''The Condemned Village'' (German: ''Das verurteilte Dorf'') is a 1952

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

directed by

Martin Hellberg Martin Hellberg (also known as Martin Heinrich, 31 January 1905 – 31 October 1999) was a German actor, director and writer. Life Martin Hellberg was born in 1905 in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, as a son of a pastor. From 1922 to 1924, Martin Hell ...

.The film is about a man who returns from a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp to his home village in occupied

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and leads a resistance to the American military's plans to demolish the village to build an airfield. The film was commissioned to build East German opposition to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and support for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during the early

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

Plot

Farmer Heinz Weimann returns to his small

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n village of Bärenweiler after several years in Soviet captivity. He tells his neighbors, who have been subject to anti-Soviet propaganda disseminated by the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

and the American occupation forces, that the Soviets have treated him well. His old sweetheart Käthe has married another man, Fritz Vollmer, but he is not concerned with that. His joy on returning home is interrupted when the mayor announces that the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

intends to destroy the village and to build an airfield on its lands, in preparation for a confrontation with the Soviet Union. The people turn to the government and to the local bishop, but receive no assistance. Led by Heinz, they turn to peaceful protests. All residents refuse to leave their homes, except Vollmer. Heinz is arrested and imprisoned.

Trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

from throughout the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

mobilize to aid the villagers. When the United States Military Police arrives to evict the inhabitants, thousands of workers arrive in Bärenweiler, and the Americans are forced to leave and abandon their plans to build the airfield.

Cast

*Helga Göring as Käthe Vollmer * Günther Simon as Heinz Weimann *

Wolf Kaiser Wolf Kaiser (26 October 1916 – 22 October 1992) was a German theatre and film actor. He grew up in Switzerland, where he studied chemistry and physiology. In 1937 he was deemed unfit for service in the Wehrmacht, and then went to Berlin where ...

as American colonel * Hans Finohr as American general *Eduard von Winterstein as priest *Albert Garbe as mayor * Marga Legal as Mrs. Rühling *Albert Doerner as Fritz Vollmer *Charlotte Crusius as Mrs. Weimann *Otto Eduard Stübler as Meisel *Friedrich Gnaß as Scheffler *Ulrich von der Trenck as teacher *Aribert Grimmer as Riebnitz *Helmuth Hinzelmann as minister *Paul Paulsen as Bishop *Heinz Dhein as Klaus Meitner *

Hermann Stövesand Hermann Stövesand (1906–1992) was a German stage actor. He also appeared in several East German films in the post-war era.Reimer p.192 Selected filmography * ''The Last Year'' (1951) * '' The Axe of Wandsbek'' (1951) * '' The Condemned Village' ...

as Anton Reinhard *William Gade as postman *Werner Pledath as director *Josef Peter Dornseif as second director *Albert Venohr as American captain *Heinz Rosenthal as government councilor

Production

In 1951, state control over the

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 ...

film studio was tightened, as manifested in the creation of the DEFA commission in the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

. On the backrougnd of the nascent

, an emphasis was put on the creation of anti-Western films; all six pictures released by DEFA in 1952 were dedicated to this theme. Writers Jeanne and Kurt Stern wrote the draft of the script in early 1951, after reading a newspaper report about a protest against American military presence that took place in the West German village of

Hammelburg Hammelburg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It sits in the district of Bad Kissingen, in Lower Franconia. It lies on the river Franconian Saale, 25 km west of Schweinfurt. Hammelburg is the oldest winegrowing town (''Weinstadt'') in Francon ...

. The draft was submitted to DEFA on 14 March 1951. The National Film Board dubbed it "a remarkable agitational work in our campaign against re-militarization, for the unity of Germany and for peace." The final version was completed on 16 May; the writers took care not to highlight the importance of communism but rather the call for peace. A positive figure of a cleric, the village priest, was included in the plot; DEFA director-general Sepp Schwab had decided that it would be unwise to portray the church in a wholly negative light. A happy ending was added as well. In the original draft, the village was evicted.
The Condemned Village
' on the German institute for Church and State Studies website. The SED considered the film as one of the most important cinematic projects produced during 1951. The party's DEFA Commission praised the script as "one of the best written this year." State Secretary of Press and Agitation Hermann Axen had personally made many adjustments to the plot, and demanded that the Americans be presented as aggressors.Dagmar Schittly. ''Zwischen Regie und Regime. Die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen''. . p. 64. Two directors who were approached by DEFA - Erwin Wilhelm Fiedler and

Falk Harnack Falk Harnack (2 March 1913 – 3 September 1991) was a German director and screenwriter. During Germany's Nazi era, he was also active with the German resistance to Nazism, German Resistance and toward the end of World War II, the partisans in Gr ...

- declined to work on the film. Eventually, the manager of the Dresden Theater, Martin Hellberg, who had no experience in the field of cinema, was selected to direct ''The Condemned Village.'' Principal Photography began on 28 August 1951 and ended in early December.

Reception

''The Condemned Village'' had its premiere in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

's Babylon Cinema on 15 February 1952. The SED instructed all its regional branches to ensure a strong attendance for the screenings. It was viewed by 3.7 million people. The film won a special Peace Prize in the 1952

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...

. Director Martin Hellberg, writers Jeanne and Kurt Stern, cinematographer Karl Plintzner and actors Eduard von Winterstein and Albert Garbe all received the National Prize, 1st degree, on 6 October 1952. Hellberg and the writers were awarded the

World Peace Council The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization created in 1949 by the Cominform and propped up by the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, WPC engaged in propaganda efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union, whereby it criticize ...

Gold Medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in 1953, as well. Authors Antonin and Miera Liehm regarded the film as "one of the pinnacles of the propaganda art of its time" that managed to "circumvent the complete artificiality" of the Soviet pictures based on similar themes.Miera Liehm, Antonin J. Liehm . ''The Most Important Art: Soviet and Eastern European Film After 1945''. . p. 91. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad cited it as one of the Cold War films that presented the American troops in West Germany as oppressors. David Caute wrote that the film was "a classic of manipulative socialist realism", and while using the motifs of classical German "homeland" pictures - depicting the pastoral countryside, and demonstrating the threat levied against it by the Americans - they were used only as a pretext to resist any Western military presence in the Federal Republic. pp. 265–267. This manipulation of the genre was noted also by Johannes von Moltke, who claimed that the film presented the "politicization of the homeland film." Caute also pointed out that the characterization of the villains was in line with the East German political line: the Americans' helpers were the local bishop and an aristocrat who fled the GDR after his lands were nationalized and handed over to his former serfs. During 1952, the rejection of the Stalin Note by the Western Powers prompted the East German government to block and fortify the country's western borders - and to destroy several adjacent villages in the process. The film now inspired resistance to the evictions; in one settlement about to be leveled down, a man was sentenced to six years in prison after exhorting his neighbors to "act as the protesters in ''The Condemned Village'' had." Due to those events, the picture was removed from circulation in May 1953.Annerose Kirchner. ''Spurlos verschwunden: Dörfer in Thüringen- Opfer des Uranabbaus''. Links Verlag (2010). . pp. 64–67.

References

External links

* *
The Condemned Village
' original poster on ostfilm.de. {{DEFAULTSORT:Condemned Village, The 1952 films East German films 1950s German-language films German propaganda films German black-and-white films Films set in Bavaria Films set in West Germany Films about the labor movement