The Kinoplex: SA Mann Brandt
Part One of The Kampfzeit Trilogy.
Older movies( and classic Cinema) in general allow us a to secure a brief glimpse into the past through the worldviews and experiences of the past people who directed and acted in them. Whether a troubled starlet who imploded after the silent era, or a legendary actor who defined what it meant to be a movie star. Watching their movies can help us understand the history of Hollywood, at least a little bit. Of course, one should not try to go too deeply and extrapolate the actual mechanics of the age from either period pieces or era-specific films. The Stepford Wives says more about how a certain clique of screenwriters viewed the 1950s than the 50s itself.
In any case, several generations removed, they become historical artifacts. “Will Success spoil Rock Hunter” is one such example. Produced and released in 1957, it satirizes advertising, fan culture, and the growth in television and subsequent decline in movie theaters as the only game in town for audiovisual entertainment. The premise revolves around Rock Hunter, an advertising executive at a firm in New York. With the loss of their biggest clienet Wh In the middle of the film, it goes from glorious widescreen technicolor to drab black and white flickering for an intermission, in which Tony Randall then takes the piss out of watchers who are in love with television in spite of its numerous visual flaws compared to a *proper* movie-going experience, like the one you’re watching right now. It’s a whole bit which is so far removed from our current understand of television screens that it can only be viewed from a historical lens(maybe if you’re old enough to remember vhs tapes and crt screens, you can get where he’s coming from)
Anyway, the 1933 Kampfzeit trilogy of SA Mann Brand Hitler Youth Quex, and Hans Westmar were German films that were all written. produced, and released in 1933, the first year of Hitler’s rule and subsequent consolidation of power in Germany. They were made at a time when the Party-State Coordination was not yet complete, and there were still considerable latitude in how the National Socialists tried to ‘brand’ themselves to a wider German Audience who weren’t their voter base. The ‘Kampfzeit’ refers to the ‘fighting time’ or 1920s in which the Nazi Party was seeking to grow from a small club of Munich beer hall attenders to a mass movement and from there to taking a commanding role in Germany. That they’re over 90 years old at this point is a pretty good indication of their status as Historical Artifacts, representing how the Nazi Party tried to appeal to a mass audience now that it was in power. Unlike a button or pamphlet or uniform, you can still watch & experience them( in glorious potato quality) on a couple of sites for free without needing to go anywhere.
(Note that the following isn’t a full review or play-by-play. Just a compare and contrast of the three films and their similarities/differences. Also note that because of their…charged material. The links are going to be likewise charged as well. Don’t blame me for getting a link from a site that’s called the “REAL TRUTH ABOUT HISTORY!!!!!”)
SA Mann Brand. A ‘life picture’ of our days
SA Mann Brand was the first movie in the “Kampfzeit” trilogy to be released. It follows the story of Fritz Brand, an SA captain living in a communist-dominated district of Berlin. He lives with his father, an unemployed Social Democrat, and his mother in a small apartment building. His neighbors include the Lohmers; a widowed mother whose husband died in the war, and her son, a Hitler Youth member. The Landlord, Anton Huber, is a decent guy, but he’s a classic henpecked husband ruled by his domineering shrew-wife. There’s some unexpected comedy where he adopts a lot of “house-husband” tasks like washing up as she goes out with friends to a meeting or in certain cases, covering up for his kindness towards the Lohmer’s such as giving them a roast(and later claiming that a stray cat ate it) or by covering their rent( handing them money he stashed in a copy of Mein Kampf).
The general crux of the plot revolves around Fritz being a target of the Communists, who seek to use a young communist cadre, Ann Baumann, to lure him in with romance and thus pump information from him to further their *dastardly* plans to take over Germany. Unfortunately, that plan goes off the rails as the communist cadre they choose spills the beans to him instantly, having an actual crush on Fritz. Thus, Fritz Brand decides to do some subterfuge of his own, and give them false information to distract them whilst he and the other Brownshirts conduct their own paramilitary operations against the Communists.
Along the way, he and the SA face obstacles such as facing bans by the government, employment discrimination, and general street violence that abounds.
There’s a natural class collaborationist message in SA Mann Brand, indicative of how the Nazi Party sought to transcend class divides, at least rhetorically. The Landlord himself is presented as being on the side of the Lohmer’s, unlike his Dolores Umbridge-esque wife, sneaking them rent money hidden inside his personal staff of marks hidden in a copy of Mein Kampf. In the scene where Fritz Brand is fired, he angerly bursts into a meeting filled with upper management and demands to know why.
“Why am I fired? I want to know the reason!”
“I have my reasons”
”I am not aware of having done anything wrong. I just won’t let myself simply be thrown out!”
“-Outrageous, these gentlemen, these Nazis"-”
”Ah- so! You don’t like my political affiliation”
…
After he leaves to take what’s left of his payslip. His immediate boss(not the one who fired him) tells him not to lose faith, and gives him a little ‘Heil Hitler’ for further encouragement.
This isn’t to say the propaganda is seamless though.
This whole scene is where the propagandistic aspect is pretty noticeable. It involves Erich Lohmer, for his 16th birthday being given a Hitler Youth Uniform sewn by his mother as well as the above portrait by Fritz Brand. What really caps it off is a purported letter by his father, who fell in the war. It’s full of the guff you’d expect-’My son-dedicate your life to the fatherland!’ But I suppose it may have had more purchase in 1933 than today. In the end, the scene only really exists to set up a later scene in which the kid dies.
There’s also a sense of mere workmanlike shot composition in SA Mann Brand compared to more ambitious stuff in Hans Westmar and Hitler Youth Quex.
On the whole, the movie fits like a set of short vignettes, each scene moving to the next with a vague overarching plot mechanism. There’s plenty of diversion here and there, which does dilute the overall thing somewhat. It also may have valorized the SA too much for its own good, as in reality, the SA was hardly as innocent as this movie portrays(naturally), and within a year, the Night of the Long Knives would any pretense of operational independence by the SA, and it would largely exist as a now castrated arm of the Party.
It’s ironic that Goebbels derided this movie as being “National Socialist kitsch” given it's a pretty down to earth film with perhaps the strongest protagonist out of the “Kampfzeit” trilogy. Fritz Brand isn’t a Nazi boy scout like Hans Westmar or a little kid like in Hitler Youth Quex, he’s a gruff working class guy who regularly argues with his Father and gets fired from his job for his political allegiance.
In fact… He’s a lot like a groyper.
Stay with me here.
A Tortured Analogy follows.
Overall, I give this 3.5 Heils out of 5.
Stay tuned, Hitler Youth Quex is up next.