Karl Ritter – His Life and ‘Zeitfilms’ under National Socialism, 2nd Edition Book

Hugely Expanded 2nd Edition Book!

German film director Karl Ritter (1888 - 1977) scripted, assisted, produced or directed 97 movies and film projects between 1927 and 1945 but his work is known today only to historians and students of National Socialist film.

Karl Ritter's films for Goebbels were called 'cinematic tanks that belong to the advance guard on the propaganda front' by Germany's leading film magazine. In 1950 film historian John Altmann labelled Ritter 'the most irresponsible and dangerous filmmaker of the Third Reich.'

Drawing on German archives, unpublished family diaries and five years of research, this hugely expanded 2nd edition book "Karl Ritter - His Life and 'Zeitfilms' under National Socialism" provides the reader with the first comprehensive study in English of Karl Ritter's fascinating life.

As aviation pioneer, as WWI veteran, 1925 NSDAP 'Golden Party Badge' member, and as a WW2 Luftwaffe Major, Ritter was also one of the key film directors for the New Germany, producing Hitlerjunge Quex and later directing Stukas, GPU, Kadetten, Pour le Mérite and other major Third Reich propaganda films. At war's end, the Soviet Union demanded he stand trial as a war criminal for the 'poisoning of German youth' through his films.

A chronology of his life and film work from Weimar silent films through to 1945 offers new insights heretofore unexamined, including in his own words, his dramatic 24 day escape from Red Army captivity across Partisan lines in May/June 1945.

Also translated here for the first time are a speech on 'Zeitfilms and Contemporary History' given by Ritter to a 1936 film institute audience in Hamburg, the 1940 biographical sketch, and relevant entries in his diaries about Ritter by Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

Rare full color reproductions of original posters of Ritter's most famous films are included, as well as B&W illustrations drawn from Third Reich and never-before-seen private Ritter family sources.

"Painstaking research... a very interesting book." -The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television.

Author: William Gillespie.

Australia, 2014, 2nd Edition, 275 pages, with 60 B&W photographs and 19 full-color film poster plates.

6x9 inches perfect bound soft cover book.

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