Jud Süß (1940)

Director:

Veit Harlan

Writers:

Veit Harlan (screenplay) &
Eberhard Wolfgang Moeller (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

23 January 1941 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In this notorious Nazi propaganda historical costume melodrama, a conniving, ambitious Jewish businessman...

Plot Keywords:

Jew | Duke | Assembly | Nazi Propaganda | Propaganda

Cast

Ferdinand Marian	...	Joseph Süß Oppenheimer
Kristina Söderbaum	...	Dorothea Sturm / Faber
Heinrich George	...	Karl Alexander, Herzog von Württemberg
Werner Krauss	...	Rabbi Loew / Levy - Oppenheimers Sekretär / Schächter Isaak / seniler Alte (as Werner Krauß)
Eugen Klöpfer	...	Landschaftskonsulent Sturm
Albert Florath	...	Obrist Röder
Malte Jäger	...	Aktuarius Faber (as Malte Jaeger)
Theodor Loos	...	Franz Joseph Freiherr von Remchingen
Hilde von Stolz	...	Herzogin von Württemberg
Else Elster	...	Luziana
Walter Werner	...	Herr Fiebelkorn
Jakob Tiedtke	...	Konsistorialrat
Otto F. Henning	...	Vorsitzender des Gerichts (as Otto Henning)
Emil Heß	...	Schmied Hans Bogner
Charlotte Schultz	...	Frau Fiebelkorn
Anny Seitz	...	Minchen Fiebelkorn
Erna Morena	...	Frau des Konsistorialrats
Ursula Deinert	...	Primaballerina
Erich Dunskus	...	Meister der Schmiedezunft
Heinrich Schroth	...	Herr von Neuffer
Bernhard Goetzke
Horst Lommer	...	Offizier, der die Ankunft des Kuriers meldet
Wolfgang Staudte	...	Freund und Vertrauter Fabers
Eduard Wenck	...	Hausbesitzer
Ilse Buhl	...	Friederike Fiebelkorn
Käthe Jöken-König	...	Frau Bogner
Hannelore Benzinger	...	Hausmädchen bei Sturm
Ingeborg Albert
Annette Bach	...	Mädchen bei der Ankunft des Herzogs
Irmgard Voelker
Valy Arnheim
Franz Arzdorf	...	Offizier der Leibwache
Walter Bechmann
Fred Becker	...	Ballettmeister beim Ball des Herzogs
Reinhold Bernt	...	Folterknecht
Lewis Brody	...	Schwarzer Diener des Herzogs (as Louis Brody)
Wilhelm Egger-Sell	...	Mann der Landstände bei der Sondersitzung
Franz Eschle
Hans Eysenhardt
Georg Guertler
Oskar Höcker	...	Fahrer der verunglückten Kutsche
Karl Iban	...	Henker
Willy Kaiser-Heyl	...	Mann der Landstände bei der Sondersitzung
Franz Klebusch
Otto Klopsch
Erich Lange
Richard Ludwig
Paul Mederow	...	Richter Ratner
Hans Meyer-Hanno	...	Stadtbeamter an der Zollgrenze
Armin Münch
Edgar Nollet
Hellmuth Passarge	...	Soldat beim Prozeß gegen Oppenheimer
Josef Peterhans	...	Kontrollierender Offizier an der Stadtgrenze Stuttgarts
Friedrich Petermann	...	Mann der Landstände bei der Sondersitzung
Edmund Pouch
Arthur Reinhardt
Ernst Stimmel
Walter Tarrach	...	Folterknecht
Otz Tollen
Max Vierlinger	...	Mann, der Oppenheimer nach dem Gespräch mit Faber zurückhält
Hanns Waschatko	...	Mann der Landstände in Fürsprache beim Herzog
Otto Wollmann
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lucien Blondeau	...	Lévy (voice)
Colette Broïdo	...	Dorothée (voice)
Jean Darcante	...	Faber (voice)
Richard Francoeur	...	Süß Oppenheimer (voice)
Maurice Lagrenée	...	Le Rabbin (voice)
Marcel Raine	...	Röder (voice)
Rognoni	...	Le Duc (voice)
Henri Valbel	...	Sturm (voice)

Directed by
Veit Harlan

Writing credits
Veit Harlan		(screenplay) &
Eberhard Wolfgang Moeller		(screenplay) (as Wolfgang Eberhard Möller) and
Ludwig Metzger		(screenplay)
Wilhelm Hauff		short story (uncredited)
R.L. Migeon		French version

