logos.jpg“History is not about the facts. It is about the context and who is telling the story.” —Prof. Milton Fine. 

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."   –– George Orwell in his novel "1984." 

"Whoever doubts the exclusive guilt of Germany for the Second World War destroys the foundation of post–war politics." ––  Prof. Theodor Eschenberg, Rector, the University of Tübingen.

"If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how."         –  Friedrich Nietzsche

 

POSTER GALLERY  --view

over 500 German film

original posters betweenpngtree-15-years-anniversary-logo-with-ribbon-png-image_5280377-1812814530.jpg

1927–1954  from

Germany and from

many Axis and Neutral countries

across Europe!  

 

Note!  Posters in the Poster Gallery are PERMANENT

acquisitions which are NOT FOR SALE!!   ONLY the

posters listed in our POSTER STORE are for sale. 

(They have a price and order button to use.)

 

"The challenge of finding and collecting such "taboo" posters was a hobby that became more serious when university scholars and museums and other institutions began to ask permission to use images from the website for exhibitions, books, and scholarly journals."

English / Deutsch

The William Gillespie Archive of German,  Axis  and Occupied Europe Posters,  1926-1954


           JudSuess-French-tb.jpg          Tiefland-tb.jpg         DerLetzteBefehl-lg.JPG

 

Welcome to a collection of German posters and film ephemera that the prestigious  The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television calls in 2024 "probably the most extensive collection of [German]  posters, photographs, correspondence, scripts, film magazines, publications, etc. that can be found in private hands to date. These include many artifacts that cannot be found in conventional archives at all."

 

Typical of the unsolicited comments we receive regularly:

" I am a German journalist writing about military movies in history…the newspaper with the articles you show a photo of is obviously hard to find, I was unable to get it from any other archive or shop in Germany - or, so far - around the world. However, the Information in it is truly important for my work. " 

-and, from a well-known American author of published books on Nazi Film --

"Your website, which I peruse often, your library, and the books you’ve written are singular achievements. I’ve said this before, and repeat it, because they reveal your mastery at research and discovery."

In November 2024 a university professor in Europe wrote: "I don't know what to say, thanks so much for sending me all of this. It is such a luxury, not only to have access to your collection, but also to have you always trying to find something I did not even ask for..."

 

FILM-HISTORICA,  Vol. 32, número 1 (Octubre 2023 , Journal of the Centre d'Investigacions Film-Història, University of Barcelona, Spain, stated:

The drought of research on filmmakers from the period 1933-45 has had its only fertile area in a place not exactly close to Germanic lands such as Sydney, Australia, where William Gillespie—a researcher with no previous resume in cinematographic themes, at least as far as I know—has been reviewing the work of a filmmaker who was one of the heavyweights of Nazi cinema but whose name, very probably, it will not sound familiar to anyone who has not studied that era a little: Karl Ritter (1888-1977).

-and-

Journal.jpeg"Gillespie’s book [Hitler Youth Quex – A Guide for the English–speaking Reader]  is a treasure trove for scholars of history, film history and propaganda more generally. This includes graduate and postgraduate students, early career researchers and more established academics. As such it is recommended for the essential classroom reading lists on any course dealing with film propaganda."  – The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, 2024.

 

--------

The  William Gillespie collection began in 1976 and the impetus was accelerated when, early on, the very rare Belgian poster for Harlan's JUD SÜß was acquired in France, which signalled that controversial and rare "Tendenzfilme" posters were not completely unobtainable on the open market.

Over time, auction houses, poster galleries, and then the internet, were all used to source new acquisitions. As the collection became better known, private collectors and poster dealers made private offers to the Gillespie Collection, and posters such as the two Czech originals for OLYMPIA, and many others, were bought off-market. Olympia was never released in Czechoslovakia in 1938.

There are also a few posters from 1926 - 1954 which are not Tendenzfilme, such as the original French poster for Clouzot's masterpiece LE CORBEAU made under German occupation, Riefenstahl's post-war TIEFLAND, or Emil Janning’s Oscar-winningDER LETZTE BEFEHL, which are important in their own right, and worthy of collection in any case.

