Kuhle Wampe
Encyclopedia
Kuhle Wampe is a 1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....

 German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 feature film about unemployment and left wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 politics in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

. The script was conceived and written by Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

. He also directed the concluding scene: a political debate between strangers on a tram about the world coffee market. The rest of the film was directed by Slatan Dudow
Slatan Dudow
Slatan Theodor Dudow was a Bulgarian born film director and screenwriter who made a number of films in the Weimar Republic and East Germany....

.

Kuhle Wampe itself was a tent camp on the Müggelsee
Müggelsee
The Müggelsee, also known as the Großer Müggelsee, is a lake in the eastern suburbs of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It is the largest of the Berlin lakes by area, with an area of , a length of and a breadth of . The lake is in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick...

 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Wampe is Berlin dialect for "belly", so the title could also be rendered "Empty (or 'cool') Belly".

The film was banned in 1932 under the accusation that it depicted the president, the legal system, and religion in a poor way, but due to protests the ban was lifted on a recut version. The film remained unseen for many years after the Second World War. However, a restored print is now available and a video was released by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

 in 1999, along with a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 video essay on the original film by Andrew Hoellering, son of the film's producer Georg Hoellering.

Synopsis

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. At the beginning of the film, an unemployed young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, throws himself from a window out of the despair that he had spent another day unsuccessfully seeking work. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. They move into a garden colony of sorts, with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”

Anni, the family’s daughter and the only family member who still has a job, becomes pregnant and engaged to her boyfriend, Fritz, who that very evening describes that their marriage was demanded of him because of her pregnancy. Anni leaves Fritz and moves to her friend Gerda’s apartment. She later takes place in a worker’s sporting event where she meets Fritz again, who has recently lost his work, and they reunite.

The climax of the film depicts their return home by train (a scene that Brecht wrote personally). Anni and Fritz as well as a handful of workers argue with middle-class and wealthy men and women over the Situation of the worldwide financial crisis. One of the workers notes that the well-off will not change the world in any case, to which one of the wealthy asks quizzically, “Who else, then, can change the world?” Gerda replies, “Those who don’t like it.”

The film ends with the singing of the Solidarity Song, with lyrics by Brecht and music from Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...

.

Cast

  • Hertha Thiele
    Hertha Thiele
    Hertha Thiele was a German actress. She is noted for her starring roles in controversial stage plays and films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich. Thiele later became a television star in East Germany...

     as Annie
  • Ernst Busch
    Ernst Busch
    Ernst Bernhard Wilhelm Busch was a German field marshal during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...

     as Fritz
  • Martha Wolter as Gerda
  • Adolf Fischer as Karl Genosse
  • Lili Schoenborn-Anspach
  • Max Sablotzki
  • Alfred Schaefer
  • Gerhard Bienert
  • Martha Burchardi
  • Carl Heinz Charrell
  • Helene Weigel
    Helene Weigel
    Helene Weigel was a distinguished German actress. She was the second wife of Bertolt Brecht, and together they had a son Stefan Brecht and daughter Barbara Brecht-Schall .The daughter of a Jewish lawyer, she became a Communist Party member from 1930 and Artistic Director of the...

     as Ballad Singer (voice)
  • Karl Kahmen
  • Fritz Erpenbeck
  • Erwin Geschonneck
    Erwin Geschonneck
    Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...

  • Josef Hanoszek
  • Richard Pilgert
  • Hugo Werner-Kahle
  • Hermann Krehan
  • Paul Kretzburg
  • Anna Muller-Lincke
  • Rudolf Pehls
  • Erich Peters
  • Olly Rummel
  • Willi Schur
  • Martha Seemann
  • Hans Stern
  • Karl Wagner

Video release

  • Kuhle Wampe, BFIV053, subtitled, black and white, 68 minutes running time, with a 48 minute documentary.
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