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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!  

 

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acquisitions which are NOT FOR SALE!!   ONLY the

posters listed in our POSTER STORE are for sale. 

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Blutendes Deutschland

 

Here is the way that the Stettin Lichtspiele Theater promoted the film in 1933 (poor quality of the image due to it being from a contemporary newspaper) :

 

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Blutendes Deutschland

BLUTENDES DEUTSCHLAND (Director: Johannes Haußler, 1932, Terra-Film, running time: 36 Minutes / 978 meters.) The film depicted Germany from the establishment of the Reich by Bismarck in 1871, through to WWI, the Red uprisings, Ruhr occupation by French troops, Germans in the throes of the inflation–ridden Weimar Republic, and the rise of the NSDAP. It is considered an important film of "Zeitgeschichte" made prior to Hitler becoming Chancellor.  A second longer version of the film was quickly released on 30 March 1933 running 68 Minutes / 1855 meters to incorporate footage of Hitler’s assumption of power on 30 January ’33 and the celebrations across Berlin by the Nazi Party and its members  –– and was the very first feature–length film of the Third Reich. The famous iconic scene of the Sturmabteilung men and others marching through the Brandenburg Gate with torches is depicted on this poster.The film is today lost and only an 17 minute fragment exists in the Bundesarchiv. The poster was designed by graphic artist Erich Meerwald, who designed few motion picture  posters, and is most famous for his postage stamp designs for the Reichspost and post–1945 for the Bundespost.

When the film was imported into the United States via the Port of New York City, in 1935, it was subject, as per all foreign films, to American censorship. The importer had to translate the sound track/narration/dialogue into English, side by side with the German original text, and submit that translated film script along with the German print for censorship review. Here we present two pages from the American censorship office in NYC to the German importer, demanding changes and deletions to the film print shown in Nazi Germany in early 1933. 

 

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After the film was censored according to the US demands, the altered film print was then approved for public screenings across America.

There were 17 cinemas scattered across America which imported German films and screened them to German populations and to non-German speaking audiences as well. ( It was common practice in the larger cities such as New York to import film prints without subtitles, as well as the film's prints with English subtitles; to cater to both audiences simultaneously.)  As America did not enter WWII officially until after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Blutendes Deutschland was shown in these US cinemas in 1940/1941.

In Manhattan, there was the 96th Street Theatre in Yorkville, the Garden Theatre on 81st Street; the 79th Street Theatre at 79th St. and 2nd Ave; the 78th Street Theatre at 78th Street and 1st Ave (also known as the "Tobis Theatre.") Other cities with such cinemas were in Newark, N.J. (the Hindenberg Theatre), in Buffalo, NY; in Milwaukee, two cinemas in Chicago, and then those in Los Angeles and in San Francisco.

 

The 96th Street Theater handbill, written in German for German–Americans,  explains the plot of the film thusly:

"This fact-filled film was produced by National Socialists in 1933 shortly after the seizure of power. And when seen by today's eyes, it is as interesting and contemporary as it was then. The newspapers daily are full of war reporting and full of unfriendly commentaries. One cannot really understand much, one cannot know the deep causes....(but) here you see VERSAILLES ! Germany senselessly dismembered, disenfranchised, patronized, sucked dry, the Ruhr occupied by the French, 46 political parties - hopelessness - despair. The struggling youth marches to Germany's future. Adolf Hitler speaks. Dr. Goebbels speaks.

Both of these speeches are perhaps the most interesting, given by the men of the New Germany. They were held long before the seizure of power. And they are just as fresh as then, yes, even more interesting, because in the meanwhile we have seen how serious and honest their words were really meant.

The last great public mass gathering before the seizure of power. The appointment of Hitler as Chancellor.

BLUTENDES DEUTSCHLAND is an historical document in the true sense of the word, which no German should miss. "

 

It is not known why the 96th Street Theater decided to present this 1933 documentary film again in 1941. The cinema had shown the American premiere of the film in May 1935.

 

Shown here for background information, from the Gillespie Collection, are:  a very rare B&W original still from this lost film, showing the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm alighting a horse–drawn carriage in WWI, an exceedingly rare original 96th Street Theater cinema handbill advertisement for the film in 1941 in Manhattan, the Illustrierter Film–Kurier program for the film, and a German newspaper page heralding the new film and its story-line.  

[SCROLL to the bottom of this page to see the 96th Street Theatre handbill!]

 

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The film's  festive premiere at the UT-Kurfürstendamm in Berlin (Deulig Tonwoche newsreel, 1933)

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In Austria, the film was banned within ten days of it's premiere. This article from the Kinematograph film newspaper of Berlin from 20 June 1933 reports:

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Blutendes Deutschland  banned in Vienna and Graz

" In the evening hours of 17 June the film Blutendes Deutschland was forbidden in Vienna. The film was running in many cinemas. The grounds for the ban was the notice that noisy incidents have occurred at a cinema screening on Friday  As far as one can hear, these manifestations are provoked by home fighters.*  Members of the Italian embassy were also invited as guests for the performance. A few days beforehand, the film was also banned in Graz, where it was initially allowed to run for eight days undisturbed.


(Note: * Heimwehrleuten —  the Austrian Heimwehr were the demobbed WWI veterans similar to the German Freikorps.)

 

 

 

 
Year
1933
 
Director
Häußler
 
Country
Germany