Kolberg (film)

Kolberg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Veit Harlan
Written by	Veit Harlan Alfred Braun Joseph Goebbels (uncredited)
Based on	Kolberg by Paul Heyse (uncredited)
Produced by	Veit Harlan Joseph Goebbels (uncredited)
Starring	Kristina Söderbaum Heinrich George Paul Wegener Horst Caspar Gustav Diessl Otto Wernicke Kurt Meisel
Cinematography	Bruno Mondi
Edited by	Wolfgang Schleif
Music by	Norbert Schultze
Production company	Ufa Filmkunst GmbH (Herstellungsgruppe Veit Harlan)
Distributed by	Deutsche Filmvertriebs GmbH
Release date	30 January 1945 (1945-01-30)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Nazi Germany
Languages	German French
Budget	7.6 million ℛ︁ℳ︁[1]

Kolberg is a 1945 Nazi propaganda historical film written and directed by Veit Harlan. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it was intended to bolster the will of the German population to resist the Allies.

Harlan and Alfred Braun, who also worked on the screenplay, based the film on the autobiography of Joachim Nettelbeck [de; pl], mayor of Kolberg in Pomerania, and on Paul Heyse's later play adapted from the book. (Joseph Goebbels participated in writing the screenplay but was not credited. He insisted that a romantic interest be added; this is the figure of Maria.)^[2]

The film recounts the defence of the besieged fortress town of Kolberg against French troops between April and July 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, the city's defence, led by then-Lieutenant Colonel August von Gneisenau, held out until the war was ended by the Treaty of Tilsit. But the film portrays the French abandoning the siege.