Hitlerjunge Quex (Hitler Youth Quex) DVD and 2nd Expanded Edition Guide Book Special Offer

Hitler Youth Quex DVD:
The year is 1931, and young Heini Volker has a problem. His unemployed father demands he joins Berlin's young communists. But his heart belongs to the Hitler Youth. How Heini resolves this quandry is the story of Hitlerjunge Quex, a movie that became central to the moral instruction of young Germans throughout the Nazi years. Produced in 1933, just months after Hitler's ascension to power, Hitlerjunge Quex drew from the real-life story of Herbert Norkus, a Hitler Youth killed by communist street-fighters in 1932. An expressly propagandistic vehicle, the film pulls few punches in its depiction of Depression-era misery and the escalating violence of the Weimar Republic's last years. Indeed, its bracing realism owes a strong debt to Germany's left-wing proletarian theater movement - an impression underscored by the several prominent leftist (or formerly so) actors featured here. Also striking are the movie's many quotations - a camera angle here, a mise-en-scéne there - from other Weimar-era classics, from Caligari to Fritz Lang's M and Bertolt Brecht's Kuhle Wampe. The fascinating result is a film that, more than any other Nazi-era production, combines hard-scrabble realism with National Socialist myth-making, its singular portrait of German working-class misery refracted through the transformative lens of Nazi ideology. An immediate box office success, the film became a Nazi propaganda staple for years afterwards, by 1945, an estimated 20 million viewers had paid some degree of witness to Heini's life and martyrdom. Produced by Karl Ritter; Directed by Hans Steinhoff; music by Hans-Otto Borgmann; featuring Heinrich George, Berta Drews, and Claus Clausen.

Germany, 1933, B&W, 87 Minutes, German dialogue with English subtitles.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Historical Background Slide Show
• Original Promotional Materials Slide Shows: Film-Kurier, Cinema Handbill, Preview Booklet, all with English translations, Posters & Press Photos.

Hitler Youth Quex Guide Book:
This is the premier Guide that delves into the narrative behind Hitler Youth Quex. It offers an extensive trove of information about the film, charting its journey from a novel to newspaper serialization and finally to the big screen. The intriguing careers of the key figures involved—novelist Karl Schenzinger, producer Karl Ritter, and director Hans Steinhoff—are thoroughly explored. The influential role of Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach is scrutinized, and complemented by insights from his eldest son, Klaus. Unpublished diaries of Karl Ritter, discovered in Argentina, shed new light on the film's production process. A dedicated chapter on Jürgen Olsen, the actor who portrayed the title character, provides previously neglected details. For the first time, all of the exhaustive marketing and publicity materials from the Ufa studio have been translated into English. The film's pre-1945 success is meticulously documented, not only in German cinemas but also across Europe, North America, and Japan between 1934 and 1944, illustrated with rare advertisements and reviews. The fate of the film in the post-World War II era and its treatment in contemporary Germany are examined, along with post-war critical analysis. This Guide stands as the first book exclusively dedicated to recounting the story behind Hitler Youth Quex in either English or German. It will captivate film students, collectors, and anyone with an interest in Third Reich propaganda. This second revised edition has been expanded with 40 additional pages of new content and three new illustrations, making it the author’s definitive edition.

Written by William Gillespie. Australia, 2024, 442 pages, 6x9 inches Perfect Bound Softcover, with 67 illustrations including 13 full color plates. English Language.

"The greatest merit of Gillespie’s book is that he not only brings together many sources that are difficult to access, but also makes them accessible to an English-speaking audience.

"Gillespie's book is a treasure trove for scholars of history, film history and propaganda more generally. This includes graduate and postgraduate students, early career researchers and more established academics. As such it is recommended for the essential classroom reading lists on any course dealing with film propaganda." - The Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, 2024

NOTICE FOR DVD: Sales are prohibited to the European Union (EU), UK, Canada and Australia. BOOK ALONE IS NOT RESTRICTED