The challenge of finding and collecting such "taboo" posters was a hobby that became more serious when university scholars and museums and other institutions began to ask permission to use images from the website for exhibitions, books, and scholarly journals. In some cases the posters were simply unavailable anywhere else at all; in other cases normal negotiations with state archives and institutions holding posters were too difficult, slow, and restrictive. We sympathise.

Unfortunately, most State archives have little or no money for poster restoration and preservation, despite their attempts to do so, whereas over 50 of the rarest posters in this Collection have been professionally de-acidified, cleaned, and backed on Japanese rice paper as part of our commitment to keeping these pieces of history intact. There is no doubt that these posters, because of their notoriety, would be buried deep inside the vaults of state archives and not available to scholars or to the film student or general public,  were it not for private collecting efforts such as ours.

Other William Gillespie Collection materials, such as issues of DER DEUTSCHE FILM (RFK, 1936-1943) have been scanned for scholars, who have no easy access to these rare Zeitschriften. The Index of the first 5 years of the magazine published is available at the upper right of this Home page menu bar.

The unavailability of virtually any pre–1945 original books or periodicals on German film and also of post–war film histories in Australia obliged us to purchase and have shipped Down Under hundreds of books in the past thirty years. These were needed for reference and for research, and cited in our various Karl Ritter books as appropriate. Our film book library can be found here.

Five books and one pamphlet have been published by or in conjunction with the Gillespie Collection to date. These titles are: Film Posters of the Third Reich (2007), Veit Harlan's "Testament 1945” (2010);  Karl Ritter - His Life and 'Zeitfilms' under National Socialism (2012; 2014 2nd edition );  The Making of The Crew of the Dora (2016), Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film. and Hitler Youth Quex – A Guide for the English–speaking Reader (2022).  All titles are available for purchase from International Historic Films, Chicago, USA; other than the Film Posters book, which is out-of-print.

Acquiring original posters and other film materials from this historical era is a bit like stumbling blindfolded in a very large dark room, where one cannot see or comprehend the 'universe' of what was published and printed at the time in its entirety; and one doesn't know what one doesn't know...and there is now nobody alive to ask. So much was lost in the napalm fire–bombing of Germany, so much looted by the Red Army and so much by souvenir–hunting American GIs that present–day German archives have nothing close to a full set of magazine print–runs, or film posters, or related ephemera... and no money to even transfer nitrate 35mm film prints to safety film for posterity. The German Film Archives actually destroyed many original 35mm nitrate print inter–negatives and cinema prints from the Third Reich, after copying them (apparently without much attention to making quality prints); and only then onto 16mm stock.

In  our small way, new discoveries and surprises still happen from time to time;  and whole new areas of collection and pursuit become visible as the years go by. Hence the varied menu subjects above.

As of April  2024,  the Collection's posters alone have cost over €270,000- since inception. We have paid retail prices and won many auctions with the highest bid when an item was considered a "museum piece,"  and in our opinion probably would never be available again.  Only a handful of posters won over the decades have in fact surfaced later in another auction or catalogue. Had we not persisted in high bids we would not have 95% of the posters you see in our Poster Gallery at all. A quick look at the poster gallery will confirm how rare most of the posters are, as well as film stills, press–books and other ephemera from the era.

Very occasionally an item has been won at auction at an incredibly low price through pure luck. In January, 2005 the original Veit Harlan 22 page signed document from May 1945 entitled 'Wie ich zum Nationalsozialismus stand' was purchased for just £100. It is one of the only originals in the world. We were the sole bidder. The original Uƒa film script for Karl Ritter's ÜBER ALLES IN DER WELT was purchased for €35,50 in 2005, the iconic poster for S A MANN BRAND was won at auction in Berlin for €754,– in late 2006; the extremely rare poster for Karl Ritter's KADETTEN bought for €332,- in 2008, the 50 Tobis film stills for Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA won at live auction in Berlin in May, 2010 for €1,502.38 or just €30 per photograph. The extremely rare French poster SUIS–JE UN ASSASSIN? (ICH KLAGE AN) bought for €380 in July, 2009.

