The Bridge: Die Brücke, Antiwar Film

This 1959 West German antiwar film has received many accolades, including the nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, although it did not win that award. The overall story of the film is based upon real events near the end of World War Two. Most of the main cast was made up of young Germans in their teens or early 20s at the time, and it was directed by Austrian Bernhard Wicki, who later directed the German scenes in 1962's "The Longest Day," about the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1944. In the mid 1950s, Wicki had starred in a German made movie about the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, with Wicki portraying Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who almost killed Hitler on July 20, 1944. 

 

Hitler's defeat saw Germany divided into occupation zones, with each of the four major Allied powers controlling one of the zones (Berlin was also divided into 4 such zones, although the city was inside the Soviet zone of East Germany, and Vienna was likewise divided, but with the city center under shared administration by the four Allied nations). The British, American and French zones eventually came to comprise the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik), more commonly known as "West Germany," and the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik), more commonly known as "East Germany." Austria was separated into an independent country again. It's important to remember, the film I'm covering here was made before the wall was erected by the communist regime in East Germany, supported by the Soviet Union. By the time "The Bridge" was filmed in the late 1950s, the Western Allies had permitted the establishment of a West German military force. The Germans (and Austrians) had to earn their way back into the world community, as the threat of a Nazi revival was always on the minds of many non-German Europeans and Americans, a situation now reversed as Donald Trump's actions have exhibited more than a little resemblance to the Nazi Führer of old, complete with the use of the Boy Scouts as a stand in for a Hitler Youth rally and crowds of supporters, quite a number "claiming" to be Christians, chanting "lock her up" and "build the wall" as substitutes for "Sieg Heil," to give Trump's weak ego a boost it so constantly and so desperately needs. There was even a failed "putsch," lacking only a beer hall to add the proper touch. Americans once OVERWHELMINGLY knew better, and I believe, I must believe, somewhere deep inside, Americans still know better than to latch onto a despicable creature like Trump.

 

"The Bridge" is introduced on this DVD edition by NBC's Chet Huntley, who was teamed in those days with David Brinkley for what is now called "NBC Nightly News," but in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, it was known as the highly respected "Huntley-Brinkley Report."        

 

Partial Cast:     

 

Folker Bohnet as Hans Scholten

Fritz Wepper as Albert Mutz

Michael Hinz as Walter Forst

Frank Glaubrecht as Jürgen Borchert

Karl Michael Balzer as Karl Horber

Volker Lechtenbrink as Klaus Hager

Günther  Hoffmann as Sigi Bernhard

Cordula Trantow as Franziska 

Wolfgang Stumpf as the teacher

Edith Schultze-Westrum as Sigi's mother (Frau Bernhard)

Ruth Hausmeister as Albert's mother (Frau Mutz)

Eva Vaitl as Jürgen's mother (Frau Borchert)

Hans Elwenspoek as Walter's father (Nazi Party official Forst)

Klaus Hellmold as Karl's father (Herr Horber)  

Günter Pfitzmann as Unteroffizier Heilmann

The film opens rather ominously, as what is apparently an artillery shell explodes in the river by a bridge on the outskirts of a German town. The end of World War Two is approaching and, indeed, that end is only a couple of weeks away (we don't see or hear any aircraft, so that's why I say "apparently an artillery shell"). The explosion causes quite a stir in the town, and the Nazi official of the town is preparing to send his wife away on a train, so that he can then flee with his mistress. During the first part of the film, we meet several teenage boys, the parents, especially mothers of most of these boys, a teacher for the boys, and some other civilians. We learn that American forces are not far away and the boys are excited that they may be called up for military service to help defend their country, a fact that takes place, as their induction notices arrive. We also see the reaction to that fact from the parents of the boys, with one mother, Frau Bernhard, wanting her son Sigi to go stay with his aunt until the war is over, but the boy doesn't want to be seen as avoiding military service by his friends. Another mother gives her son, Jürgen, a pistol that had belonged to the boy's father, who had died in action during the war. While she is a tough woman and she acts proud of her son on the surface, underneath she is worried. The Nazi official sends his wife off, but he doesn't even let their son, Walter, say goodbye to her, which causes serious resentment by the boy, especially because he knows about his father's mistress. Again, keep in mind, this is all taking place in late April 1945, as in Berlin, Soviet forces are just blocks away from Hitler's underground bunker, and Hitler himself is just days away from killing himself and having his body burned. Germany's defeat is assured, lacking only a signature on a surrender document to make it official. Any further deaths only add to the tragedy that has been going on since September 1939 in Europe, Africa, and even longer in Asia. 

