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CURT BELLING – Head of the NSDAP Office

for Film ("Hauptstellenleiter der NSDAP

Amtsleitung Film") / Head, Press & Radio

Office.

 

 

This page is one focusing on a key individual, today virtually unknown, who played a vital role in the organisation and delivery of Third Reich propaganda films from 1933 to late into the war years. Although a few film historians may have mentioned him briefly or cited an article he wrote in the film press, he remains a man of some mystery. Whether he was a combat soldier in WWII is not known, what he did between the end of the war and the early 1950s when he resurfaced as a journalist, whether he ever married or had a family, or when and where he died, is undocumented. We hope to find his Reichsverbandes Deutscher Schriftsteller personal file and his NSDAP membership file in the Summer of 2025 to fill in more of the gaps; if these opportunities present themselves,

 

His name is Curt (not Kurt) Belling, and we know that he was born in Berlin on May 13, 1907. Our Collection has all three of his books, two of which are autographed. In the book The Film in State and Party, his
Belling Autogrammkarte.jpeginscription reads: “The belief in German film is also the belief in Germany. And I love Germany, Curt Belling, 25.9.’36.” The other book autographed is the notorious Film Kunst, Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption, which is also signed by co-author Carl Neumann. We also have two pieces of private correspondence of Belling to a female colleague and a portrait postcard of himself, also autographed (shown right). This photo postcard has printing saying Verlag "Neue Film-Hölle" which means it was printed no later than 1929, when Belling was 22 or 23 years old. The film magazine "Neue Film-Hölle" was published by Belling in 1929 and 1930.

In his book Die NSDAP und der Film bis zur Machtergreifung, Thomas Hanna-Daoud wrote this disclaimer on page 5 about his book’s sources:

The first group includes all monographs and journal articles that deal with the film activities of the NSDAP before it came to power. The first presentations on this topic were already written during the National Socialist regime. The works of Karl Neumann/Curt Belling/Hans-Walther Betz and Curt Belling deserve special mention in this context. Their importance lies in the use of eyewitness reports and the subsequent evaluation of the party's activities. However, these works are not suitable as a reflection of reality: at best they document the perspective that was held in the Third Reich.

The reason Belling is mentioned twice is that the first time a footnote refers to his co-authored book called Film-‘Kunst,’ Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption and the second footnote is for his book Der Film in Staat und Partei.  In other words, Curt Belling and his books, along various NSDAP documents and contemporary journal and newspaper articles, were the primary source of the telling of how the NSDAP established Film as a major propaganda enterprise in the twelve years of the Third Reich. (Hanna-Daoud, Thomas; Die NSDAP und der Film bis zur Machtergreifung, Böhlau Verlag, Köln, 1996; pg.5)

Hanna-Daoud states on page 18:

 

The first National Socialist-oriented film magazine probably came from Curt Belling. In 1927 he founded the anti-Semitic "Deutsche Film-Tribüne", which was later renamed "Neue Film-Hölle" and closed in 1930 after a boycott.

 

Film historian Wolfgang Becker wrote of Belling back in 1973:

Belling was undoubtedly the most active publicist in the party's film work: as the author of the relevant books on the party film, as the writer of a huge number of articles in newspapers and magazines and as a speaker at all kinds of meetings and events. The trained businessman had already become known as a film journalist before 1933, in particular through his own "fighting magazine," the first National Socialist "Deutsche Film-Tribüne" founded in 1927 (later published under the title "Neue Film-Hölle"). Due to its blatant anti-Semitic tendencies, the publication of the paper was stopped in 1930 after a widespread boycott. Belling then published - probably from 1931 - the magazine "Der Deutsche Film" † and headed the Berlin editorial departments of the "Rheinisch-Westfälische Filmzeitung" and the "Deutsche Filmzeitung" ' until he became press officer in the main film department of the RPL in 1933 and took over the main "Press and Radio" department in 1935. (Becker, Wolfgang, Film und Herrschaft, Verlag Volker Spiess, Berlin, 1973, S.253, Fn 335.)

Der Deutsche Film was published between May and December 1932. It then was superceded by the Parteiamtliche Filmzeitung. (Hanna-Daoud, pg.22).  The 1932 Der Deutsche Film should not be confused with the Reich Film Chamber's own magazine of the same name, which was published in 82 monthly (sometimes double)  issues between mid-1936 and mid-1943. Belling wrote a number of articles between 1936 and 1940 for the new DDF, which are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this article.

 

BELOW: The Central Party Propaganda Office of the NSDAP was a vast organisation, encompassing every field of culture and artistry from its Speakers Bureau to Literature, from Music to Theatre to Film, and Radio, and even to Trade Shows. Its Film Division was divided into the following departments: Dramaturgy, Organisations,, Press  & Radio Office [Belling],  Film & Technical Production,  Youth Films,  and Rentals.

BELOW: The Directory for the Third Reich's Film Offices of the NSDAP as at January 1939.  Note that Curt Belling was listed at the highest level of the Film Propaganda Department:

Filmstellen-378.jpg

 

BELOW: A front-page article "Propaganda Leaders of the Party on NS Film Work" by Belling in the Third Reich's most important "newspaper of record" for the film industry, the Film-Kurier Tageszeitung.  This article appeared on February 12, 1938 and continued on the third page.

FK-T Bellling header.jpeg

 

A contemporary doctoral thesis student, Kurt Wolf, wrote his dissertation on 'the development and redesign' of the German film industry since 1933, and his thesis stated:

In addition to Dr. Goebbels, it was, above all,  men like Carl Neumann, Karl Schulze, Arnold Raether, and Curt Belling who, through their tireless pioneering work, created the conditions for the development of a National Socialist film industry. If today we have an institution in the Reich Film Chamber which, with its tight organization and consolidation of all those involved in German film, has become a model for the establishment of similar institutions in other film countries, we must always remember the men who laboriously put together the first building blocks in difficult times so that this building could be built. (Wolf, Kurt; Entwicklung und Neugestaltung der deutschen Filmwirtschaft seit 1933. Heidelberg, Staats- u. wirtschaftswiss. Diss. v. 1. Juli 1938. 79 Seiten).

