Birthrate enouraged, children & mothers, twins, triplets

Identifier
irn1003456
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2004.740.1
  • RG-60.4050
Dates
1 Jan 1939 - 31 Dec 1939
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

Film encourages German women to have children. Film opens on an hourglass in the Glockenturm in Berlin. The narrator notes that in the five minutes that it takes the hourglass to empty, approximately fifteen children are born in Germany. However, "this is still not enough, if Germany wants to maintain its place in the world." Graphics illustrate the birth rate in Germany in the years since 1871, with a low point of 15 births per 1,000 citizens in the year 1933 and rising dramatically after the Nazis took power. Similar presentation of the marriage rates in Germany. Shots of flowering tress, a woman holding an infant, and a close-up of a smiling baby. The narrator announces that we are now in the world of our youngest. Shots of babies; interior with many babies in cribs; a woman feeds a smiling baby from a bottle. Women (nurses? nannies?) ina garden-like setting feed infants. Shots of naked infants and toddlers watering a small tree, on a swing in a playground. Children in baby carriages on "their first big trip out" to the park. Wide shot of a path and a meadow in the park with many women and children, and a few men: families with many children, as the narrator notes approvingly. More scenes of happy children frolicking in the park. Children who are just learning to walk; a group of young girls pushing baby carriages. Girls tend to their dolls. Over one shot of two dolls tucked into a baby carriage the narrator says, "twins are especially beloved." Real twin babies are shown in a carriage, and the narrator notes that in 1936 there were more than 16,000 born. More twins, including two older twin girls sitting on a bench doing schoolwork. The camera focuses on what they are supposedly reading, which is something to do with being future mothers (cannot read the writing). Shot of a graphic of a cross with a Swastika in the middle. Triplet boys and girls; there were 176 triplet births two years previously, according to the narrator. Occasionally quadruplets are also born. Quadruplets shown on the screen, as well as a couple of shots of balloons which have cartoons of black children imprinted on them.

Note(s)

  • Other credits: Siegel Monopolfilm distributors; "Bild und Wort:" Mai = Rodegg; Music: Paul Martens; Sound: William Schmeisser, Klangfilm, Afifa.

  • Conditions of Use and/or Copyright updated. Correspondence from Bundesarchiv in May 2023, initially sent to Leslie Swift states: no rights claimed anymore by Bundesarchiv, but we don't know who the rights holders might be

Subjects

Places

Genre

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.