our child. (A special publication, “Native First Names”, has been published by the SS-Main Office. Information can also be provided by the NSDAP local branches and local teachers.)

Fifth, the first name should fit with the last name and together with it form as much as possible an organic whole. But since many family names are poor in meaning, this cannot always be achieved. The meaning should not be subordinated to the sound.

Sixth, the custom to again give children the native names of their ancestors (grandparents and great-grandparents) is natural. The name is an obligation to the child to be a young monument to the ancestor. If father and son have the same name, confusion is possible. The son will, however, proudly bears the name of his fallen father. If names of side relatives are selected, this expresses the wish for clan ties. While family names and clan names designate and mark the closest blood kinship and close community, first names give us the opportunity to observe and mark the becoming, the development of the blood legacy. This is the most difficult aspect of bestowment of name. It preconditions an experienced view for hereditary signs as well as knowledge of one’s own clan and has as a result, that we must also again create new names, if the bestowment of name is not to conservatively remain behind the life development.

Seventh, instead of the short forms that have become common, in the future the full name should again be selected and, aside from so-called pet names in the family circle, also be used as much as possible.

Eighth, double-names (Karl Heinz, Ernst Dieter) are only meaningful if based on the clan designation or the connection to the name of the godfather. Such connections should again and again be brought to the attention of the children later on their birthdays.

The use of several first names is, due to the great frequency of certain family names like Bauer, Müller, Schmidt etc., desirable. The integration of several names into one (Karlheinz among others) is to be rejected.

In the age of the racial re-ordering of the folk and its clans, name selection is no longer an arbitrary act. The bestowment of name must contain an affirmation of our view that the individual is a link in his clan’s chain of generations and a branch on the life-tree of his folk. He name is both an admonishment in this direction and a band of the same blood. The bestowment of name poses a measuring stick for the continuous folk awakening, and when all Germans will again only have German names, then one can to a good extent also conclude from that that both mate selection as well as clan hygiene will again be taken seriously and respected as a holy duty.

The name should be expression of kind!

Children are the Future of Your Folk

Source: SS Leitheft, Year 1944, Issue 1, Version S

The nurse had just made her last round, and now the three “starving artists” were again alone in their room. The doctor had put them together for the duration of a fruit treatment; but the three of them called that - less fancy sounding, but more in agreement with the growling in their intestines - a hunger treatment. For as carefully as the four stretched out the four little glasses of fruit glasses that were the day’s only nourishment, the hunger would not go away and sleep was impossible. So one pulled up the window curtains so that the bright moon shined into the room and planned to “gab” for a while.

In front of the window lied the youngest, Aigner Friedel, who wanted to become an illustrator, who came from the Salzburg area. He spoke with the “professor” - they called him that, since it recently came out during a visit that he was indeed one - about the mountains of his homeland, which they both loved so, even though the “professor” came from Pomerania. “Papa Knuth” the third in the group, by his account swimming master in a big Berlin swimming hall, tried to take a nap despite rheumatism pains and the feeling of hunger; but he failed to do that, and through his interjections the conversation took a different direction. “Man, professor,” he said, “I still cannot get over how much your boy looks like you. When he sat at your bed today during visiting time, I thought again and again: the lad looks just like his father. You have four such fine ones?” “Yes”, the professor replied, “but the second is a girl.”

“Well, you can afford that. I have enough to handle with my one boy.”

“Well, well”, Friedel commented, “now don’t pretend, papa Knuth. Who always complains most over the food? Based on that, you don’t seem to be so bad off. Besides, I believe it does not depend on that at all. At home we were four siblings, and my father was certainly no Croesus.”

“Friedel is quite right there”, the professor added, “my grandfather even had ten children; he was admittedly director at a gymnasium, but the salaries were much lower back then. There was no additional pay for children and no tax deductions and so, in order to keep his children fed, he always took in renters. Nonetheless, that still didn’t suffice to eat bread with butter and honey at breakfast or get a large portion of meat each noon. But the children turned out alright. Even today an official cannot make any great leaps. You know yourself that the state’s starting wages forces one to be very damned thrifty. But when one is married and has four children, one gets a very nice children’s supplement, and the rent allowance is higher and the taxes are very minimal. That is a big help, and all this aid is always being expanded, for, thank God, we live under a leadership that knows exactly what children mean for our folk’s future.”