 ----

Author Norbert Aping in his excellent book Charlie Chaplin and the Nazis published in English by McFarland Press in 2024, has researched Curt Belling's pre–Third Reich background. His research found that:

On October 25, 1926, the first film reviews by Curt Belling, from 1928 editor-in-chief and publisher of the Berlin-printed “Neue Film Hölle”, appeared in the Berlin weekly newspaper “Berliner Neueste Nachrichten”. Belling in the Weimar years was a strong supporter of Charlie Chaplin, whom he wrote was "the world's best artist." (Aping, pg.392, fn.#31).

Belling's love of Chaplin continued for the remaining years leading up to the Third Reich, after which he fell into line with the Nazi mistake that Chaplin was actually Jewish. The attacks on Chaplin culminated in a 1937 book which Belling co-authored with two other important men in Third Reich film, Hans-Walther Benz and Carl Neumann. Benz was the publisher of the weekly film newspaper, Der Film, and Neumann was Belling's superior in the Propaganda Ministry. This book, Film 'Kunst,' Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption, is described by film historian and author Jan-Christopher Horak as "a Nazi tract disguised as film history." It is a vehemently anti–Semitic diatribe against the Weimar film industry which had no equal. (Horak, Jan-Christopher, Archival Spaces 344).

 

The book was highly praised, it goes without saying, by the then literature authorities. Here is a translation of a letter of the “Reich Office for the promotion of German literature” sent to all Editors of Gaufilmstellen publications across the Reich:

Reich Office for the promotion of German literature
Berlin, 29. 1. 38
Dranienburger Str. 79
Security number: 425256
REPORT FOR PUBLISHERS
Carl Neumann, Curt Belling, Hans-Walther Betz: Film-"Art". Film-Kohn, Film-Corruption. Verlag Hermann Scherping, Berlin 1937. 29185/4

The book, written in an extremely captivating manner by the three authors Carl Neumann, Curt Belling and Hans-Walther Betz and equipped with characteristic images, is in every respect a work of lasting value for German film. The authors use a wealth of facts to give a vivid picture of the decades of film in Germany. With biting irony they castigate the Jewish film industry and Jewish film dominance. Finally, the corruption of the Jewish industry in German film is being illuminated truthfully and openly. The book must open the eyes of many who still hold leading positions in the film industry today to the filth and dirt they and their "colleagues" of the time had to wade through. Based on their own experiences, the authors show the difficult situation surrounding German film and end their book with joy in the final victory of German film. The book must be a must for all filmmakers and beyond that also for those who have ever found any interest in Jewish art. It was absolutely necessary to show the decline of film during the years of the system with all clarity; however, it would be welcome not to always be satisfied with a denial of the past, but above all to present the constructive forces and paths for the future development of German film. (signed)
Dr. Melcher

BELOW, an advertisemrnt for the book in a 1938 Gaufilmstelle publication. The wording states "A new book which is of great interest for our Film Deparment Managers." A glowing  review of the book followed.

F&F book ad.jpeg

BELOW: A page from the Film-"Art," etc book. It shows a montage of film posters representing Weimar Era movies produced by Jewish directors and/or  producers. The film titles shown are: Three in a bed, Diary of a lost Soul, Hyenas of Desire, Paragraph 173 Incest, Forced Love in the Free State, Prostitution. It was widely believed by the general public at this time that Jews ran prostitution and pornography in Berlin.  These films were supposed to link such vices with the then predominately Jewish-led  film industry.

 posters Weimar copy.jpeg

Belling's film magazine was discontinued in 1931. His fortunes changed in 1933, when he was appointed to the Propaganda Ministry and the Reichspropagandaleitung, when he was just 26 years old and, without doubt, already an enthusiastic National Socialist.


Belling lived at Varzinerstrasse 4 in Berlin-Friedenau, a locality in Tempelhof-Schöneberg. The address today is a supermarket arcade, but part of the pre-war structure can still be seen at the left of the new entranceway.


He joined the Kameradschaft der Deutschen Künstler (KDDK) on October 14, 1933, which was the highly prestigious membership club for German artists and scholars that occupied a former villa of the assassinated Foreign Minister, Walter Rathenau. The honorary head of the KDDK was Dr. Goebbels. Virtually all of the Reich film directors, producers, artists, and scholars were members, as well as musicians and conductors such as the world-renowned conductor Dr. Wilhelm Fürtwangler.

 

Belling KDDK.jpeg

 

Belling was a journalist, a radio commentator, and author. The breath of his articles can be seen in the Bibliography at the end of this page. He was a member of the international jury of the Venice Film Festival for the evaluation of 16mm film entries. He participated in the International Educational Film Congress in Rome in 1934. That Congress was later subsumed into the newly reconstituted International Film Chamber under the aegis of Dr. Goebbels and Italian Propaganda Ministry Pavolini. Belling and co-author Carl Neumann both taught a seminar "War Training Course for Cinema Theater Owners" in October 1939 at the German Film Academy in Babelsberg–Potsdam.

 -----

In Belling's Der Film in Staat und Partei of 1936, his colleague Carl Neumann, Reichsamtleiter of the Propaganda Leadership, wrote the book's Foreword:

 

This work is intended to fill a gap that has always been felt in the overall work of the party's film industry. The role of a film director is so responsible that training alone is not enough; he must be given a suitable tool that is always at his side as an infallible advisor. He must make use of this tool again and again until all the details have become second nature to him. This book, "The Film in State and Party," was published by the head of the main department, Pg. Curt Belling, with the collaboration of Carlinst Graf Strachwitz, meets all the requirements that the party's film propagandists place on a resource. It is both a teaching aid and a reference work, and is also a treasure trove for the entire film industry thanks to its chronological compilation of the development of the party film departments with all the interesting details from the time of the struggle. May this book not only find its way into all party, film and service departments but also into all state and official bodies involved in the development of German film, and finally into the film industry and film artists, in order to provide information about the work of real National Socialists for our people, our fatherland and our Führer.

