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Advance obedience had done no good.
The production company Universal Pictures shortened the US version of the war film "Nothing New in the West" by eleven minutes for publication in Germany, from 147 to 136 minutes.
The German consul general in Los Angeles recommended it.
But the opponents of the film, which received two Oscars, based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, about the experiences of some volunteers on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, could not be appeased by such cosmetics.
They were also not interested in the fact that the Berlin Film Inspectorate, which was responsible for the approval at the time, had "no reservations" about the performance.
The film by director Lewis Milestone shows "the advantages of the old army, bravery, tenacity and camaraderie".
Scene from "Nothing New in the West": Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) is cared for by the veteran Katczinsky (Louis Weinheim) after a graze
Source: picture alliance / United Archive
Joseph Goebbels, NSDAP Gauleiter in the Reich capital and never drafted into the military because of his misshapen feet, saw it very differently.
Soon after the publication of Remarque's novel, he wrote in his diary on July 21, 1929: “I read 'Nothing new in the West'.
A mean, corrosive book. ”Two days later he wrote:“ Read 'Nothing New in the West' to the end.
A miserable tendency. "
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Of course, the Hitler follower, with his outstanding instinct for effective propaganda, knew that the film adaptation would be a lot more popular than the book.
That is why he chose the theatrical release for a special campaign.
On December 3, 1930, a Wednesday, he wrote in his notebook, as usual, early in the morning: “On Friday we go to the film 'Nothing new in the west'.
The eunuchs are supposed to be taught mores.
I look forward to it."
Joseph Goebbels around 1930 in a typical speech pose (contemporary colored photo)
Source: picture-alliance / akg-images
It was the first public evening performance in the Mozart Hall, a large cinema on Nollendorfplatz in Berlin-Schöneberg.
The premiere on Thursday evening, which is only accessible to invited guests, and the first generally accessible screening on the afternoon of December 5th went smoothly.
That changed now.
Goebbels had a clear goal: he wanted to create the impression that the audience was so outraged by the "American inflammatory film" that they protested of their own accord.
But he didn't want to leave it to chance, so he ordered a "roll command" of selected party comrades and SA people into the Mozart Hall.
They turned the performance into a "madhouse".
Erich Maria Remarque around 1930
Source: picture-alliance / IMAGNO / Austri
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The National Socialists had bought around 200 tickets for the performance without identifying themselves - almost a fifth of the total capacity.
The film was still running for less than ten minutes, reported the SPD newspaper “Vorwärts”, when the first disturbances sounded: “Jews out!” A little later, Ludwig Münchmeyer, a former Protestant pastor and savage anti-Semite, rose to the top of the hall Reichstag member of the NSDAP, and began to shout a hate speech over the sound of the film.
When the presenter stopped and switched on the light in the hall, the turmoil only increased.
There were brawls between SA men and visitors who turned against the troublemakers.
Soon stink bombs were also flying, and finally the Nazis released white mice they had brought with them into the hall at Goebbels' behest, which meant that the panic of the audience could no longer be controlled.
Berlin police in front of the exit from the Mozartsaal cinema in December 1930
Source: picture alliance / IMAGNO / Austri
The police, who had been alerted in the meantime, had to evacuate the hall under threat of violence.
Several boxes of stink bombs that had not been used were found later.
Of course, the management of the Mozart Hall had to cancel the night performance because the hall was dirty and urgently needed to be ventilated.
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“The demonstrators then had the audacity to demand their entrance fee back because the performance was interrupted,” reported the trade journal “Filmkurier” in its next issue, adding: “They smashed a window in the cash register and threatened the cashier.” But the money was already there in the safe of the cinema in safety.
At the same time as the disturbances in the hall, other Nazi supporters had gathered in front of the cinema and rioted here, also obstructing the police when the officers tried to intervene.
Three particularly aggressive SA men were provisionally arrested.
The next morning several exterminators had to be employed to catch the mice, as the left-liberal "Berliner Volkszeitung" reported.
Of course, on that Saturday, December 6th, 1930, the riots got a lot of space in the Berlin press.
The bourgeois-liberal "Vossische Zeitung" reported about "constant noise" and "shrill" whistles.
"Stink bombs" were thrown, the audience was "physically threatened".
The police in Berlin tried to enforce the ban on demonstrations with water cannons
Source: Wikipedia / Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10865 / CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Link to the original file, usable under license CC BY-SA 3.0 de
In the afternoon, on the other hand, the Berlin NSDAP evening newspaper "Der Attack", an evil propaganda paper, claimed that a "public protest storm" against the Remarque filming had risen when the "cowardice of volunteers was shown".
There had been "heavy fights provoked by Jews", because of which the police had to intervene.
Not a word of that was true.
On the following evenings, SA people protested on Nollendorfplatz and the nearby Wittenbergplatz as well as on Kurfürstendamm.
Finally, on December 11, 1930, the film inspection agency collapsed and withdrew the permission to show it.
The riots were not the only reason, as several right-wing state governments had protested against the film.
In Vienna, too, there were organized protests by National Socialists against "Nothing new in the West" -
Source: picture-alliance / IMAGNO / Austri
In a later self-portrayal of the Berlin SA published in 1937, it was of course very different.
Under the date December 5, 1930, the volume “We wander through the National Socialist Berlin”, a kind of Baedeker of the political struggle for the Reich capital: “The premiere of the Jewish-American anti-German Remarque film 'In the West Nothing New' was blown up by Dr .
Goebbels and the SA.
The film was finally banned on December 11th. "
On the same day, when it appeared in Braunschweig, NSDAP boss Adolf Hitler called the Remarque film adaptation, which he had never seen, “a shameful film that mocks the German soldiers”.
It was not until 1952 that another shortened and newly dubbed version was released in West German cinemas, and it wasn't until 1984 that a reconstruction of the 1930 version was broadcast.
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