“Man, you talk like you’re paid for it. Well, you are, after all, also a ‘race sheik’ in the General SS, and for all I care you can be right; but now, in the fifth war year, where bombs fall everywhere, one simply cannot responsibly put children into the children. Just think what our wives already have to deal with. Mine is at least now out of the big city; but if she now in her emergency quarters in the village, where everything is already much too crowded, had to take care of another little one, no, I wouldn’t want to expect that from her.”

Aigner Friedel thought about his girl, to whom he recently got engaged, and sighed: “Yes, I also continually run that through my head. One actually can’t justify it; however, a marriage without children is also nothing. And that children must come, if our folk is supposed to live on, that is, of course, clear. But why do we have a professor among us. Fire away, hold a lecture about having children.”

The professor took one last little swig of his fruit juice, and after he now “had something in his stomach”, he felt strong enough and spoke into the moon-lit hospital room: “I would rather not hold a lecture; but if something comes to me about the subject, I will gladly tell you. You are right, papa Knuth, it is damn hard for our women, and more is expected from them than all of us had thought at the start of the war. And yet - image, no more children at all would be born, what would that mean? After all, one must not think about the present. All the children not born today would be missing to us in 15 to 20 years, as apprentices, as workers, peasants, technicians, scientists and - mothers for new children. Production Minister Speer can produce everybody: machines, panzers, airplanes, U-boats etc.; but there is one thing his organizations cannot produce: people cannot be manufactured on a production line and above all such people who are intelligent and capable enough to correctly operate all these machines, airplanes etc. and effectively use them. They can only be born to such people. There, the supply of capable families and clans, who are alone able to again give us capable people, are the most valuable treasure that a folk can call its own. All material things that are destroyed can sooner or later be replaced again, that is not so bad; but where the last member of a capable family departs life, without leaving behind children, a valuable blood line is for always and eternally cut off, and no ever so cleverly setup organization can awaken it to new life. A portion of the valuable treasure is lost again.

Now reflect on what we did with this valuable treasure before the rise to power. Year by year the birth rate sank more and more, and especially in those families who should have passed along their genes for special ability in their children. I do not want to bore you with numbers and statistics - you can, if you wish, look them up in our educational publications, for example “SS Man and Blood Question”. Furthermore, the fact the birth rate decline started precisely in the so-called better off circles shows that it was not primarily dependent on the economic situation, when one decided for too few or too many children, rather on an inner attitude. And that had gotten so shabby in our folk, that the German family on an average only still had barely over two children, but that means that this number of children was far too low to even maintain the population, let alone increase it. For two children - on the condition that they really grow up, marry and again have children - always replace only two parents. But about 10% of all marriages remain without any children. These pairs are hence not replaced as well as not the sworn bachelors and all the girls who for whatever reason do not get a husband. Unfortunately, these often belong to the genetically most valuable, because they don’t throw themselves at just anybody. And the number of people who never reach marrying age is also not small. So you see what danger for the future of our folk lies in these low numbers of children. We were already a dying folk.”

“Man, that is nonsense!” papa Knuth interrupted. “The population in Germany has not declined. On the contrary, each year is has gotten bigger.”

“That is just want I wanted to say myself’, the professor would not let himself be diverted, “ and nonetheless, we were a dying folk. It is somewhat difficult to explain that in a few words, without numbers and charts; but two facts come together: through the improvement of medicine people today live longer than before, especially more of the very little children survive than in the past. That means the people from the last two, still strong birth generations still live in much larger number than was the case earlier. Only because of that has the ever declining birth rate not yet reduced the total population. But it would, and hence the whole age structure of our folk shifted. By that 1 mean: the portion of the young within the whole became ever smaller percent-wise, and the portion of older people, since they now live longer, became abnormally large. But these people were temporarily still at an age where they could have children, and so even our birth numbers were still abnormally large despite the low number of children per mother, because the portion of child-bearing age women was bigger than before.

