For my mother.
„We made films while
trying to give justice
to the newly designed
fundamentals of the
National Socialist State.”1
____________________
1 Reichsfilmkammer (Film Chamber of the Reich) (Ed.): Jahrbuch der Reichsfilmkammer (Annual of the Film Chamber of the Reich) 1937, page 8
Fig. 1.
Fig.2.
1. Introduction: Why yet another Titanic book?
2. TITANIC: The storyline
3. The propaganda film: An instrument for disseminating political concepts?
4. The sinking of the Titanic
4.1 Material just made for a propaganda film?
4.2 Why did the Nazis want a film about the Titanic?
5. A tough job: The script of 1941
5.1 The role of the author Josef Pelz von Felinau
5.2 The script from 1941
5.3 The novel, screen-play and rendering of the contents
6. The filming of TITANIC
6.1 Preparations
6.2 A model for TITANIC
6.3 On board the Cap Arcona
6.4 Interview with extra Gerda Kinski
7. Director Herbert Selpin and TITANIC
7.1 Selpins political lapse
7.2 The end of Herbert Selpin
7.3 The new director
8. TITANIC under scrutiny
8.1 Three central movie characters in focus
8.2 Mistakes in TITANIC
9. Evaluation of TITANIC after filming
9.1 The prohibition of TITANIC in the Third Reich
9.2 Declassification of TITANIC after the War
9.2.1 In the Federal Republic of Germany
9.2.2 In the German Democratic Republic
9.3 Evaluation of the declassifications
10. TITANIC in comparison
10.1 “A night to remember” (1958) by Roy Ward Baker
10.2 “TITANIC” (1997) by James Cameron
11. An outlook
12. Film infos
13. Sources and bibliography
14. Photo credits
15. Appendix
15.1 Acknowledgements
15.2 The Titanic Society introduces itself
If you start talking about a Titanic film2, a listener of our times will – without a fail - think of the most recent film made in Hollywood, which debuted in German cinemas on the 8th of January, 1998. The massive, in particular fiscal success of the blockbuster has made the general public forget, that James Cameron merely got in line with various other directors, who, shortly after the sinking of the Titanic tried capturing the truly cinematic story of the – even to this day - most famous ship in the world on screen.3
This book now is not precisely dedicated to this Titanic film, but rather scrutinizes a German screening from 1942. Many people, especially young folks are unaware of Herbert Selpin’s German version. However, Selpin did not enter unknown territory when starting off with the material. Already a few weeks after the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 there was a film about it in the cinemas. The German production “In Nacht und Eis” (“At Night in Ice”) is a 30 minute long silent movie produced by Continental Studios in Berlin, which is considered the first German movie about the sinking of the Titanic.4
Towards the end of 1930, Tobis-Filmkunst Ltd5 in Berlin had the idea to bring the story of the Titanic into the cinemas once again. In the meantime the political landscape in the German Reich had developed as such, that the 30th anniversary of the sinking would be an adequate opportunity to sneak anti-British doctrines into a seemingly objective film, something which the Nazi propaganda machine would not want to miss out on.6
By providing answers to these questions the book enters completely new territory. Up to this publication there has been no detailed work about the film TITANIC. Merely two authors of monographs out of the theme section TITANIC, Simon Mills7 and Harro Hess8, mention the film at all, detailed to some extent. Both works use the term propaganda film for categorization – without giving reasons for this classification. The look into relevant specialist literature however does not mention TITANIC.9
In order to clarify, if TITANIC is a propaganda film or not, this book starts initially with looking at the term propaganda film and investigates its usefulness as an instrument for disseminating political concepts. In this context the role of the Propaganda Ministry and the Film Chamber of the Reich will be explored, followed by a synopsis of the story. Then it will become obvious why the Titanic story was made into a movie by Tobis and which intention stood behind it. By working out the role of the author Josef Pelz von Felinau and debating his novel “Titanic – tragedy of an ocean liner” from 1936, deviations from the TITANIC screenplay become apparent, showing how much propaganda there really is in TITANIC.
Furthermore the book is looking at the plot under consideration of these leading questions. It is about pointing out mistakes in the film as well as trying to find out, if the deviations from historical truth might simply be down to lack of knowledge or possibly represents conscious perversions in the sense of propaganda.
