The German Colonial Film Society

Until the beginning of the sound film, Friedrichstraße stood for Berlin as an international film location. [1] In addition to renowned film companies such as Léon Gaumont, Pathé Frères, Eclipse and Deutsche Bioscope, the office of the Deutsche Kolonial-Filmgesellschaft mbH, or Deuko for short, was also located in today's Kreuzberg from 1917 onwards. It gave rise to a new genre: the fictional colonial propaganda film. However, the films were not produced in the colonies, but in Berlin. With the outbreak of the First World War on 1 August 1914, the production conditions had changed – the naval blockade of the British navy cut off Germany from the overseas territories. Until then, so-called current affairs and travel images had been produced in the German colonies, i.e. early forms of documentary film. The Kreuzberg Deuko, on the other hand, relied on the personal drama of the Germans in the colonies with its films. These films were intended to remind the domestic audience that the German Reich was also defended in Africa, the "second homeland". [2]

With a share capital of 60,000 marks, the Berlin businessmen Martin Steinke, Alfred Leopold and Karl Karalus signed the articles of association on 20 March 1917; the entry in the commercial register took place the following month, 27 April 1917.Martin Steinke was mainly responsible for the company after Leopold and Karalus had left in 1917 and 1918. Deuko initially maintained its office at Friedrichstraße 235 and moved to Friedrichstraße 5–6 in May. The efforts of the colonial private sector to establish their own film propaganda came to bear in Deuko – independent of state propaganda institutions such as the state-affiliated German Photographic Society (DLG/DEULIG) or the Image and Film Office (BUFA), which was subordinate to the highest army command. Nevertheless, the production history of the Deuko proves a close connection to the Reich Colonial Office (RKA) at Wilhelmstraße 62 and to the most influential colonial lobby group, the German Colonial Society (DKG), which had its headquarters in the so-called Africa House, Am Karlsbad 10 in Tiergarten.

The founding of Deuko coincided almost simultaneously with a discussion within the DKG about colonial film propaganda. The entry in the commercial register took place on the same day as the DKG's decision not to participate financially in the founding of a "Colonial Film Company" for the time being, but to act as an important cooperation partner for possible film projects. [3] In September 1917, Steinke described the goals of the Deuko in the Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, the mouthpiece of the Colonial Society. In contrast to foreign hate films, according to Steinke, which appealed to the low instincts of the audience, the Deuko wanted to do "cultural work". [4] Since "colonies are of immense importance for the homeland", the Deuko intends to produce "colonial film dramas with exciting content and a healthy tendency". [5]

By the end of her career in 1919, Deuko had made eight film projects: "The Traitor" (Georg Alexander/Carl Boese, 1917), "Farmer Borchardt" (Carl Boese, 1917), an animated film for the colonial warriors' donation (1918), "The Last Moment" (1918), "The Heroine of Paratau" (1918), "The End of Alma Bonar" (1918), "The Prisoner of Dahomey" (Hubert Moest, 1918) and a humorous animated film. [6] Only "The Last Moment" has survived today, but even this film lacks the last film reel. The film is not set in the colonies, but the colonial territories are addressed as a place of refuge in the "crime social drama"[7]. Three films are accessible through reviews in the film press: "The Traitor", "Farmer Borchardt" and "The Prisoner of Dahomey". The plot of "The End of Alma Bonar" is not known. The animated film, which was produced on August 17-18, 1918 and was intended to help generate donations for colonial warriors, may have had something to do with the colonies. In the case of "The Last Moment" and "The Heroine of Paratau", an indirect reference is obvious. According to an advertisement in the film magazine "Der Film", one of the main actresses of the film "The Heroine of Paratau" was a person named "Meg Gehns", who was very likely Emma Augusta (Meg) Gehrts (1891–1966). In her book "Die Weisse Göttin der Wangora/A Camera Actress in the Wilds of Togoland" she reports on film work in Paratau (today Paratao in Togo). [8] It cannot be ruled out that "The Heroine of Paratau" is identical with an older production or even the remake of a film that Gehrt's husband, the director Hans Schomburgk, shot during his stay in Togo in 1914.

The first feature film of the Deuko, "The Traitor", which was released in September 1917, was aimed at anti-British propaganda. It tells the story of the young Englishman Smith, who falls in love with the daughter (Else Roscher) of a German businessman and farm owner in German South West Africa (DSWA) in peacetime. Smith marries the girl, moves to German South-West and becomes manager of his father-in-law's farm. After moving to Africa, he neglects his young wife, but intensifies contacts with his British neighbours. The German assistant of the farm telegraphs to Germany and reports on the strange events. The father-in-law's nephew is sent to the colony to check on Smith's work. When the war breaks out, Smith's cover is blown. He is a spy and has tried to transfer his father-in-law's property to the British side. He is killed in a motorboat chase on the Orange River. The film plot not only put the German colonies on the agenda, but also showed the front in Africa, where German soil was to be defended against the British.

