Kolberg (1945): The Most Expensive Nazi Propaganda Film Ever Made

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This video tells the story of ‘Kolberg’, the grandest and most expensive Nazi propaganda movie ever made. The plot of this film revolves around the siege of Kolberg (modern day Kołobrzeg) by Napoleonic forces in 1807. It was designed as a piece to inspire the German people to believe in the final victory and to give everything for the ‘Total War’ proclaimed by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. But did the film serve its purpose? Why was it so expensive to make? What can we learn about Nazi propaganda in general? These questions and many more will be answered in this video.

Literature:
Burgmer, Rolf: "Harlan, Veit", in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 7 (1966), pp. 679-680 [Online Version]; https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pn... (accessed on 22.04.2025).
Culbert, David: ‘Kolberg’: film, filmscript and Kołobrzeg today, in: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 14 (1994), Nr. 4, pp. 449-466.
Culbert, David: Kolberg. Goebbels' Wunderwaffe as Counterfactual History, in: Historical Reflections 35 (2009), Nr. 2, pp. 125-141.
Evans, Richard J.: Das Dritte Reich. Diktatur, München 2023.
Evans, Richard J.: Das Dritte Reich. Krieg, München 2023.
Gilbert, Martin: Churchill. A Life, London 1991.
Kallis, Aristotle A.: Nazi Propaganda and the Second World War, Basingstoke 2005.
Paret, Peter: ‘Kolberg’ (1945) as historical film and historical document, in: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 14 (1994), Nr. 4, pp. 433-448.
Schenk, Irmbert: Geschichte im NS-Film. Kritische Anmerkungen zur filmwissenschaftlichen Suggestion der Identität von Propaganda und Wirkung, in: montage AV. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation (1994), Nr. 2, pp. 73-98.
Welch, David: Propaganda and the German Cinema 1933-1945, London & New York 2001.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
3:13 Propaganda and Cinema in the Third Reich
11:04 The Making of ‘Kolberg’
16:23 Analysis of ‘Kolberg’
28:43 The Movie’s Legacy
31:05 Outro