Karl Ritter's Patrioten (1937) was a WWI war film love story centering around a French actress (Lida Baarova) and a German Luftwaffe officer (Mathias Weiman) who crashes behind enemy lines and survives, and then disguises himself off as French; as he speaks the language fluently. He is eventually found out, betrayed, charged with espionage, but the actress testifies at his court martial and he is spared the death penalty and is led away from court as a POW.

The brochure below was issued for the film's premiere at the 1937 Venice Film Festival. The film also was entered at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition and won a gold medal from France for its storyline and direction. After tensions rose in 1938 with the Anschluß, the film was banned in France, and was in fact eventually banned in Nazi Germany as well – Germany's new foes were no longer honourable, but evil and cunning, as shown in many of the films depicted in our Collection's posters (Ohm Krüger, Feinde, Über alles in der Welt, GPU, etc, etc.....)