In May 2013, 4 unpublished "behind–the–scenes" photos from Karl Ritter's film BESATZUNG DORA were purchased for €10 each off a militia site. They wound up in our 2016 book on the film. In August 2014 the impossible–to–find original cinema owner's guide to HITLERJUNGE QUEX (the "Werberatschlag") was purchased for $109 net, after other non-film items in the military auction house 'Lot' were re–sold as unneeded. That same month, we won at auction for €157 a Wehrmacht soldier's personal photo album of his service in Russland in WWII; which included his private snapshots of BESATZUNG DORA being shot at the Gostkino air base south of Leningrad in October 1942. Some of those snapshots also wound up in our DORA book. In September 2015, the original QUEX sheet music was won at auction for €16....Miracles do happen. In May 2017, a pamphlet for the lost film BLUTENDES DEUTSCHLAND was purchased for €24,50.-

In June 2018 we discovered the lost Ufa film script for Karl Ritter's unfinished feature film, LEGION CONDOR (1939) in a used bookstore in Berlin for €350. It is our understanding after discussions with leading German and Austrian film historians and archivists,  and the Library of Congress in the USA; that it is the only script copy extant; as it does not reside in the libraries of the German Film Archives, the Berlin Kinemathek, Filmarchiv Austria, or any other leading collections we frequent.  It had been sold to the bookstore proprietor by an old man who found it at a flea market and thought it might have been worth something.

In December 2020, we were offered the ultra–rare "Das Programm von Heute" 4-page brochure for Leni Riefenstahl's first Nürnberg Party Day film, Der Sieg des Glaubens, later banned.  In 1922, we won at auction two silent film lithographic posters designed by Karl Ritter for US$349. In 2023 we won at auction the Kleinplakat for the 1933 propaganda film SA-Mann Brand for €400,49- .

You can see the most important and/or rarest items we acquire by looking at the menu on this Home page and choosing "What is new in 2024?" or the previous pages for earlier years, and follow our successes by re-visiting this column from time to time. The treasure hunt continues!

 

IMG_1203.jpgIMG_1204.jpg

IMG_1205.jpgIMG_1206.jpg

                                     IMG_1207-(1).jpg

ABOVE: Our German film book library and film ephemera -- film stills, press–books, journals, DVDs --  shown in part, which is  overwhelmingly  devoted to National Socialist and related pre–1945 subject matter. Not shown are our 550+ original pre–1945 film posters and over 1,000 bound and loose German film newspapers from 1932 to 1945.

 

 "US surveys between 19/11/45 and 21/2/46 showed that 94% of Germans wanted to see older German films which had been produced in the Third Reich, and 55% of those were Germans who had not as yet had the opportunity to see any films (i.e. post–war);  despite those films being forbidden by American control.   ---Gerhard Stahr, Volksgemeinschaft vor der Leinwand?  – Der nationalsozialistische Film und sein Publikum © 2001, S. 276

 

 

Scroll down for the latest news about this Collection!

 

Please note: the images on this website are best appreciated on a desktop or large laptop screen, not on a mobile/cell phone or on a small tablet. The architecture of this website has not been updated for mobile phone formatting, as we do not believe that our posters are shown properly on tiny screens. 

      NEWS!   

 HJ-Quex-NEW-750.jpg2nd ed.QUEX banner copy.jpg

GFDN announces our definitive, 2nd revised edition of  

Hitler     Youth Quex – A Guide for the English–speaking

Reader.

 

Author William Gillespie stated in his Introduction to the first edition of his Quex book:

‘I decided to publish Hitlerjunge Quex – A Guide for the English–speaking Reader when I discovered that there has never been a book entirely devoted to the film (other than the film soundtrack transcript itself in 1980 from the filmland press) in either German or English. … Given the film's historical prominence and post-war notoriety, this guide is meant to help rectify this gap and provide English–speaking readers better insight into the film, its background, its promotion, and reception both inside the Reich and abroad before WWII ended. The post-war fate of the film is also examined.’

