A Hard Sell: The Nazi Film Ohm Krüger in Wartime France. (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bowles, Brett; Vande Winkel, Roel
• Is Part Of: Journal of contemporary history. Volume 57:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 621
• Page End: 644
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: film -- Nazi Germany -- Ohm Krüger -- propaganda -- Second World War -- Vichy France; History, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals; History, Modern -- 21st century -- Periodicals; 909.82
• DOI: 10.1177/00220094221099861
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0094

Abstract

Historians of the Third Reich generally view Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1940), an anti-British historical drama set during the Boer War, as a triumph of Nazi propaganda, yet the film's distribution and reception in German-occupied territories have never been studied in depth. By offering a detailed comparison between the German original and a substantively reedited, French-dubbed version produced in 1941 under the title Le Président Kruger, as well as a politically and economically contextualized analysis of the film's distribution and reception in occupied and Vichy France, this article questions the persuasive power traditionally ascribed to Ohm Krüger to draw broader conclusions about the complexities of exporting Nazi propaganda to foreign markets in the volatile context of the Second World War.