Produced by
Otto Lehmann	....	line producer

Original Music by
Wolfgang Zeller

Cinematography by
Bruno Mondi

Film Editing by
Wolfgang Schleif
Friedrich Karl von Puttkamer

Production Design by
Otto Hunte
Karl Vollbrecht

Costume Design by
Ludwig Hornsteiner

Production Management
Conny Carstennsen	....	unit manager
Kurt Moos	....	unit manager
Herbert Sennewald	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alfred Braun	....	assistant director
Wolfgang Schleif	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Gustav Bellers	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Karl Ewald	....	still photographer
Erich Kilian	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Leopold Verch	....	costume builder

Other crew
Sabine Ress	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• Terra-Filmkunst

Distributors

• Terra-Filmverleih (1940) (Germany) (theatrical)
• L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne (ACE) (1941) (France) (theatrical) (dubbed version)
• Adams Filmi (1941) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Archiv-DVD (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung
• International Historic Films (IHF) (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Transit Film

Other Companies

• Alcyon S.a.r.l.  post-production (French version)
• Studios de Neuilly  dubbing (French version)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Germany:(Banned) | Sweden:(Banned) | Portugal:(Banned) (original rating) | Argentina:16 | Norway:16 (1941) | West Germany:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Terra-Filmkunst

Trivia:

Leading actor Ferdinand Marian first refused to play Oppenheimer, but was forced to relent when Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels threatened the safety of his stepson, who was half Jewish.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The film tells that Joseph Süß Oppenheimer lived in the Jew Alley (Judengasse) in the ghetto in Frankfurt before he moved to Württemberg. Actually he lived in Württemberg, since his birth in Heidelberg. Even his first meeting with Karl Alexander, before he became Duke of Württemberg was in Bad Wildbad, a place in Württemberg

Quotes:

Joseph Süß Oppenheimer:I thought Württemberg was rich?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Life Goes On (2002) (TV)

The Most Vile Interpretation

The life and unhappy end of said life for Joseph Oppenheimer, the famous Jew Suss has been interpreted in many ways over the years in a variety of medium. The most vile interpretation was that done in this 1940 film, personally produced and supervised by Joseph Goebbels.

The real Oppenheimer was out of Vienna where he had done considerable business with the Catholic Hapsburgs and moved to the Wurttemberg area where he came to the attention of the heir to Duchy of Wurttemberg who after he became Duke made Oppenheimer his first minister.

Duke Karl Alexander played by Heinrich George is an ambitious fellow who would like to create a miniature Versailles over in Stuttgart an ambition that a number of German heads of state wanted to emulate including Frederick the Great over in Prussia. Ferdinand Marian as Oppenheimer is a worldly high living fellow himself who provides a number of financial schemes that increase the Duke's treasury. Of course while doing it he arouses the ire of the local Lutheran gentry. After Duke Karl Alexander dies, the burghers of Stuttgart do to Oppenheimer precisely what you see in Jew Suss.

Without the religious component the closest thing approximating this story was that of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's minister of finance over in France. He lived high on the hog, too high in the opinion of his king. Fouquet was however first given exile and then had the sentence commuted to life in prison.

What Oppenheimer's story played into was a latent anti-Semitism already instilled in the population by Martin Luther. During the course of the movie the burghers of Stuttgart warn the Duke of Luther's warnings about how vile those Jews are, but the Duke fails to heed. The Catholic Hapsburg connection isn't brought in as the Austrians were now part of the Reich.

The real Oppenheimer was accused of being an agent for those Hapsburgs in real life. But here he's the agent of a deep and nebulous Jewish conspiracy to take over Wurttemberg. Today Wurttemberg, tomorrow the world. Like Jews always do, he's got designs on Aryan women and in his sites here is Krista Soderburg, a Swedish actress married to the director of Jew Suss, Veit Harlan who always played the prototype of Aryan women in German films. Her being debauched and later suicide sparks all the latent hatred against Oppenheimer that gets unleashed with the demise of Duke Karl Alexander. Her Aryan sweetheart played by Malte Jager leads the mob against Oppenheimer.

Again in real life Oppenheimer was a worldly sort who never had any trouble getting women to give up the goods. A whole lot like Fouquet over in France, but again we have the religious component here.

Mind you this same story had been filmed six years earlier over in Great Britain with the exiled Conrad Veidt playing Oppenheimer. In that version, Oppenheimer is endowed with saintly qualities and is a martyr, saintly qualities the real Oppenheimer probably would have scorned. It's fascinating the different spin you can give, especially if you're in the propaganda game. Joe Goebbels, the little club footed maniac who ran German cinema as part of the Propaganda Ministry, had a casting couch that dwarfed any in Hollywood and anything that Oppenheimer in real life could ever dream of.

I won't put a rating on Jew Suss, this is such a vile story meant to inflame anti-Semitism and succeeding horribly. This was required viewing for people entering the S.S. those who became guards at the concentration camps. It was vile when it occurred in real life and viler yet when told by the Nazis in this film.