During WWI, on 15 March 1915, the German cruiser DRESDEN was sunk by the British in neutral waters off Valparaso, Chile, near the island of Juan Fernandez, causing a diplomatic uproar. Some sailors who survived the sinking found refuge on the island.

 Bavaria Filmkunst studios decided to make a feature film of this sinking and the survival of one of the crewmen on an isolated island, a modern day "Robinson Crusoe."  The film's plot is anti-Weimar Germany and is considered a propaganda film in support of the Third Reich.

Plot

During World War I, the German cruiser SMS Dresden is attacked by British ships off the coast of Chile. The crew manages to abandon ship before it sinks. They make their way to an isolated island where they are taken prisoner. After spending three years in custody, the sailors manage to escape and make their way back to Germany, intending to continue fighting for their Fatherland. When they arrive, however, they encounter a different Germany from the one they left behind—one where they are ridiculed and attacked by mutineers.

One of the returning crew, Carl Ohlsen (Herbert A.E. Böhme),  decides to leave Weimar Germany and make he way back to the peace and isolation of the Chlilean island. On the way to the train, on the way to emigration, Ohlsen encounters a group of Orthodox Polish Jews just arrived, who are heavily laden with luggage.  About this scene:  "Germany has fallen into the hands of foreigners. They expand in it and control it. The true patriots, however, turn their backs on their fatherland because they can no longer breathe its air. --Dorothea Hollstein,  Antisemitische Filmpropaganda.)

Ohlsen returns to the island where he had been held prisoner for three years, determined to live out the rest of his life as a modern-day Robinson Crusoe. Many years later, he hears a radio report that describes how things have improved in Germany during the 1930s. Later, when the new SMS Dresden passes the island, he makes his way to the ship and is taken aboard by his new respectful comrades, and hailed as  a hero.

The Gillespie Collection has 18 original stills for EIN ROBINSON. The film was shot on the island of Juan Fernandez in 1939/40. retelling the fate of a surviving sailor of the  DRESDEN,  who after many years of a "Robinson Crusoe" existence is discovered there by the new German Navy and returned as a hero in the Third Reich.

Amongst the stills in this Collection are 7 "behind the scenes" photos which were submitted by Bavaria Filmkunst  studios to the Berlin Reichsfilmprüfstelle censorship office on 23 April 1940 for approval, but which were forbidden public circulation.

The first photo below is one of the forbidden photos, showing the survivors of the DRESDEN with their Chilean sailor comrades on the isle of Juan Fernandez.  The second still is of the Emden's survivors on thier prison island performing as a small orchestra. The third still shown is a scene from the film itself. 

The Reichsfilmprüfstelle application submitted by Bavaria Filmkunst is also shown here.