''The Sailor's Song'' (german: Das Lied der Matrosen) is an East German black-and-white film directed by

Kurt Maetzig Kurt Maetzig (25 January 1911 – 8 August 2012) was a German film director who had a significant effect on the film industry in East Germany. He was one of the most respected filmmakers of the GDR. After his retirement he lived in Wildkuh ...

and

Günter Reisch Günter Reisch (24 November 1927 – 24 February 2014) was a German film director and screenwriter. He served in the German Army during the last stage of World War II. On 20 April 1944 he became a member of the Nazi Party. After his release from a ...

. It was released in 1958.

Plot

As the news of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

sweep through the world, the German

High Seas Fleet The High Seas Fleet (''Hochseeflotte'') was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (''Heimatflotte'') was renamed as the High Seas ...

's command, wary of a mutiny, decides to send all its ships to a suicide mission in the English Channel. Sailors Albin Köbis and Max Reichpietsch are sentenced to death for political activity. When the socialist sailor Steigert, a member of the firing detail, cannot bring himself to shoot them, he is arrested. On the cruiser ''Prince Heinrich'', Steigert's friends Lenz, Lobke, Kasten and Bartuschek receive

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

's transmit to all of mankind calling for peace. Slowly, the sailors in Kiel — all members of different socialist parties: the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

, the Independent Socialists and the

Spartakists The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and oth ...

— begin to realize the need for a revolution. The workers and the shipmates rebel against the officers, but the political gaps between them lead the uprising to a failure. In the end, many of the rebel sailors attend the foundation conference of the new

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

Cast

Hilmar Thate Hilmar Thate (17 April 1931 – 14 September 2016) was a German actor. He appeared in 40 films and television shows between 1955 and 2016. Filmography References External links * 1931 births 2016 deaths German male film actors G ...

as Ludwig Bartuschek *

Raimund Schelcher Raimund Schelcher (27 March 1910 – 27 March 1972) was a German actor with Tanzanian citizenship who appeared in over 43 films and television programs between 1939 and 1971. Personal life He was born in Dar es Salaam, German East Africa (now ...

as August Lenz *

Günther Simon Günther Simon (11 May 1925 – 25 June 1972) was an East German actor. Biography Early life A bank clerk's son, Simon attended an acting school already in '' Gymnasium''. At the age of 16, he was sent to a premilitary training camp of the ...

as Erich Steigert *

Ulrich Thein Ulrich Thein (7 April 1930 – 21 June 1995) was a German actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 40 films and television shows between 1953 and 1995. He won the award for Best Actor at the 11th Moscow International F ...

as Henne Lobke *

Horst Kube Horst Kube (1920–1976) was a German actor. Selected filmography * ''Ernst Thälmann - Führer seiner Klasse'' (1955) * ''A Berlin Romance'' (1956) * ''Der Fackelträger'' (1957) * '' Schlösser und Katen'' (1957) * ''Don't Forget My Little Trau ...

as Jens Kasten *Stefan Lisewski as Jupp König *Jochen Thomas as Sebastian Huber *

Vladimir Gulyaev Vladimir Leonidovich Gulyaev (russian: Влади́мир Леони́дович Гуля́ев; 30 October 1924, Yekaterinburg, RSFSR — 3 October 1997, Moscow) was a Soviet actor of theater and cinema. Biography He was born October 30, 1924 ...

as Grisha *Dieter Klamand as Kuddel König *Elfriede Née as Berta König *

Ekkehard Schall Ekkehard Schall (29 May 1930 in Magdeburg – 3 September 2005 in Berlin) was a German stage and screen actor/director. He was one of the best-known interpreters of Brecht's works and together with Helene Weigel a member of the Berliner E ...

as Schuckert *Adolf Peter Hoffmann as Gollwitz *

Wolfgang Langhoff Wolfgang Langhoff (6 October 1901 in Berlin, German Empire – 26 August 1966 in Berlin, German Democratic Republic)The Internet Movie Database"Wolfgang Langhoff" Accessed 17 August 2007. was a German theatre, film and television actor and theat ...