 Gillespie admits that he couldn’t have contemplated that it would run over 400 pages when writing the book. Since the first edition of our Quex book appeared in early 2023, we have garnered two positive reviews from peer-reviewed academic journals in the UK/USA and Germany.  The UK/USA journal book review published in June 2024 stated:

"Gillespie's book is a treasure trove for scholars of history, film history and propaganda more generally. This includes graduate and postgraduate students, early career researchers and more established academics. As such it is recommended for the essential classroom reading lists on any course dealing with film propaganda.” –– The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, June 2024 

In the summers of 2023 and 2024, Gillespie spent further months in Europe and discovered obscure primary source material that had not been found in time for the initial first edition. This material included Greater Berlin weekly radio program magazines for 1933 and early 1934, which also listed movies in all cinemas each week. This allowed a comprehensive understanding of where the film was screened in the Berlin metropolis and for how long. Astoundingly, the film was screened in 116 different Greater Berlin cinemas over a period of five months. A private photograph of Jürgen Ohlsen was unearthed, standing in uniform with Reichsjugendführer Baldur von Schirach taken after the Bonn premiere of the film. A fantastic newspaper archive from the Nordrhein-Westfalen area of Germany contained over one thousand mentions of the film in articles, reviews, and background material published between June 1933 and December 1934 in fifty local and regional newspapers. The very best excerpts from those articles make up a new 18-page chapter, “Germany flocks to Quex” inserted after the chapter on the two film premieres and before the Gaufilmstelle chapter on how the film was shown in towns and villages in the German countryside. Newly discovered facts were added to four other chapters and a few errors corrected. This new edition is forty-four pages longer than the first version and also has two new photographs.  The printing process for the latest edition also allowed eight previous B&W illustrations to be printed in full colour.

Sales of the first edition have now been suspended, at the cost of about US$4200 in remaining unsold inventory foregone. The new, final, definitive edition is now available in both Australia (from this website) and in America (from International Historic Films).

German Films Dot Net, Publisher.  27 November 2024



Quex DVD box ad -IHF.jpeg

The new high definition DVD of the film Hitlerjunge Quex has just been released by International Historic Films in Chicago, USA with new English subtitles and many Bonus Materials. The original film poster from this Collection was scanned at 1200dpi to provide the cover art on the DVD. A special savings  combination of the high definition DVD and our book on the film is being promoted by IHF for US$74.95.

Screenshot 2024-12-05 at 13.32.56.png

 

The DVD and the book are also available separately from IHF as well.   If you already own an earlier version of the film, we strongly suggest that you UPGRADE to this astonishingly fine 35mm internegative transfer DVD. The picture and sound quality has never been remotely as sharp and clear as it is found here. It is truly as if you are seeing the film for the very first time.

We are proud to announce here our latest German Films Dot Net book in our continuing series on German film man Karl Ritter:

2nd book cover.jpegHitler Youth Quex, the story of a fifteen-year-old working-class boy who defied his father to join the Hitlerjugend in 1932 and died a martyr, was a best-selling novel that became a box office hit when it was released as a motion picture by the famous Ufa film studio in September 1933.  It was the first feature film in history devoted to those under the age of twenty, and critics worldwide came to the film’s premieres in Munich and Berlin. Adolf Hitler attended both gala premieres. The film’s song became the anthem of the HJ, and over eleven million youngsters saw the film in the Third Reich. Hitlerjunge Quex became the cult film of  the new German youth.  

This Guide provides a wealth of information about the film – from the evolution of the story as a novel to its newspaper serialization to the silver screen. The fascinating careers of the critical men involved  – the book’s author Klaus Schenzinger, the film’s producer Karl Ritter, and the film’s director Hans Steinhoff –are presented. The pivotal role of the Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach is explored, with additional commentary from his oldest son, Klaus. The unpublished diaries of Karl Ritter found in Argentina provide new insight into the film's production. A chapter on Jürgen Ohlsen, who played the title role, offers information heretofore overlooked. All of the comprehensive Ufa studio marketing and publicity materials are translated into English for the first time. The movie's success before 1945, not just in German cinemas but in Europe, North America, and Japan between 1934 and 1944, is documented with rare advertising and reviews. The fate of the film post–WWII and how it is dealt with in today’s Germany is examined. Post-war critical analysis is also surveyed.  Author is William Gillespie. 2nd revised definitive edtiion!

432 + -x- pages, 67 B&W  photos/illustrations, 13 colour plates. AVAILABLE to Australian residents via our Book & Poster Store listing.

