Back to the Roots
MUNICH/TORONTO (Own report) On Tuesday the German film ,,The Downfall"receives its international premiere at the Toronto film festival. This evening-long feature film portrays the last days of the late German Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in the ,,Fuehrer Bunker"in Berlin. According to the German liberal press, ,,a tragedy"occurred there in 1945 which evokes ,,sympathy"for this new depiction of Hitler; the press compares this mass murderer with heroic figures of German history. Publicly funded television (ARD 1st Programme) part-financed the production with millions of euros and will show the feature film on prime-time TV. The German premiere will take place a few days before two important elections in which neo-Nazis and right wing extremists are already predicted to take up to nine per cent of the vote. ARD 1st Programme was successful in promoting a mass assault on the cinemas by thorough publicity in TV reports. Strong protests were announced against this historical revision by ARD through the media.
The nominal producer of the feature film, which is causing concern in the international publicity 1), is the private firm, Constantin Film AG of Munich. This firm is under majority control by a German-Swiss investment company, Highlight Communications, which forecasts an increased turnover to the year end of 420 million Swiss francs. The box office success of the Hitler film plays a prominent part in this calculation.
Self-confidence
Close connections exist between Highlight, Constantin and two publicly funded TV stations. The Chairman of Constantin's board is the former head of entertainment in the second German TV station (ZDF). The long-serving head of drama at ARD, Guenter Rohrbach is a member of Constantin's supervisory board. It was he who was responsible for producing ,,Das Boot"(The Submarine). This lavish production too was set in the Hitler era, was distributed to cinemas by Constantin-Film and televised by ARD as a long-running series which played for sympathy with the Nazis. Critics judged that the film ,,neither reflected the political situation of the second World War, nor distanced itself sufficiently from the waging of that war". 2)This ARD/Rohrbach production was a milestone in the historical revision of history by the media in Germany. 3)Since October 2003 Rohrbach, a member of Constantin's board, has also been president of the semi-official German Film Academy. At a short meeting with Rohrbach, the Culture Minister in the German Federal Chancelry, said that the German film industry could rejoice in its ,,new-found self confidence". 4)
Amnesia
In contrast with the millions spent by ARD on this documentary drama, arousing sympathy for the guilty men of National Socialism, only miserly sums have been forthcoming for reports on the victims of Nazi mass murder. Budgets and transmission slots for these are continually reduced by ARD. Even sixty years after the war, none of the ARD stations reported comprehensively on the mass atrocities which took place in the areas covered by their reporters. So there have hardly been sufficient TV programmes about the Nazi murders, plundering and expropriation campaigns in Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland. North German Radion (NDR/ARD) is responsible for reporting in this area. Yet they have editorial responsiblilty for the Hitler movie now showing (Editor: Doris Henze). To this day Bavarian Radio (BR/ARD) has not succeeded in adequatly presenting Nazi atrocities (in prime time and at length) which occurred in the area covered by its reporters - Italy, Greece and former Yugoslavia.
Cross-party control
The same is true of Midland German Radio (MDR/ARD) which covers the Czech Republic and SLovakia. When he was head of production in West German Radio (WDR/ARD) Guenter Rohrbach, supervisory director of the Hitler film production, prevented the showing of a film concerning Nazi crimes in military justice. 5)Nazi atrocities, indisputably in the transmission area of this programme, have neither been presented comprehensively in documentaries nor in dramatised series. Murders of British, American and Canadian prisoners of war took place on the Western front. Pressure by the editorial staff was frustrated by the reallocation of finances which favoured wealthy production companies like Highlight Communications. The programme policy of West German Radio (WDR) and the other ARD programmes is supervised by a cross-party coalition of all the major German political parties. These are: the Socialist Party (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens, the Free democrats (FDP), the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their allies the Bavarian Christian SOcial Union (CSU).
Timing
A few days before elections in the German provinces of Brandenburg, Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia, protests against the Hitler film were announced. In Wuerzburg there was a call for demonstrations outside the cinema because the film ,,played down"the atrocities of the Nazi regime ,,even if it was not overtly pro-fascist". 6)As several German opinion polls have reported, the pro-fascists are likely to achieve support of up to nine per cent in the elections next Sunday. 7)Observers of the German film industry commend the promotion strategy of the Hitler film for its well-judged timing. They estimate that it will increase the market share of Constantin from its present fourteen per cent to around eighteen per cent and bring the turnover of Highlight COmmunications above 420 million Swiss francs.
see also Heroes
1) Germany breaks the Hitler taboo; The Daily Telegraph 24.08.2004. German film breaks Hitler taboo; China Daily 26.08.2004
2) film-dienst 25/1997
3) see also Resurrecting Prussia on German TV
4) Kulturstaatsministerin Christina Weiss begruesst Gruendung der Deutschen Filmakademie; Presse-und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung 09.09.2003
5) Nagewirkung. Warum die Filbinger-Geschichte ,,kein Stoff"fuer einen Film ist; konkret 7/1979
6) www.attac.de/wuerzburg
7) ZDF-Politbarometer 10.09.2004