 

-----


In the "Memorandum of the Reich Propaganda Directorate on the need to align the film work of the NSDAP with general German film production," which was dated October 4, 1938, Belling wrote:

The development of German film production with all its branches requires - especially after almost the entire German film industry was placed under state influence - the attention to the party's film tasks and, thus, the cooperation of the NSDAP with the film industry. The interactions between the two large groups can and must be balanced out to the last propaganda, artistic, and economic extent possible through organizational measures. At first, the introduction of the culture card seemed to eliminate the opposing and parallel work of the NSDAP with the film industry resulting from the development and to lead to cooperation, but the culture card was postponed until later. a clarification of the duties of the state and private film industry in relation to the party seems urgent, because by eliminating any kind of conflict, cultural and economic misdirection will be avoided. It is not necessary to explain in more detail that the fulfilment of the task of the Reich Commissioner for the German film industry requires the alignment of the goals of the party with the tasks of the German film industry. The intended goal, therefore, requires an administrative instruction from the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to the President of the Reich Film Chamber and to the Economic Trustee of the Reich. The content of this instruction is only intended to clarify the basic and essential questions that are listed below on the basis of the views of the NSDAP, RPI, and the Reich Commissioner for the German film industry.

The Reich Propaganda Directorate of the NSDAP has received from the Führer the task of imbuing the entire people with the nationalist worldview and of realizing the Führer's cultural will is presumed by this task that the party's film work is non-profit and based on purely propaganda. In fulfilling its task, it cannot, therefore, impose any restrictions on the use of its technical means and is also required, in contrast to the film industry or commercial theater companies, to cover all locations in the Reich, regardless of the respective economic structure. Years of development have led to the party now having at its disposal an exemplary propaganda apparatus from the Gau [i.e., District] film offices that is ready for use at any time. The party's film work in the countryside has become an extremely productive and indispensable propaganda factor, which has a very important role to play in terms of state and party politics.

 ----

One of Belling's major successes was the development and reach of the Regional Film Offices, or the Gaufilmstellen. Using many hundreds of mobile cinema trucks, the organisation reached the 23% of Germans who lived in rural areas of the Altreich who had no access to a cinema. Millions had never seen a film, either silent or sound, before. The Gaufilmstelle also brought millions of Hitler Youth children feature films presented on Sunday morning in cinemas which otherwise would have been empty at that time. The first feature film shown in the so-called ‘Hitler Youth Film Hour’ was Hitlerjunge Quex in June, 1934.

 -----

Belling wrote an article in the journal Süddeutsche Monatsheft in January 1936 entitled "Personality and Organization in New German Filmmaking." We translated some paragraphs of it below:

 

During the three years of National Socialist film leadership, German film has taken on a completely different face, which distinguishes it significantly from the films of previous years and also from those of other countries.
—-
The National Socialist movement recognized the importance of film during the struggle, and the new Germany valued it as an essential expression of cultural creation. It secured the economic existence of the film industry and thus the freedom of artistic development. The preparatory work in the years 1930 to 1933, which the party film organization was able to carry out in conjunction with the National Socialist cinema ownership body it had set up, made it possible to organize all the forces working on film and its production after the film industry had been purged of unsuitable and racially alien elements. The creation of film productions rooted in the people and in popular experience, the supply of fresh energy and young talent drawing on the German spirit, ensure the further development of German film, German filmmakers and thus of German film art.
—-
The National Socialist state, the party and above all the leadership itself, gave every possible support to film. For this reason, those working in film, who are united in their professional organizations, must recognize their obligation to film and work on its development as cultural representatives in the new state. Everyone should come together to help make German film great and make it what it should be: an expression of German culture, German spirit and German artistic creation and a national, ideological basis.

 ----


Belling wrote an article on his new book on Films of the Hitler Youth in the popular weekly magazine, Filmwelt, No. 14, of April 4, 1937 and we have translated it below. The photo of Belling in uniform was printed alongside the article:


The attitude of young people towards film in literature – Thoughts on the book "Der Film in der Hitler-Jugend."

When I finished work on my first book, "The Film in State and Party" last Belling photo 600dpi.jpegsummer, it was clear to me that such an important point in the educational work of German film today, as undoubtedly the film work in the Hitler Youth represents, had to be dealt with in a self-contained work. In addition, before that, hardly any treatise had appeared outside the columns of newspapers and magazines that dealt in detail with the attitude of young people to film. Attempts of this kind had mostly got stuck in petty considerations of a criminalistic, religious or even popular educational nature and thus had to appear at least one-sided. There was no general overview of the general relationship between young people and film.

Even in the first meeting with a co-author, Bannführer der HJ Alfred Schütze, in which the content overview was created, there was complete agreement that the new book should by no means only deal with film work for and within the HJ, but that on the one hand young people and on the other, those working in and with film must be given a comprehensive outline that is enlightening and groundbreaking for both sides. The position of young people, both today and then, towards film, but especially the position of German film towards National Socialist youth, who came together in the large community of the Hitler Youth, had to be clearly defined, not from the standpoint of a group or community of interests, but viewed and evaluated from a higher perspective. A brief insight into the structure of the book proves this. The outline begins with an overview of current issues in film and with a consideration of the relationship between youth and film, including the position of young film artists and the protection of young people through film censorship. A section on national political film and its effect on schoolchildren leads to a review of "Film in the Youth Movement," which also deals with earlier youth film work. This is followed by a report on the film-making of the Hitler Youth and the Party Film Organization as organizers of youth film hours. The book ends with discussions on film as an experience and on the entire field.

The fact that it was necessary to take a fundamental stance on the demands of young people on film is demonstrated by the strong interest that existed in the book even before it was published. The reception of an artistic achievement by young people can often serve as a measure of value because young people, in particular, approach these things more with their feelings than with their reason. This is what a well-known German film actor said when he was once given the opportunity to attend a youth film lesson. The conclusion of the presentation was that every filmmaker who wants to see what impression his work makes on an unprejudiced audience should not miss the opportunity to attend a youth film lesson of the Hitler Youth. This saying proves that German film must now more than ever be geared towards the wishes and insights of a new, fresh German youth in order to win over the whole nation.

