''Lightning Around Barbara'' (German: ''Wetterleuchten um Barbara'') is a 1941 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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Werner Klingler Karl Adolf Kurt Werner Klingler (23 October 1903 – 23 June 1972) was a German film director and actor. He directed 29 films between 1936 and 1968. He was born in Stuttgart and died in West Berlin, West Germany. Early life Klingler acquire ...

and starring

Sybille Schmitz Sybille Maria Christina Schmitz (2 December 1909 – 13 April 1955) was a German actress. Biography Schmitz attended an acting school in Cologne and got her first engagement at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1927. Only one year l ...

Attila Hörbiger Attila Hörbiger (21 April 1896 – 27 April 1987) was an Austrian stage and movie actor. Life Hörbiger was born in the Hungarian capital Budapest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger and the younge ...

and

Maria Koppenhöfer Maria Koppenhöfer (11 December 1901 – 29 November 1948) was a German film actress. Selected filmography * '' The Opera Ball'' (1931) * '' 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman'' (1931) * '' Unheimliche Geschichten'' (1932) * ''The First Right of th ...

. It is a

heimatfilm ' (, German for "homeland-films"; German singular: ') were films of a genre popular in West Germany, Switzerland, and Austria from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. '' Heimat'' can be translated as "home" (in the geographic sense), "hometown" or " ...

with

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

overtones, set in the

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

region of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in the year of the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

. It was shot at the Schönbrunn and

Sievering Studios Sievering Studios were film production studios located in Sievering, a suburb of the Austrian capital Vienna. The studios were established in 1916 by the film pioneer Alexander Kolowrat for use by his Sascha-Film. After the First World War they f ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and on location around

Steinach am Brenner Steinach am Brenner is a market town in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol located south of Innsbruck in the Wipptal at the Sill River. Geography Steinach am Brenner is located in Wipptal, along the Sill R ...

.Klaus p.288-89 The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Gabriel Pellon Gabriel Pellon (1900–1975) was a German painter and art director.Shandley p.212 Pellon was born in Metz, which was then part of the German Empire having been annexed from France at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. When Metz was later annexed ...

and

Heinrich Richter Heinrich Richter (1884–1981) was a German painter and art director.Soister p.122 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career. Selected filmography * '' The Confessions of the Green Mask'' (1916) * '' The Sensational Tr ...

Synopsis

In 1938, underground members of the

movement in the

region face suppression from the Austrian

Heimwehr The Heimwehr (, ) or Heimatschutz (, ) was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group that operated in the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1936. It was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. The Heimwe ...

. Martin Stammer and others flee across the border into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

for shelter. In his absence his wife is forced to accuse him of murder in order to save her friend in a court trial. Her dilemma is resolved when her husband returns as part of the invading Germany forces.

Cast

as Barbara Stammer *

as Martin Stammer *

as Stammermutter *

Oskar Sima Oskar Sima (31 July 1896 – 24 June 1969) was an Austrian actor who is best remembered for appearing in supporting roles in countless comedy films from the 1930s to the 1960s. Born in Hohenau an der March, Lower Austria, Sima attended high sc ...

as Gansterer, Ortskommandant der Frontmiliz *

Eduard Köck Eduard Köck (26 February 1880 – 3 November 1961) was an Austrian stage actor, stage and film actor.Fritsche p.220 He made a few silent film appearances, but most of his screen performances were character roles during the 1940s and 1950s. Selec ...

as Rottbichler * Heinrich Heilinger as Dr. Heiderer *

Hans Jamnig Hans Jamnig (1 June 1912 – 2 February 1991) was an Austrian cross-country skier. He competed in the men's 18 kilometre event at the 1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games () and ...

as Sergeant Kratzer *

Georg Vogelsang Georg Vogelsang (1883–1952) was a German stage and film actor.Giesen p.216 He specialised in Bavarian character parts. Selected filmography * '' The Secret of Castle Elmshoh'' (1925) * ''Three Fathers for Anna'' (1939) * '' The Eternal Spring'' ...

as Altknecht Aegyd * Leopold Esterle as Hansbauer * Ilse Exl as Hansbäuerin * Leopold Kerscher as Ödbauer *

Viktor Staal Viktor Staal (17 February 1909 – 4 June 1982) was an Austrian film actor. Selected filmography * '' Everything for the Company'' (1935) * '' Eva, the Factory Girl'' (1935) * '' Das Einmaleins der Liebe'' (1935) * '' The World's in Love'' (1935 ...

as Anton Walcher *

Maria Stadler Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

as Wettl, Magd

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009. * Klaus, Ulrich J. ''Deutsche Tonfilme: Jahrgang 1940''. Klaus-Archiv, 2006. * Richards, Jeffrey. ''Visions of Yesterday''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973. * Waldman, Harry. ''Nazi Films in America, 1933-1942''. McFarland, 2008.

External links

* 1941 films Films of Nazi Germany German drama films 1941 drama films 1940s German-language films Films directed by Werner Klingler German black-and-white films 1940s German films Films set in 1938 Films shot in Austria Films set in Austria Films shot at Schönbrunn Studios Films shot at Sievering Studios Nazi propaganda films {{1940s-Germany-film-stub