''Raid'' () is a 1947 German

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

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

Paul Bildt Paul Hermann Bildt (19 May 1885 – 13 March 1957) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1910 and 1956. He was born in Berlin and died in Zehlendorf, West Berlin. Selected filmography * '' Devil in Silk'' (19 ...

, Agathe Poschmann, and

Claus Holm Claus Holm (4 August 1918 – 21 September 1996) was a German film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1943 and 1979. He was born in Bochum, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * ''Floh im Ohr'' (1943) - Knecht Han ...

. It was made as a cautionary tale about the

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

in postwar

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. It was made in the Soviet Zone, which would later become

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. It was produced by the state-controlled

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...

and shot at the

Johannisthal Studios The Johannisthal Studios were film studios located in the Berlin area of Johannisthal. Founded in 1920 on the site of a former airfield, they were a centre of production during the Weimar and Nazi eras. Nearly four hundred films were made at Johan ...

and on location around

. 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 ...

Otto Hunte Otto Hunte (9 January 1881 – 28 December 1960) was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. Hunte is considered one of the most important artists in the history of early German cinema, mainly for his set designs on the e ...

and

Bruno Monden Bruno Monden (1900–1980) was a German art director. He designed the sets for several rubble films in the wake of the Second World War.Shandley p.217 Selected filmography * '' The Stars Shine'' (1938) * '' The Murderers Are Among Us'' (1946) * ' ...

. The picture sold more than 8,090,000 tickets.List of the 50 highest-grossing DEFA films.
/ref>

Plot

The film takes place in Berlin, in the direct aftermath of Germany's defeat in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The black market is rife in the ruined city. Chief Inspector Friedrich Naumann (

) organizes a raid on the "

Ali Baba "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" () is a folk tale in Arabic added to the ''One Thousand and One Nights'' in the 18th century by its French translator Antoine Galland, who heard it from Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab. As one of the most popu ...

Club", the suspected center of a black market gang, but the raid fails due to the gang having an informer in the police ranks. Later, Naumann investigates alone, discovers a secret tunnel in the club, and gets murdered. The plot then thickens around the complicated relationships between Goll (

Harry Frank Harry Frank (15 October 1896 – 12 December 1947) was a German actor. Selected filmography * '' In den Goldfeldern von Nevada'' (1920) * '' Das wandernde Bild'' (1920) * '' The Wandering Image'' (1920) * '' Four Around a Woman'' (1921) * '' The ...

) - club owner and gang boss; the singer Yvonne (

Nina Kosta Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms * National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq *Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology * No incom ...

), Goll's employee and accomplice; Heinz Becker, Naumann's colleague who had been blackmailed into acting as an informant; and Paul Naumann (

Friedhelm von Petersson Friedhelm is a name of Germanic origin. It may refer to: *Friedhelm Busse (1929–2008), German national socialist politician and activist *Friedhelm Döhl (born 1936), German composer and professor of music * Friedhelm Eronat (born 1953), Geneva-b ...

), the inspector's son, a recently returned prisoner of war who works as a driver in Goll's drug pushing ring until realizing that it was Goll who murdered his father. In the cataclysmic conclusion, the police carry out another raid, a successful one this time, round up members of the gang and undo Goll's dark machinations. At the time, Berlin was under complete four-power occupation, and the rival

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and

German Federal Republic BRD ( ; English: FRG/Federal Republic of Germany) is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Fede ...

had not yet been set up. In this film, the situation of occupation is pushed to the background, with all characters, positive and negative, being Germans and the conflict in the film being between German police and German criminals.

Cast

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* 1947 films 1947 crime films German crime films East German films 1940s German-language films Films set in Berlin German black-and-white films Films directed by Werner Klingler Films shot at Johannisthal Studios Black markets 1940s German films Films scored by Werner Eisbrenner {{1940s-Germany-film-stub