Jeder stirbt für sich allein (1962 film)

Jeder stirbt für sich allein

Courtroom scene
Directed by Falk Harnack
Screenplay by Robert A. Stemmle
Falk Harnack
Based on Every Man Dies Alone 
by Hans Fallada
Starring Alfred Schieske
Edith Schultze-Westrum
Music by Peter Sandloff
Cinematography Heinz Pehlke
Production
company
Release dates
Running time
 100 minutes
Country Germany
Language German

Jeder stirbt für sich allein (Everyone Dies Alone) is a 1962 West German made for television political drama film based on a best-selling novel by Hans Fallada, itself based on the true story of a working class couple, Otto and Elise Hampel, who committed acts of civil disobedience against the government of Nazi Germany and were executed. Directed by former German Resistance member Falk Harnack—whose brother, sister-in-law and cousins were executed during the Nazi regime—it was the first screen adaptation of Fallada's novel.

Background

The teleplay was adapted by Robert A. Stemmle from the Hans Fallada novel Every Man Dies Alone.[1] Though written in 1947, it was virtually unknown to the English-speaking world until it was translated into English in 2009.[2] The German edition achieved early success, spawning translations into Russian,[3] Polish,[4] Romanian,[5] Czech,[6] Norwegian,[7] French,[8] and Italian.[9] The 2009 English version soon became a bestseller in both England and the United States, bringing more international success and translations into Hebrew[10] and Dutch.

In addition to the 1962 teleplay, there have been three subsequent screen adaptations of Fallada's novel: a television miniseries entitled Jeder stirbt für sich allein broadcast in East Germany in 1970;[11] a feature film in 1975, released in English in 1976 as Everyone Dies Alone;[12][13] and a television miniseries in the Czech Republic in 2004.[14]

The 1962 teleplay, the first screen adaptation of Fallada's book, was directed by Falk Harnack, who had been active in the German Resistance against the Nazism and the Third Reich.[15] His own arrest and trial led to acquittal, but several members of his family and many friends were arrested[10] and executed, including his brother, Arvid[16] and his sister-in-law, Mildred Harnack, a translator and professor of literature, who had visited Fallada in 1934.[15][17]

Broadcast and synopsis

The 1962 teleplay aired on station Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), then an affiliate of German broadcaster ARD. It tells of an ordinary couple who began to resist the Nazis after their only son was killed in World War II. The television film was broadcast the evening of 19 July, the day before the 18th anniversary of the 20 July 1944 attempt on Adolf Hitler's life.[1]

In wartime Berlin, a factory foreman, Otto Quangel and his wife, Anna learn that their only son, Paul, has been killed in action in France.[18] In their grief, the couple decide to take action against the Nazi regime. They create their own form of resistance, writing postcards urging people to resist Hitler and the Nazis and quietly distributing the postcards around Berlin.[1] Various people enter the picture, showing the fear and distrust of the times. People, such as the actor Harteisen, find the cards and race to turn them in,[18] lest they be found with them and come under suspicion. The police and the Gestapo are baffled for over a year, but finally find the source of the cards. The Volksgerichtshof sentences the Quangels to death.[1]

The television listing for the broadcast read, "An impressive teleplay, this will be broadcast on the eve of 20 July to commemorate the many unknown fighters against Nazi terror, in memory of the people who were pursued by the Gestapo and executed by an inexorable judiciary."[1]

Cast

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Programm vom Donnerstag, dem 19. Juli 1962" TV Programme. Retrieved March 4, 2012 (German)
  2. ↑ Liesl Schillinger, "Postcards From the Edge" The New York Times (February 27, 2009). Retrieved March 6, 2012
  3. ↑ Каждый умирает в одиночку (fb2) Либрусек. Retrieved March 8, 2012 (Russian)
  4. ↑ Każdy umiera w samotności Worldcat. Retrieved March 8, 2012
  5. ↑ "Fiecare moare singur (Trad. după orig. în limba germana) Worldcat. Retrieved March 8, 2012 (Romanian)
  6. ↑ Christoph Bartmann, "Překvapivý bestseller I ve smrti sami" Literární.cz Retrieved March 8, 2012 (Czech)
  7. ↑ Den veien du går alene Worldcat. Retrieved March 8, 2012
  8. ↑ Seul dans Berlin Worldcat. Retrieved March 8, 2012
  9. ↑ "Ognuno muore solo" Post (June 6, 2010). Retrieved March 8, 2012 (Italian)
  10. 1 2 Johannes Groschupf, "Das Ehepaar Hampel allein in Berlin" Die Zeit (April 16, 2011), p. 2. Retrieved March 8, 2012 (German)
  11. ↑ Filmsterne biography of Erwin Geschonneck DEFA. Retrieved March 5, 2012 (German)
  12. ↑ Hildegard Knef Palazoo. Retrieved March 5, 2012
  13. ↑ "Everyone Dies Alone" Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 5, 2012
  14. ↑ "Dobro a zlo u Dušana Kleina" Hospodářské Noviny (16 February 2004). Retrieved March 4, 2012 (Czech)
  15. 1 2 Carsten Gansel, Werner Liersch, Zeit vergessen, Zeit erinnern: Hans Fallada und das kulturelle Gedächtnis V&R unipress in Göttingen, (2008), pp. 181–2. Retrieved March 9, 2012 (German)
  16. ↑ Arvid Harnack timeline Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved March 9, 2012 (German)
  17. ↑ Shareen Blair Brysac, 2000. Mildred Harnack: Cast of Characters, TRACES.org. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
  18. 1 2 Carsten Gansel, Werner Liersch (2008), p. 185 Retrieved March 9, 2012 (German)

External links

Jeder stirbt für sich allein at the Internet Movie Database

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