Geheime Reichssache

original title:
Geheime Reichssache
other titles:
Top Secret - The History of German Resistance Against Hitler
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original length:
110 min. , color
premiere:
12 March 1979
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plot synopsis:
1944, after the failed assassination on the 20th July in the same year, it came to a show trial in front of the People's Court, under the direction of notorious judge Roland Freiser, who sentenced at least 2500 people to death during NS-dictatorship (among others Elfriede Scholz, the sister of author Erich-Maria Remarque and the siblings Scholl). At that time Joseph Goebbels prompted a film for propaganda purposes about the trial named "Verräter vor dem Volksgericht" ("Traitors in front of the People's Court"). The trial was filmed with hidden cameras, but in hindsight got rated as not propaganda suitable and declared as "Geheime Reichssache" ("Secret Reich Business") - the film was just allowed to be shown with an exceptional permission from Goebbels himself and vanished for a long time after the war.
This film shows original footage of the the propaganda film from 1944 and illuminates the situation at that time in germany.
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literature:
Bengt von zur Mühlen (Hg.). Die Angeklagten des 20. Juli vor dem Volksgerichtshof. Berlin: Chronos, 2001.

Helmut Ortner. Der Hinrichter. Roland Freisler - Mörder im Dienste Hitlers. Wien: Steidl, 1995.
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availability:
VHS, DVD