as attorney * Siegfried Weiß as Captain *Hans-Ulrich Lauffer as machine gunner *Hans-Hartmut Krüger as officer *

Fred Delmare Werner Vorndran (24 April 1922 – 1 May 2009), known professionally as Fred Delmare, was a German actor. Life and work Werner Vorndran was the son of a carpenter and a seamstress and grew up in Hüttensteinach at Sonneberg in Thuringia, wh ...

as sailor *Rolf Ripperger as sailor *Sabine Thalbach as lady

Production

''The Sailor's Song'' was conceived in aftermath of the Socialist Unity Party's Conference on Cultural Affairs at October 1957, during which the East German establishment embraced a conservative line and ended the brief period of liberalization that begun after

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...

.Heinz Kersten. ''Das Filmwesen in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands''. Bundesministerium für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen (1963). ASIN B0000BK48Q. page 107. ''The Sailor's Song'' was commissioned shortly after, for the celebrations of the fortieth anniversary to the

German Revolution German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

.Seán Allan, John Sandford. ''DEFA: East German cinema, 1946–1992''. . Page 80. The script writers Paul Wiens and Karl Georg Egel were instructed to present the 1918 Revolution in accordance with the official Soviet interpretation of history;

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...

told that it failed due to the "opportunistic" Social Democrats and to the lack of a Marxist–Leninist party that would have led the workers "in the smashing of the

capitalistic Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private p ...

economical apparatus." The plot places emphasis on the Spartacus League, and culminated in the founding of the

.A ''Der Spiegel'' article about the filming, 10 September 1958.
/ref> Principal photography commenced on June 3, 1958. Directors

and

worked separately; the first's crew was responsible for the scenes involving the officers and the admirals, while the latter filmed those with the sailors and the crowds. ''The Sailor's Song'' was the greatest project undertaken by

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

up to that time, and was larger in scale even than ''

Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...

''. 15,000 workers, soldiers and People's policemen were used as extras during the filming. Since

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

, the city in which the revolution took place, was located in West Germany, the directors used sets that were constructed in Goerlitz,

Warnemünde (, literally ''Mouth of the Warnow'') is a seaside resort and a district of the city of Rostock in Mecklenburg, Germany. It is located on the Baltic Sea and, as the name implies, at the estuary of the river Warnow. is one of the world's busie ...

and

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

Reception

In 1959, Maetzig won East Germany's National Prize, 2nd degree, for his work on the film, as well as a special Peace Prize at the

1st Moscow International Film Festival The 1st Moscow International Film Festival was held from 3 to 17 August 1959. The Grand Prix was awarded to the Soviet film ''Destiny of a Man'' directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. Jury * Sergei Gerasimov (USSR - President of the Jury) * Antonin Br ...

. DEFA Studio's director Albert Wilkening wrote that no picture, except ''Ernst Thälmann'', ever touched the people of East Germany as deeply as ''The Sailor's Song''. The SED considered it as one of the country's greatest cinematic achievements, and this view was upheld until the

German Reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

.Dagmar Schittly. ''Zwischen Regie und Regime. Die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen''. . Page 95. Critics Miera and Antonin Liehm claimed that it was a "made for order" film that was "clumsy and heavy-handed".Miera Liehm, Antonin J. Liehm . ''The Most Important Art: Soviet and Eastern European Film After 1945''. . Page 264. A West German Film Lexicon cited it as "well designed, but obviously propagandistic."
The Sailor's Song
' on zweitausendundeins.de.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sailors Song 1958 films 1958 drama films German drama films East German films 1950s German-language films German black-and-white films Films directed by Kurt Maetzig Films directed by Günter Reisch World War I naval films Films set in the Baltic Sea Films set in 1917 Films set in 1918 Films set in 1919 Films about revolutions German Revolution of 1918–1919 1950s German films