Wunschkonzert

Infobox Film
name = Wunschkonzert


caption =
director = Eduard von Borsody
producer = Felix Pfitzner for Cine-Allianz Tonfilmproduktions GmbH
writer = Richard Lützkendorf
Eduard von Borsody
starring = Ilse Werner
Carl Raddatz
Joachim Brennecke
music = Werner Bochmann (original music)
Eugen Jochum (musical director)
cinematography = Günther Anders
Carl Drews
Franz Weihmayr
editing = Elisabeth Neumann
distributor = Universum Film-Verleih GmbH
released = start date|1940|12|30 (Berlin)
runtime = 103 minutes
country = flagicon|Nazi Germany Germany
language = German
budget =
amg_id = 1:55635
imdb_id = 0033275

Wunschkonzert ("Request Concert") is a German propaganda drama film by Eduard von Borsody made in 1940 which, after "Die grosse Liebe", was the most popular film of wartime Germany.

Plot

During the Berlin Olympics of 1936 the young Inge Wagner and Fliegerleutnant (Flight Lieutenant) Herbert Koch meet, and within a few days fall in love. They make plans for their joint future, but before they can get married Herbert is seconded to Legion Condor and ordered to Spain; he is forced to leave immediately without giving Ilse any explanation. The mission is top secret and all contact with home is forbidden, including by letter, and he is unable to contact her with an explanation. When after several months the operation is over, and Herbert is recovering from a severe injury, he is at last able to write to Inge, but she has moved in the meantime and he is unable to trace her.

Inge meanwhile is unable to forget Herbert and is prepared to wait for him. Three years go by. When the war begins in 1939, the men from Inge's area all go off to the front, including Inge's childhood friend, Helmut Winkler, whose proposal of marriage she has turned down, but who continues to hope for her hand. Helmut is assigned to the squadron to which Herbert belongs, who has meanwhile been promoted to Captain, and is put directly under him. The two become friends, not knowing that they both love the same girl.

In Berlin since the beginning of the war a big musical event takes place every week, which is broadcast on the radio as "Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht" ("Request Concert for the Wehrmacht") and provides a channel for greetings and messages between the front and home. When Herbert, remembering the beautiful days with Inge, asks for the Olympic fanfares, Inge, who is listening at home like every one else, hears it and is encouraged by this sudden sign out of the blue to discover Herbert's whereabouts, with renewed hope of seeing him again. They exchange letters, and arrange to meet in Hamburg.

However, at the last moment before the meeting, Herbert and Helmut are both ordered off on a reconnaissance flight over the Atlantic and are shot down. A German U-Boat picks them up. Meanwhile Inge is waiting in vain. Helmut is taken wounded to the military hospital, where all three meet in his sickroom. After sorting out the confused situation - Herbert assumes that Inge and Helmut are engaged - the two lovers are reunited.

Cast

Starring roles were played by Ilse Werner as Inge Wagner, Carl Raddatz as Herbert Koch and Joachim Brennecke as Helmut Winkler.

Other actors were Hedwig Bleibtreu (Frau Wagner), Ida Wüst (Frau Eichhorn), Hans Hermann Schaufuss (Hammer), Hans Adalbert Schlettow (Kramer), Malte Jäger (Friedrich), Walter Ladengast (Schwarzkopf), Albert Florath (Physician), Elise Aulinger (Frau Schwarzkopf), Wilhelm Althaus (Captain Freiburg), Walter Bechmann (Waiter), Günther Lüders (Zimmermann), Erwin Biegel (Justav), Vera Hartegg (Frau Friedrich), Vera Complojer (Frau Hammer), Aribert Mog and Ewald Wenck.

Music

Many well-known artists appear as themselves in the request concert programme section, hosted by Heinz Goedecke:

*Paul Hörbiger: "Apoloner, Apoloner bist Du"
*Weiß Ferdl: Bin ich froh, ich bin kein Intellektueller
*Hans Brausewetter, Heinz Rühmann, Josef Sieber: "Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern" (song from the film "Paradies der Junggesellen", 1939)
*Wilhelm Strienz: "Gute Nacht Mutter"
*Marika Rökk: "In einer Nacht im Mai" (song from the film "Eine Nacht im Mai", 1938)
*Soldiers: "Soldaten sind Soldaten"
*Albert Bräu: clarinet solo
*Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eugen Jochum: overture to the opera "The Marriage of Figaro"

National Socialist propaganda

"Wunschkonzert" was officially classified as "Politically valuable", "Artistically valuable", "Valuable for the people" and "Valuable for youth", which by Nazi standards put it close to the rank of a major propaganda film such as Karl Ritter's "Stukas" (1941). The Allied Control Board ("Alliierter Kontrollrat"), which in 1945 subjected all German-language films then on release to an ideological examination, banned its performance. It was released later in the BRD with clearance from the FSK.

The love story in itself was innocuous (particularly given the unconvincing performances of the two male leads) and was intended only to strengthen morale at the home front, particularly among women. With this film (her 11th), Ilse Werner tightened her grip on star status and added to her image the role of the "girl back home", faithfully enduring. Although she had at first turned the part down, her collaboration in this film cost her in 1945 a performance ban, albeit temporary.

