''Here Is Germany'' is a 1945 American
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
directed by
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...
and written by
William L. Shirer
William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...
,
Gottfried Reinhardt
Gottfried Reinhardt (20 March 1913 – 19 July 1994) was an Austrian-born American film director and producer.
Biography
Reinhardt was born in Berlin, the son of the Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt (until 1904: Max Goldmann), manag ...
,
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...
,
Georg Ziomer and
Anthony Veiller
Anthony Veiller (23 June 1903 – 27 June 1965) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He wrote for 41 films between 1934 and 1964.
Life and career
Veiller was born on 23 June 1903 in New York City to playwright and screenwriter Ba ...
. Like its companion film, ''
Know Your Enemy: Japan'', the film is a full-length exploration of why one of the two major
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
countries started
World War II
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 opposin ...
and what had to be done to keep them from "doing it again".
The film opens with scenes of everyday life in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, described by narrator
. It shows people such as housewives, mailmen, farmers and policemen at work, and notes that these people were not so different from Americans, and seem like people Americans can understand.
Anthony Veiller
Anthony Veiller (23 June 1903 – 27 June 1965) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He wrote for 41 films between 1934 and 1964.
Life and career
Veiller was born on 23 June 1903 in New York City to playwright and screenwriter Ba ...
then interrupts with "Or can we?", as the film then switches to a montage of
Nazi concentration camp
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
s and piles of dead bodies. The narrator notes that this is not the only time that Germany has unleashed war on the world, stating that while its generation fought the "
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
", its fathers fought the "
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
" (pejorative term for Germany during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
), and its grandfathers remember the "
Prussians". The narrator states that it was all part of the same German lust for conquest. The militarism of the Prussian state is identified as the bad idea that triumphed over several other trends in German thought.
Going even further back to identify the cause of this 150 years, the film informs us that while
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
were forming their democratic traditions, Germany was a group of
300 medieval feudal states, not one of them with a constitution or parliament. The film traces the rise of Prussia from
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
through
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, telling the audience that the Prussian state was organized as an instrument of aggressive conquest, dominated first by aristocratic landowners,
militarists
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
and
state officials, later joined by those big
industrialists
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
with ties to the militarists and their Imperial Government (such as Krupp and Thyssen). The development of a military-industrial dominated state in the founding of the Prussian-dominated
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
in 1870 climaxes in the catastrophe of World War I. When the nationalist militarists knew that they were beaten, according to the film, they allowed democratic parties to take the reins of power and immediately set about destabilising and discrediting the new republic. Once accomplished they found a stooge in
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, who would finally destroy the liberal
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
with the addition of a 5th pillar - party thugs.
The film depicts the Third Reich from this perspective, seeing Nazism as simply a continuation of the aggressive German tradition, promoted by the
military–industrial complex
The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...
(those businesses dependent on government contracts for arms). It does not quite make clear that the Party confounded its nationalist supporters by absorbing them, and becoming then only real power in Germany. The film says that Poles, Italians, Belgians, and Americans were murdered by the Germans. The Nazi persecution of Jews is not explicitly mentioned, but in the initial sequence of Nazi atrocities it shows the bones of "men, women and children: sent to be exterminated in a German
death factory
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
". The film also shows what are alleged to be "objects of art, made from human skin."
The film finishes with a list of different things that are being done to prevent Germany from starting another World War, chief among them the total conquest and control of the German state. Several specific examples include the destruction of Nazi art and literature, the creation of new textbooks to be taught to youth in Germany, a strong Allied military presence in Germany, the destruction of most of German war industry and the remaining industry controlled by the allies, and the removal of high ranking leaders from power. No mention of the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
are given here, as they began November 20, 1945,
and instead the film shows a German army officer blindfolded with hands tied and shot at a post.
The film ends with a short cautionary speech, where Anthony Veiller notes that for Germany, "We have rid him of Hitler, and the General staff, and Nazism, and militarism, but we have not rid him of Frederick, and Bismark, and the Kaiser, of his history and his traditions. That he must do for himself. Until he does, he is still a potential enemy of civilization. Only when he does can he take his place in the society of man. Then, and then only, will the German farmer, the German mailman, the German cop be like the folks back home. Then, and then only, can beautiful Germany, industrious Germany, cultured Germany join the peaceful nations of the world."
See also
*''
Your Job in Germany''
*
List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreig ...
*
Sonderweg
(, "special path") refers to the theory in German historiography that considers the German-speaking lands or the country of Germany itself to have followed a course from aristocracy to democracy unlike any other in Europe.
The modern school of t ...
References
External links
*
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*
Summary in notes from a 2006 college lectureby Prof. Harold Marcuse at UC Santa Barbara
{{Frank Capra
1945 films
American World War II propaganda films
United States Department of War
Anti-German sentiment in the United States
American documentary films
Germany–United States relations
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Frank Capra
1945 documentary films