I will not give you all the English-language titles listed here on IMDb for the German 1951 film "Der Untertan". If you do the maths, this film was made 65 years ago and Germany already existed as FRG and GDR. These 105 minutes here come from East Germany and are still among the most known the country has come up with in terms of movies. It is a black-and-white film, but of course already has sound. Writer and director is Wolfgang Staudte and he adapted Heinrich Mann's novel together with his father Fritz into this film. Unfortunately, I cannot say it was particularly good watch. Lead actor Werner Peters plays his part well though and you could see that he was very experienced indeed. I came across him recently in the Oscar-nominated "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam", for which he won a German Film Award and he appeared in many films in the 1950s and 1960s that are still well-known today.As for "Der Untertan", I guess the main reason I was not too impressed was the monotonous script by father and son Staudte. Or maybe it was also Mann's fault. I have not read his famous "Der Untertan", but I think that it should never be required to read a book in order to appreciate a movie. It does help for sure in understanding the material and plot, but I am off the opinion that it should never be essential. There were some political references in here, but none got me hooked really. Ultimately the story is about a man who follows one model to perfection: Suck up to everybody above you. Look down arrogantly on everybody below you. And he became so obsessed in this pattern that he forgot to honor everything that is dear to him. Or was his wife really dear to him or did he just marry because it fit the emperor's and society's way of thinking? Decide for yourself. The ruins in the end are very telling.And let us be honest: These people exist today as well, actually far too many of them who follow this concept. And it is pretty despicable. I would not call this film here despicable, but I cannot call it a fulfilling watch either. Not recommended.

"Der Untertan" (1951), directed by star-director Wolfgang Staudte, is based on a novel by Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) as "Der Blaue Engel" (1930), directed by Josef Von Sternberg, is. While in "Der Blaue Engel", the protagonist is a person who cannot adapt to the world around him, and when he tries, shamefully stumbles and at the end pays his attempts with his life, the main figure in "Der Untertan" is so-to-say the complimentary character: Although born in an aristocratic, high-class family, surrounded by the world-literature and regular house-concerts and thus widely detached from bourgeoisie, he finds out that he may make carrier by breaking out of this status-group isolation in trying to meddle with politics. He also finds out that for him, the best way is to put hand over hand along the rope that leads upwards while kicking the ones who are coming below him. The result is, however, that he blunders not only in public but often also in his private life. The film has an interesting, yet totalitarian and typical GDR-end which kind of disturbs the otherwise excellently crafted master-piece for which Werner Peters in the role of Dr. Hessling and the director of the film got the Great GDR-State Price.This movie and an extremely impressive list of some hundreds of titles more, meanwhile practically the collected works of the DEFA, the state film company of the former GDR or DDR, we owe to the Department of German Studies of the University of Massachusets at Amherst that has obviously taken over the legacy to maintain and foster the gigantic film work of the "other" Germany which has ceased to exist in 1990.

This wicked satire of imperialistic Germany during reign of Wilhem 11 was made in East Germany.It is from a Heinrich Mann novel, Written by Fritz Staudte and directed by Wolfgang Staudte,These last 2 gentleman gave us, a few years prior the heavy dramas, ROTATION and MURDERERS ARE Among US.This 1951 movie is a pleasant change of pace.The pace is fast & furious as all satires are supposed to be. There are a few songs at the beginning,I think I would have liked a few more.The acting by all is first rate & all production values are equally good.Ratings: *** (out of4 )82 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)

Like Der blaue Engel from 1930, Der Untertan is made after a famous novel by Heinrich Mann, the elder and politically more interested of the two German writer brothers. Here as there, the film is about the criticism for a social characteristic which is regarded as typical for the German background: the Philistine who is fixated on authority and blindly tumbles into war and downfall.The film tells in episodes about the life story of Diederich Heßling (Werner Peters), youth and university days of the son of a factory owner and his gradual rise into better circles of the Prussian small town Netzig in the 80s of the 19th century; Germany is already an empire with Wilhelm II. being in power. During his studies and his time in the military service, Heßling learns how to be subject to superiors, to endure humiliation, to denounce and to enjoy the power over inferiors to the full. He takes over the father's factory, joins the conservative-nationalist party and a war club and marries a rich heiress. The height of his career is the opening of a warrior monument in Netzig; he appears as the official speaker and baths in the patriotic phrases of national authorities when a thunderstorm interrupts the ceremony and clears the whole place.The alarming final shot of the monumental emperor, Wilhelm II., is a direct reference to the nation's dark future, WWI and WWII which both - from the perspective of the film - arose from the Prussian way of ruling and the servile attitude of the subjects, the German people. The incidental music to this last take is a repulsive potpourri of "Die Wacht am Rhein", an anti-French national song, the "Horst-Wessel-Song", a martyr anthem of the Nazis and the fanfares which introduced "Die Wochenschau", a weekly propagandistic newsreel that was shown in the cinemas of the Third Reich.Without reservation, this film can be accepted as a work of art about a weighty epoch in German history, the Wilhelminian era. The characters precisely personify the important and guiding institutions like school, university, military and government. The film succeeds in picturing the fatal relation between philistinism and war enthusiasm, whereas the camera excellently describes the subject's point of view and position: Heßling looks bottom-up to the authority. Next to the acting brilliance of Werner Peters, it's those camera looks which outfits the film with an outstandingly analytical and aesthetic quality.