A German Robinson Crusoe

A German Robinson Crusoe
German film poster
German	Ein Robinson
Directed by	Arnold Fanck
Written by	Arnold Fanck Rolf Meyer
Produced by	Oskar Marion Wilhelm Sperber
Starring	Herbert A.E. Böhme Marieluise Claudius Claus Clausen
Cinematography	Sepp Allgeier Albert Benitz Hans Ert
Edited by	Arnold Fanck Johannes Lüdke
Music by	Werner Bochmann
Production company	Bavaria-Filmkunst
Distributed by	Bavaria-Filmverleih
Release date	25 April 1940 (1940-04-25) (Germany)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

A German Robinson Crusoe (German: Ein Robinson) is a 1940 German drama film directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Herbert A.E. Böhme, Marieluise Claudius, and Claus Clausen. Written by Arnold Fanck and Rolf Meyer, the film is a modern-day Robinson Crusoe story about a man so angry about the post-World War I conditions in Weimar Germany that he voluntarily goes to live on a desert island. The film was shot partly on location in South America.

Plot

During World War I, the German cruiser SMS Dresden is attacked by British ships off the coast of Chile. The crew manage to abandon ship before it sinks. They make their way to an isolated island where they are taken prisoner. After spending three years in custody, the sailors manage to escape and make their way back to Germany, intending to continue fighting for their Fatherland. When they arrive, however, they encounter a different Germany from the one they left behind—one where they are ridiculed and attacked by mutineers.

One of the returning crew, Carl Ohlse, leaves Weimar Germany and returns to the island where he had been held prisoner for three years, determined to live out the rest of his life as a Robinson Crusoe. Some time later, he hears a radio report that describes how things have improved in Germany during the 1930s. Later, when the new SMS Dresden passes the island, he makes his way to the ship and is taken aboard by his new respectful comrades.

Cast

• Herbert A.E. Böhme as Carl Ohlsen
• Marieluise Claudius as Antje
• Claus Clausen as Fritz Grothe
• Oskar Marion as captain
• Malte Jäger as officer
• Wilhelm P. Krüger as Pagels
• Otto Kronburger as commander
• Wolf Dietrich as officer
• Ludwig Schmid-Wildy as sailor
• Leopold Kerscher as sailor
• Martin Rickelt as sailor Peter
• Georg Völkel as 1. officer
• Hans Kühlewein as Obermaat
• Charly Berger as staff surgeon
• Günther Polensen as sailor
• Hans-Joachim Fanck as little Peter

Production

A German Robinson Crusoe was directed by Arnold Fanck.

Release

It was banned from being shown in Germany by the Allied High Commission after World War II.

Works cited

• Kelson, John (1996). Catalogue of Forbidden German Feature and Short Film Productions held in Zonal Film Archives of Film Section, Information Services Division, Control Commission for Germany, (BE) (2 ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0948911190.

Further reading

• Rentschler, Eric (1996). The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-57640-7.
• Richards, Jeffrey (1973). Visions of Yesterday. London: Routledge & K. Paul. ISBN 978-0-7100-7576-5.
• Welch, David (2001). Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933–1945. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-520-4.

External links

• A German Robinson Crusoe at IMDb