The Rothschilds (film)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Rothschilds
Directed by
UFA
Distributed byUFA
Release date
  • 17 July 1940 (1940-07-17)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryNazi Germany
LanguageGerman

The Rothschilds (Die Rothschilds) is a 1940 Nazi German historical propaganda film directed by Erich Waschneck.

The film is also known as The Rothschilds' Shares in Waterloo (International recut version, English title). It portrays the role of the

Jud Süss was a drama based on a 1934 film adaptation of a 1925 novel
.

Plot summary

As William I, Elector of Hesse refused to join the French supporting Confederation of the Rhine at its formation in 1806, he is threatened by Napoleon. In Frankfurt, he asks his agent Mayer Amschel Rothschild to convey bonds worth £600,000 he has received from Britain to subsidise his army to safety in England.

Rothschild however uses the money for his own ends, with the help of his sons, Nathan Rothschild in London and James Rothschild in Paris. They first use the money to finance Wellington's army in Spain's war against Napoleon, at advantageous terms of interest. In a notable coup, in 1815, Nathan spreads the rumour that Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo, causing London stock prices to collapse. He then bought a large quantity of equities at the bottom of the market, profiting handsomely as prices rose once the truth about the battle emerged. In a decade, the Rothschilds have accumulated a fortune of £11 million by using the Elector's money.

Nathan returns the original capital to the Elector, plus only a small amount of interest, keeping the great bulk of the profits for the Rothschilds, and plans to formalise a Europe wide network of family led financial institutions.

The film ends with a declaration that, as the film is released, the last Rothschild has left continental Europe as a refugee and the next target is England's plutocracy.

Cast

Production

Goebbels ordered the beginning of the production on 17 November 1938.[2]

Background

Joseph Goebbels

Adolf Hitler believed that film was a potent tool for molding public opinion and the

Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels took an interest in using film to promote their philosophy and agenda and insisted that the role of the German cinema was the "vanguard of the Nazi military".[3]

The Nazis had hoped for a surge in

Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), Goebbels preferred a more subtle approach of couching such messages in an engaging story with popular appeal.[4]

Saul Friedländer suggests that Goebbels' intent was to counter three films whose messages attacked the persecution of Jews throughout history by producing violently antisemitic versions of those films with identical titles.[5]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7864-9206-0
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-8264-7390-5
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-520-25790-0
    . Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  4. ISBN 978-1-58648-357-9
    . Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  5. ISBN 978-0-06-093048-6
    . Retrieved 11 November 2011.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Rothschilds_(film)&oldid=1201743448"