THE BOOK IS NOW IN STOCK AND AVAILABLE TO SHIP.

The book is available  in our Book & Poster Store and will be shipped to customers after December 10th, 2022.  AUD$49.95/€32 to Australian postal addresses. Orders from other countries please see our listing in our Poster Store for  further details.

 

 –––––––––––––––––––

KARL RITTER'S THRILLER TRAITOR/Verräter AVAILABLE ON DVD WITH ENGLISH-SUBTITLES!    ORDER NOW FROM INTERNATIONAL HISTORIC FILMS!

Screenshot 2024-11-27 at 07.58.07.png

 

 

KARL RITTER'S RESTORED  URLAUB AUF EHRENORT  ON DVD!

33158-5.jpg

International Historic Films has  released their stunning 35mm re–mastered DVD version of Karl Ritter's Urlaub auf Ehrenwort (a/k/a  Furlough on Word of Honor/ Leave on Word of Honor). They say that this is their best–ever transfer onto the DVD format of a German feature film. The film can be ordered from them here.

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshot 2024-12-05 at 13.32.35.png

 

International Historic Films offers all ten KARL RITTER films on DVD for US$199.95 plus postage -- an amazing offer and savings!  Inlcuding the latest release, Verräter/Traitor! Order here.

 

June 2021 – International Historic Films continues its DVD releases of re–mastered and subtitled important German film titles; and has two more Karl Ritter films in the offing! We have contributed essays as well as scans of related posters and studio ephemera to these projects, and henceforth a slide promoting our Karl Ritter trilogy of books will be shown at the end of the DVDs, and also added to previous Ritter DVD releases as they come up for further replication.

 other ihf products2 copy.jpg

 

January 8, 2021 – Our FlagCounter box on the right edge of this Home page has been registering visitors by country sinceScreen Shot 2021-02-23 at 2.07.09 pm.png early 2015. To date we have had over 22, 000 Visitors (only the top ten countries are shown out of over 125 countries tallied to date). The website was established in 2008 and so for the first seven years we have no record of how many visitors we had. Despite not spending any advertising on Google or elsewhere of any kind, our webpages consistently show up on the first or second page listings of many Google and other search engines by virtue of our extensive film poster and film ephemera. A big "Thank You !" for your interest and for your return visits!

 

November 2020 –  International Historic Films reported to us that new first–time worldwide customers who have previously never ordered from them have been ordering all 8 available DVDs of Karl Ritter films, as well as the special US$69.95 combo offer of  the "Ritter Trilogy" of books published by German Films Dot Net. Our books and those DVDs will once again be featured on five pages of the new ‘#34–C'  IHF print catalogue.

 

October 2020 – Despite the on-going severe disruption to international postal deliveries, we have continued to make some amazing acquisitions. We list the most interesting or important of these on our "What's new in 2020?" page.  Also look for the word ***NEW!*** inside our Home Page menu to find the latest brand new website pages we have added.

July 2020 -- Despite the coronavirus disruption of international post, we have had a "Gauflmstelle Month" this month. From three sources we won at auction or purchased:

  • 19 Gau Sachsen and one Gau Ostmark publications

  • 8 rare film handbills from the Gaufilmestelle network including those for Sieg im Westen, Feldzug in Polen, Der ewige Jude, and Karl Ritter's Urlaub auf Ehrenwort.

  • the ultra–rare Gaufilmstelle car pennant from Gau Westfalen–Nord (quite likely the only such pennent that survived WWII).

All these items, plus more, can be found on our new webpage devoted to the Gaufilmstelle.

 

 OUR NEWEST BOOK!  ***********

 

Screen Shot 2019-02-14 at 2.39.04 pm.png

Our new book on the Karl Ritter lost LEGION CONDOR feature film has been praised in the German film journal Filmblatt:

From the book review in Filmblatt (Autumn 2019 #69, Jhrg. 24) on LEGION CONDOR – KARL RITTER`S LOST 1939 FEATURE FILM, written by film scholar and historian Dirk Alt :

78c86b164477e2fec776619b8a2e5bf4.jpg

 

"meticulous research....a source-rich monograph"

"Gillespie's Ritter Book Trilogy is an indispensable reference for all researchers of Nazi cinema."

