Anti British propaganda - Uncle Krüger propaganda films pamphlet produced in Nazi Germany attacking the British.
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Ohm Krüger (English: Uncle Krüger) is a 1941 German biographical film directed by Hans Steinhoff and starring Emil Jannings, Lucie Höflich and Werner Hinz. It was one of a series of propaganda films produced in Nazi Germany attacking the British. The film depicts the life of the South African politician Paul Kruger and his eventual defeat by the British during the Boer War.
It was the first film to be awarded the 'Film of the Nation' award. It was re-released in 1944.
Ohm Krüger was one of a number of anti-British propaganda feature films produced by the Nazis during the war, most of which focused on the theme of colonialism to demonstrate through Britain's history the true nature of the British character.Some of these productions, such as Der Fuchs von Glenarvon (1940) and Mein Leben für Irland (1941), represented British relations with Ireland. Other works criticized its imperialism toward the Afrikaans-speaking Boers, of which Ohm Krüger was the most expensive and powerful. It used the Boer War to present the British as violent, exploitative, and an enemy to civilisation.In doing so, it was able to complement the anti-imperalist views of the press, appeal to the German public's interest in colonial issues, and build upon the hatred of the British that had grown with RAF bombing raids on German targets.It was one of a number of films intended to prepare Germany for a planned invasion of Britain.Its somewhat crude attack on Britain is typical of later films, such as Carl Peters, after Hitler came to the conclusion that no separate peace with Britain was possible. It depicts the British as seeking gold, symbolic of barrenness and evil, in contrast to the Boers who raise crops and animals. Kruger's son decides to obey Kruger after the son's wife was nearly raped by a British soldier.
Publicity material which accompanied the film particularly drew attention to the role of Winston Churchill in the Boer Wars, during which he served as a journalist. Tobis also advised the press to emphasise 'what Churchill learnt in the Boer War':
'The same Churchill who in South Africa saw his ideas about exterminating the Boers followed throughout, as the English rulers, voicing polished humanitarian slogans, while driven by mere greed, unleashed the most contemptible actions on a people under attack. [T]he same Churchill is now Albion's prime minister.
British concentration camps were portrayed in the film as intentionally inhumane. Meanwhile, major expansion of the Nazi camp system was being implemented.
Parallels were drawn between the Boer War and the Second World War, and between Paul Krüger and Adolf Hitler.
Key British figures are demonised in the film, including Joseph Chamberlain and the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Queen Victoria is presented as a drunkard and the British concentration camp commandant, responsible for the killing of female inmates, resembles Winston Churchill.
It also reflects German anger at the loss of all German colonies at the end of World War I, though less directly than Carl Peters
More info : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm_Kr%C3%BCger