a movie by Niko von Glasow

Deutsche Version

Cologne-Ehrenfeld, 10th of November 1944. Fourteen people, among them eight teenagers, are openly hanged by the Gestapo. The youngest one of them is fourteen years old. The US-Army is only 70 miles away from the city, but the nazis are still mercyless against any kind of resistance. The "best people" of the Gestapo follow the trails of a teenage group called Edelweisspirates. They wear the alpine plant as a symbol on their jackets. The Edelweisspirates are an unorganized subculture active in all mayor cities of Nazi-Germany. By intuition they resist. They fight the Hitler Youth in the backyards of bombed out buildings and hide Jews and deserters. A small group from Cologne goes even further. With the help of Hans Steinbrück who has escaped from a concentation camp, they plan to blow up the Gestapo-headquarter. "Bomber Hans", as he is known among his friends in the criminal underworld, convinces the young people that they have to do more against the regime than hiding escapees like himself. The plan never happens. Bomber Hans and the Edelweisspirates get arrested and tortured before they are hanged in public to scare off other members of the resistance. The Edelweisspirates have not been recognized as members of the resistance by the german gouvernment until two different parties started researching the history of the Cologne chapter. Even though the state of Israel honoured them in 1972 already, they were still considered criminals beyond the end of the 20th century. Germany didn’t seem to question the files of the Gestapo.

Director Niko von Glasow and his wife have worked ten years on their unusual movie which fictionalizes the events without compromising. The incredible realism they achieved has not been seen yet in a german movie. Surviving Edelweisspirates like Jean Jülich (78 years old) confess, the movie shows what really happened in an appropiate way. Jülich, who is also the narrator of the movie, has published his autobiography in 2003. The movie is based on his teenage life, even though the 17 years old main character, played by russian teenstar Ivan Stebunov, is called Karl. A fictional compromise. Next to him is his younger brother Peter (Simon Taal), a member of the Hitler Youth who becomes an Edelweisspirate instead later on. Karl is in love with Cilly (Anna Thalbach). She has two kids from Karls older brother Otto who died in the field before marrying Cilly. But Cily falls in love with Bomber Hans (Bela B. Felsenheimer). Hans manages to get hold of weapons and ammunition. He convinces the Edelweisspirates that there is nobody left to take some action. The Gestapo makes it move and Cilly gets arrested. The uneven lovers, Karl and Bomber Hans, try to rescue her, but they fail. The Gestapo is waiting for them already. The group gets arrested. Before their public hanging they are tortured over and over. Only Karl survives by sacrificing his younger brother and making a deal with the Gestapo.

"The Edelweisspirates were the punks of the nazi era", director von Glasow promoted the movie. He found an amazing cast of young amateurs and veterans willing to go through the intense filming in St. Petersburg. The cast includes german filmstar Anna Thalbach and the grand old belgium actor Jan Decleir as the chief of the Gestapo. Bomber Hans is played by Bela B. Felsenheimer, drummer of Germanys favourite punkband Die Ärzte, who has also become a serious actor. So, what else do you need to promote this film in Germany? "Edelweisspiraten", distributed by Cinemavault from Canada, has been sold all over the world already: Thailand, Canada, Belgium, Spain- but nobody in Germany dares to touch the movie. Even after it’s european premiere on the last day of this years Berlinale Festival, Niko von Glasow is still fighting for the movie to be released in his own country. With "The Downfall" (2004) receiving an Oscar-nomination, "Edelweisspirates" isn’t even mentioned in the German media at all. While Hitler, the ultimate villain, is still getting a lot of attention, nobody wants to talk about the underdogs who stood up against the Third Reich. Since "Edelweisspirates" negates the german myth that resistance was impossible during the Third Reich, it challenges the generation of 1944 like no other german movie did yet. But one Sophie Scholl is enough for the history books. There isn’t much room for those who were a little more radical than the innocent heroic virgin Sophie Scholl and the members of the famous "White Rose". The actions of the Edelweisspirates, which Germany still considered to be criminals until a short time ago, prove that more than ten thousand teenagers, young men and women, were actively fighting the system on a day-to-base.

The NS-Documentationcenter is also researching the story of the Edelweisspirates from Cologne where a lot of former members are still alive. They released a package including a cd, a dvd and a book called "Es war in Schanghai" ("It happened in Shanghai", 15 euros at nsdok.de) The cd has old songs by the Edelweisspirates interpreted by contemporary bands from Cologne, an interesting mix of new sounds and dream-like lyrics about the desire to travel the world. A great documentary by Rainer B. Ott and Hacky Hagemeyer shows old pirates and young musicians working on the material and providing an inside look at a forgotten subculture worth having a look at.

Check the english section at edelweisspiraten.com