Hitler Youth Quex
Hitler Youth Quex (German: Hitlerjunge Quex) is a 1932 Nazi propaganda novel and a corresponding 1933 movie based on the life of Herbert “Quex” Norkus.[1] Joseph Goebbels spoke of the movie as "first large-scale" transmission of Nazi ideology using the medium of cinema.[2] Like SA-Mann Brandt and Hans Westmar, it fictionalized and glorified death in the service of the Nazi party and Hitler.[3]
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[edit] Background
Both novel and movie are based on the real story of Herbert Norkus' life. Norkus, a Hitler Youth member, died from injuries suffered when chased and confronted by Communist youths in the night of 23 / 24 January 1932 in the Beusselkietz neighborhood of Moabit, Berlin.[4] Already the next morning, Joseph Goebbels started to use Norkus' death for propaganda purposes, during a rally in Berlin's Sportpalast.[5] The funeral on 29 January at Plötzensee, Berlin, was turned into a major ceremony of several Nazi party organizations, under the aegis of Goebbels.[5] While the murder was condemned also by non-Nazi press, the Communists started a counter-propaganda offensive, describing the incident as an accidental result of Communist self-defense during a Nazi attack.[6] In the subsequent trial, several persons were sentenced by the Landgericht I court in Moabit, yet the most prominent accomplices Willi Simon, Bernhard Klingbeil and Harry Tack had been able to escape to the Soviet Union.[5]
After the Nazis assumed power, the grave of Norkus was turned into a Nazi shrine, visited annually on New Year's Day by Nazi youth leader Baldur von Schirach for a speech that was broadcast nationwide.[7] To the site of Norkus' death at Zwinglistraße 4,[8] a plaque was attached reading "He Gave His Life For Germany's Freedom", the first of several such memorial plaques subsequently placed throughout Germany.[7] 24 January was made remembrance day for all killed Hitler Youths, and the flag of Norkus' unit became the Hitler Youth's "blood flag".[7] Two weeks after the Enabling Act of 1933, a provocative Hitler Youth march to Norkus' grave took the route through Berlin's communist districts of Wedding and Moabit.[7] Throughout Germany, the Nazis organized demonstrations and speeches commemorating their newly created martyr.[1] Novels, plays, poems and songs were written about him.[1]
[edit] The novel
The novel Der Hitlerjunge Quex was written by Karl Aloys Schenzinger between May and September 1932.[1] It was first published in Nazi party outlet Völkischer Beobachter, and as a book in December 1932.[1] A required reading for Hitler Youth members,[1] more than 190,000 copies were sold within the first two years,[9] and more than 500,000 copies until 1945.[1]
In Schenzinger's novel, Herbert Norkus is named Heini Völker.[9] With a völkisch undertone, the opening chapters describe the hardships of Norkus' youth in a working class neighborhood of Berlin, characterized by the Great Depression, the unemployment of his father and the suicide of his mother.[9] The contemporary communist youth (Rote Jungfront, "Red Young Front") is portrayed as a disorderly gang devoted primarily to alcohol, tobacco and sex.[9] In contrast, the Nazi youth (Hitlerjugend, "Hitler Youth") is portrayed as an orderly organization, superior in morals.[9] Schenzinger lets Heini Völker's father force his son to attend a camping weekend organized by a communist youth group, North Star Moabit. Heini is disgusted and flees the camp, only to encounter a Hitler Youth group in the woods.[9] Deeply impressed, and in an atmosphere of nationalistic pathos, Heini learns of the Nazi movement, Führerprinzip ("leader principle"), comradeship and Volksgemeinschaft ("the people's community").[9] On "the happiest day of his life", Heini joins the Hitler Youth, and Schenzinger has the Bannführer (group leader) symbolize Nazi ideology when he handed over Heini's uniform to him: "[The uniform] is the clothing of the community, of comradeship, of our ideology, of our unified organization! [...] It makes us all equal, and gives the same to all and demands the same from all. He who wears such a uniform doesn't have desires of his own anymore, he has only to obey."[10]