But now image that in several years the recently still numerous people of that age class reach the age where they die off. Then a terrible dying will set in for our folk, and the generations that reach marrying age are still numerically very weak.

Then it will become clear to all, that our folk still only...”

“Lived from postponed death”, Aigner Friedel interjected. “Now it is finally clear to me, what these words, that I had always thought to be just a catch-word, actually want to say.”

“If you want to convince yourselves of this fact, you just have to go to our villages, where the reduced birth rate has unfortunately already become ‘modem’, and inquire how many children used to go to school there and how many there are today. I have often had my students research that, and the results were terrifying enough. We were indeed actually well on the way to the same conditions that you have seen in France and of which you recently told me: villages almost without children, but with very many very old people; the farmsteads where the old people had died were already abandoned, because there was nobody left to take them over; the fields that belonged to them were not cultivated and were full of weeds; the farmsteads still in business were worked primarily by foreigners who had originally come as Polish or whatever agricultural workers and had gotten hold of the land. A folk that has reached that point no longer has the strength to survive times of crisis. After France’s collapse, Marshal Petain said as well: ‘We have lost the war, because we had too few weapons, too few allies and too few children.’ 1 think we should learn from that bad example.”

“Man, stop it”, papa Knuth spoke up, who had already become quite uneasy. “It’s high time that mess changes.”

“It has already come. You know yourselves about the fortunate increase of the birth rate immediately after the rise to power due to all the measures and institutions that have been created for that purpose, but especially due to the changed inner attitude to which Germans returned under the National Socialist world-view. The latter, however, is the decisive thing. It depends on us ourselves. Everything that is done by the state, starting with marriage loans to the Honor Cross of the German Mother and the manifold care for mother and child, is only a preparation of the path. The state with its measures shows us signposts, say to speak, on which is to be read: Here leads the path upon which one can - with substantially reduced difficulties compared to earlier - achieved the joy of bountiful children and hence to secured, eternal life - for through one’s children alone does one gain real, eternal life -, but now each must follow this path from his own decision.”

“And to here, courageously and confident in the future, to come to the right decision, that is what it comes down to, naturally precisely right down in the war. Every war is a double biological threat for the future of a folk through the loss of most valuable blood lines and through the fewer children born due to family separation. At the beginning everything still went well. The number of marriages even increased substantially, and as long as there were still longer rest breaks between the first campaigns, the birth rate also did not decline. But with the ever growing difficulty of the struggle, that has changed, admittedly by a long shot not as bad as during the First World War, but still: we must clearly see the great danger in order to not succumb to it, even if it is not possible to send the fathers on vacation as often as before and or to care for the mothers and children in a homeland untouched by the terrors of war. Everything that is possible, it nonetheless done. Just compare how our children are today supplied with food, vitamins etc. and how it looked in this regard during the First World War. Whole assistance efforts had to be launched back then after the war, just to somewhat lessen the tremendous need. Think about the relocation of children to rural areas, about the regulations for expectant mothers in the Work Service etc. But all of this assistance must fail, if we do not through our own decision create the prerequisites so they can be applied. One can twist it as one wants, everything depends on us taking the National Socialist world-view seriously in our own personal life conduct, that means that we affirm the eternal laws of life and act accordingly, even if our reason must tell us that there will be difficulties and inconveniences.

“And one more thing do I want to impress on you, because a lot of nonsense is said about it, naturally also on the basis of malicious enemy propaganda: We don’t need children regardless of where they come from, rather we need families that are rich in children, whereby we naturally only apply the honorable term ‘rich in children4 to genetically healthy families. Our population politics will always remain family politics, even after victory, when the special problems arising from the long war period must be solved. - So, I have spoken. I believe I have talked myself tired. More another time.”