The youth should learn to understand the film - but the film, on the other hand, should also learn to understand the youth and adapt to it. The new book "The Film in the Hitler Youth" is intended to serve the internal rapprochement and alignment, which attempts to do justice to the views of both sides. Precisely because the art of film itself is young, the young generation will be at the forefront when it comes to making German film great as an expression of German art and culture. According to the foreword by Reich Office Director Carl Neumann, the book "The Film in the Hitler Youth" is intended to be another pillar in the work for Adolf Hitler's state!
– Curt Belling

 

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opfer 2 copy.jpg

 

On April 14, 1937 the confronting and horrifying 25-minute long documentary film Victims of the Past / Opfer der Vergangenheit was premiered and then ordered to be shown in every German cinema as the "short" film before the feature film. It had distasteful footage of mentally deficient patients in asylums and institutions and persons deformed by hereditary and congenital diseases, including Microcephaly. The film argued that such 'victims of the past' were unworthy of life, and that the high cost of caring for such patients was wasteful. The film strongly supported both sterilisation and euthanasia -- a logical train of thought for a regime which endorsed Darwin's Survival of the Fittest as firm racial policy. Belling wrote a long article for the Reich Film Chamber's own magazine, Der Deutsche Film, in the May 1937 issue. We have translated the entire article below:

 

FILM IN THE SERVICE OF RACE POLITICS (Der Deutsche Film, Jhrg.1, Heft 11 / Mai 1937). – Curt Belling, Reichshauptstellenleiter der NSDAP, Reichspropagandaleitung, Amtsleitung Film

 

F&F  OPFER B&W.jpg

 

"The extent to which film is suitable for providing information about the measures and plans of the state and party leadership was already discussed in detail in issue 9 of this magazine (Curt Belling, "Work for Germany in the Mirror of Film") in an article about the use of film to propagate the Four Year Plan. It was emphasized on this occasion that since the beginning of the National Socialist era in German film, i.e., from mid-1933 onwards, film was repeatedly entrusted with tasks of a political nature, which it devoted itself to conscientiously. Political propaganda films, short films, election films, newsreel scenes, and finally, those major feature films that either had political themes as their content or at least raised and answered political questions of the National Socialist worldview within the framework of the plot (“Frisians in Peril”, “Traitor”, “The Ruler”, “Togger”) have proven that film is capable of most forcefully also to show the broad masses what all the measures of the National Socialist state are about, what the state aims to achieve and where each individual citizen should contribute to support the Führer's reconstruction work. The film thus joined the front line of the decisive educational factors of our state leadership in order to do justice to the questions and objectives of the present as the most popular and popular art form of our time. The fact that it is always the party film organization with its 32 Gau film offices and its tens of thousands of film offices in all districts, local groups and bases that is at the forefront of carrying out major educational campaigns about certain measures is justified by the matter itself. It was precisely in recognition of the educational and propagandistic strength of the film that the party promoted and supported the use of film to educate the masses. Therefore, in recent years there have been repeated calls for a film that would increase the people's understanding of the public health and racial policy.

A film like this was even necessary, considering the stubbornness with which certain groups believed they had to oppose the sterilization law. It was difficult for ordinary people to recognize the importance of preventing the birth of genetically ill children for the nation as a whole and the dangers for our nation that had been eliminated by the legal measures. Newspaper articles and books on this issue, lectures on German radio and public presentations on the subject could not deepen our understanding because they had to be scientifically based, but the broad mass of our community was neutral towards the scientific explanations, if not unintelligible, then at least due to the lack of visual impression. Although these figures depicted the devastating situation, that the maintenance and feeding of genetically ill clans often cost hundreds of thousands of Reichsmarks in national assets, they did not give the lasting impression that would have been necessary to call the whole nation to action against a national danger.

Only a film aimed at the entire population could provide information about racial policy and the danger of hereditary diseases. At the suggestion of the Racial Policy Office, the Film Department of the Reich Propaganda Department of the NSDAP created an educational film entitled "Victims of the Past" (The Sin Against Blood and Race), which shows the damage that the wrong policies of the past had to cause in the question of public health and which will only slowly lose their horror after legal intervention. If one considers that if the health policy and the carelessness of the past era had continued, the German people would have contained an army of millions of mentally inferior people in the not-too-distant future, one realizes how much gratitude we owe the National Socialist leadership in this area alone.

It is therefore particularly welcome that this film is being made available to all members of the population who are even eligible to go to the cinema by initially showing it as part of the regular cinema program that will be shown in all 5300 cinemas in the German Reich, and then will reach the most remote corners and the smallest towns via the film events of the Gaufilmstellen of the NSDAP, in order to reach all members of the people and show them the dangers that threatened the German people. It is precisely because not a single film event is missed, that the film fully fulfils its role as the nation's strongest educational factor. Every German in town and country will be able to take a look inside the sanatoriums and care homes through the film and will perhaps have the opportunity for the first time to see how much misery has been brought about by false, liberal sentimentality. But he will now be able to see that only a purposeful health policy is capable of eliminating the misery of offspring with a hereditary burden.

Dr. Rudolf Frercks commented on the film itself, which was created by Gernot Bock-Stieber with the assistance of O. Schulze, A. Pennarz, and Kurt Krüger: “There is no more fitting motto and at the same time no better justification for the racial-political cultural film ‘Victims of the Past’ than the Führer’s words from ‘Mein Kampf’: ‘The national state must teach the individual through education that it is not a disgrace, but only a regrettable misfortune, to be sick and weak, but that it is a crime and therefore also a disgrace to dishonour this misfortune through one’s own egoism by burdening innocent beings with it.’ The German people will only remain strong and creative if they preserve their most valuable heritage and push back everything that could threaten and destroy this most beautiful possession. A bygone era saw its pride in being blinded by humanity to nurture and care for all weak children who cannot survive on their own.

