Tannenberg (film)

Tannenberg
Directed byHeinz Paul
Written byPaul Oskar Höcker
Georg von Viebahn
Heinz Paul
Produced byLazar Wechsler
StarringHans Stüwe
Käthe Haack
Jutta Sauer
Hertha von Walther
CinematographyGeorg Bruckbauer
Viktor Gluck
Music byErnst Erich Buder
Production
companies
Distributed byUFA
Release date
  • 8 September 1932 (1932-09-08)
Running time
105 minutes
CountriesGermany
Switzerland
LanguageGerman
Budget500,000 RM (equivalent to 2 million 2021 €)

Tannenberg is a 1932 Swiss–German war film directed by Heinz Paul and starring Hans Stüwe, Käthe Haack and Jutta Sauer. The film is based on the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg during the First World War.[1] It focuses on a German landowner Captan von Arndt and his family.

Production

It was shot on location in East Prussia and at Terra Film's Marienfelde Studios and UFA's Babelsberg Studios during the summer of 1932.[2] It cost over half a million reichsmarks to make and employed 8,000 people. The film focused on a notable German victory and was in sharp contrast to recent anti-war films such as Westfront 1918. Tannenberg served as a national symbol in Germany, and was re-issued in 1936 during the Nazi era.[3] The Producers made an effort to make the film as historically accurate as possible, and portrayed the Russian commanders respectfully.[4] It was due to be released on 26 August 1932, the eighteenth anniversary of the battle, but was delayed by the censors acting on a request from the German President Paul von Hindenburg who was unhappy with his portrayal in the film and the premiere was pushed back until certain scenes had been cut.[5]

Cast

References

  1. ^ Kester pp. 112–113
  2. ^ Kester p. 113
  3. ^ Kester p. 113
  4. ^ Kester p. 114
  5. ^ Kester pp. 113–114

Bibliography

  • Kester, Bernadette. Film Front Weimar: Representations of the First World War in German films of the Weimar Period (1919-1933). Amsterdam University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-90-5356-598-8.
  • Von der Goltz, Anna. Hindenburg: Power, Myth, and the Rise of the Nazis. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-957032-4.