Morgenrot (film)

Morgenrot is a 1933 German submarine film set during World War I.

Released three days after Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the first film to have its screening in Nazi Germany.   It became a symbol of the new times touted by the Nazi regime. 

The title (literally "morning-red") is the German term for the reddish coloring of the east sky about a half-hour before the sunrise.   Dawn was the U.S. title. 

It was filmed in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, the first German submarine movie made after World War I.

Motifs
The film offered a heroization of death, with the captain explicitly stating that Germans may not know how to live, but they know how to die.  In a central scene, the captain of the submarine offers to his men that he and the first officer will go down with the ship in order that they may escape; they refuse on the grounds it will be all or none of them, and the captain glorifies the chance to die with such men, a theme that commonly appeared in Nazi-era films. 

The first officer, having learned that the woman he loves is in love with captain, not himself, and another sailor commit suicide to save the others – a common way to resolve love triangles in Nazi films, where the heroic death saves the man  from failure. 

On the other hand, the mother of one man refuses to rejoice over her son because of the suffering of war – a theme that would not appear in Nazi film. 

Cast 
 Rudolf Forster - Kapitanleutnant Helmut Liers
 Fritz Genschow - Oberleutnant 'Phipps' Fredericks
 Adele Sandrock - Liers' Mother
 Camilla Spira - GreteJaul, Fredericks' girl
 Paul Westermeier - Seaman Jaul
 Gerhard Bienert - Seaman Böhm
 Friedrich Gnaß - Juraczik
 Franz Nicklisch - Petermann
 Hans Leibelt - Bürgermeister von Meerskirchen
  - Helga, Jaul's girl
 Eduard von Winterstein - Hauptmann Kolch

Awards
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures awarded it with Best Foreign Film for 1933. 

References

Bibliography

External links

Category:1933 films
Category:German-language films
Category:U-boat fiction
Category:German black-and-white films
Category:German films
Category:Films of Nazi Germany
Category:Films of the Weimar Republic
Category:Films directed by Gustav Ucicky
Category:Films directed by Vernon Sewell
Category:World War I submarine films
Category:UFA films
Category:German war drama films
Category:1930s war drama films