 

 

Journal.jpeg

A review in the prestigious Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television has now been published  by a well–known German film scholar, Friedemann Beyer.   The "HJFR&T " is published quarterly and ths review appears in the latest Summer 2020 issue. Quotes from the review can be found here.

 

 

 

For other prominent comments on this book, click here.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Our three Ritter books prominent on the home web page of International Historic Films in Chicago (and also placed on the inside back cover of their new annual print Catalogue #33-C):

 

IHF website.jpeg

 – and –

Latest Releases banner ad.jpeg

 –––––––––––––––––––––––

The CineGraph Lexicon on German Films  [CineGraph - Lexikon zum ordner.gifdeutschsprachigen Film] is the standard reference work in the German film world. First published in 1984, it is a ring-binder encyclopaedia of more than 12,000 pages; with new   entries researched or revised and published annually. It has some thousands of film biographies and filmographies and is a crucial research/reference tool on German film.

The pages on Karl Ritter date from many years ago and in 2020 his biography is being updated/re–written. Our book The Making of The Crew of the Dora was requested by the CineGraph's Editor to be used in this new Ritter update. We are honoured!

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Poster Exhibition "Plakativ" in Potsdam !

 

L1070544.jpg

 

 

47 of our original posters are on display in Potsdam, Germany, at the Potsdam Filmmuseum outside of Berlin, from 12 April to 28 August 2019. Four posters from our Collection are from the Weimar Era, 42 from the Third Reich era, and one from the BRD era. Our page on this exciting exhibition is found here.

______________________________________________________________________

Our new book – available  now  !

The third book in our trilogy on film director Karl Ritter tells the full story of his planned sequel to the 1938 smash hit, Pour le Mérite. That film ended with the establishment in 1935 of the new German Luftwaffe. The sequel, Legion Condor,  partially filmed, then abandoned, in July–August 1939, was to show the airforce in battle for the first time, and in victorious battle in Spain.  Today, almost nothing is known about the film except in the broadest of terms because no film script was ever discovered since the Ufa studios were ransacked in 1945. Until now.

 

The book is entitled " Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film. "   The author is William Gillespie. The book is 244 pages long, with 126 footnotes, as well as 38 B&W illustrations/photos and 4 colour plates.  Amongst the 38 B&W photographs are twelve never–before–seen Ufa press photos from the scenes of the film actually shot in the Ufa studios before the production was suddenly cancelled. The book, perfect–bound,  is the same 6 x 9 inch paperback format as our previous two Karl Ritter books; making a Karl Ritter trilogy of a combined 800+ pages, almost 600 footnotes, and nearly 200 B&W photographs/illustrations as well as 24 full–colour plates between the three books.  We have a web page devoted to the book you can see here.

L1070890 (1).jpg

The book is in print and it is in stock here in Australia.   Our Poster Shop is where to order ---  scroll down towards the bottom of the page and ORDER the book for €30 ppd. and it will be shipped to you.  Thank you.

 

 

 The Gillespie Trilogy on Film Director Karl Ritter.....

 

 RITTER BOOK LINEUP - NEW.jpg

These three  Karl Ritter books combined have:

  • 838 pages

  • 591 footnotes

  • 188 B&W photographs, maps, sketches (many previously unknown)

  • 24 full colour full-page plates

  • extensive Bibliographies

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

We have added some material on the dubbed French version shown during WWII of the Steinhoff film OHM KRÜGER, as well as onL1090705 (1).jpg the Soviet dubbed version shown in 1948 in the Soviet Union during Stalin's post–war attacks on the Allies, including the British government. This new material can be found at the bottom of our special page on the film, found here.

 

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Locker220.jpgIt is something of a standing joke amongst film historians who do research at the famed Bundesarchiv–Filmarchiv in Berlin–Lichterfelde that no matter how early they arrive, the Visitor Locker #1 is always already taken. We were blessed with this Locker on 28 September 2018 whilst visiting the federal film archive to do research on our book, Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film.  We were so surprised that we took a photo! A good omen for the book,  in our opinion.   :--)

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------

The first–ever book on the banned             propaganda film Besatzung Dora (1943) !    

