Prussian film
Prussian films were a cycle of
Origins
While there were Prussian-themed films as far back as 1912–1913, the breakthrough came with the release in 1922 of the first two parts of the Fridericus Rex series featuring Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great. Two further parts were released in 1923.[2] The success of Fridericus Rex cemented the popularity of the genre and many similar films were produced in following years. Otto Gebühr became closely associated with Frederick and played him numerous times in both the Weimar and Nazi periods.
The boom in Prussian films came shortly after the end of the
End
Following the collapse of the Nazi regime and the Allied Occupation of Germany in 1945, strict rules were enacted concerning German films and any perceived promotion of German ultra-nationalism which might lead to a revival of Nazism was outlawed. This effectively ended the cycle of "Prussian films", although films set in the Prussian-era continued.
Selected films
Frederick the Great
- Fridericus Rex (1922-1923)
- The Mill at Sanssouci (1926)
- The Old Fritz (1928)
- The Flute Concert of Sanssouci (1930)
- The Dancer of Sanssouci (1932)
- The Hymn of Leuthen (1933)
- Heiteres und Ernstes um den großen König (1936)
- Fridericus (1937)
- Das schöne Fräulein Schragg 1937
- The Great King (1942)
Napoleonic Wars
- The Eleven Schill Officers (1926)
- Prinz Louis Ferdinand (1927)
- Lützow's Wild Hunt (1927)
- Waterloo (1929)
- The Last Company (1930)
- Luise, Königin von Preußen (1931)
- Yorck (1931)
- Marshal Forwards (1932)
- The Eleven Schill Officers (1932)
- Kolberg (1945)
- A Handful of Heroes (1967)
German Empire
- Bismarck 1862–1898 (1927)
- Bismarck (1940)
Other
- The Roedern Affair (1944)
References
Bibliography
- Bergfelder, Tim & Harris, Sue & Street, Sarah. Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination: Set Design in 1930s European Cinema. Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
- Elsaesser, Thomas. Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary. Routledge, 2000.
- Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. Routledge, 2002.
- Kreimeier, Klaus. The UFA Story: A Story of Germany's Greatest Film Company 1918-1945. University of California Press, 1999.
- Murray, Bruce Arthur & Wickham, Chris. Framing the Past: The Historiography of German Cinema and Television. SIU Press, 1992.