Unternehmen Michael (1937)

Directed by: Karl Ritter

Screenplay by: Karl Ritter, Mathias Wieman and Fred Hildenbrandt

Based on the play Unternehmen Michael or Frühlingsschlacht by Hans Fritz von Zwehl

Produced by: Karl Ritter

Cinematography: Günther Anders

Edited by: Gottfried Ritter

Music by: Herbert Windt

Production company: UFA

Release date: 7 September 1937

Country: Germany

Language: German

 

Starring:

 

Heinrich George: Commanding General

Mathias Wieman: Major zur Linden

Willy Birgel: Major Graf Schellenberg

Hannes Stelzer: Lieutenant Prinz Erxburg

Heinz Welzel: Lieutenant von Treskow

Paul Otto: Lieutenant Colonel Hegenau

Ernst Karchow: Captain Noack

Otto Wernicke: Colonel Berg

Christian Kayßler: Cavalry Captain von Wengern

Kurt Waitzmann: First Lieutenant Weber

Malte Jäger: 2nd company commander

Beppo Brem: Private Kollermann

Josef Dahmen: a defeatist

Josef Renner: Captain Hill

Jim Simmons: Lieutenant Mertens

Carl John: Lieutenant Hassenkamp

Otto Graf: Captain von Groth

Otto Krone: 1st company commander

Friedrich Berger: Non-Commissioned Officer Henke

Adolf Fischer: combat orderly

Lutz Götz: Musketeer Raspe

Paul Schwed: Non-Commissioned Officer of Staff Guard

Arthur Wiesner: homing pigeon keeper

Hans Bergmann: assault trooper

Franz Ernst Bochum: old Frenchman

Elsa Wagner: old Frenchwoman

Otz Tollen: infantry battalion commander

Max Hiller: English prisoner[2]

 

 

Unternehmen Michael (Operation Michael or The Michael Action; English title The Private’s Job) is a 1937 German film directed by Karl Ritter, the first of three films about the First World War which he made during the period when the Third Reich was rearming.

 

Plot summary

 

The film is set in the First World War and is based on a 1932 play by Hans Fritz von Zwehl (Frühlingsschlacht, “Spring Battle”, originally also titled Unternehmen Michael) about the German offensive Operation Michael during the First World War, which was launched on 21 March 1918. The British are in possession of the village of Beaurevoir. The Germans plan to send in assault troops to take the village, but their commanding officer, Captain Hill, is injured the night before. A desk officer, Major zur Linden (Mathias Wieman), volunteers to lead the mission. The unit succeed but find themselves surrounded by the enemy. They discuss their options and Major zur Linden’s advocacy of a heroic death for the sake of their country wins out over the defeatist and the traditional military pragmatist; the Germans declare a ceasefire and then the commanding general, in full knowledge, gives the order for their artillery to bombard the village as the British are storming it, thereby sacrificing their own men in order to kill the enemy. The sacrifice is not in vain; it enables the Germans to push forward to the British fortress, the “Labyrinth”.