When the narrator of the film says that preventing the birth of hereditarily ill children is a moral commandment and is the result of love for one's neighbour, the images provide the most compelling evidence of this. It is very clever that the director lets a complainer put forward the often-heard counterarguments; a young couple who have gone to the doctor to get a certificate of fitness to marry provides a genuine and convincing refutation. The doctor is shown in his new task that the present day presents him with; he has to look beyond the individual to the health of children and grandchildren; he has to be a hereditary doctor, an often difficult and responsible task. The doctor at the sickbed has often been shown on the screen, we only need to think of the films 'Pediatrician Dr. Engel', 'Doctor with a Passion', and others, but the doctor as an advisor to healthy people, as a friend and helper in building a family with a future is probably the first time. The attempt may have been risky, but it was successful. Only at a later time will we be able to appreciate the full benefits of purposeful care of hereditary and racial heritage.

If the film was now used for the first time to show all German people the important problems of our time for the health of the people so that they recognize the importance of the National Socialist racial policy for the continued existence of the people, then this is a further step in the development of the film into a friend of the people. From the entertainment and pleasure of past years, it became a forward-looking enlightenment factor of a popular political nature without being stripped of its value as an art form and cultural asset."

 

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Curt Belling stepped out of his film work to write a panegyrical article in celebration of Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday of 20 April 1939. The full-page article appeared  on 15 April 1939 (Der Film, 15.4.1939, Heft 15, 2.Beilage).

AH 50 Geburtstag BELLING copy 2.jpeg

The  entire article is translated below:

 

On April 20, 1939, the fiftieth birthday of the Führer

Adolf Hitler - the blacksmith of the Reich

By Curt Belling, Reich Head of the RPL – Office Management Film

 

With great gratitude, the thoughts and hearts of all German people are currently turned to the man in whose strong hands the fate of the people and the Reich rests: Adolf Hitler! This name embodies a nation that has found its way back from the darkness of decay into the light of unity, strength and national consciousness. This man, initially surrounded by only a few loyal followers, gave the people a new purpose in life, from the idea of ​​his spirit the new world view was formed, which is now the basic element of all creation, all action and all thought. Years of struggle, of wrestling for every German soul were crowned by that day on which the entire people called this front-line soldier to their head and thus confirmed his idea to the world as the idea of ​​all Germans.

And now an internal and external reconstruction began such as the world had never experienced before. Classes, parties and estates once again became a single, united people, with only one will to master their destiny under strong leadership. Work became the highest law if the work was to succeed. And it succeeded!

Little more than six years lie between the historic January 30, 1933 and the fiftieth birthday of the man to whom the German people owe everything - their regained honor, their strength, their salvation - and already a proud German empire stands, under whose protection and umbrella everything that was German, is German and feels German has been united. This new, proud empire is not only evident in changed maps, it is above all evident in the face, expression, attitude and constitution of every single German person. The Third Reich was forged and its blacksmith came from the people, always remained in the people and draws his strength from this eternal, German people.

What kings and emperors tried in vain to create, what Bismarck aspired to. - the private of the great war, Adolf Hitler, led the Germans of all tribes together in the Greater German Reich to form an indestructible community of fate. A "peace" treaty dictated by hatred was torn up page by page, and regions of the Reich that had been separated from the German Reich and forcibly prevented from reunification returned to the nation according to the Führer's will. The Saar region happily declared its allegiance to the Reich and returned to the motherland. The German Ostmark, Adolf Hitler's homeland, was freed and returned to the community of all Germans by his most loyal son. The Sudeten Germans, forcibly forced into a foreign state that had no right to exist and oppressed here as people of inferior value, were freed and allowed to set out on the path to the common future of the German people, side by side with their German brothers. The Memel Germans, once treacherously torn away from the entire people, are now once again proud citizens of a large, strong Reich. The German regions of Bohemia and Moravia, which have been German cultural soil for a millennium of history and are closely linked to the Reich, became part of the German people. that Greater Germany, which presents itself as a strong factor in European politics.

All of this did not happen by itself! A man with an indomitable will created the foundations for the great events of the time through hard work and trust in his people. This people were to be defenseless and dishonorable, that was what the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain wanted. But Adolf Hitler built a new defense force and thereby gave the German people their honor back. The German Wehrmacht on land, at sea and in the air became the guarantor of German freedom and European peace.

Protected by this sword of peace, the German people secured their livelihood. The farmer, no longer the embodiment of a class but an important part of the people as a whole, can now work as a free man on his own land to feed the German people. The worker does his daily work in the knowledge that the work of his hands is being done for the people and is benefiting the entire nation. German engineers, German scientists, German artists work in complete freedom under the patronage of the nation's supreme architect and consolidate the cultural reputation of the Reich through their outstanding achievements. A gigantic reconstruction project has begun, of which we are all witnesses. Buildings destined to last for centuries are under construction, an unprecedented motorway network already runs through the great Reich and will connect north and south, east and west for all time to come, German cities are receiving a completely new look adapted to the most modern findings, gigantic works are under construction, such as the Volkswagen factory in Fallersleben, the Hermann Göring Reich Works and other large-scale economic enterprises that are making Germany independent of the foreign raw materials market. German inventors, inspired by the spirit of a great German era, gave the nation materials whose quality commands respect from all over the world and thus ensure further industrial development. In the German shipyards, which seemed doomed to collapse, new ships are being built, some of them intended to carry the German worker across the seas and show him the beauties of the world. New life has arrived in all factories, offices and work communities. A nation in which 7 million people and their families were unemployed and starving just a few years ago has found its purpose in life again. Germany is working!

The law to preserve the purity of race and people, the Nuremberg Laws to protect German blood and far-reaching social measures make the people resistant to all external, foreign racial influences and thus form the basis for physical and mental selection in the German people of the future. The physical training of German youth in the organizations of the state and the party, primarily in the Hitler Youth, in the labor service, in the military service and in sports, led to great Olympic victories, and the laurels that German athletes were able to win at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin simultaneously honored the entire German people.

