Hitler Youth

Identifier
irn1001974
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1994.121.1
  • RG-60.1203
Dates
1 Jan 1941 - 31 Dec 1941
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

The fifteen-year-old Johannes von Redel returns to his father's rural estate in Prussia after his mother dies. Johannes lived with his mother for ten years in Argentina, where he is portrayed as an urban, decadent, and fastidious Auslandsdeutscher [German living abroad] alienated from his German roots. After encountering trouble with his father, he enters a "Napola" [Nazi elite boarding school] where fellow students ridicule his alien customs and behavior. It is only after accomplishing a heroic deed during a military summer drill that he gains the comradeship of the elite pupils and is incorporated back into the Volksgemeinschaft [ethnic-racial community]. In the late 1930s, the Nazis increased efforts to persuade Germans living abroad to return to Germany or at least to reject the corrupt alien culture surrounding them abroad. This film propagates the Nazi idea that assimilation diminishes the superior quality of German blood when it is removed from the strengthening environment of its people. Furthermore, "Kopf hoch Johannes!" illustrates the superior Nazi teaching methods of command and obedience practiced in sport and military exercises that foster comradeship and heroism. As an advertising effort for Nazi boarding schools, most of the film was shot in the model-school of Oranientein near Diez. Goebbels strongly believed in the merits of such movies for educating and agitating the youth. This Staatsautragsfilm [film commissioned by the state] passed censorship on February 5, 1941 and premiered March 11, 1941.

Note(s)

  • Released by Tobis. Cast: Claus Detlef Sierck; Albrecht Schoenhals; Karl Dannemann; Karl Fochler; Otto Gebuehr; Gunnar Moeller; Leo Peukert; Renee Stobrawa; Rudolf Vones; Dorothea Wieck; Hans Zesch-Ballot; Volker von Collande; Eduard von Winterstein. See Film and Video departmental files for additional documentation and a summary of the film. See also Story 1204, Film ID 985 for the continuation of this film.

  • Leslie Swift, Special Advisor, Time-Based Media, in response to a German institution who claimed that we do not have permission to publicly stream the following films, requested that their access permissions be changed to On Campus only. I have applied Access statement A2. RG-60.1167-1172 (already on-campus only) RG-60.1175-1179 RG-60.1201-1204 RG-60.4858-4861

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This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.