Its real political force was due to other elements of image and plot not immediately apparent from a straightforward storyline summary. The film historians Francis Courtade and Pierre Cadars quote [in their "Geschichte des Films im Dritten Reich" - see below] an unknown writer, who describes the film as follows: "This "harmless-homeloving" film contains in palatable form just about everything that was dear to the Third Reich, with the exception of anti-semitism". [Dieser „harmlos-volkstümliche“ Film enthält in gefälliger Form so ungefähr alles, was dem Regime wert und teuer war, mit Ausnahme des Antisemitismus.]

Friedemann Beyer also describes it as a "paradigm of the National Sozialist cinema". [see book below] The blend of distracting escapist entertainment on the one hand and naked propaganda on the other makes "Wunschkonzert" one of the most significant products of Nazi film politics.

In the first section, against the background of the opening of the Olympic Games, the film contains documentary images of Hitler with adoring crowds, deliberately reminiscent of Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films; the Olympic scenes include actual footage from Riefenstahl's film "Olympia". Later, in the war scenes, original newsreel footage is used. The film is also openly propagandistisc in the scenes in which the men go off to war: these scenes convey on the one hand a spirit of readiness for self-sacrifice, and on the other, one of carefree singing and jollity, as though going on a great adventure. "Echt deutsche Gefühlsinnigkeit" ("genuine German sensibility") is celebrated in another scene, in which Schwarzkopf, a young pianist, plays Beethoven to a house-party in farewell. He later dies an operatically staged heroic death. The real main theme of the film however is German "Volksgemeinschaft" ("people's community", a specifically Nazi term), the inner bond between home and the front. The request concert, as the bridge between the two, and indeed the love story between a civilian girl and a fighting man, are really just symbols for the greater whole. Consequently the film closes, not just on the images of the idyll of love, but with battleships, bomber squadrons, swastika banners and the patriotic song "Denn wir fahren gegen Engelland".

Production and reception

The former Reich Film Superintendent Fritz Hippler characterised the film - after 1945 - not only as a state-commissioned film, but as: "Goebbels’ pet child. He had worked on the screenplay, written dialogue and specified particular singers and music to be presented in the great set pieces. Since he prized Ilse Werner above all as the 'sympathetic model of a modern woman', he was completely besotted with that piece of casting."Fact|date=November 2007

The director Eduard von Borsody, who otherwise mostly specialised in adventure films, had recommended himself to the Nazi regime by his work on the propaganda films "Morgenrot" (1933), "Flüchtlinge" (1933) and "Kautschuk" (1938).

The popular music show "Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht" really existed and was broadcast on the radio every Sunday afternoon at 3.00 from the Great Broadcasting Room on the Masurenallee in Berlin.

Shooting began on 16 July 1940. On 21 December the completed film was laid before the Filmprüfstelle (original edition: 2,832 metres, 103 minutes), which classified it as fit for youth viewing. The premiere took place on 30 December 1940 in a Berlin showpiece cinema, the "Ufa-Palast am Zoo". Distribution was managed by the Universum-Film Verleih GmbH. On 4 November 1943 the film was again presented to the Filmprüfstelle in a shortened version (2,689 metres, 98 minutes) and in this version too was classified as suitable for minors.

In the original version the film was entitled ""Das Wunschkonzert" ("The Request Concert") but this was replaced when the film was advertised by the snappier-sounding "Wunschkonzert".

Next to the Zarah Leander film "Die grosse Liebe", "Wunschkonzert" was the most commercially successful film production of the National Socialist period: by the end of World War II the film had been seen by almost 26 million people and taken 7.6 million Reichsmarks.

At its presentation to the FSK on 24 January 1980 (2,720 metres, 99 minutes) the film was cleared as suitable for showing on public holidays and for those aged 16 and over (Prüf-Nr. 51284). After a re-edit (2,756 metres, 101 minutes) it was presented again to the FSK on 22 January 1997, when it was re-classified as suitable for those aged 18 and over (Prüf-Nr. 51284). The rights have been taken over by the Transit-Verleih GmbH.

Notes

References

*Helmut Regel: "Zur Topographie des NS-Films." in: "Filmkritik." Verl. Filmkritik, Munich 10.1966,1 (Januar), pp. 5/18. ISSN|0015-1572
*Francis Courtade, Pierre Cadars: "Geschichte des Films im Dritten Reich." Heyne, Munich 1975, 1977, pp. 208ff. ISBN 3-453-00759-X
*Friedemann Beyer: "Die Ufa-Stars im Dritten Reich. Frauen für Deutschland." Heyne, Munich 1991, 1992, pp. 259ff. ISBN 3-453-03013-3

External links

*imdb title|id=0033275
* [http://www.murnau-stiftung.de/de/suchergebnis.asp?ID=1014 Murnau-Stiftung]
*de icon [http://www.filmportal.de/df/2d/Uebersicht,,,,,,,,03BD67AA24C8494CA1A96267BEDC5643,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html Filmportal]
* [http://www.ruehmann-heinz.de/HRMKF/HRMKF045.htm Heinz Rühmann]