 

The boys must report for duty the next day and their teacher goes to the induction barracks and talks with the officer in charge there. The teacher tells him he doesn't want to see the boys injured or killed in such a hopeless cause. The officer can't publicly agree, and he tells the teacher he recently received notice that his son had been killed in action. He also tells the teacher the boys are full of idealism about defending their homeland, an ideal taught by the teacher, who says in reply that the ideal has fallen into the wrong hands and that the boys have been deceived. Inside of himself, the officer knows he needs to do something, so he eventually orders that the boys remain in town and "defend" the bridge on the edge of town, which is scheduled to be blown up by army engineers; that way, the boys should be out of harm's way, and he makes this all clear to the soldier he puts in charge of the boys, Unteroffizier Heilmann. Other troops from this same induction and training center are sent off to the nearby front lines. Some of the boys at the bridge think their job is like the most important of the war effort and they begin to plan a defense of the bridge, a place where they have played "cowboys and Indians" most of their young lives. At first, it's all like the boys are playing at soldiering, which down through time many boys (and some girls too) have done. 

 

With Heilmann in charge of the boys (he is an Unteroffizier; that is, a rank of corporal in some armies, while more equivalent to a type of sergeant in other armies), he keeps the boys busy and he decides to walk into the town proper and get coffee for everyone. He leaves his rifle with the boys and puts Hans in charge, which causes some resentment from Walter. When he gets into the business/residential section, the military police spot him. (All armies have military police, but the Nazis acted totally insane in the waning days of a war that was obviously lost, and military police, special Nazi police and plain old Nazi thugs searched for men they declared to be "deserters," including from the generally beleaguered Volkssturm, which consisted of teenage boys and old men, many of whom were ill-equipped, to put it mildly. These "deserters" were often executed.) The military police stop him and he provides his identification, but he's left his rifle at the bridge, and when he tells them he's in charge of a group of young boys who've only had a half day of training to defend the bridge, the police already know the bridge is to be blown up, so they accuse him of being a deserter, and one of them draws his gun on Heilmann. The situation is bad and Heilmann tries to escape, but he is pursued and gunned down. The boys will now be alone, with no one to temper their own misguided idealism and desires for adulthood, which become their biggest enemies. The boys hear the gunfire, but they aren't sure what could be going on. Sigi is on sentry duty on the bridge, and he resumes his post. They occasionally hear artillery fire that is not very far away. 

 

The boys decide to have some food and since Heilmann has not returned with coffee, some think he has taken off and left them. As they open and eat their rations, an older civilian man comes to them. He tells the boys they should go home, as he has seen the death and destruction of war before, but this only upsets most of the boys, as they feel he is telling them to become deserters, and that they have to defend the bridge because it has strategic value. The old man presses them further though and he tells them not to play at being heroes, but this brings Jürgen to draw his pistol and he threatens the man, who turns and leaves, much to the delight of the boys, whose egos feel grown up after ordering the man away, even though their gloating behavior is still like that of teenage boys. Hans, however, is uneasy, and the man's statement about his own experience made an impression on him, and he comments about who knows what the man has taken part in (mitgemacht). The boys hear trucks and then they see headlights. They drag some lightweight barriers across the road, and the trucks, full of retreating army troops, screech to a halt. The men and their officers are furious with the boys and they remove the barriers and the retreat continues. Some of the boys get their feathers ruffled when the older soldiers or people refer to them as "boys" or "children," because they see themselves as men defending their country. A little later a motorcycle with a sidecar carrying an officer and two men passes the boys, but the motorcycle breaks down and these men wait for more trucks nearing them. The boys see the officer is highly decorated and they are impressed. The officer stops the trucks not far behind them, and the boys see the one truck is full of wounded men. They now see men mauled and mangled by war. The fog is thick, but daylight is breaking. The trucks move on. 

 

Hans again questions why they are there and he thinks they should all go home, as the army is retreating and there seems to be no German military units between them and the Americans. Jürgen says they are soldiers and they've been given an order to hold the bridge, but Hans tells them that holding this little bridge can't decide the outcome of the war. Sigi spouts off about anyone who defends a little of German soil, defends Germany. Jürgen asks each one of the other boys if they will stay or go home. They all decide to stay, although Hans is reluctant. An aircraft is heard, Sigi dives to the ground, while the others watch the plane off in the distance. They kid and tease Sigi about hitting the ground, but then, the plane circles back right toward the bridge. The boys all hit the ground, but not Sigi this time, and he stands and watches the plane come right at them. The plane fires its machine gun and drops a bomb nearby, then it flies off. The boys get up, but when Walter goes to Sigi, he's been hit by the machine gun fire and killed. The boys gather around Sigi, but then more activity is heard; American tanks are coming. The boys scramble to their defensive positions. Nearby, three German army engineers pull up to blow up the bridge, but they hear the American tanks and they take shelter in one of the homes, figuring the tanks will move on, and then they can blow up the bridge.  

