Kolberg

KOLBERG is Joseph Goebbels' attempt to outdo GONE WITH THE WIND and reportedly the most expensive German film ever made. This propaganda film tells the story of the heroic attempts of a Prussian town, Kolberg, to ward off advancing French troops during the Napoleonic Wars. Nettelbeck (Heinrich George, who was to die in a Soviet prison camp in 1946), the town mayor, organizes civilians to fight the enemy; Maria (Kristina Soderbaum, the director's wife), a farmer's daughter, convinces her brothers and lover to die for the glory of Prussia. After a year in production, the film premiered at La Rochelle, with the advancing Allies just miles away; future showings were ex...