Our book  " The Making of The Crew of the Dora," written by William Gillespie, was published by German Films Dot Net in  early 2016. The book uses research from the exclusive access to Karl Ritter's unpublished diary entries from May 1942 through to August 1943 to tell the story of how Besatzung Dora  was conceived, written, produced, and filmed in occupied France, in Berlin, in Italy and deep inside the Soviet Union, 85 miles south of the Siege of Leningrad, between August and December 1942. Over 50,000 words of these diary entries have been transcribed from Ritter's Sütterlin handwriting and translated into English by the author. The book will also contain 90 photographs, sketches, maps and charts -- many of which are being published for the first time -- with 219 footnotes. The book is 320 pages long, Perfect–bound in a trade paperback, 6 x 9 inches in dimension.  The book has been issued ISBN # 0-9808612-3-5. It is available for purchase exclusively within Australia via this website's Poster Shop, at a price of the rough equivalent of AUD$48 postpaid within Australia (Listing is priced  €29).  The US retail price is US$29.95 from International Historic Films and on Amazon Books, plus approximately US$24 in international postage.

--------------------------------------–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

We note two examples of film director Karl Ritter being given far more acknowledgement and exposure than prior to our publication of the two books about his life and about his last propaganda film, Besatzung Dora. 

 

The new book on NS Film by noted film historians Norbert Grob and Friedemann Beyer, listed on Amazon.de mentions Ritter alongside Riefenstahl, Steinhoff and Käutner. No other German film history book in memory mentioned Ritter's name in it's back cover description. The book has two chapters devoted to Ritter's films Urlaub auf Ehrenwort and his Stukas. 

Our book on KARL RITTER is cited in a footnote in the book.

 

grob.jpeg

 

And, at International Historic Films in Chicago, USA, in their ihf.jpegBest Sellers list of DVDs in 2017/2018;  5 of the 6 titles listed were Karl Ritter feature films, alongside the stunning  DVD  re–mastering and transfer of the great U-Boote films U–Boote–Westwärts!. Onwards and upwards!

To visit the Karl Ritter page in the latest IHF catalogue with all the DVDs available from Ritter, please click on this link.

 

 

 

 

 
 IHF 32-c cover.jpg33174-18.gif.jpegThe brand new 2018/2019 IHF (International Historic Films, Chicago) new print catalogue #32–C  has two double–spread pages -- 4 pages in all -- devoted   to the films of Karl Ritter, as well as to the two books published by German Films Dot Net, Karl Ritter - His Life and 'Zeitfilms' under National Socialism (2nd ed.) and The Making of the The Crew of the Dora.  ALSO new DVD releases – such as For the Rights of Mankind (1934).

You can order a free copy of this incredible 72 page catalogue by clicking on this link and filling in your postal details.

 

 

karl ritter spreads-1.jpg

karl ritter spreads-2.jpg

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––---

Legion Condor NEWS!  We have scans of the original 1939 private, unpublished diaries of Director Karl Ritter for the months he wrote, prepared, and started filming his feature film, following on the heels of the huge success of his documentary film on the Spanish Civil War, Im kampf gegen den Weltfeind (The Battle against World Enemy Nr. 1). The feature film had to be abandoned after 15 film–shooting days, due to the signing of the Nazi–Soviet Pact on 23 August 1939. The film's script was discovered after 80 years by German Films Dot Net, and we are working on a monograph on this fascinating film. It was meant to be the sequel to Ritter’s controversial Pour le Mérite, which premiered in late December 1938,  just a few months before Legion Condor was scripted. You can find more on this film on our webpage here.

LC squib.jpg

 

 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

6 December 2018:  We have added to the Menu above the five page INDEX to our 2nd edition book KARL RITTER – His Life and 'Zeitfilms' Under National Socialism.  If you have purchased the book or would like to see what contents is covered in the book, click here.

 

9 June 2018: We have added to the Poster Gallery poster image pages ESSAYS written on the following films: Um Das Menschenrecht, Verräter, Über Alles in der Welt, Stukas, Urlaub auf Ehrenwort, Unternehmen Michael, Pour le Mérite, In der Roten Hölle, Feuertaufe, Der Marsch zum Führer, and Besatzung Dora. The respective essay appears with only one poster (usually the German one) but if you cannot locate it, keep looking through the film's posters until you do! The essay is always at very the bottom of the webpage. 

