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Pour le Mérite (film)

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Pour le Mérite
Film poster
Directed byKarl Ritter
Written byFred Hildenbrandt
Karl Ritter
Produced byKarl Ritter
StarringPaul Hartmann
Herbert A.E. Böhme
Albert Hehn
Paul Otto
Fritz Kampers
CinematographyGünther Anders
Heinz von Jaworsky (aerial photography)
Edited byGottfried Ritter
Music byHerbert Windt
Otto Dobrindt (music editor)
Production
company
Universum Film (UFA)
Distributed byUfa Film Company (USA)
Release date
  • 22 December 1938 (1938-12-22)
(Germany)
Running time
121 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)
Budget1.076 million ℛℳ
Box office3.7 million ℛℳ

Pour le Mérite (original title in French, lit. For Merit) is a 1938 propaganda film produced and directed by Karl Ritter for Nazi Germany.[N 1] The film follows the story of officers of the Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Force) in the First World War who were later involved in the formation of the Luftwaffe.[2] Pour le Mérite propagates the "stab legend", which consigns the German military defeat in World War I to an alleged treason in the homeland. At the same time, Ritter also glorifies the former fighter pilots as heroes of National Socialism.[3]

Plot

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In 1918, the German pilot Lieutenant Fabian, along with his fiancée Gerda learn that he has been awarded the Order of Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"), Germany's highest award for valor. The next morning, Fabian and Jagdgeschwader 1 (the "Flying Circus" of Manfred von Richthofen) is ordered back to the front.

On the Western Front, Fabian and other officers of the squadron continue the aerial fight. Their commanding officer, Captain Prank, returns from homeland with the news that a revolution has broken out in Germany. Prank and his men fly their aircraft back to Germany, but the squadron becomes involved in disputes with the local workers and soldiers. With the squadron's aircraft destroyed, the pilots and the crew surrender, and only Moebius seemingly disapproves.

The former officers successfully find postwar work in civilian occupations, but, Prank cannot cope. Moebius suddenly reappears and takes Prank and his wife, Isabel, to his estate, where Moebius has hidden his former warplane. He plans to start a flying school, but a communist group attacks, and his aircraft is destroyed. During the attack, Isabel is killed. Prank is arrested, and when Moebius fails in a rescue attempt, an embittered Prank serves out his sentence and then goes abroad.

After 1933, a wave of National Socialism flows in Germany with the Nazi regime attracting the discontented former officers of Jagdgeschwader 1, all of whom hold the coveted Pour le Mérite award. They have continued to keep in touch and developed a strong camaraderie. At one point, the men take to the streets to fight the communists and are arrested.

In 1935, Nazi Germany restores a new Luftwaffe and invites former officers to return. Fabian, Gerdes and Moebius, convince Prank to come back to Germany, where the latter gets appointed as the commanding officer of a new fighter squadron.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, a former commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, visits the squadron as it equips with the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft.

Cast

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Production

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Pour le Mérite was produced and distributed by the UFA.[4] Karl Ritter directed and co-write the film with Fred Hildenbrandt.[5] It cost 1,076,000 ℛℳ (equivalent to $4,805,498 in 2021) to produce.[6]

Release

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The film was approved by the censors on 7 December 1938, and premiered on 22 December.[7] It earned 3.7 million ℛℳ (equivalent to $16,524,484 in 2021) at the box office for a profit of 1,937,000 ℛℳ (equivalent to $8,120,766 in 2021).[6]

After the end of the Second World War, the High Command of the Allied victorious powers prohibited the screening of Pour le Mérite. Today, the evaluation rights are held by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, which sanctions the screening of the film only in the context of special educational events.[4]

Reception

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Aviation film historian Bertil Skogsberg in Wings on the Screen: A Pictorial History of Air Movies (1987) characterized Pour le Mérite as "... notwithstanding its palpably Nazi undertones, can be regarded as a technically good film about flying." Further, he stated, "The film was permeated with patriotic fervor and, in spite of the glorification of the Nazi cause, it compelled the spectator's attention. Paul Hartmann was magnificent as the squadron leader, and he received much assistance from the other "flyers", Albert Hehn, Fritz Kampers and Herbert A.E. Böhme."[8]

References

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  1. ^ Pendo 1985, p. 244.
  2. ^ Farmer 1984, p. 324.
  3. ^ Paris 1995, p. 44.
  4. ^ a b Leiser 1976, p. 45.
  5. ^ Welch 1983, pp. 276.
  6. ^ a b Welch 1983, pp. 269.
  7. ^ Welch 1983, pp. 161.
  8. ^ Skogsberg 1987, p. 28.

Notes

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  1. ^ Karl Ritter had been a fighter pilot in World War I.[1]

Works cited

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  • Welch, David (1983). Propaganda and the German Cinema: 1933-1945. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781860645204.

Bibliography

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  • Farmer, James H. Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. ISBN 978-0-83062-374-7.
  • Leiser, Erwin. Germany Awake!: Propaganda in Third Reich Films. Hamburg: Rowohlt, Reinbek, 1976. ISBN 978-3-49910-783-2.
  • Paris, Michael. From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-7190-4074-0.
  • Pendo, Stephen. Aviation in the Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. ISBN 0-8-1081-746-2.
  • Skogsberg, Bertil. Wings on the Screen: A Pictorial History of Air Movies. London: Tantivy Press, 1987. ISBN 0-498-02495-4.
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