Particularly appealing while writing the book was the interpretation of the film and equally the collection of a detailed account of the making. I literally stumbled over the end of production and the up to now not entirely explained circumstances of the death of director Herbert Selpin, often described in film literature as the “Selpin affair”.10 Vision has to be focused too onto the film critics and the procedures of prohibition, which were already started by Goebbels after the called-off premiere in 1943 and continued by the Allied Forces in the Western zones after the War. Because the fact, that on 30th of April, 1943 the film was initially awarded with the rating “of great political value for the State” by the so-called Movie Examination Board, but was then, on 5th of December 1944, prohibited by the Reichsfilmintendanz (Commissariat Reich Office for Films) by orders of the Propaganda Minister himself, needs looking at.
Hence the question suggests itself, why a reputed propaganda film, up to then actively supported by many institutions of the NS state – as will be ascertained by this book – was then, after its finalization – prohibited.
This book is mainly based on primary sources, due to the fact that the secondary literature regarding TITANIC is only sparsely to be found. A very distinctive primary source is the, up to the point of research for this book, still nearly undiscovered first raw manuscript of the screen-play (a so-called treatment) being stored in the archive of today’s University for Film and Television in Berlin-Babelsberg.11 Interesting in this context as well, the role of the author Josef Pelz von Felinau, whose cooperation with TITANIC was always stated by his widow and is – how this book is going to prove – semantically being quite imaginable, but could not be plumped out with evidence so far.
Alongside the screen-play there are contemporary film magazines and daily papers functioning as sources as well as the private collection of the author, the archives from Günter Bäbler (Switzerland) and the University of Film and Television in Berlin-Babelsberg.
Particularly invaluable was accompanying material of the film from the different filming times. It is hard to get by these sorts of sources, as they are not collected and archived by scientific libraries. That they could however be utilized is down to the fact, that the author collected them during the past few years and thus they are now in his possession. Gaps in this collection were filled by Günter Bäbler.
The present book investigates on the following pages for the first time ever in a scientific way TITANIC in regards to its propagandistic objectives, means and effect. All sources are freely laid open and theses justified by facts, so that every reader of this book is able to get his own idea. This book’s first edition is published in Spring 2012 –exactly 100 years after the first and last trip of the Titanic in April 1912. The paradox being, it was the sinking of the ship, which has made it unforgotten up to this day. Hundreds of books were published around this story, and there will be more in the next few months. Until the publication of this book there was not a single one in the World dedicated to TITANIC (1943) – and this gap is now closed!
Malte Fiebing in March 2012
Fig. 3: Officer Petersen talks to worried shareholders of the White Star Line on board the Titanic.
Fig. 4: Jan is flirting with Heidi, who overthrows her plans and turns her fiancé at home down.
Fig. 5: Captain Smith steers his ship undeterred with far too high speed across the Atlantic.
Fig. 6: Passengers waiting for the lifeboats to be lowered.
Fig. 7: Officer Murdoch orders radio operator Philipps to send SOS.
Fig. 8: Sigrid Olynski and Officer Petersen have entered a boat.
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2 In this book Titanic is spelt in italic, if the ship herself is meant. TITANIC in capital letters refers to the German movie from 1943, if not indicated differently.
3 In reality Cameron’s film was already the 8th screen adaptation, if you count TV productions as well.
4 Cf. Mills, Simon: The Titanic in pictures, Buckinghamshire 1995, page 10.
5 The still existing renting company of the same name „Tobis Film GmbH & Co. KG” has got nothing to do with the Tobis Group under the National Socialist Regime. See: Distelmeyer, Jan: Tonfilmfrieden – Tonfilmkrieg. Die Geschichte der Tobis vom Technik-Syndikat zum Staatskonzern, Munich 2003.