 

28 May 2018: The F.W.Murnau Stiftung, Wiesbaden, is presenting the 100th anniversary of Uƒa exhibition with our  Münchhausen posters, as per arrangement with the Potsdam Filmmuseum. The exhibition will be opening in August, in the Filmhaus shown below. We are delighted to have our posters on display in a second German city, before they travel back Down Under.

 

Deutsches Filmhaus_tagsüber_Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung-2.jpg

 

 

PFMopening.jpg8th December 2017: The Uƒa 100th Jubilee Exhibition opened at the Potsdam Film Museum with sixty attendees. Our 7 Münchhausen posters from across 1943 Europe were on display, as well as related ephemera. The exhibition will run until 25 February 2018. We show here a photo taken at the opening.

 

29 September 2017  -- OUR POSTERS IN POTSDAM !! Seven of our original 1943/1944 posters of the Uƒa Agfacolor film Münchhausen from France, Italy, Spain (shown, left) , Böhmen & SpainMÜNCH.jpgMähren, Belgium and Sweden have been shipped to the Potsdam Film Museum outside of Berlin, to be displayed in a 100th Uƒa studio anniversary exhibition which will run from 7th December this year until 25 February 2018 inclusive.  The posters range in size from a massive French monster, 2.4 meters x 1.2 meters, to a "Daybill" style one from Sweden, measuring just 30 cm x 90 cm small. If you are in greater Berlin during this time, please visit the Potsdam Film Museum and enjoy the Uƒa exhibition!  The Potsdam Film Museum is in the old horse stables (Marstall) of Friedrich the Great, which is located an easy 5 minute stroll from the Potsdam Bahnhof train station. We are proud to have collaborated with the Filmmuseum, and look forward to further such exhibitions in 2018/2019 and beyond.  The brochure about the Uƒa/Münchhausen exhibition in Potsdam's Film Museum can be found here.

12 August 2017: In the past two months we have sold through our Poster Store the  impossible–to–find–another original 1933 poster for the important and now lost propaganda film Blutendes Deutschland, the Lot of very rare Hitlerjunge Quex film promotional materials; the also very rare autographed photo of Karl Ritter, the original French press–book for the Veit Harlan film Jud Süss / Le juif Suss, and the beautiful,  late war (1944) film poster for the Prussian military melodrama Die Affäre Rödern, and the Dr. Hans Traub booklet. 

We now have just two remaining NS film posters to offer: the exceedingly rare wartime Occupied Belgian  1941 poster for  Hitlerjunge Quex,  and the small window poster for the Hans Albers film - which was awarded the 1934 National Film Prize by the Propaganda Ministry – Flüchtlinge.  Don't hesitate to order and know that you have reserved and acquired these rare film treasures before they are sold to someone else. Thank you for your custom.

 

The prestigious The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television reviews the book Karl Ritter

Uƒa Feldpost 1943–1944 here.

Agentur Karl Hoeffkes' very interesting website has a page on this Collection:   http://www.karlhoeffkes.de/portfolio-view/die-filmposter-sammlung-william-gillespie

 

On November 4, 2015, the number of posters in the Poster Gallery reached 425 !  On June 29, 2016, we reached 450 posters. On March 8, 2018 we reached 500 posters!  In 2021, we topped 600 posters!

SUCCESS!  After two years of negotiations, we have acquired on 19 May 2015 the other original poster graphic design of the historic and iconic film SA MANN BRAND (1933).  We are undoubtedly one of the only collections in either private or institutional hands, to own both versions of SA MANN BRAND. You can search for the film in the Poster Gallery and both versions of the poster will be displayed.

We have just added a flag counter to our website, to show how many persons from each country have visited. As we never had a counter before, this is a new addition to our website.

New original Ufa studio article on the 1944 Alfred Weidenmann film Junge Adler can be found here. And, we have added the German A3 advertising broadsheet for the Imperial Japan military feature film, Nippons wilde Adler (1942) here.

 

This website last updated on 8 December  2024  (AESDT) – All images © 2008–2024– no reproduction allowed without written permission..