''Große Freiheit Nr. 7'' (English: ''Great Freedom No. 7'') is a 1944 German musical drama film directed by

Helmut Käutner Helmut Käutner (25 March 1908 – 20 April 1980) was a German film director active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. He entered the film industry at the end of the Weimar Republic and released his first films as a director in Nazi Germany. Käu ...

. It was named after

Große Freiheit The Große Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a cross street on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the red-light district. History The street was named in 1610 after the fact that Count ...

(grand freedom), a street next to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Reeperbahn The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nick ...

road in the

St. Pauli St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...

red light district. The film is also known as ''Port of Freedom'' in the United Kingdom. It was shot at the

Tempelhof Tempelhof () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. The former airport and surroundings are now a park called ...

and

Babelsberg Studios Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, and on location in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Plot summary

The film tells the story of the blond "singing sailor" Hannes Kröger (played by Hans Albers) who works in a St. Pauli club - address: Große Freiheit 7 - and falls in love with a girl played by

Ilse Werner Ilse Werner (; born Ilse Charlotte Still, 11 July 1921 – 8 August 2005) was a Dutch-German actress, singer, and musical whistler. Life She was born in Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia) to a Dutch father, merchant and plantation owner, ...

. But she prefers his rival Willem (

Hans Söhnker Hans Söhnker (11 October 1903 – 20 April 1981) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1933 and 1980. He was born in Kiel, Germany and died in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * '' The Tsarevich'' (1933) – ...

) and Hannes returns to the sea.

Cast

* Hans Albers as Hannes Kroeger *

as Gisa Häuptlein *

as Willem *

Hilde Hildebrand Emma Minna Hilde Hildebrand (10 September 1897 – 12 May 1976) was a German actress born in Hanover, Germany on 10 September 1897. She died at the age of 78 in Grunewald, Berlin, on 27 May 1976. Selected filmography * ''Die Scheidungsehe'' ...

as Anita *

Gustav Knuth Gustav Knuth (7 July 1901 – 1 February 1987) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1935 and 1982 and starred in the TV series '' Alle meine Tiere''. He was married to the actress Elisabeth Lennartz. Selected ...

as Fiete *

Günther Lüders Günther Lüders (5 March 1905 – 1 March 1975) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1934 and 1975. He lived in Urfeld am Walchensee from 1954 until 1975. Selected filmography * ''Count Woronzeff'' (1934), as Cousin ...

as Jens *

Ilse Fürstenberg Ilse Fürstenberg (12 December 1907, in Berlin – 16 December 1976, in Basel) was a German actress, working on stage, screen, television and as voice actress. Selected filmography * '' The Blue Angel'' (1930) - Raths Wirtschafterin / Maid * '' ...

as Gisa's mother *

Ethel Reschke Ethel Reschke (24 April 1911 – 5 June 1992) was a German actress. She appeared in more than 70 films and television shows between 1931 and 1977. Selected filmography * ''Mädchen in Uniform'' (1931) * ''Paul and Pauline'' (1936) * ''By a ...

as Margot *

Erna Sellmer Erna Elisabeth Dorothea Sellmer (19 June 1905 – 13 May 1983) was a German film actress. She was best known in the English-speaking world for her role as housekeeper Frau Gerber in the 1970s Swiss-Canadian television series ''George'' about a St ...

as Frau Kaasbohm * Kurt Wieschala as Jan *

as Karl *

Richard Nicolas Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

as Admiral *

Maria Besendahl Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

as Frau Boergel * Justus Ott as Herr Wellenkamp * Gottlieb Reeck as Herr Puhlmann * Thea Thiele as Consul's wife *

Alfred Braun Alfred Braun (13 May 1888 – 3 January 1978) was a German screenwriter, actor and film director. Filmography Actor * ''Das Leid der Liebe'' (1916) * ''Der Sohn der Magd'' (1919) * '' The Gambler'' (1920) - Stöckel * '' Rosenmontag'' (1924) * ...

as Rundfunkreporter * Rudolf Koch-Riehl as Master of ceremonies *

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (1903–1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * '' Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * '' Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irland'' (1940) * '' Between Ham ...

as Postman * Erwin Loraino as Sailor

Soundtrack

* Hans Albers – "Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins" - On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight (song) * Hilde Hildebrand – "Beim ersten Mal, da tut's noch weh" * Hans Albers – "

La Paloma "La Paloma", "The Dove" in English, is a popular Spanish song that has been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was written by the Spanish Basque composer Seb ...

" * Hans Albers – "Nein, ich kann Dich nicht vergessen" * Hans Albers – "Schön ist die Liebe im Hafen" * Hans Albers – "Was kann es denn schöneres geben" * Hans Albers – "Wenn ein Seemann mal nach Hamburg kommt"

Production

Due to the threat of Allied bombing raids to Hamburg Harbour and to the

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

studios in

's Neu

babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter ('' Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pala ...

and

when it was made in 1943 (May to November), most of the movie was shot in

Barrandov Studios Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Several major Hollywood productions have been made here, including '' Mission Impossible'', ' ...

, as the first Agfa colorfilm by Terra. For a scene with a boat trip in Hamburg harbour warships had to be covered up.

Reception

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was dissatisfied, and demanded many changes to make the film more "German", for instance by renaming the lead role from ''Jonny'' (as in Albers' earlier hit song " Good bye, Jonny") to ''Hannes''. After a year of editing, the movie was banned anyway in Nazi Germany on 12 December 1944,Der Film wurde 1944 von der Filmprüfstelle für die Aufführung in Deutschland verboten. and was only shown outside of the Großdeutsches Reich proper, with the premiere on 15 December 1944 in occupied Prague (then a Reichsprotektorat). It remained banned in Nazi Germany, opening on 6 September 1945 in

's ''Filmbühne Wien'' after the Allied victory.

References

* Rüdiger Bloemeke: "La Paloma – Das Jahrhundertlied". 158 Seiten, über 30 Seiten Farb- und Schwarzweiß-Abbildungen. Voodoo-Verlag, Hamburg 2005

External links

*
''Große Freiheit Nr. 7''
Full movie at the Deutsche Filmothek

*http://www.der-blonde-hans.de/albers10a.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosse Freiheit Nr. 7 1944 films 1944 romantic drama films Banned films in Nazi Germany German musical drama films German romantic musical films Films of Nazi Germany 1940s German-language films Films directed by Helmut Käutner Films set in Hamburg 1940s musical drama films Seafaring films Films shot at Tempelhof Studios Films shot at Babelsberg Studios Terra Film films 1940s romantic musical films Films scored by Werner Eisbrenner