原名：Das Reichsorchester - Die Berliner Philharmoniker und der Nationalsozialismus又名：The Realm Orchestra - The Citizens of Berlin Philharmonics and the National Socialism
The Japanese material gives a new perspective on how some of the same material was used in “The Reichsorchester”: Arthaus 101 453 (DVD, 2007), the film about the Berlin Philharmonic by Enrique Sanchez Lanchez, edited by Thomas Wellmann. In the film of the 19 April 1942 concert, for example, footage of Goebbels sitting in the front row has been inserted into the film from the concert on 19 April 1944, when Knappertsbusch was conducting. One can tell this by carefully viewing the respective scenes in slow motion. What point was the filmmaker trying to make? Or was it mere carelessness? He gives as a “bonus” the entire AEG factory Meistersinger overture, performed as it was against a background of three huge swastikas. In the Japanese footage, one sees the film in 4:3 format as it was made, minus the 50-second introductory footage of workers assembling for the concert. “The Reichsorchester” film is made in wide screen (16:9) which necessarily compromises 4:3 footage, unless it is “stretched.” In other words, the top and bottom of the original film is lost. The opening scene thus shows the three swastikas above the orchestra but, as if this were unseemly, the film pans down and the swastikas slide out of the top of the picture. This is not how the original film was made, but was how the editor of “The Reichsorchester” wanted it to be. Film is a very powerful medium, and can leave impressions that may not fairly represent a whole situation. The issues dealt with by “The Reichsorchester” are complex enough for a mere documentary film. The least the filmmaker could have done was to present the historical material as it was, and not manipulate it to present a particular view, whatever that view may have been.