The second Deuko production was about the cohesion of women and men under war conditions. The film was set in DSWA at the time of the Herero War in 1904–08. Thus, the film could not only appeal to supposedly German virtues such as loyalty and perseverance, but at the same time commemorate the last war won by the German military. "Farmer Borchardt" was released in March 1918 and promised in its advertisement: "Effective!! Highest tension until the end!" [9] After separating from her fiancé, young Agnes (Frydel Fredy) marries Farmer Borchardt (Ferdinand Bonn) and moves with him to "Südwest". Although they lead a carefree life, the young woman cannot forget her first fiancé. After the death of her child, she feels lonely and flirts with her old lover, who now works for the government in the colony. Borchardt discovers the secret love and sends them both away. In the meantime, the Herero war has begun. Agnes returns to Borchardt on the farm. Shortly afterwards, Herero attack, and Borchardt desperately wants to save his wife from possible atrocities committed by the attacking enemies and shoots at her. But the Schutztruppen arrive and save the farm. Borchardt believes that he has killed his wife and becomes depressed.

Agnes recovers and they begin a new life together. "Farmer Borchardt" celebrated its premiere on March 10, 1918 in the renowned Marmorhaus at Kurfürstendamm 236 and ran successfully at home and abroad. Film images in the press prove that the production used black actors to depict the acts of war. Although nothing is known about the individual actors and extras, this film also proves the well-known employment of people from the Berlin diaspora for propaganda purposes.

The actors of African descent were decisive for Deuko's third film. The success of "Farmer Borchardt" enabled DEUKO to produce an even larger film, "The Prisoner of Dahomey", which was also to be the last film. This film was clearly anti-French propaganda. It was based on a screenplay by colonial writer Lene Haase and told the story of the German Burgsdorf (Fritz Delius), who is taken prisoner by the French army at the beginning of the First World War. In the prison camp in Dahomey (on the territory of today's Benin), Burgsdorf and his comrades suffer from the sadistic excesses of the French commander (Friedrich Kühne). Burgsdorf does not rebel at first and tries to make the best of his situation. Eventually, however, he demands fair treatment for the prisoners, for which he is to be punished with the hippopotamus whip. A black soldier is tasked with this, but he defies the order and is killed by the captain. Soon after, Burgsdorf is tortured to the point of unconsciousness. A servant of the commander's wife cares for him and gives him a mysterious protective potion that puts him into a death-like sleep. He is declared dead and buried. He is then brought back to life by means of an antidote and returns to the camp every night as a living dead man, where he gradually kills the black guards. In the meantime, Burgsdorf and the camp commander's wife have fallen in love. When the commandant discovers the relationship, he tries to kill Burgsdorf. During a dramatic chase, the camp commander dies. Burgsdorf and his lover leave Africa and start a new life in Switzerland. The film "The Prisoner of Dahomey" is no longer available, and the few reviews of the film provide only fragmentary information about the making of the film. The screenwriter Lene (Lena) Haase had made a name for herself as a colonial writer in the years before with novels such as "Raggy's Journey to the Southwest" (1910), "Through Unknown Cameroon: Contributions to German Cultural Work in Africa" (1915) and "My Black Brothers: Stories from the Jungle" (1916). Married to a district doctor working in the German colony of Cameroon, she vividly conveyed white colonial life. The story of the farmer Burgsdorf was supposedly based on actual experiences, but this did not seem very credible to the critics in view of Burgsdorf's apparent death, resurrection and campaign of revenge. [10] For the German colonial lobby, however, such a mixture of fact and fiction was an effective means of conducting colonial propaganda among the general public.

The limited availability of sources does not allow for a conclusive analysis and interpretation of the film. What is remarkable about Haase's screenplay is the construction of an anti-French alliance of African voodoo culture and German resistance. Contrary to the colonial missionary ideology, which regarded Africans as uneducated children who had to be raised to a higher, Christian level of civilization, in the film it is precisely the foreign, unchristian knowledge that proves to be decisive for Burgsdorf's successful campaign of revenge. It is true that his black savior appears only as a vicarious agent and remains in the colonial stereotype of the "noble savages". Her ritual knowledge, on the other hand, is decisive for Burgsdorf's victory against his tormentors. The Living Dead Man in Haase's screenplay shows a remarkable parallel to the practices of the Haitian voodoo cult of the "Zombi corps cadavre", in which control over a person is gained by means of poisons and antidotes. Burgsdorf's adversary, the French camp commander, was described by the film press as a "German-eater". [11] This enemy man-eater could only be dealt with with the help of ritual but allied forces.

On closer inspection, the alliance against the inhuman French enemy, under which Africans and Germans suffer together, proves to be fragile. Burgsdorf's campaign of revenge is decisively directed against the black guards, played by interned African soldiers who served as extras in the film. The French camp commander, on the other hand, does not die at Burgsdorf's hand, but sinks into a swamp in pursuit of his wife and her lover Burgsdorf. Other solidarities shine through here, which are also evident when Burgsdorf returns to Europe with a French woman at the end.

