| Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) and Alfred Hugenberg (June 19, 1865 – March 12, 1951) at the premiere of the World War I film Morgenrot in the Universum Film AG (UFa)-Filmpalast. Morgenrot is a 1933 German submarine action film set during World War I. Released 3 days after Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the 1st 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 American title. It was filmed in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, as the 1st German submarine movie made after World War I. The film was also part of an effort to rehabilitate the reputation of the Imperial Germany Navy and of navalism in general. The November Revolution of 1918, the alleged “stab-in-the-back” that defeated Germany just as the Reich was alleged to be on the verge of victory, had started with the great High Seas Fleet mutiny. In October 1918, the mistreated sailors of the High Seas Fleet turned against their officers after being ordered to set sail on a “death ride” into the North Sea to take on the combined Anglo-American Grand Fleet in a battle expected to end in the destruction of the High Seas Fleet at a time when it was already clear that the war was lost. Besides for being mistreated by their officers, who delighted in humiliating them in various petty ways, the sailors of the High Seas Fleet justified the mutiny under the grounds that the war was already lost, making the planned “death ride” utterly pointless and that it was better to live another day than to die now for a lost cause. For the German right, the High Seas Fleet mutiny had given the Navy a vile reputation as a place of mutiny and treason, where the November revolution that had toppled the House of Hohenzollern had begun. Releasing a film featuring a heroic U-boat ace, who is honored to fight and if necessary die for the Fatherland, was intended by the navalist Hugenberg to dissipate the popular image of mutinous sailors waving about red flags, and provide a more positive image of the Imperial Navy. Much of what can be described as Morgenrot’s pro-death message with its portrayal of death in war as noble, honorable and even erotic was intended as a sort of rebuttal to the mutinous sailors of the High Seas Fleet. In March 1927, the UFa studio, the largest film production company in Europe, was purchased by the media magnate Alfred Hugenberg, who wanted to own UFa to produce “national” films that glorified his right-wing politics. Morgenrot was 1 of the several “national” films that were released by UFa during Hugenberg’s time as its owner. Despite Hugenberg’s hopes, the UFA studio was heavily in debt at the time he purchased it and the transition from silent films to talkies imposed significant new costs on UFA and, as a result, UFa tended to release films with the widest possible appeal instead of the “national” films that Hugenberg had wanted to see produced. For Hugenberg, profits trumped his politics with UFa and, contrary to expectations, there was no purge of UFa’s Jewish employees after he brought the studio as he did not want to lose talent to rival studios. Only a minority of UFA films released between 1927 and 1933 were the sort of films that Hugenberg had wanted to see produced. Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) wrote in his diary that Morgenrot was “a good film within its limits.” Critical reception towards Morgenrot was generally favorable with the critics praising the acting and the direction with the film being praised as exciting and brisk. The Frankfurter Zeitung, the most prestigious newspaper in Germany, unusually put its review of Morgenrot on its front page, where the film critic of the Frankfurter Zeitung praised the Morgenrot as 1 of the best German films ever made. However, critics noted that the scenes on the home front were idealtypischer Bilder (“ideal typical picture”) in contrast to the scenes set on U-21 submarine, which were praised for their realism. The character of the Majorin played by Adele Sandrock, was described as the film’s most memorable character, which was certainly not the intention of the film’s producers. The film critic of Vorwärts, the newspaper of the SDP, in 1 of his last film reviews (Vorwärts was banned later in February 1933) wrote with the character of the Majorin “any nationalist tendency was taken from the film,” judging that the arguments made by the Majorin were stronger than those made by Liers. The film critic of Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP (“National Socialist German Workers’ Party”), in his positive review wrote: “Morgenrot – may it be a symbol for the beginning of a new era”. The Berlin correspondent of The New York Times who attended the premiere reported that “It is a film of exceptional qualities, aside from its propagandistic tendencies.” Together with the 1931 film Yorck, Morgenrot was 1 of the most financially successful of UFA’s “national” films released under Hugenberg. The film generated much controversy in Britain in 1933 where reviewers were quick to notice that the unnamed British military leader who goes down on a cruiser on his way to Russia was meant to be Field Marshal Herbert H. Kitchener (June 24, 1850 – June 5, 1916) who was actually killed in that manner in World War I. Additionally, the film’s general picture of “English perfidy” as the British only managed to damage Liers’s U-boat by illegally flying the Danish flag on a British ship, which suggested that the British could only defeat the Germans via underhanded methods also generated controversy in Britain. Right from the film’s premiere in Berlin, British newspapers gave Morgenrot extensive coverage, which the film being criticized for its unflattening picture of the Royal Navy. The film was debated in the House of Commons after a Tory backbencher, Sir Charles Cayzer, demanded that the Foreign Office have the ambassador in Berlin, Sir Horace Rumbold, made an official protest against Morgenrot, saying the film was very disrespectful and insulting towards Britain. The prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, was unwilling to have such a protest being and the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, found himself during the debates in the House of Commons “…in the rather odd position of having to defend a Nazi film.” To placate Cayzer, Simon agreed to the House of Commons form a committee to investigate Morgenrot, which discovered that the UFa had borrowed the submarine used in the film from the Finnish Navy without informing the Finns what the film was all about. As leader of the German National People’s Party, Hugenberg played a part in helping Adolf Hitler become chancellor of Germany and served in his 1st cabinet in 1933, hoping to control Hitler and use him as his tool. The plan failed, and by the end of 1933 Hugenberg had been pushed to the sidelines. Although he continued to serve as a guest member of the Reichstag until 1945, he wielded no political influence. Following World War II, Hugenberg was interned by the British in 1946 and classified as “exonerated” in 1951 after undergoing denazification. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1760.jpg |
| Image Size | 67.15 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 700 x 487 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | February 2, 1933 |
| Location | Universum Film AG (UFa)-Filmpalast |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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