Morgenrot

original title:
Morgenrot
other titles:
Dawn
country / year of production:
Germany / 1933
original length:
75 min. , black/white
premiere:
31 January 1933 Essen
1 February 1933 Düsseldorf
2 February 1933 Berlin, Ufa-Palast am Zoo
genre:
melodrama
based on:
director:
Gustav Ucicky , Vernon Campbell Sewell
film script:
Gerhard Menzel
producer:
Günther Stapenhorst
cinematographer:
Carl Hoffmann
editor:
Eduard von Borsody
composer:
Herbert Windt
cast (role):
Rudolf Forster (Kapitanleutnant Helmut Liers) , Fritz Genschow (Oberleutnant 'Phipps' Fredericks) , Paul Westermeier (Jaul) , Friedrich Gnaß (Torpedo-Uffz) , Gerhard Bienert (Bohm) , Rudolf Forster , Fritz Genschow , Paul Westermeier , Friedrich Gnaß , Gerhard Bienert
more:
Adele Sandrock (Liers Mutter) , Adele Sandrock
plot synopsis:
1915: After some days leave, submarine commander Liers and his crew put to sea again. As two of his brothers are already killed in action, Liers` mother hate the idea of him going back to his sub. On patrol they sink a British armoured cruiser, but while returning to their harbor, they are attacked by a sub trap. They are able to sink it, but the trap has alarmed a destroyer, that sinks their sub. The sub lays on the sea bed at 200 feet, and except for the bridge, it is full of water. Ten members of the crew survived, but there are only eight rescue devices. Liers gives the order, that the crew shall use them, but they disobey, either all get out or nobody...
keywords:
submarine
war:
First World War (1914-1918)
literature:
Bernadette Kester. Filmfront Weimar. Representaties van de Eerste Wereeldoorlog in Duitse films uit de Weimarperiode (1919-1933). Hilversum: Verloren. 1998. 267p.

Rainer Rother (ed.). Die Ufa 1917-1945. Das deutsche Bilderimperium. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum 1992. 22 magazines a 16p.

Michael Schaudig (ed.). Positionen deutscher Filmgeschichte. 100 Jahre Kinematographie: Strukturen, Diskurse, Kontexte. München: Diskurs Film 1996. (Diskurs Film 8). 503p.
remarks:
Only three days after the natinonalsocialist regime came into power, the film was presented in Berlin for the first time. Honorable guests: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Franz von Papen, and Alfred Hugenberg.

"Morgenrot" (Dawn), dedicated to the 6.000 dead seaman and 199 sunken submarines, was the Ufa-film for the new regime. When production had started no one could have foreseen that the premiere coincided with the political victory of the ideology the film announced.

Especially the role of captain Liers with lines like "Maybe we Germans don´t understand how to live, but we very well understand how to die" or "Perhaps death is only event in life" indicate the direction of future productions.

The submarine shown in the film is a loan from the Finnish navy, because the German Reich demilitarized according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles was not allowed submarines.
availability:
Video NTSC