It became quiet in the room and only Aigner Friedel said yet: “I will insist that we marry right after my release from the hospital.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV. 550

Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

Performance: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

I. Molto allegro [00:00]

II. Andante [07:18]

III. Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio - Menuetto [15:00]

IV. Allegro assai [19:38]

Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 685 – 20 October 1943

- German Cavalry Reconnaissance on Sea of Azov;

- German Troops Evacuate Corsica;

- Mountain Infantry Land on Corfu;

- Battle Against Allied Bombers in Germany;

Adolf Hitler – speech in Memel - 23.03.1939

(Excerptions)

March 23, 1939

Memel Germans! Volksgenossen!

I greet you today in the name of the entire German Volk. I am happy to receive you into our Greater German Reich. I lead you back to your homeland which you have not forgotten and which has never forgotten you. In the name of the German Volk, I thank you for your brave, manly, and unshakeable insistence on your rights and your affiliation to the German Reich.

I believe I could not have expressed this gratitude in any better way than I just did by bestowing on your leader the one badge which adorns the chest of the new German Reich’s best fighters. That you are able to celebrate this day is not the result of chance, but of immense work, the most difficult of struggles and sacrifices. You were once forsaken by a Germany which had succumbed to disgrace and shame. Now you have come home to a mighty new Germany.

It upholds once more its unshakeable sense of honor. It shall not entrust its destiny to foreigners; it stands ready and willing to master its own destiny, to fashion it, whether or not this suits an outside world.

Eighty million Germans today stand up for this one new Germany. You shall now partake in the surge of our national life, our work, our faith, our hopes, and, should it become necessary, you shall partake in our sacrifices.

You appreciate this more than other Germans who enjoy the good fortune of living in our great Reich’s heartland. You live on its borders and you will perceive what it means no longer to feel forsaken now that you know a mighty Reich, a great united nation, stands behind you. Just as you once suffered because of Germany’s impotence and its fragmentation, other Germans did, too.

From despair and suffering now springs forth a new community. It is our will and our determination that it shall never again be shattered and that no power on earth shall ever break or bend it. Let this be our most solemn vow.

Twenty years of misery and suffering shall serve us as a lesson and as a warning in the future. We know what we have to expect of the rest of the world.

Yet we wish it no ill because of this. But the suffering it imparts to us must have an end.

Hence, I greet our German Volksgenossen of old as the newest of the Greater German Reich’s citizens. Let us join the other Germans throughout the Reich who, at this moment, express our love, our dedication, our willingness to sacrifice, our faith, our loyalty, and our confidence in the battle cry: our Volk and our German Reich-Sieg Heil!

1st Battery SS Assault Gun Det. 4 With the „Wallonien” Brigade

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume 7, Number 6, Whole Number 42,

January – March 1987

The Assault Gun Detachment (armored, motorized artillery) of the 4th SS Police Div. was formed in the autumn of 1943 at the SS Training Grounds in Debica, Poland. The unit commander was Stubaf. Etthoefer and the CO of 1st Battery was Hstuf. Planitzer. Hstuf. Planitzer had served with the Police Div. since its inception in 1939, initially being with the 14th Anti-tank Co. of SS Police Rifle Rgt. 3. Most of his officers and NCOs as well hailed from the anti-tank and artillery elements of the Police Division.

In November 1943, 1st Battery/SS Assault Gun Det. 4 was temporarily assigned to the 5th SS Sturmbrigade „Wallonien,“ which although well-trained and equipped, was somewhat undermanned (2,000 troops) and lacking in firepower. „Wallonien“ had been subordinated to the 5th SS Pz. Div. „Wiking“ on the southern part of the Eastern Front. After a long train ride from Debica, 1st Battery joined the Belgian volunteer brigade in the Cherkassy area on 23 November 1943. The assault gun troops first saw action in the vicinity of Bol. Starosselje; in the wild lands to the east and southeast of the Irdyn Swamp. Here the enemy was well represented by fanatic partisan units and dispersed Red Army remnants. The Walloons were involved in fairly heavy skirmishing in this sector and the 1st Assault Gun Battery provided some heavy weapons support, losing one of its armored vehicles to an enemy mine in the process.