The following chapters deal with Heini's life as a Hitler Youth.[10] Obedience and equality as understood by the Nazis are portrayed in a very positive light.[10] They turn out to be beneficial not only for Heini, but also for his comrades, for example, his best friend Fritz Dörries, the son of a wealthy merchant.[10] Emphasis is put on the vision of self-sacrifice, the abolition of social barriers, and racial purity, and Heini learns from Fritz that "with us Hitler Youth, there are no classes. There are only those who get the job done and parasites, and those we'll throw out."[10] The haven Heini found in the Hitler Youth is symbolized by his group's hang-out, "Castle Beusselkietz"[11] - Norkus' group was Schar 2, Hitlerjugend Beusselkietz-Hansa.[7] His comrades nicknamed him Quex because "he carried out orders faster than quicksilver" (German: Quecksilber).[10]
The last part of the novel is devoted to the circumstances of Norkus' (or Heini Völker's) death.[11] According to Baird (1992), Schenzinger's version is a "thinly veiled parallel to Resurrection":[11] When his comrades were gathered around his death bed and wonder whether he is still alive, there "suddenly [...] is a scream. Heini is sitting up in bed, his eyes wide open. He is singing. They don't recognize the words, but they know the melody. It's the song they sing every day, every evening together, on every march. Everyone knows what it means - death is singing here."[11]
[edit] The movie
| Staff[12] | |
|---|---|
| Producer | Karl Ritter |
| Director | Hans Steinhoff |
| Script | Bobby E. Lüthge Karl Aloys Schenzinger |
| Cinematography | Konstantin Irmen-Tschet |
| Ass. Camera | Fred Fernau Erich Rudolf Schmidke |
| Publicity Photography | Otto Schulz |
| Editing | Milo Habich |
| Set Design | Benno von Arent Arthur Günther |
| Make-up | Waldemar Jabs |
| Clothing | Berta Grützmacher Paul Haupt |
| Sound | Walter Tjaden Erich Leistner |
| Music | Hans-Otto Borgmann Baldur von Schirach |
| Cast[12] | |
|---|---|
| Heini Völker | Jürgen Ohlsen |
| Father Völker | Heinrich George |
| Mother Völker | Berta Drews |
| Brigade leader Cass | Claus Clausen |
| Fritz Dörris | a Hitler Youth |
| Gerda | Rotraut Richter |
| Stoppel | Hermann Speelmans |
| Franz | Hans Richter |
| Grundler | a Hitler Youth |
| Kowalski | Ernst Behmer |
| Doctor | Hans Joachim Büttner |
| Nurse | Franziska Kinz |
| Carnival singer | Rudolf Platte |
| Barker | Reinhold Bernt |
| Furniture dealer | Hans Deppe |
| Neighbor | Anna Müller-Lincke |
| Wilde | Karl Meixner |
| Grocer | Karl Hannemann |
| Desk sergeant | Ernst Rotmund |
| Bartender | Hans Otto Stern |
| Further | Herrmann Braun Heinz Trumper Hitler Youth units |
The novel provided the basis for a subsequent movie version, produced in the Universum Film AG (Ufa) studios.[12] The plot was written by Bobby E. Lüthge and Karl Aloys Schenzinger, the author of the novel.[12] Produced by Karl Ritter,[12] the movie was supported by the Nazi leadership and produced for 320,000 reichsmarks[13] under the aegis of Baldur von Schirach.[14] The latter also wrote the lyrics for the Hitler Youth song "Unsere Fahne flattert uns voran",[15] based on an existing melody by Hans-Otto Borgmann, who was also responsible for the music.[12] The director was Hans Steinhoff.[12] For the movie, the novel's title was amended with the subtitle Ein Film vom Opfergeist der deutschen Jugend ("A film about the sacrificial spirit of German youth").[12] The movie has a length of 95 minutes (2,605 meters) and was premiered on 11 September 1933 in Ufa-Phoebus Palace, Munich, and on 19 September in Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Berlin.[12] It was one of three movies about Nazi martyrs in 1933, the other two being SA-Mann Brand and Hans Westmar, and by January 1934 had been viewed by a million people.[13]
The movie's message is characterized by its final words, "The flag means more than death".[16]
[edit] Sources
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Rentschler (1996), p. 55
- ^ Rentschler (1996), pp. 55-56
- ^ Koonz (2003), p. 85.
- ^ Baird (1992), pp. 114-115
- ^ a b c Baird (1992), p. 116
- ^ Baird (1992), p. 117
- ^ a b c d e Baird (1992), p. 118
- ^ Baird (1992), p. 115
- ^ a b c d e f g Baird (1992), p. 119
- ^ a b c d e f Baird (1992), p. 120
- ^ a b c d Baird (1992), p. 121
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rentschler (1996), p. 319
- ^ a b Rentschler (1996), p. 56
- ^ Rentschler (1996), p. 54
- ^ Rentschler (1996), p. 320
- ^ Rentschler (1996), p. 69
[edit] Bibliography
- Baird, Jay W. (1992). To Die for Germany. Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253207576.
- Koonz, Claudia (2003). The Nazi conscience. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674011724.
- Leiser, Erwin (1974). Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-570230-0.
- Rentschler, Eric (1996). The ministry of illusion. Nazi cinema and its afterlife. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674576403.