The noble arts developed to a high level of prosperity. The pathological nature of German art was overcome - the newly built House of German Art in Munich provides evidence of the high achievements that German painting and architecture were able to achieve under Adolf Hitler's leadership. Today, genuine German intellectual life is embodied again in the city, and German theaters and theatres are filled with a crowd eager to experience every day. The German people can also boast of having found their way back to the people. The newly built German Film Academy was founded, which will improve Germany's reputation in the world by further developing the arts. The focus of the film's plots, which are increasingly focused on the heroic nature of the German people, is once again the German people.

Social institutions such as the "Winter Relief Fund of the German People", the "NSV", "Beauty of Work", ', "Strength through Joy" and other groundbreaking initiatives for the development of creative Germans characterize the care that is provided by the state and the German people. The core group in the midst of the people, however, is the "National Socialist Germany" that Adolf Hitler once built up with a few loyal followers and that is committed to the liberation of the German people. The best from all ranks have taken the lead - in the Ordensburgs we were brought up who will one day take the fate of the nation into his hands. The party takes precedence over public and cultural life and has created something that is only possible when its members are filled with pure love for the people and by the will of the people.

In terms of foreign policy, too, a strong, united people faces the rest of the world, a people that has only allied itself with peoples of equal strength. As a bulwark for peace and as a guardian of the noble against the negative, the friendship with Italy, the Berlin-Rome axis, has proven its indestructibility on several occasions. When Benito Mussolini, the true friend of the German people, entered the capital at the side of the Führer, he must have felt that the sympathies between National Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy are equally strong and equally intense, built on mutual trust and on the camaraderie of people to people. And as with Italy, bonds of friendship also link the German people with other states that are marching in step. On April 20, the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the German Führer and leader, a proud, free people thank their best son for saving them. Supported by the love of the people, dominated by the genius of their spirit and protected by a benevolent providence, Adolf Hitler led his people on the path to the future. The millions of German people march in unison along this German path, which is a path to the light - but at their head marches the man to whom the loyalty, love and gratitude of all give the strength for his work.

 

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Belling sometimes reviewed new films in the Party's own Völkischer Beobachter  newspaper. Here is mention of his review for the Polish Campaign's (in)famous documentary film, Feldzug in Polen, as found in the German film reference book of Boguslaw Drewniak:

The first documentary film was ready after just one month: "The Campaign in Poland" [Der Feldzug in Polen].  It was produced by the DVG in conjunction with the German Weekly Newsreel on behalf of the RPL, was released by the censors on October 5, 1939, and premiered at a special screening on October 9, 1939. Soon after, it was withdrawn from distribution and sent for re-editing. The film's synopsis was the deciding factor, as was perhaps its political background: Hitler's hopes for peace with the West and its eventual fiasco. After re-editing to reflect the new political situation, the film was censored on January 27, 1940, at a length of 1981 m, and released in cinemas at the beginning of February. As Curt Belling wrote in the "Völkischer Beobachter" (February 6, 1940), no author, director, or well-known actors were needed to create such a film: "Contemporary history itself wrote the manuscript, the director was the leadership of the people and the Wehrmacht, and the main actor was the German soldier, the unknown fighter on the Eastern Front, through whose efforts it was possible to add a new page of glory to German history."  (Drewniak, Bogusław: Der deutsche Film 1938–1945. Ein Gesamtüberblick. — Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag GmbH 1987)

 

BELOW: From our Collection, the ultra–rare Gaufilmstelle poster for Feldzug in Polen with an early alternate film title. This poster is not found in any other known film archive worldwide.

 Rare FELDZUG poster.jpg

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Curt Belling's war service is not documented but he was named a 'Sonderführer K'  with the rank of Captain in the Wehrmacht. The Sonderführer brought civilian specialised skills which were uncommon but needed in the Army. In this regard Belling probably did not carry a weapon or fight but was responsible for managing film-related duties in the East. An article he signed as "Sonderführer K Curt Belling" was published in the April 1942 magazine of the Bavaria Film studios Feld Post, meant for serving employees of that studio in the armed forces. The article is translated below, and as you will see, Belling writes of  recent time spent in the Soviet Union and the Balkans as he put his thoughts down in January 1942.

 

Thoughts of a Filmmaker in the East         In the East, End of January 1942

For two and a half years, the Second World War has held our thoughts in its grip, concentrating our feelings on one thing: to persevere until the final, all-encompassing victory of the just cause. For many of us, who come from the ranks and circles of fellow countrymen who work on the cultural asset of film, these two and a half years of wartime service mean more than being torn away from our usual work rhythm in the studio, at the editing table, in the office, in the cinema or wherever we were for two years or Bavaria.jpegmore. For us, it often means being able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of German film and the film industry by looking at foreign examples outside the former borders of our empire, and later doing our own part to anchor the primacy of German film on the European film market forever, initially due to the war. It is true: the World War of 1914/18 - also at that time due to war and blockade - led to the rise and consolidation of German film production, from which the artistic and cultural heights of today's film production slowly developed - the ongoing war is securing the conquest of the world film market by German film and the emergence of a new European film production with significant German participation, as was already apparent in the agreements at the meetings of the International Film Chamber last year, much to the chagrin of film America and its Judo-British followers.

We are also following this development here out there with growing interest, as it concerns an area that is particularly dear to all of us who are committed to it. Many of us, whether we are facing the enemy with a rifle in our hand, whether we are film reporters in the propaganda companies at home trying to convey a picture of the severity of the battle, whether we are fulfilling our assigned tasks elsewhere in the German Wehrmacht or even being chosen to bring our comrades hours of joy and relaxation with the help of film, many, if not all, of those who come from the film industry will have looked with particularly watchful eyes into the film studios and cinemas of all those countries through which our war experience has already taken us. This was the case in Poland, then in Norway, in Holland - particularly in the French regions and above all in Paris, where there was a particular opportunity to gain an insight into the diversity of an extensive film industry in another major film nation, albeit one that was run according to different principles. In contrast, the observations in the Balkans, especially with regard to film, were of a different nature, as one had to recognize the now finally broken dominance of Hollywood, with all its effects on the minds of movie theater-goers, who must or had to be introduced to the world of German or pan-European film.