Between Christmas and New Year's Day, 1st Battery was sent to the town of Olschana, about 35 km to the southwest. This town had been an important supply base for the „Wiking“ Div. but now half of it was in the hands of the enemy. On the 2nd of January, the Walloons, supported by the SS-Police assault guns, stormed the Russian occupied part of the town. Another assault gun was knocked out by anti-tank rifles but two T-34 tanks were damaged and captured. Ustuf. Jaeger, in charge of 1st Platoon was wounded.

The Soviet forces from Olschana were pushed back into a ravine where they took heavy losses. The 2nd Platoon of 1st Battery, led by Oscha. Gutmann, continued on in pursuit of the foe for a distance of about 3 km past Olschana. Here the platoon was suddenly confronted by about 300 mounted communist troops who were promptly sent reeling with high casualties. Then orders arrived stating that Olschana must be held under all circumstances. It then became the defensive sector for 1st Battery up until 8 February 1944.

Proposed „Wallonien“ collar patch.

During the large scale enemy offensive that began on 28 January, the so-called „Cherkassy Pocket“ was formed around the 50,000 or so German and European troops in the vicinity. The town of Olschana was cut off and left stranded about 7 km outside of the main pocket, which posed additional problems for its defenders, who consisted of 1st Assault Gun Battery and around 200 Walloon volunteers. They were forced to carry out a relief attack to try and rejoin the main pocket. Coming under fire from some 70 enemy anti-tank guns, the SS- Police assault guns led the main effort until they were ambushed by a group of Soviet 17.2 cm cal. assault guns at close quarters (only 10 m separated the combatants!).

 Unknown Walloon volunteer (note armshield).

Walloon SS volunteers near Cherkassy.

Three of the German armored vehicles were knocked out but most of the crews and battery members were able to escape back to Olschana. Despite being outnumbered in terms of armored vehicles by 20 to 1, the men of 1st Battery were able to knock out a further eight enemy tanks in the days ahead.

On 8 February Olschana was finally evacuated and the defenders successfully fought their way back to the „big pocket.“ Less than a week later the members of 1st Battery (now without any assault guns) joined their comrades from the „Wallonien,“ „Wiking“ and assorted Heer divisions in a largely successful breakout from the Bolshevik envelopment.

Der Postmeister (1940)

The Stationmaster (1940)

Directed by: Gustav Ucicky

Written by: Gerhard Menzel

Produced by: Karl Hartl for Wien-Film GmbH

Music: Willy Schmidt-Gentner

Cinematography: Hans Schneeberger

Edited by: Rudolf Schaad

Starring:

Heinrich George: The Stationmaster

Hilde Krahl: Dunja

Siegfried Breuer: captain Minskij

Hans Holt: ensign Mitja

Ruth Hellberg: Elisawetha

Margit Symo: Mascha

Frida Richard: Old woman in the train compartment

Alfred Neugebauer: landowner

Franz Pfaudler: servant Pjotr

Leo Peukert: Colonel

Erik Frey: Sergej

Reinhold Häussermann: tailor

Auguste Pünkösdy: Wirobowa

Oskar Wegrostek: servant of the captain

Hugo Gottschlich: valet of the captain

Anton Pointner: Cavalier on the Neva River Bridge

Karl Ehmann: old resident Sascha

Mimi Stelzer: Katja, cook of the captain

Edwin Jürgensen: secretary

Summary:

When two Russian captains of cavalry came to a German post station one of them recalls what happened long time ago. He begins to tell the story: Ten years ago a comrade of them made a resting at the post station and fell in love with the station master's daughter. He promised everything to her and finally convinced her to come with him to St. Petersburg. When both arrived there she had to realize that her captain never had the intention to marry her.

It was based on The Station Master, a short story from “The Belkin Tales” series by Alexander Pushkin.

At the Venice Film Festival, it won the Mussolini Cup for best foreign film.