Familie Benthin is an East German film. It was released in 1950.

Plot

Theo and Gustav Benthin are two brothers who operate a smuggling network: Theo, a factory director in East Germany, illegally transfers goods to his brother on the other side of the border, and the latter sells them in West Germany. The two also employ another pair of brothers, Peter and Klaus Naumann. Theo is caught by the People's Police; Gustav cannot compete in the wild capitalist market without the cheap merchandise from the East and his business collapses. Peter Naumann moves to the Federal Republic, but there he finds only unemployment and is eventually to join the French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

. Klaus remains in the East and finds a promising job as a steel worker.

Cast

• Maly Delschaft - Annemarie Naumann
• Charlotte Ander - Olga Benthin
• Hans-Georg Rudolph - Theo Benthin
• Werner Pledath - Gustav Benthin
• Brigitte Conrad - Ursel Benthin
• Harry Hindemith - Seidel
• Karl-Heinz Deickert - Klaus Neumann
• Ottokar Runze - Peter Naumann

Production

The Benthin Family was DEFA's first major "mission film", with a clear, state-directed political message, although pictures that presented narratives hostile to West Germany and to the West in general were already made, albeit with smaller budgets and less government attention.

Three directors - Slatan Dudow, Richard Groschopp and Kurt Maetzig

Kurt Maetzig

Kurt Maetzig is an East German film director who had a significant effect on the film industry in the GDR. He is one of the most respected filmmakers of East Germany. He currently lives in Wildkuhl, Mecklenburg, and has three children....

 - were instructed by Socialist Unity Party of Germany

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 to work on the film. Later, none of them was willing to accept responsibility for the outcome.

Reception

East German cinema expert Joshua Feinstein wrote that The Benthin Family "...seems to have been an unmitigated disaster." The SED newspaper Neues Deutschland praised the film, noting that "its greatness lies in its realization of the greatness of our life today..." while contrasting them with "the other side... where the West Geramn youth... are processed for service as mercenaries for the imperialists." At 1952, the censure demanded that a scene in which a drunk worker appeared be removed before the film was allowed to be re-screened, since it did not comply with "depicting independent, intelligent members of the proletariat".

The German Film Lexicon defined The Benthin Family as a "SED-commissioned agitation thriller with simplistic good-versus-evil plot... but interesting as a Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

relic."

External links

• Familie Benthin on DEFA Sternstunden.