[---][center][large]Wunschkonzert[/large][/center][---]
[center]Wunschkonzert ("Request Concert") is a 1940 German drama propaganda film by Eduard von Borsody. After Die grosse Liebe, it was the most popular film of wartime Germany, reaching the second highest gross.[/center]
[center]Wunschkonzert 1940.avi (696.85 MB)
[large]https://mega.co.nz/#!6QFhHBLZ!JaHBQT3fR ... Sm_Yf5nXk4[/large][/center]
[justify]Background
The popular music show "Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht" ("Request Concert for the Wehrmacht") was broadcast on the German radio network every Sunday afternoon at 3.00 from the Great Broadcasting Room of the Haus des Rundfunks on Masurenallee in Berlin. Its popularity was based in part on its claims to broadcast music requested by men in the armed forces, thus uniting the armed forces and the homefront in Volksgemeinschaft. Reich Minister Goebbels insisted that all German performers contribute to it and concluded that a film based in it would be even more successful.[/justify]
[justify]Plot
During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin the young Inge Wagner and Luftwaffe Fliegerleutnant (Flight Lieutenant) Herbert Koch meet, and within a few days fall in love. They make plans for their joint future, but before they can get married Herbert is seconded to the Condor Legion and ordered to the Spanish Civil War; he is forced to leave immediately without giving Inge any explanation. The mission is top secret and all contact with home is forbidden, including by letter, and he is unable to contact her with an explanation. When after several months the operation is over, and Herbert is recovering from a severe injury, he is at last able to write to Inge, but she has moved in the meantime and he is unable to trace her.
Inge meanwhile is unable to forget Herbert and is prepared to wait for him. Three years go by. When the war begins with the Invasion of Poland in 1939, the men from Inge's area all go off to the front, including Inge's childhood friend, Helmut Winkler, whose proposal of marriage she has turned down, but who continues to hope for her hand. Helmut is assigned to the flight squadron to which Herbert belongs, who has meanwhile been promoted to Hauptmann (Group Captain), and is put directly under him. The two become friends, not knowing that they both love the same girl.
In Berlin since the beginning of the war a big musical event takes place every week, which is broadcast on the radio as "Wunschkonzert für die Wehrmacht" and provides a channel for greetings and messages between the front and home. When Herbert, remembering the beautiful days with Inge, asks for the Olympic fanfares, Inge, who is listening at home like every one else, hears it and is encouraged by this sudden sign out of the blue to discover Herbert's whereabouts, with renewed hope of seeing him again. They exchange letters, and arrange to meet in Hamburg.
However, at the last moment before the meeting, Herbert and Helmut are both ordered off on a reconnaissance flight over the Atlantic and are shot down. A German U-Boat picks them up. Meanwhile Inge is waiting in vain. Helmut is taken wounded to the military hospital, where all three meet in his sickroom. After sorting out the confused situation - Herbert assumes that Inge and Helmut are engaged - the two lovers are reunited.
CastStarring roles were played by Ilse Werner as Inge Wagner, Carl Raddatz as Herbert Koch and Joachim Brennecke as Helmut Winkler.
Other actors were Hedwig Bleibtreu (Frau Wagner), Ida Wüst (Frau Eichhorn), Hans Hermann Schaufuss (Hammer), Hans Adalbert Schlettow (Kramer), Malte Jäger (Friedrich), Walter Ladengast (Schwarzkopf), Albert Florath (Physician), Elise Aulinger (Frau Schwarzkopf), Wilhelm Althaus (Captain Freiburg), Walter Bechmann (Waiter), Günther Lüders (Zimmermann), Erwin Biegel (Justav), Vera Hartegg (Frau Friedrich), Vera Complojer (Frau Hammer), Aribert Mog and Ewald Wenck.
Music
Many well-known artists appear as themselves in the request concert programme section, hosted by Heinz Goedecke:
Paul Hörbiger: "Apoloner, Apoloner bist Du"
Weiß Ferdl: Bin ich froh, ich bin kein Intellektueller
Hans Brausewetter, Heinz Rühmann, Josef Sieber: "Das kann doch einen Seemann nicht erschüttern" (song from the film Paradies der Junggesellen, 1939)
Wilhelm Strienz: Gute Nacht Mutter
Marika Rökk: In einer Nacht im Mai (song from the film Eine Nacht im Mai, 1938)
Soldiers: Soldaten sind Soldaten
Albert Bräu: clarinet solo
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eugen Jochum: overture to the opera The Marriage of Figaro[/justify]