Rotation (1949)

Ranked as one of Germany's most important films ever, Wolfgang Staudte's ROTATION is the story of a German family that becomes divided over supporting Hitler and the Nazis. The father considers joining the Nazi party purely to improve his finances. But when he helps a friend print resistance leaflets, his son, a Hitler Youth member, betrays him. After the war father and son meet again.

Another Wolfgang Staudte (The Murderers Are Among Us) classic, Rotation was censored by the Soviets because of its pacifist message and because it included footage from Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. It was awarded the Golden Leopard at the 1954 Locarno Film Festival and is ranked by German film critics as one of Germany's 100 Most Important Films. Product Description

Hope and reconciliation amidst evil.

I am not a student of films and I have no expertise in filmography but I do enjoy watching foreign films. This is a black and white WWII movie about the effects of the Third Reich on a single close-knit family. The protagonist's (Hans Behnke) son joins Hitler Youth and tattles on his conscientious father's efforts to provide for and protect his family. Behnke is a not a party man, he works assiduously, upholds neutral principles and family loyalty. His apathy towards overt Nazi party affiliation and the use of his printer's skills to publish anti-Nazi literature to help his doting brother-in-law (Kurt) land him in trouble. The War ends, there is reconciliation between him and his son. His son's transformation and realization that evil is preventable are the kernels of this movie. Filmed in late 1940s, in German with English subtitles, its technical limitations compared to current technology actually enhance the effects of fear, paranoia and desperation. Behnke's steadfast non-affiliation is admirably brought out.

That this story focuses on a single family is its strong suit. There is due time given for Behnke's character development. He joins the party, albeit reluctantly, just to keep his job and provide for his tolerant wife, Lotte, and his much-loved son, Helmut. Unemployment, crushing hunger, Helmut's malnutrition, shock of filial betrayal and the pervasive spying by Nazi secret service all test Behnke's convictions. At times he compromises, and at others he suffers immensely for not relenting. This raises the dreaded perennial question, "What would you have done under these circumstances?"

The film closes with a coda showing Helmut falling in love at the same location as his father did 20 years earlier. Helmut, now repentant and transformed, seems to hold out hope for a future that does not repeat its destructive past. He promises as much to his new love. We know differently now; we humans have since broken our internal promises and reengaged in many newer destructive acts. Sorry Helmut!

For us, now in early 21st century, this is a painful realization because we are incapable of not repeating ourselves - BUT our hopes to the contrary sustain us.
July 15, 2008

A Classic!

Rotation is one in a string of German films that sought to investigate how a seemingly civilized country could be drawn into the madness of Hitler-Fascism. The film spans over 20 years, and shows how Printer Behnke slowly becomes a member of the Nazi -party, refuses to act when his Jewish neighbors are arrested by the SS, and then when he is finally betrayed by his son, a member of the Hitler Youth. It is certainly a classic, among the other films of the DDR-based DEFA studios! June 30, 2008

Lives of working-class Berliners from 1925 to 1945

Director Wolfgang Staudte cowrote this fine film with his father Fritz Staudte together with Erwin Klein. Both Staudtes took part in Reinhardt and Piscator productions, and in Hans and Lotte's wedding entertainment American audiences may hear Brecht and Weill.

This powerful work was released three years after Staudte's "The Murderers Are Among Us". In contrast with that film's depiction of an educated paragon tortured by conscience, Rotation traces the lives of Berliner everyman Hans, his beloved Lotte, and Lotte's politically-engaged brother Karl from the depression and runaway inflation of the 1920s through the return of economic normalcy, the Nazi ascension to power, war, impending defeat, the battle for Berlin, and finally war's aftermath and reconstruction. Rotation opens during the fall of Berlin. Sheltering from the battle outside a woman hears the Soviets have reached the Moabit district and she immediately leaves safety to dodge the bombs and shells outside. Why? Our interest of course is immediately piqued. The film then flashes back to 1925, the year of Hitler's reorganization of the NSDAP. Hans strives heroically to provide for Lotte and their dear son Helmut. Hans is a good neighbor to the Jewish family downstairs. Karl the communist thinker and activist fights both capitalists and Nazis. Hans, Karl, and Lotte care deeply for one another and for toddler Helmut. Hans resents the class oppression which feeds children of the aristocracy cake while Helmut is sick and malnourished. Hans is jailed for labor organizing. While not endorsing the NSDAP he accommodates the party in order to secure work he desperately needs to put food on the table. Here Staudte and DEFA show industrialists solidly behind the NSDAP while Karl and Hans have only the backing of fellow workers. For years Hans refuses Karl's entreaties to join the struggle, citing his family responsibilities. Finally out of devotion to his brother-in-law as well as to humanity Hans commits acts of resistance and is betrayed by Helmut, who is now a committed member of the Hitler-Jugend. It is the ramifications of this act for Hans, Lotte, and Helmut in the context of their love for one another which begins and ends the film.

Rotation celebrates the strength and continuity of human life and love: love erotic, filial and fraternal. January 23, 2007

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