Ewald von Demandowsky (21 October 1906 – 7 October 1946) was a German film producer who held the office of a Nazi German '' Reichsfilmdramaturg'' and was head of production at the Tobis Film company in the Third Reich.

Career

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H02865, Berlin, Kameradschaftsabend Deutscher Künstler

Demandowsky was born in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. Already a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1930, he gained employment as a cultural-political editor of the ''

Völkischer Beobachter The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...

'' newspaper. In 1937 he was appointed ''Reichsfilmdramaturg'' subordinate to the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and served to abort unwanted filming projects at the behest of Reich Minister

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...

. Two years later he became head of Tobis Filmkunst,Ernst Klee: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945'', Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 97 then the second largest German film production company after Universum Film AG. He produced a number of notorious

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 ...

films, including '' Ohm Krüger'' and '' Ich klage an''. Commissioned as a '' SS'' officer, von Demandowsky had a love affair with rising star Hildegard Knef in the latter part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. According to Knef, Demandowsky was assigned to the '' Volkssturm'' militia at the end of the war, fled from Berlin, surrendered and was transferred to a prisoner of war camp by the

Polish Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, abbreviated ''SZ RP''; popularly called ''Wojsko Polskie'' in Poland, abbreviated ''WP''—roughly, the "Polish Military") are the national armed forces of ...

but soon after was released to return to Berlin. In 1946 he was again arrested by US military police and handed over to the Soviet Military Administration. Demandowsky was tried for

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

war propaganda and sentenced to death by a Soviet Military Tribunal and shot on 7 October 1946 in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Rehabilitation

In 1991 Demandowsky was rehabilitated by the public prosecutor of the Russian Federation (main military prosecutor) in accordance with article 3 letter a of the Act of the Russian Federation on the rehabilitation of victims of political reprisals of 18 October 1991.

References

External links

* 1906 births 1946 deaths Film people from Berlin Nazi Party members German film producers German male journalists German male writers SS officers Executed people from Berlin Nazis executed by the Soviet Union by firearm 20th-century German journalists Volkssturm personnel German prisoners of war in World War II held by Poland German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States {{Germany-journalist-stub Nazi propagandists