Kolberg (film)

Kolberg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byVeit Harlan
Written byVeit Harlan
Alfred Braun
Joseph Goebbels (uncredited)
Based onKolberg
by Paul Heyse (uncredited)
Produced byVeit Harlan
Joseph Goebbels (uncredited)
StarringKristina Söderbaum
Heinrich George
Paul Wegener
Horst Caspar
Gustav Diessl
Otto Wernicke
Kurt Meisel
CinematographyBruno Mondi
Edited byWolfgang Schleif
Music byNorbert Schultze
Production
company
Ufa Filmkunst GmbH (Herstellungsgruppe Veit Harlan)
Distributed byDeutsche Filmvertriebs GmbH
Release date
  • 30 January 1945 (1945-01-30)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryNazi Germany
LanguagesGerman
French
Budget7.6 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.

  1. ^ Noack 2016, p. 222.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference taylor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).