Germanin – Die Geschichte einer kolonialen Tat

Germanin - The Story of a Colonial Deed

 

Director: Max W. Kimmich

Screenplay: Hans Wolfgang Hillers, Max Wilhelm Kimmich

Production: UFA-Filmkunst GmbH

Music: Theo Mackeben

Cinematography: Jan Stallich, Jaroslav Tuzar

Country of production: Germany

Original language: German

Year of release: 1943

Length: 92 minutes

 

Starring:

 

Luis Trenker: animal catcher Dr. Hans Hofer

Lotte Koch: Assistant Anna Meinhardt

Peter Petersen: Prof. Dr. Achenbach

Albert Lippert: Colonel Crosby, English regional commander

Valy Arnheim: an English diplomat with Sir Craigh

Hans Bergmann: an English sergeant

Rudolf Blümner: Privy Councillor Wißberg of Bayer-Werke A.G.

Louis Brody: King Wapunga

Walter Brückner: a newspaper salesman

Carl Günther: Dr. Bode, German diplomat

Hellmuth Helsig: Dr. Gordon, English military doctor

Erich Kestin: a street hawker

Joe Münch-Harris: Captain Evans

Gerda von der Osten: The secretary of Bayer-Werke A.G.

Ernst Stimmel: Director Claasen of Bayer-Werke A.G.

Henry Stuart: Sir Edward Craigh, English diplomat

Herbert Weißbach: an unfriendly bus passenger

 

Germanin is a 1943 UFA feature film with propagandistic elements based on the novel of the same name by Hellmuth Unger (published in 1938). It is about the development of suramin as a medical agent against sleeping sickness. The 92-minute film was premiered in Berlin on 15 May 1943.

 

Plot

 

A German expedition led by Prof. Achenbach researches a serum against the deadly sleeping sickness in the African colonies. The outbreak of the First World War prevents the breakthrough of the research, as British soldiers destroy the laboratory. The research results seem to be lost. But the daring Dr. Hofer ensures that the research material reaches Germany after all.

 

Although in the middle of the First World War, Bayer AG conducts a long and complex series of tests to find a suitable serum from the research material. After many setbacks, the breakthrough came in the 205th series of tests, and the drug was given the internal development name Bayer 205. For patriotic reasons, to underline the world renown and the high level of research in Germany, the company decided to use the trade name Germanin. In addition, despite the loss of the colony, the people of Black Africa were to be given the benefits of the drug for humanistic reasons. However, the English, who have become sovereigns as a result of the war and the Treaty of Versailles, demand proof of the serum’s harmless effect, even though it was developed by Bayer, before the scientists can be allowed to enter Africa. Dr. Hofer is able to prove the harmlessness of the drug through self-experimentation.

 

In Africa, the work of Prof. Achenbach, who arrives with an expedition in 1923, is obstructed by the British authorities and military. The superstitious natives are inflamed by the English occupation forces, who prevent Achenbach from helping the sick. Finally, the German infirmary as well as the research station is destroyed by the English regional commander Colonel Crosby, who has been humiliated by the unstoppable medical success of the German drug and fears the loss of his colonial authority. Stocks of the cure are almost completely destroyed.

 

A nationwide epidemic ensues, which now also affects the intransigent Colonel Crosby. But Colonel Crosby fears that the only drug still available, tryparsamide, will cause him to go blind. Prof. Achenbach, who has fallen ill himself, administers the last serum found by chance in exchange for a written promise that he will be allowed to clear the waterfalls, the breeding grounds of the tsetse fly, in order to defeat the epidemic once and for all. While the latter is thus saved, Prof. Achenbach succumbs to his illness. Through his heroic sacrificial death, his colleagues are able to carry out the clearing.