Sailors song

The historical and revolutionary ballad film “Song of the Sailors” tries to understand the character of the “collective hero”, a group of underground sailors, and show the reasons for the defeat of the November November German revolution of 1918 .

The Russian revolution finally wins in the fall of 1917. Mechanic Henne Lobke and fireman Jens Kasten, showing solidarity with the Russian revolutionaries, disarm their officers to prevent the flooding of the Russian cargo ship. In Germany, the class struggle is unfolding. Dockers and sailors of Kiel call for a mass strike, demanding an end to the war and the abdication of the Kaiser .

Several revolutionary sailors were sentenced to death for political activity. For refusing to shoot at their comrades, a number of socialist sailors were arrested by officers. On the cruiser Prince Heinrich, a group of rebels makes a decision to send a message to peace to Vladimir I. Lenin and to all of humanity.

At this moment, the German Admiralty, to suppress the rebellion, decides to launch the suicidal operation "Nibelungs" and send the entire German fleet to the English Channel.

Workers and sailors rebel against officers, but political differences between them lead them to defeat. Gradually, the Kiel sailors, members of various left-wing political parties: from the Social Democrats and independent Social Democrats to the Spartacists , begin to realize the need for unification to bring about a revolution in Germany.

At the end of the film, many of the rebellious sailors take part in the founding conference on the creation of the new Communist Party of Germany (KKE).

The idea of ​​filming "Song of the Sailors" was conceived in October 1957, after the SED Conference on Cultural Affairs, during which the GDR authorities supported the conservative line to curtail a short period of the Khrushchev thaw . Screenwriters Paul Vince and Carl Georg Egel were commissioned to present the 1918 revolution in the film in accordance with the official Soviet interpretation of history. The leader of the German Communists, Walter Ulbricht then spoke out that the 1918 revolution did not achieve victory because of the “ opportunists ” of the Social Democrats and the absence at that time of the German Marxist-Leninist party, which would lead the workers “to a breakdown of the capitalist economic apparatus”. The plot focuses on the Spartacus Union , and the culmination of the film was the founding of the Communist Party of Germany.

• Gunter Zimon - Erich Steigert
• Raimund Shelher - August Lenz
• Ulrich Tyne - Henne Lobke
• Horst Cuba - Jens Kasten
• Hilmar Tate - Ludwig Batushek
• Wolfgang Langhoff - Attorney
• Ekkehard Schall - Eberhard Schuckert
• Jochen Thomas - Sebastian Huber
• Stefan Lisevsky - Jupp König
• Wolf Beneckendorf - von Resten
• Rita Goedikmeyer - Anna
• Vladimir Gulyaev - Grisha
• Hans Finor - Schroeder
• Siegfried Weiss - Captain
• Adolf Peter Hoffman - Holvitz
• Wolfgang Bruneker - deck commander
• Roman Silberstein - Otto
• Hans Ulrich Lauffer - machine gunner
• Hans-Hartmouth Kruger - Officer
• Monica Lennarz
• Fred Delmar - Sailor
• Rolf Ripperger - sailor, etc.

Filming began on June 3, 1958. The directors Kurt Metzig and Gunter Reisch worked separately; the first creative group was responsible for the scenes with the participation of German officers and admirals, while the second - shot sailors and extras.

The film became the largest project of the DEFA studio of that time, and was more ambitious than even the film-dilogy about Ernst Thälmann (Ernst Thälmann is the son of his class and Ernst Thälmann is the leader of his class). During the filming of the crowd, about 15,000 people (workers, soldiers and police) were involved.

• 1959 - National Prize of the German Democratic Republic of 2 degrees
• 1959 - Special Peace Prize at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival .

• Directing Encyclopedia. Cinema of Europe. Ed. Research Institute of Cinema, M. 2002. ISBN 5-85646-077-4

• " Sailors' Song ” on the Internet Movie Database