Der Weltkrieg. Ein historischer Film

Summary

Germany in the pre-war period: agriculture, heavy industry, port operations; armaments industry at the Krupp company, construction of guns and firing on the company's own firing range; fleet maneuvers; troop marches in Russia, Italy, France, England and Germany; assassination in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 (trick montage); inspection of troops by Czar Nicholas II in Russia and President Poincaré in France; King George V in the coronation carriage; conscription and farewell; North German peasants (staged); outbound passenger train with reservists; announcement of mobilization on 01.08.1914 in Berlin, crowds on Schloßplatz and in front of the Reichstag. Troops marching in front of King Ludwig III of Bavaria; troops marching out in Vienna and Berlin; passenger train pulling out with waving soldiers; weapons being transported by rail to the front; map tricks of the German and French deployment with depiction of operational objectives; fighting for the capture of Liège 04. - 12.08.1914 (map trick); night attack of German troops (staged); German troops on the advance; inspection of troops by Crown Prince Ruprecht v. Bavaria; advancing and storming troops in Belgium. Battle of Longwy Aug. 22-25, 1914 (map trick and staged battle scenes); Belgian prisoner procession through Liège; distribution of extra sheets (staged). Burning homesteads and refugees in East Prussia; troop transports from Western Front to Eastern Front (map trick). German troops on the advance in Belgium; resting with food distribution. Inspection of French troops by General Joffre; transport of French troops to Northern Front (map trick); collection point for French prisoners of war. Victory demonstration in Berlin; on balcony of palace, Empress Auguste Viktoria with her grandchildren. Cavalry crossing a body of water; medical corps moving through a French town; troops crossing a river on a pontoon bridge; night departure from bivouac (staged). Russian advance in mid-August 1915 (map trick); Russian troops break into East Prussia; fleeing East Prussian population (staged); General v. Hindenburg and Chief of Staff Ludendorff at a meeting at Grand Headquarters; Battle of Tannenberg Aug. 23-31. 1914 (map trick); battle scenes (staged); Russian prisoner procession; field hospital in a church (inside); Battle of the Masurian Lakes 5. - 15.09.1914 (map trick); German troops on the advance; Battle of Przemysl and Ivangorod (map trick); Austrian troops on the march and at a rest; heavy mortars in firing position; Battle before Warsaw 09. - 19.10.1914 (map trick). Marching German troops on the Western Front; Schlieffen Plan and actual operations on the Marne River (map trick). The leader of the 1st Army, General v. Kluck; fighters bring guns into position; staff officers at work (staged); news station in the field; Battle of the Marne 05. - 09.09.1914 (map trick); battle scenes with shell impacts (in part (partly staged); fallen soldiers and horse carcasses; retreat of German troops (partly staged); loading of a wounded man; retreating troops take position and dig trenches (staged); General Joffre awards French soldiers with the military medal. March of French troops on country roads; battle scenes with shell impacts and German soldiers in trenches (staged); Battle of Noyon and Arras 1915 (map trick); enlisted Prussian troops in barracks yard; Battle of Flanders 1915 (map trick); battle montage with soldiers wearing pickelhauben (staged); Burial of a fallen man with military honors, military cemetery; pioneers building positions; life in dugouts and trenches on the German and French sides; delousing action; aerial views of the battlefields of Ypres and at the Chemin des Dames; start of the Battle of Verdun on 21. 02.1916 (map trick); landscape panorama of the Vosges (trick); Vosges position in the destroyed forest area. Alpine war in the Dolomites; Serbian front; Kriegsmarine; armaments industry (montage). Field Marshal Archduke Friedrich in conversation with Austrian Chief of General Staff Conrad v. Hötzendorf; Field Marshal v. Mackensen and Colonel v. Seeckt; Battle of Gorlice 01 - 03.05.1915 and capture of Lemberg on 22.06.1915 (map trick); Victory parade of Austrian troops in Czernowitz on 04.08. 1917 in front of Archduke Franz Joseph; battle scenes from the Eastern Front (staged); second and third offensive (map trick); battle scenes with advancing troops; Prince Eitel Friedrich v. Prussia on horseback; destruction in the East: burning houses and ruins, blown-up bridges; Austrian and German troops on the advance. Bulgarian troops in battle in Serbia. Visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Sultan Mohammed V in Constantinople in October 1917. Crown Prince Wilhelm, OB of the 5th Army, talking with officers;Troops moving to the front, including through destroyed village; Trucks with soldiers driving through French villages; Beginning of the attack on Verdun on Feb. 21, 1916; Firing guns and mortars; Shell impacts. Assault troops in trench; assault and shell impacts; battle scenes; use of flamethrowers; advancing infantry through shell funnels; wounded being brought back; field artillery changing positions under enemy fire; French artillery positions; battle for Fort Douaumont (map trick); storming of fort on 25.02.1916 (staged). Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in conversation with enlisted soldiers; Emperor Wilhelm II decorating a soldier; the French governor Herr in Verdun fortress, ruins in the city, General Joffre marching past and inspecting troops; French troops marching to the front, including through destroyed villages; battle for Fort Douaumont (staged). Shell impacts; French wounded being brought back and taken away; French prisoner train, prisoners in collection camp; German prisoners moving through French trenches; German prisoners in collection camp; loading and removal of German wounded, including in hospital train. Berlin in wartime : street life on Kurfürstendamm (Café Kranzler) and Potsdamer Platz; armaments industry (assembly); soldiers unloading war scrap from a light railroad; announcement about butter supply of 18.10.1916; people queuing in front of a butter store, selling rationed butter (staged). Coal store, carrying away sacks of coal in baby carriages; people poking around in street garbage; women's work in armaments industry; women's work as streetcar conductors and postwomen; war invalids working in industry. Submarine on enemy voyage; torpedo tube being loaded; torpedoing and sinking of freighter. Maps of Japan, Russia, India, Australia and China; American armaments industry (montage); battle montages with the words "Brussilow", "Verdun", "Somme", "Macedonia", "Isonzo" inserted several times; shell impacts of incipient drum fire, soldiers in dugout (staged). Battle scenes with shell impacts: Ruined landscapes and devastated villages; biplanes take off for enemy flight; Rittm. Manfred v. Richthofen; air battles and crashing enemy planes; drum fire (montage); defense against an Anglo-French infantry attack (staged with cut-in real footage). Use of new weapons: Bombing and fighter planes, flamethrowers, poison gas, tanks, railroad guns; destroyed towns and ruined landscapes; Eastern Front in winter; Carpathians, Serbia and Romania, Dardanelles, Palestine, colonies; women in armaments industry (cartridge manufacture); High Seas Fleet and submarines on enemy voyages; German war heroes; Hptm. Oswald Boelcke, Ltn. Max Immelmann, Rittm. Manfred v. Richthofen, Prince Heinrich v. Prussia on a submarine, Nikolaus Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien; soldiers' grave.

(Abridged new version of the two-part Ufa film "Der Weltkrieg: Des Volkes Heldengang" and "Der Weltkrieg: Des Volkes Not" from 1927)

Source: Bundesarchiv