''Frisians in Peril'' (German: ''Friesennot'') is a 1935 German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Peter Hagen and starring

Friedrich Kayßler Friedrich Martin Adalbert Kayssler, also spelled Kayßler (7 April 1874 – 30 April 1945), was a German theatre and film actor. He appeared in 56 films between 1913 and 1945. Biography Kayssler was born in Neurode in the Silesia Province o ...

, Jessie Vihrog and

Valéry Inkijinoff Valery Ivanovich Inkizhinov (russian: Валерий Иванович Инкижинов; 25 March 1895 – 26 September 1973), known as Valéry Inkijinoff, was a Russian actor, director and acting teacher. Born to a Buryat family in Irkutsk, ...

. Made for

Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...

purposes, it concerns a village of ethnic Frisians in Russia. It was shot at the Grunewald Studios in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Robert A. Dietrich Robert A. Dietrich (28 March 1889 – 8 September 1947) was a German art director.Scheunemann p.277 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career. Selected filmography * '' The Student of Prague'' (1913) * '' The Path of De ...

and Bernhard Schwidewski.

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

took place around the Lüneburg Heath near Bispingen. It premiered at the

Ufa-Palast am Zoo The Ufa-Palast am Zoo, located near Berlin Zoological Garden in the New West area of Charlottenburg, was a major Berlin cinema owned by Universum Film AG, or Ufa. Opened in 1919 and enlarged in 1925, it was the largest cinema in Germany until 192 ...

in the German capital.

Plot

Soviet authorities are making life as difficult as possible for a village of

Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...

s, most of whose ancestors originated in the

Frisian Islands The Frisian Islands, also known as the Wadden Islands or the Wadden Sea Islands, form an archipelago at the eastern edge of the North Sea in northwestern Europe, stretching from the northwest of the Netherlands through Germany to the west of Denma ...

, with taxes and other oppression. After Mette, a half-Russian, half-Frisian woman, becomes the girlfriend of Kommissar Tschernoff, the Frisians murder her and throw her body in a swamp. Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'', p. 40 Open violence breaks out and all of the Red Army soldiers stationed nearby are killed by the villagers. They then set fire to their village and flee.

Cast

as Jürgen Wagner * Helene Fehdmer as Kathrin Wagner *

as Kommissar Tschernoff * Jessie Vihrog as Das Mädchen Mette *

Hermann Schomberg Hermann Schomberg (22 August 1907 – 16 November 1975) was a German film and television actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the the ...

as Klaus Niegebüll *

Ilse Fürstenberg Ilse Fürstenberg (12 December 1907, in Berlin – 16 December 1976, in Basel) was a German actress, working on stage, screen, television and as voice actress. Selected filmography * '' The Blue Angel'' (1930) - Raths Wirtschafterin / Maid * '' ...

as Dörte Niegebüll * Kai Möller as Hauke Peters *

Fritz Hoopts Fritz Hoopts (5 June 1875 – 16 May 1945) was a German stage and film actor. Selected filmography * '' Trouble with Jolanthe'' (1934) * '' The Girl from the Marsh Croft'' (1935) * '' Frisians in Peril'' (1935) * '' Uncle Bräsig'' (1936) * ''Whe ...

as Ontje Ibs * Martha Ziegler as Wiebke Detlevsen * Gertrud Boll as Telse Detlevsen * Maria Koppenhöfer as Frau Winkler *

Marianne Simson Marianne Simson (July 29, 1920 – July 15, 1992) was a German dancer and film actress. She was born in Berlin as the daughter of an insurance clerk John Edward Simson. Her brother was Helmut Simson, who later served as mayor of Wolfsburg. Origin ...

as Hilde Winkler *

Franz Stein Franz Stein (1880–1958) was a German cinematographer and film actor.Giesen p.221 During the silent era he shot a number of films, many of them for National Film. After 1925 his film appearances were exclusively as an actor. Selected filmograp ...

as Christian Kröger *

Aribert Grimmer Aribert ( it, Ariberto) is a Germanic given name, from ''hari'' ("host") and ''beraht'' ("bright"). It may refer to: * Aribert (archbishop of Milan) * Prince Aribert of Anhalt (1866–1933), regent of Anhalt *Aribert Heim (1914–1992), Austrian Sc ...

as Kommissar Krappien

Motifs

Despite Nazi hostility to religion, a cynical piece of anti-Communist propaganda depicts the Communists as posting obscene anti-religious posters, and the Frisians as piously declaring that all authority comes from God. The portrayal of Kommissar Tschernoff does not conform to the heavy-handed depiction of Communists as brutal and murderous in such films as '' Flüchtlinge''; he is truly and passionately in love with Mette, and only with her death does he unleash his soldiers. A villager objects to the affair on the grounds that even though her mother was Russian, her father's Frisian blood "outweighs" foreign blood, and therefore she must not throw herself at a foreigner. Her murder is presented as in accordance with the Nazi principle of " race defilement."

Ban and reversal

After the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

, in 1939, the film was banned; in 1941, after the invasion of Russia, it was reissued under its new title. Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' p. 41

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Friesennot 1935 films Films of Nazi Germany 1930s German-language films German black-and-white films 1935 drama films Nazi propaganda films Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era German drama films 1930s German films