Kolberg

There are some mistakes in the other reviews, which I would like to correct. "Kolberg" is by no means the last film of the Third Reich. The film production kept on going until April 23 in Berlin-Babelsberg, and as long as the early days of May in Prag, the last major colour film shot being "Shiva und die Galgenblume". Until that time there were about 90 films being either completed or shot in the Prag studios. If you want to find out the really "last" film, perhaps you should check out Käutner's absolutely beautiful "Under the Bridges", which didn't pass censorship in March 1945. But I'm not sure even that was the last completed film. Amazon.de sells about 6 different films on DVD which are marked as completed in 1945 (Frech und Verliebt, Monte Miracolo, Peter Voss - Millionendieb, Fledermaus etc.) Plus there are several, which were completed in 1945, but released only after the war.

Then, Kolberg hadn't fallen when this film premiered in Berlin and La Rochelle (which, perhaps inspired by the film, capitulated only two days after Germany had fallen). Kolberg was finally abandoned on March, 18.

There is a beautiful restored print sold by the International Historic Films. It has beautiful colours and a good soundtrack, plus some extras. This film can be watched - and indeed enjoyed - as a work of art, unless you absolutely want to read propaganda into it. Sure, it was made as an ultimate propaganda vehicle, but as a viewer I am permitted to distance myself from the politics and see this film as a cinematic near masterpiece. We know, that it was radically edited in January 1945, since Dr Goebbels found it to be too bloody, "nearly pacifistic". Every trace of human suffering (aside from the lame love intrigue) was removed, and that's probably what makes this film uneven and jumpy at times. What the director's cut could have looked like, we can only guess.

Politics and propaganda are as important today as they were back then. It's important to remember the atrocities of war and the crimes of Nazist regime. But a film starts living its own life since the moment it's completed, and we are stupid if we fail to recognize its merits merely because we know, that we are supposed to be blind to them.

First of all, this one will not be out in the stores or at your local rent-a-flick...The movie is the last effort of 1945´s german movie propaganda to strengthen the people´s will to fight on. Therefore, this - as many other propaganda pictures - is not offered to the public. Still, you might get it in universities with an interest in history of the third reich.

The story of the movie is not all that important... What matters is the great heinrich george, the rich colours, the hateful atmosphere of the movie - and the tragedy of reality as a background: Shortly after the making of "kolberg" was finished, germany was finished either:

The movie has a romantic perspective on a reactionary, aggressive, irrational and leader-oriented ideology... Not too far away from John Wayne, though I find him very entertaining as a green beret, either.

Kolberg's legendary status owes not a little to its unobtainability and complete absence from television. I have the distinct impression that the best of Veit Harlan's direction ended up on the cutting room floor as a panicking Dr Goebbels insisted on drastic revision before this thundering epic could be shown -should I say, inflicted on- the German public in the last days of WWII. There are some magnificent scenes of battles and the episode in the Kolberg town council chamber is brilliantly scripted and acted, but the something is very wrong about the way the final print was put together. Lead character Maria is a virtual stranger; the details of her trials and tribulations along with her affair with Schill have to be guessed at, as does much else. The sets throughout are splendid - but it's all a stage with nothing happening. Continuity is appalling. I understand that we are watching 1hr 45mins out of over 90 hours of footage taken and that all the negatives are lost. We will never know what we are missing.

I suppose some kind of cosmic justice has been meted out to all concerned in regard to Kolberg the town and Kolberg the final propaganda product film of the Third Reich. This piece of turf that became the symbol of German resistance to Napoleon whose story Josef Goebbels had hoped to inspire the Reich populace to resist and fight the invaders from east and west in 1945 is now part of Poland.

The film is an awesome piece of spectacle especially when you consider the money spent and the manpower appropriated from the battlefield by Dr. Goebbels to be extras, playing being French and Prussian soldiers for the camera and missing the real war where doubtless a lot of them would be killed. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of candles were lit for Goebbels in many German households today because of it.

The story is after Austerlitz Napoleon pretty much had the run of things in Europe for a while. In his march toward Russia he met this incredible resistance from the former Hanseatic League town of Kolberg. Inspired by its mayor played by Heinrich George and Horst Caspar as General Gneissenau the place held out against incredible odds until the Treaty of Tilsit was signed, one of the few places in the future united Germany to do so. A whole lot like the way the City of Leningrad held out for years against the Nazis invading though that was a comparison the Third Reich would not be making.

George who was a favorite and favored player during the Third Reich is brilliant as Mayor Joachim Nettelbrick who spent as much time battling with Paul Wegener as the first commandant of the garrison as with the French. I had to think about that one for a bit, but it occurred to me that Hitler would probably have liked the citizen mayor showing up the professional army man as George continually does. After he was just a corporal and had conquered most of Europe against the advice of most of his generals. Of course then Gneissenau who is an ideal Aryan teams up with the mayor and they triumph.

The battle scenes populated with extras who were thanking whatever Gods they worshiped that they were not in the real war only miles away are staged brilliantly. The message of Kolberg is resistance and none of the other Nazi prejudices made its way into the film.

Veit Harlan one of the Third Reich's favored directors brought this one in which in Hollywood would have had the studio bean counters tearing the hair out of their heads. Krista Soderbaum who was the symbol of blond Aryan womanhood and Harlan's wife is also in the film who sustains several tragic losses, but carries on.

In a booklet that accompanied the DVD of Kolberg I ordered it pointed out the film did not have quite the impact that Goebbels thought it would after its Berlin premiere on January 30, 1945. First of all it had limited bookings because 90% of the theaters in Germany had been destroyed by Allied bombings. And by the time it came out the people were really not responding too well to the Propaganda Ministry's pablum.

I have to say that this last film from Goebbels is brilliantly conceived and executed. But after World War II Kolberg became and remains part of Poland with its German population expelled or worse by the Russian Army and Polish resistance. So what was it all about?

Very few Nazi propoganda films achieved the effect for which they were intended and despite costing an estimated 8.5 million Reichmarks, this opus is no exception. Although conceived in 1942 it was not released until 1945 by which time its message that resistance is preferable to surrender was unlikely to appeal to citizens who had already paid a heavy price for their flirtation with National Socialism. Anyway, not many cinemas were still standing and the majority of film goers much preferred to watch 'Baron Munchhausen'.

That aside, 'Kolberg' is a marvellous piece of film-making. Beautifully shot in Agfacolor by Bruno Mondi with a powerful score by Norbert Schultze and intensely moving performances by some of Germany's finest.

The three leading characters of Gniesenau, Nettlebeck and Maria are basically symbols, respectively, of inspired military leadership, nationalist fervour and supreme sacrifice. Indeed, Gniesenaus' 'The people rise...the storm breaks' echos Goebbel's 'total war' speech from 1943.

Whatever one's feelings regarding demonised director Veit Harlan and the monstrous masters he served this film nonetheless remains an essential piece of cinematic history which no true cinephile can dismiss.