Street scenes in Berlin; Pestalozzi Froebel Haus kindergarten; Kranzler Cafe; Woolworth; telephone
Creator(s)
- Julien H. Bryan (Camera Operator)
- Sam Bryan and International Film Foundation
Biographical History
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.
Scope and Content
Streets. Exterior of large brick building: Pestalozzi Froebel Haus kindergarten in Berlin. Woman walks baby carriage, dog in middle of street, pedestrian. Outdoor café - Kranzler. Dining outside. Nazi flag hangs from building. Waitress with giant bow. Aerial shot of café, pedestrians, patrons. Street traffic, buses, trolleys, cars, people. Woolworth. Nazi posters with Hitler. 01:11:42 Above ground trains, city traffic, police officer directs traffic. Woolworth windows, storefront. 01:13:32 Women using telephone booth "Offentlicher Fernsprecher" Men putting coins into machine. CUs.
Note(s)
The "wavy positive scribe" or cross-hatching that constantly appears across the frame was added to the 35mm film print by a motion picture stock footage facility where Julien Bryan stored his original materials in the 1970s and 1980s. It was done to prevent people from copying the footage without permission. Unfortunately, the signature is deeply etched into the emulsion and cannot be repaired. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives. Similar material exists in the Julien Bryan Collection at the Library of Congress. See Film IDs 210 and 211. Bryan filmed in Germany in 1937 for the March of Time, but retained certain material and rights. He donated this part of the collection to the Library of Congress. Some film shot at the same time appears in the March of Time release, "Inside Nazi Germany." See Raymond Fielding's chapter on this title, in the book "The March of Time 1935-1951."
Subjects
- POLICE
- CITIES
- AUTOMOBILES
- TELEPHONES
- WOOLWORTH'S
- SWASTIKAS
- CAFES
- WOMEN
- BRYAN, JULIEN
- STREETCARS
- STREETS
- KINDERGARTEN
Places
- Berlin, Germany
Genre
- Film
- Outtakes.