 

The tension builds as the boys await the actual appearance of the American tanks, and the tanks finally come into view and begin firing. American infantry arrive in a truck. Walter fires a Panzerfaust at a tank, hits it and it finally bursts into flames. (Note: A Panzerfaust, literally, "armor or tank fist," was a relatively cheap hand-held disposable antitank weapon that fired a single shell-like projectile. The Germans produced them in great quantity during the last couple years of the war and they were highly effective against armor, as they were able to penetrate the armor of tanks and other armored vehicles. Their drawbacks were they had to be fired from close range, they were single shot and when fired, they caused a fiery discharge from the firing tube that was extremely dangerous for anyone behind the person firing the weapon. These were not like American bazookas, which the Germans essentially copied, calling them "Panzerschreck;" that is, "tank fright/tank terror.") The boys are firing to give cover to Walter, who grabs another Panzerfaust and tries to get close to destroy another tank. Meanwhile, the three army engineers await a chance to destroy the bridge in what is Sigi's house, and his terrified mother talks with the soldiers as she worries over Sigi's safety, not knowing that her son is already lying dead not far away. The engineers tell her, the boys should have let the tanks through and then they could have blown up the bridge and avoided the town's destruction, which is now ongoing. The intense American fire has brought a couple of the boys to the breaking point, as they begin crying and they want to get out. They now see this isn't "Cowboys and Indians" anymore. Jürgen, stationed in a tree, kills an American soldier, but he himself is then shot and killed, and his body falls out of the tree right near two of the other boys. 

 

Walter, still with the Panzerfaust, makes his way into a house. It turns out to be the house of the old man the boys had chased away at the bridge. He tells Walter he's endangering the lives of women and children, but Walter grabs him by the throat and then shoves him away. Walter goes into a room and he sees an American tank passing by the window. He goes to the window and prepares to fire the Panzerfaust (they were fired from the shoulder). Just then, the old man from before comes into the room and yells at him not to shoot, but it's too late, and Walter fires the Panzerfaust. The rear discharge scorches the face of the old man, who falls to the floor writing in pain. Walter is now terrified at what's happened, and an American soldier enters the room and pushes Walter up against the wall, saying, "You crazy kid, what are you doing in this friggin' war?" The house is hit by a shell, and Walter is knocked to the floor and part of the wall and ceiling collapse on him, and he dies. The American soldier goes outside and yells to the remaining boys to give up, and he adds, "Go home, or go to kindergarten." This last strikes at the "manly" pride of Karl, and he begins firing at the soldier. The American is shot in the stomach and cries out in agony, falling to the ground. Klaus tells Karl to shoot the soldier to put him out of his misery, but when Klaus pushes at Karl, Karl slumps over, shot through the helmet. Klaus goes crazy with sorrow about Karl's death, and Hans leaves his post with Albert to go to Klaus. Albert is then wounded in the arm. Klaus ends up losing it completely and he runs out of the trench and is shot and killed. The Americans toss out a smoke canister which obscures a truck that pulls up and the Americans get into the truck and drive off.   

 

Hans and Albert come out into the open now, and Hans tends to Albert's wound. With the Americans gone for the moment, the German army engineers show up to demolish the bridge. When they tell Hans and Albert they are going to destroy the bridge, Hans says they can't do it; after all, their friends just died to defend the bridge, and this shows how foolish all of this has been. The one engineer orders them off the bridge and he holds his gun on Hans, but Albert shoots the engineer in the back. The two other engineers begin to drive off, but one fires and hits Hans, and he dies within a minute, with Albert crying over him. Albert walks slowly off the bridge. Across the screen comes the notice that this took place on April 27, 1945. It was such an insignificant event to the German military, that it went unmentioned in any war communique by the army.   

Photo is of the 1998 Beta Film/Kirch Media GmbH DVD with English subtitles ... 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Shin-This word is related to "sheath" and to the verb "shed," both from the Germanic roots of English, to "ski," a Germanic based word borrowed by English from Norwegian, and it is distantly related to "shingle" (roofing piece), a Latin word borrowed by English from Latin. "Shin" goes back to Indo European "skei," which had the notion, "to cut, to cut off, to separate (from)." This gave Old Germanic "skino," which meant "thin or narrow piece," and seemingly then later, "shin," with this only prevailing in West Germanic. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scinu," meaning "shin," and the compound "scinban" (long a), which became modern "shinbone." "Scinu" then became "schin" and "shyn," before the modern form. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Schiene" (rail, track, splint, tibia), "Schienbein" (shinbone, tibia), Low German has "Scheen" (rail) and the first part of "Scheenpiep" (shinbone, but literally, "shin-pipe"), Dutch "scheen" (shin), Frisian had "skine" (shin), but I can't find a modern form. The North Germanic languages, except Icelandic, have forms seemingly borrowed from Low German, although perhaps with some Frisian influence: Danish "skinneben," Norwegian "skinne" (splint, rail), Swedish "skena" (rail, bar). Frisian, Low German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are all relatively close together and they have long interacted with one another; and, we can put English into that mix too. The verb form of "shin" seems to have developed circa 1830 on ships, meaning "to climb a pole or a rope by using the arms and shins," which then became "shinny" within a few decades. When I was a kid, the word was used quite a bit, perhaps because one of the neighbors had a flagpole in their yard and we kids would all climb it; "shinny up it."