''Hello, Fraulein!'' (german: Hallo, Fräulein!) is a 1949 German musical film directed by

Rudolf Jugert Rudolf Jugert (1907–1979) was a German film director. Selected filmography * ''Film Without a Title'' (1948) * '' Hallo, Fräulein!'' (1949) * '' A Day Will Come'' (1950) * ''Nights on the Road'' (1952) * ''Illusion in a Minor Key'' (1952) * ''J ...

and starring Margot Hielscher,

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 Peter van Eyck. It was made by the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

-based company

Bavaria Film Bavaria Film is a German film production and distribution company. It is one of Europe's largest film production companies, with some 30 subsidiaries. History The studios were founded in 1919, when Munich-raised film producer Peter Ostermayr ...

in what would shortly become

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. It marked the German debut of van Eyck who had actually been born in

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

but had spent many years in the United States, leading him to be promoted in the film's publicity as an American actor. The film's sets were designed by the art director

Max Mellin Max Mellin (1904–1977) was a German art director.Jacobsen & Prinzler p.275 Selected filmography * ''Happy Days in Aranjuez'' (1933) * ''The Girlfriend of a Big Man'' (1934) * '' Playing with Fire'' (1934) * '' Marriage Strike'' (1935) * ''Fresh ...

. It was shot at the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Fir ...

in Munich. The film's music combines elements of American

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and German

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

.Davidson & Hake p. 49

Synopsis

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

in the months after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the commander of American forces occupying a German town tries to promote friendship with the locals by organising a musical show with the assistance of a female music student who has recently returned from entertaining German soldiers on the Eastern Front. By inviting a multi-national

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

to perform, the two achieve greater international harmony although the student ultimately decides to marry a local

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

rather than the American soldier.

Cast

* Margot Hielscher as Maria Neubauer *

as Walter Reinhardt * Peter van Eyck as Tom Keller * Bobby Todd as Cesare * Heidi Scharf as Renate *

Iska Geri Iska Geri (1914–2002) was a German film and television actress.Körner p.364 Selected filmography * '' Hello, Fraulein!'' (1949) * ''Third from the Right'' (1950) * '' The Veiled Lady'' (1951) * ''That Can Happen to Anyone'' (1952) * ''A Piece ...

as Grit * Hannelore Bollmann as Herta * Madelon Truß as Berta * Werner Scharfenberger as Teddy * Richard Bendig as Seppl * Oliver Hassencamp as René *

Johannes Buzalski Johannes Buzalski (1918–1977) was a German film and television actor.Rentschler p.287 Selected filmography * '' Hello, Fraulein!'' (1949) * ''Jonny Saves Nebrador'' (1953) * '' The Confession of Ina Kahr'' (1954) * '' Heroism after Hours'' (195 ...

as Gabor * Toni Thormal as Jan * Jürgen Wulf as Hans * Peter Fiedler as Fritz * Panos Papadopulos as Musiker *

Freddie Brocksieper Fritz "Freddie" Brocksieper (August 24, 1912 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire – January 17, 1990) was a German jazz-musician, drummer, and bandleader. Early life Brocksieper was born in Constantinople. At a young age in 1917, he observed militar ...

as Musiker * Helmut Zacharias as Musiker *

Eberhard Keim Eberhard is an old Germanic name meaning the strength or courage of a wild boar. People First name *Eberhard of Friuli (815–866), Duke and key figure in the Carolingian Empire *Eberhard of Béthune (died 1212), Flemish grammarian *Eberhard I, Du ...

as Musiker * Cläre Ruegg as Frau Neuhaus * Bob Norwood as Sergeant * Franklie Clay as Sam * Ingeborg Morawski as Frl. Senkpiel * Petra Unkel as Roswitha *

Karl Schopp Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

as Alois * Thomas Quigley * Bill Nuzun * Gertrud Braun

References

Bibliography

* Davidson, John & Hake, Sabine. ''Framing the Fifties: Cinema in a Divided Germany''. Berghahn Books, 2007. * Lutz Peter Koepnick. ''The Cosmopolitan Screen: German Cinema and the Global Imaginary, 1945 to the Present''. University of Michigan Press, 2007.

External links

* 1949 films West German films German musical films 1949 musical films 1940s German-language films Films directed by Rudolf Jugert Films about music and musicians German black-and-white films Bavaria Film films Films shot at Bavaria Studios 1940s German films {{musical-film-stub