SCENES OF DEVASTATION AND NORMALITY IN THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN ZONES OF OCCUPATION, GERMANY [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: SCENES OF DEVASTATION AND NORMALITY IN THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN ZONES OF OCCUPATION, GERMANY [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 6745
  • Other titles: AMATEUR FILM BY DR E B KNOTT [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: Amateur film, shot with frequent panning, by the eminent British photochemist Dr E B Knott, employed by the Kodak research laboratory, while undertaking in the autumn of 1945, a visit to Cologne and Frankfurt in quest of industrial processes developed during the war by Germany likely to be of value to British industry, records contrasting scenes of undamaged country towns and devastated cities, as well as early evidence of post-war American influence on German life.
  • Description: Camera pans across small square with tall chuch spire in small German town. Pan across two spans of bridge above wide river, crossed by Allied service personnel and vehicles. Trees with autumnal tints. Two RAF officers, and one British Army officer, pose on edge of wood, beside two British Army privates (batmen or drivers?). Pan over the Binnenalster lake in Hamburg, with church spires and verdigris copper roofs on the skyline. Double exposed sequence. Pan over wintry leafless trees. US Army vehicle. Pan over heathland landscape (Luneburg Heath?), with the same three officers beside their British military station wagon, presumably continuing their tour. Scenes in same small German town, including bilingual traffic signs and "Gift Shop" notice. German and British soldiers beside lake. Pan over cleared rubble in Cologne towards the twin-spired cathedral, and across the damaged Hohenzollern bridge and a temporary bridge for crossing the Rhine. Statue topped by three male figures in renaissance garb. In Frankfurt am Main, more street scenes and damaged buildings, including the three-fronted facade of the Römer City Hall (destroyed by bombing in 1944), and street sign Fahrgasse. Destroyed modern road bridge in country. Petrol station on the Stuttgart-Ulm Autobahn near Wiesensteig (American zone) marked Ordnance Service Station No 10, with an attached cafe run by the American Red Cross Club Mobile organisation and marked "Java Junction" "Only Allied Troops in Uniform served". Dr Knott, in British Army uniform for the duration of his official visit, sits smoking on his own outside the cafe. Traditional Bavarian Luftmalerei wall paintings (logging) in country town, with US Army and British Army personnel visible. Pan from top of mountain (Bavarian Alps?) across distant mountains with first snow. Two US servicemen pass in company of two young German women in dirndl dresses. Dakota (34824) on airfield, presumably marking the end of Dr Knott's visit.
  • Alternative Title: AMATEUR FILM BY DR E B KNOTT [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: Colour
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 6745
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM (MGH 6745)
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1945
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details:
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 220 ft ca; Running time: 6 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 6745

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