Since filming in the colonies was no longer possible, the Deuko had to be inventive in the design of its feature films and create a setting similar to that of the colonies. Under the auspices of the Reich Colonial Office, which supported the production with props and extras, the interior shots were shot in the Berlin studios, the exterior shots in the vicinity of Berlin. Critics praised the Deuko for the clever selection of locations that feigned "reality". [12] "The Traitor" contained original footage from the colonies, which was given to Deuko by the DKG. [13] In the case of "The Prisoner of Dahomey", part of the props were provided by the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, although the aforementioned hippopotamus whip mysteriously disappeared and could not be returned to the museum.

The Deuko did not have to look long for a suitable and authentic location for the scenes in the prison camp in the film. The cooperation with the Reich Colonial Office enabled the Deuko to use the events of the war for its own purposes. In Berlin-Wünsdorf, in today's Teltow-Fläming district (Brandenburg), the Supreme Army Command had built a prison camp, the so-called "Half Moon Camp", in which captured Muslims were to be indoctrinated in order to later wage a holy war (jihad) against French and English colonial rulers. Through the contacts with the Reich Colonial Office mentioned above, the real German camp was quickly redecorated as a fictional French film prison camp. The production of the film was thus based on the perverse logic in which the prisoners had to play the role of the guards, while the German slipped into the role of the internee.

Deuko's close contact with the RKA and the DKG paid off. In recognition of her work, she was awarded 2,000 marks by the DKG in April 1918,[15] and the DKG also supported Deuko through advertising in its district associations and departments. [16] The initial success made Deuko self-confident and a sought-after partner. In the spring of 1918, she submitted her idea of a reformation of the company to the DKG. The share capital was to be increased to 500,000 marks (in the further course it was to be up to 1.5 million marks[17]). After the end of the war, new productions were planned in the colonies, and an own studio, a copying facility and an archive for colonial film and culture were also to be built. [18] However, the new social contract drawn up for this purpose in June 1918 was never implemented, because the positive development of the Deuko ended with the German defeat in the First World War.

The Deuko films were more successful at the box office than in the film press, where the reactions were mixed. The cinematographer complained that a better director would have made more of the "rich material" in "The Traitor". The Lichtbild-Bühne thought that the propagandistic goal in "Farmer Borchardt" was the opposite, since the Herero's willingness to fight did not encourage them to give up their homeland. What would remain would be a sentimental love story. [19] The magazine Der Film, on the other hand, considered the work convincing. [20] "The Prisoner of Dahomey" triggered positive reactions on the political side: the State Secretary of the RKA Wilhelm Heinrich Solf congratulated[21] and the members of the colonial movement raved about the excellent workmanship[22]. But the press was not enthusiastic about the film in view of the impending defeat in the war. For the BZ am Mittag it was a cultureless cultural film. [23] The film harshly judged that one could not get out of the horror when watching the film. The critics in "The Film and The Cinematograph" were unanimous: it was a hate film that no longer served its purpose. [24]

The film was first banned for children and then completely[25] – for Deuko, the film became a financial disaster. Contracts concluded with cinemas could not be kept, and in April 1919 the company had to file for bankruptcy due to insolvency, which was rejected due to a lack of assets. For cost reasons, the office was moved from Friedrichstraße to Potsdamer Straße 140. In May 1919, Baron von Willemoes-Suhm became the main shareholder of Deuko and in January 1921 sole shareholder. In December 1927, Deuko was finally officially deleted from the commercial register. [26]

Despite its short active activity, the Deutsche Kolonial-Filmgesellschaft mbH is more than just a marginal note in colonial and film history. The close interlocking of private-sector and colonial political interests and interest groups is evidence of the emerging willingness to establish colonial propaganda film work on a large scale. For Berlin filmmakers, colonial films offered another field of employment, in the case of director Carl Boese it was the springboard to a decades-long career in the film business – also in the later Federal Republic.

In 1921, Boese initially returned to propagandistic colonial film by directing the openly racist and anti-French film "Die schwarze Schmach". The film dealt with the French occupation of the Rhineland, among other things by troops from the African colonies. The focus was on the purity of German women, who were endangered by alleged rape by black occupying soldiers. [27] The film, which has been lost to this day, was released in various cities in April 1921 and caused "packed houses everywhere"[28]. In August of that year, the film was banned in order not to further strain the tense German-French relations. [29] Carl Boese continued his filmmaking in the Third Reich and worked as a director until the 1950s.

The films of the Deuko, with their stories of self-sacrificing, good-natured German colonial masters and colonial women, are part of the visual repertoire of German colonial ideology, which was continued in colonial revisionist films in the 1920s. [30] The motifs have an astonishing continuity to this day, such as "Our House in Cameroon" (Alfred Vohrer, West Germany, 1961), "Dream Ship 33: Namibia" (Michael Steinke, West Germany, 1999), "Africa, Mon Amour" (Carlo Rola, West Germany, 2007), "My Home Africa" (Erhard Riedlsperger, West Germany, 2010). [31] The history of the Deuko lasted only a few years, but it exemplifies the combination of colonialism, racism, entertainment and cinematic calculations in German history.