Summary: German documentary portraying the history of the German race and the rebirth of Germany under the Nazi Party, likening the German race to the forest - "people like trees are eternal".
Description: Reel The film opens with beautifully photographed forest scenes, showing a variety of trees in the different seasons, accompanied by lyrical, choral effects and commentary. ("....This picture showing Nature's cycle of Death and Growth is for you, the People, who are searching and fighting to build a new Reich...")
Reels 2, 3, 4, 5. Traces the history of the German people - Roman invasion, Viking invasion, the coming of Christianity, the age of the Troubadour, the Teutonic Knights, the oppression of the church (illustrated by the extensive use of wood from the forest to build cathedrals) and the Peasant War, the Thirty Years War and then the reign of Frederick the Great - when the forest (like the people) was nurtured, ordered and flourished. The German people, like the forest, suffer, endure and are restored.
Reel 6. The First World War is illustrated by a reconstruction of German soldiers fighting in a forest, with dramatic destruction of the trees by shelling. The devastation of the war is depicted by tree stumps and a "forest" of wooden crosses. The post-war occupation of Germany and reparations are illustrated by French Colonial black troops overseeing the felling of trees as payment of the reparations with the felled trees dragged off in chains. The accompanying commentary states " The People ruined, their freedom lost, the land occupied by the enemy. Wood and coal in the West pay him tribute. Decadent, depraved, tainted by foreign races, how do you bear it, People? How do you bear it, Forest? The unendurable burden". In answer to the question, a new "forest" appears - a massed panorama of Nazi flags, paralleled with shots of forest trees standing strong and tall with the weak and sick trees removed followed by shots of German people dancing around a Maypole in celebration "We do not bend. We have conquered death and we announce the rebirth. We carry the flag into the light. Break open the earth. Rip out the weak and sick. With all the kinds of trees create the new community of eternal forest. The may tree blossoms like you and me. The people under the tree call to you and me. Join in the song of the new time. The People like the Forest live eternally."
Alternative Title:ETERNAL FOREST [Translation]
Colour:B&W
Digitised:No
Object_Number:MGH 493
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:IWM-GERMAN
Featured Period:
Production Date:1936
Production Country: Germany
Production Details: Degeto Kulturfilm (Production sponsor)
Lex Films (Production company)
Pestalozza, Albert von (Graf) (Production individual)
Pestalozza, Albert von (Graf) (Production individual)
Springer, Hanns (Production individual)
Holzapfel, C M (Production individual)
Zeller, Wolfgang (Production individual)
Allgeier, Sepp (Production individual)
Bohne (Production individual)
Erwald (Production individual)
Hart (Production individual)
Kunstmann (Production individual)
Seeber, Guido (Production individual)
Siem, Wilhelm (Production individual)
Weidemann (Production individual)
Weitzenberg (Production individual)
Wentzel (Production individual)
Reimann, Walter (Production individual)
Schwiedewski, Bernard (Production individual)
Reimann, Walter (Production individual)
Boenisch, Konstantin (Production individual)
Reiner (Professor) (Production individual)
Streinz, Wilhelm (Production individual)
Hadank, Gunther (Production individual)
Henne, Arnfried (Production individual)
Stapenhorst, Fritz (Production individual)
Grimm (Production individual)
Rutten (Production individual)
Sprecht (Production individual)
Sonjewski-Jamrowski, Rolf von (Production individual)
Strienz, Wilhelm (Production cast)
Hadank, Gunther (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords:
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: German
Title language: German
Subtitle language: German
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 6
Footage: 6502 ft; Running time: 65 mins