A chapter in itself - and not the least interesting - were the observations that we were able to make every day in the occupied and fought-over areas of the Soviet Union. Here, one must recognize where the effects of film production detached from the artistic principle and a wrongly applied nationalization of the film industry in all its areas, with the brutal elimination of any private initiative of any kind, must lead. While in the Reich, the film had been used in previous years to give our people a spiritual boost, with the Soviets, it was a means of morally and spiritually suppressing the masses, who had already been dulled by the machinations of the system, as we encounter them everywhere here. Film never found its way into culture here; it had sunk to a mere advertising tool. The same applies to the economic structure.  A look into the cinemas clearly shows that the companies were run solely by political commissars who saw no reason to make the visitors' stay comfortable or even an artistic experience.

These and similar observations could easily be made by any German soldier with a strong connection to the film industry on the outskirts of the advance routes in the north, west and south, who were then particularly delighted when - especially here in the east - a German film was suddenly announced even in remote cities. Where the hall and equipment were still in order, Soviet cinemas became German soldiers' film stages, often embellished with a little paint or a bunting; where that was not the case, portable sound film equipment was used to entertain the comrades with a new German film for at least two hours. Then you have to look into the eyes and faces of these men, who are briefly detached from the commitment of combat or service, and then approach their service with doubly great joy, still under the spell of the film experience. It will be of particular interest to the comrades of Bavaria if, for example, the film "Jenny and the Man in Tailcoats" is shown in some soldiers' cinema at the same time as the Reich premiere (as was the case with Berlin in Dnepropetrovsk). is obvious. And this was not the first time that the latest films, which had just been completed, also reached the men in the East. Especially in such an unpleasant environment, in cities whose inhabitants had deteriorated in every way that was human and humane over the last twenty years, the film image is in many ways an expression of the distant homeland. Just the image of the Frauentürme in Munich, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin or the Steffel in Vienna often triggers a joyful echo, even if only as it passes by, apart from the fact that up there on the often dirty grey "white wall" German people are speaking, German women are laughing and German artists are also acting for us here and making us forget everyday life.

Rays of hope in the landscape and spiritual desolation of the Russian winter! And out here, you only feel what a film is and how much it can mean for the individual. So we want to call out to the film artists and technicians who work for us at home, to all the comrades in the factories, to always remember that they are not only working for the people at home, not only helping to open up the world to German film, but first and foremost also speaking to the men in action, for whom their work is more than an hour of fleeting enjoyment. Here the content of a film is often discussed and debated for days, and the criticism that is made here is practiced is crude, but honest! Remember that, then every film can fulfil its most urgent task of being a mediator between home and the front! And we thank you for that!

– Special Leader K. Curt Belling

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Belling was only 38 when WWII ended. Almost nothing is known about his fate thereafter. Norbert Aping discovered that Belling wrote for film journals in 1951–1952 under the pseudonyms “Abel” or even “Belling Abel” (Aping, pp.249–250). He was living in Bonn at this time. The last known post-war mention of him is found in the journal Film-Echo, No. 89, November 7, 1956, p. 2783, in which Belling looked back on 30 years of belonging to German film and was in Turkey, where he was making preparations for a German-Turkish co-production. Whether he had a family, children, or when or where he died, and at what age, is unknown.

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The Third Reich Sourcebook by Anson Rabinbach (Author), Sander L. Gilman (Author). © 2013 UC Press, has three articles by Belling translated into English, including a selection from the notorious Film 'Kunst", Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption book.

 

Screenshot 2025-01-24 at 12.22.58.png

Below is our Curt Belling Bibliography, which has used all sources at hand from our extensive film book library and film newspaper archive. It is not comprehensive. That would take many months of sleuthing through the contemporary German publications from that era, which by and large remain unindexed. But it is a start for anyone interested in further effort.

 

Curt Belling -- Bibliography (incomplete @ January 2025)

 

BOOKS

 

Der Film in Staat und Partei, Berlin, Verlag 'Der Film' 1936
Der Film in Dienst der Partei, [Die Bedeutung d. Films als publizist. Faktor], Berlin, Licht-Bild-Bühne 1937. [This is a 50-page pamphlet.]
Der Film in der Hitlerjugend, Berlin, Limpert 1937
Film 'Kunst,' Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption, Scherping, 1937 [co-authored with Carl Neumann and Hans-Walther Betz]

 

ARTICLES

 

