British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Battle for Germany

Series

Series Name
The March of Time 13th Year

Issue

Issue No.
9
Date Released
1948
Length of issue (in feet)
1634
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1Battle for Germany

Story

Story No. within this Issue
1 / 1
Summary
The March of Time synopsis: The film opens with scenes of the present "airlift" - nicknamed "Operation Vittles" - by which British and American forces were able to carry all the food, medical supplies, coal and other materials necessary to the survival of the two-and-a-half million inhabitants of Berlin. As the deliveries mounted steadily until over five thousand tons a day were being unloaded at Berlin’s airports the supplies came to mean something more than food for hungry people and coal to keep their electric power plants in operation - for here was visible proof that Britain and the US not only meant to stay in Berlin but had the ability to back up their resolve.

The camera then shifts to the Ruhr coal fields, the output of which has been raised to nearly eighty-five percent of the level achieved by the Germans before the war - and all this despite the fact that the German mines have not yet fully recovered from the damage they sustained. The film stresses their importance to heavy industry, discloses the progress being made in replacing or restoring tools and rolling stock, and also shows the efforts of the Communists at sabotaging recovery in the Western Zones by taking every opportunity to incite labour disorders and unrest. What does the average German think of all this? The March of Time has recorded the activities of a typical German family, the Buchners, living in the bombed-out city of Frankfurt, to show the effect that the new currency reforms have had. Almost overnight the black market began dryng up as the Germans found their money at last taking on some real value. Farmers brought their products to town instead of hoarding them or bartering them on the black market and already the shops are filled with goods that the Germans have not seen since before the war. The film discusses the educational and cultural activities being carried out in Western Germany, though it is realised it is only from the young that results can be expected. The average adult German, the film points out, has no sense of war guilt and believes that his country would have won the war had the Allies fought fairly and not had the advantage of more airplanes, more petrol and more mechanized equipment than the Germans. Moreover, among the forty million Germans in the West there is little appreciation of the fact that British and American citizens are now digging into their pockets for millions of pounds a year to provide food for their former enemies. But the Germans are a determined people who stick tenaciously to tradition. Germany has no continuous record of democratic self-government and one of the chief aims of Military Government is to teach democracy to the German people, so that they may be prepared to live in a democratic world, and better able to resist the constant propaganda emanating from the Russians.
Researcher Comments
This story was included in Vol.14 No.15 of the US edition.
Keywords
Economics; Aircraft; Foreign aid
Written sources
The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis
Credits:
Production Co.
Time Inc.

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