6 Cf. Hess, Harro / Hessel, Manfred: Titanic: Zwei Gesichter einer Katastrophe, Berlin 1992, page 174.
7 Cf. Mills, Simon: The Titanic in pictures, Buckinghamshire 1995.
8 Cf. Hess, Harro / Hessel, Manfred: Titanic. Zwei Gesichter einer Katastrophe, Berlin 1992.
9 Cf. Fox, Jo: Film propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany: World War II cinema, Oxford 2007.
10 Beyer, Friedmann: Der Fall Selpin. Chronik einer Denunziation, Munich 2011.
11 Unfortunately it cannot be dated exactly. The fact that it is a treatment can be evidenced by the explicit naming as such on the cover. Thus it will have been produced in the Mid Forties, presumably during 1941. In this works contents are listed from the screen play called “Titanic: Die Tragödie eines Ozeanriesen. Nach dem gleichnamigen Roman von Josef Pelz von Felinau, Rohdrehbuch zu einem Film der Tobis Filmkunst GmbH, Berlin ~ 1941” (“Titanic: Tragedy of an Ocean Giant. After the identically named novel of Josef Pelz von Felinau, raw script to a film of Tobis Filmkunst Ltd., Berlin ~ 1941”).
The film starts in spring 1912: There is a nervous atmosphere in the Executive Board meeting of the White Star Line12. Chairman Sir Bruce Ismay (Ernst F. Fürbringer) explains the drastic fall of stocks and shares of the shipping company: building the Titanic required vast amounts of funds. Ismay however announces a sensational U-turn at the stock market and invites the Board members to take part in the maiden voyage to America.
When the biggest ship in the world sets sail there are representatives of the Aristocracy as well as of the moneyed nobility on board, looking forward to this big event with great excitement. The tween deck is packed with emigrants and adventurers from all over Europe, who want to try their luck in the “New World”.
In the ballroom seated next to Captain Smith (Otto Wernicke) is chairman Ismay and his beautiful girlfriend Gloria (Kirsten Heiberg). Further big names are: millionaire John Jakob Astor (Karl Schönbock)13 and his mistress Madeleine (Charlotte Thiele). Astor - according to the film – is so rich he could buy the Titanic for Madeleine as a birthday present. Confident of victory Ismay announces proudly: It was sufficiently proven by the English experts14, that the Titanic was the safest ship in the world. But what nobody knew as yet was that she was also the fastest ship in the world and just broke the world record with a speed of 26.5 knots.
Fig. 9: John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeleine enter the big ballroom over the flight of stairs and so become talk of the night. Just as in TITANIC, James Cameron uses many years later the great flight of stairs in his Titanic film to introduce the characters.
Thus the shipping company secured the “Blue Ribbon”, the award for the fastest ship in the North Atlantic. So that was the big surprise Ismay had promised in the Board meeting! This record journey should push the stocks upwards again and rehabilitate the White Star Line’s finances.
The engineers however were sceptical towards this chase for the record. It seemed irresponsible to overstrain the new engines. But orders are orders. The Captain was made compliant by a high amount of money rewarded by Ismay. Only Officer Petersen (Hans Nielsen), the only German on the command bridge, cannot comprehend that the Captain overrides all rules of shipping for the interests of a speculator. But he is in no position of power and has to obey.
Also on board as well is the beautiful Baltic Sigrid Olinsky (Sybille Schmitz). She is said to be very wealthy. Petersen knows her from earlier trips and is under her spell. But again is he resisting all trials through his steadfastness and sense of duty as an Officer.
The good mood is disturbed by a telegram in the middle of the festivities, informing the owner of the ship about a further fall on the stock market. He already envisages his complete and utter ruin. He does not know yet, that it is Astor trying to manipulate in order to get the majority of shares. Ismay sees a way out in the rich Sigrid and starts showing great interest, even though Gloria is there.
In the meantime the thermometer sinks all the while. Other boats and ships already warn the Titanic telegraphically about icebergs. Once the Titanic enters the drift ice, Petersen wants to reduce speed, but Ismay uses his influence over the Captain and has him keep course with the highest possible speed, regardless of the danger to the people on board. Petersen tries once more to avoid imminent danger, but his warnings go unheeded, because everyone believes in the invulnerability of the ocean liner. Sigrid, too, denies him the wish to use her influence on Ismay.
So eventually the catastrophe befalls them, not really unexpected though. The Titanic rams an iceberg and the ship is lost. Only a few hours are left. Especially now the unscrupulousness and pure greed of the ship owners become apparent. Apart from the lack of enough life boats there are not even enough distress flares available. On board there are scenes of unleashed jealousy, destitute confusion and great helplessness. The rich people try to buy their lives with money, while the newly-wed couple Anne (Liselott Klingler) and Jan (Sepp Rist)15 from the tween deck are patiently waiting to get onboard a life boat.