'Käsemann führt vor' Licht-Bild-Bühne, [unknown day], 7.1932
'Der deutsche Film, wie es war und wie es sein wird,' Film–Kurier Tageszeitung, 16.8.1933, Heft 191, S.6
'Die Umorganization der Parteifilmstellen,' Licht-Bild-Bühne, 22.6.1934
[Article heading unknown], Licht-Bild-Bühne, 29.6. 1934, on how the medium film can have the highest influence for the NSDAP.
'Kintopp – Volkstheater.' In: Nationalsozialistische Parteikorrespondenz, Nr. 119, 23.5.1935.
'Die Filmarbeit der NSDAP;' Der Deutsche Film, RFK, Heft 9, Februar 1936
'Der deutsche Film in der Gegenwart', Der Film Zeitung, 10.10.1936
Artikel - Belling ist 'Zuständig für Presse und Funk in der Amtsleitung Film der NSDAP,,' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, Nr. 280, 30.11.1936
'Die Bedeutung der Parteifilmstellen,' Licht-Bild-Bühne, 2.12.1936
'Parteifilm – wichtigste Propagandawaffe,' Der Film Zeitung, 19.12.1936
'Der Film im Dienst des Vierjahrplans,' Völkischer Beobachter 17. 1.1937
'Vier Jahre nationalsozialistischer Film,' Völkischer Beobachter, 2.2.1937
'Der Tonfilm kommt ins Dorf,' Der Deutsche Film, RFK, Heft 8, Februar 1937
'Arbeit für Deutschland - im Spiegel des Films,' Der Deutsche Film, RFK, Heft 9, März 1937
'Der Film und der Jugend,' Der Deutsche Film, RFK, Heft 10, April 1937
'Die Stellung der Jugend zum Film in der Literatur,' Filmwelt, 4.4.1937
'Der Film im Dienste der Rassenpolitik,' Der Deutsche Fum, RFK, 1.Jhrg, Heft 11, Mai 1937
‚Die Ergebnisse von Venedig,‘ Film & Foto –Nachrichtenblatt der NSDAP Gaufilmstelle Sachsen, Jhrg.2, Heft 10, Oktober 1937, Dresden
'Personlichkeit und Organization im neuen Deutschen Filmschaffen,' Süddeustche Monatsheft, 33 Jhrg; Heft 4, Januar 1938
'Der Aufbau der Filmorganization der NSDAP, Teil 1,' Mein Film in Wien, 20.5.1937
'Der Aufbau der Filmorganization der NSDAP, Teil 2,' Mein Film in Wien, 27.5.1937
'Über 100 Millionen Deutsche in den Parteifilmveranstaltungen,' Der Deutsche Film, Heft 12, Juni 1937
‚Film und Nationalsozialismus’ Der Autor, Juli 1937
'Ein Wort über Verhältnis zwischen Filmwirtschaft und Gaufilmstellen. Film-Echo, Jhrg.1937/38, Nr.10, S.133-135.
'Die Arbeit einer Gaufilmstelle im Spiegel der Presse,‘ Der Film Zeitung, 1938, Nr.3, Beil. 2.
'Eindreiviertel Millionen Meter Film belichtet. Der Film im Wahleinsatz –Gaufilmstellenwagen in Österreich.' Der Film Zeitung, 1938, Nr.19, Beil.2
'Propagandaleiter der Partei über die nat.–soz. Filmarbeit. Der Film als politisches Führungsmittel unserer Zeit.' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 12.2.1938, S.1 u.3.
'Sinn und Bedeutung der publizistisches Filmarbeit,' Mein Film in Wien, 1938, Nr.644, S.6–7
'Soldaten der Filmpropaganda,' Unser Wille und Weg, Jhrg.8, 1938, Heft 4, S.27–29.
'Der Verhältnis zwischen Filmwirtschaft und Gaufilmstellen. Aktivierung des Filmbesuches ist staatpolitische Notwendigkeit,' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 1938, Nr. 59, S.1–2
'Tonfilmwagen der Gaufilmstellen auf! Propagandafahrt durch Österreich,' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 1938, Nr. 94, S.3
'Ein Drittel der Hollywood-Stars sind Juden,' Der Angriff, 22.11.1938
'Die Filmarbeit der Partei im Jahre 1938,' Licht-Bild-Bühne, 27.12.1938
'Die Stoßtrupps des deutschen Films' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, Nr.53, 1938, Beilage.
'Curt Belling spricht in München' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 14.4.1939
‚Adolf Hitler – des Reiches Smied. Zum 20.April 1939, dem fünfzigsten Geburtstag des Führers, Der Film, 15. April 1939, Heft 15, 2. Beilage
'Ansprachen con Curt Belling,' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 21.4.1939
‚Ein Blick in Amerikas Filmmetropole’ Partei & Film, Gaupropaganda-Leitung, Hauptstelle Film, Gau Hessen-Nassau, Mai 1939, 2. Jhrg. Heft 5, Frankfurt/Main
‚Die Juden von Hollywood,’ Film-Nachrichten der Gaufilmstelle Westfalen-Nord, Nr.4, Mai 1939, Münster [different title to the ‚Ein Blick in Amerikas Filmmetrople’ of the preceding, same article. Also in Licht-Bild-Bühne of 11.04.1939.]
'Reichshauptstellenleiter Curt Belling,' Film-Kurier Tageszeitung, 5 .8.1939
'Politische Betreuung durch den Film' Der Deutsche Film, RFK, Heft 9, März 1940
'DER FELDZUG INPOLEN,' Völkischer Beobachter, 6.2.1940
‘Geschichte de Dt. Wochenschau’ Artikel (exact title unknown), Film-Kurier Tageszeituing, 2.7.1940
‚Der Frontkino –im Weltkrieg und Heute,‘ Film 42,
'STUKAS – Karl Ritters neue Fliegerfilm – Ufa Palast-am-Zoo,' Völkischer Beobachter, 29.6.1941
‚Gedanken eines Filmmannes im Osten,’Bavaria-Feldpost, Heft 4, April 1942, S. 6.

 


SOURCES used in this piece of Belling:

ARCHIVES


Die Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin (correspondence)
Bundesarchiv- Filmarchiv (NS5–VI/17526 Bd. 18 ‚Bei-Ben‘, 1927-1941
The William Gillespie Collection, Sydney (all periodicals) and our Belling Collection
German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University, USA
PhD Thesis: Choy, Yong Chan; Inszenierungen der völkischer Filmkultur im Nationalsozialismus – ‚Der Internationale Filmkongress Berlin 1945.‘ Technischen Universität, Berlin 2006 (Internet PDF download).

ARTICLES


Hochcherf, Tobias u. Vande Winkel, Roel; „Third Reich Cinema and Film Theory,” The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, Vol.36, #2, pp.190-213

BOOKS


Aping, Norbert; Charlie Chaplin and the Nazis, McFarland, North Carolina 2024
Becker, Wolfgang, Film und Herrschaft, Verlag Volker Spiess, Belrin 1973
Bredow, Wilfried u. Zurek, Rolf; Film und Gesellschaft in Deutschland, Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1975
Drewniak, Bogusław: Der deutsche Film 1938–1945. Ein Gesamtüberblick. — Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag GmbH 1987
KDDK Mitglieder Verzeichnis, Herausgegeben im August 1940, Berlin W35
Hanna-Daoud, Thomas; Die NSDAP und der Film bis zur Machtergreifung, Böhlau Verlag, Köln, 1996
Moltmann, Günther u. Reimann, Karl Friedrich; Zeitgeschichte im Film und Tondokument, Musterschmidt-Verlag, Göttingen, 1970

 

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