Ich war neunzehn (1968)

Director:

Konrad Wolf

Writers:

Wolfgang Kohlhaase (writer)
Konrad Wolf (writer)

Release Date:

1 February 1968 (East Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Plot:

April 1945: Gregor Hecker, 19 years of age, reaches the outskirts of Berlin as part of the Red Army's scouting team...

Plot Keywords:

Red Army | Army | Episodic | Soldier | Bernau

Cast

Jaecki Schwarz	...	Gregor Hecker
Vasili Livanov	...	Wadim
Aleksey Eybozhenko	...	Sascha
Galina Polskikh	...	Sowjetisches Mädchen
Rolf Hoppe	...	Etappenmajor
Wolfgang Greese	...	Landschaftsgestalter
Dieter Mann	...	Willi Lommer
Jenny Gröllmann	...	Deutsches Mädchen
Kalmursa Rachmanov	...	Dsingis
Anatoli Solovyov	...	Starschinka
Johannes Wieke	...	Festungskommandant
Mikhail Gluzskiy	...	General (as Mikhail Glusski)
Jürgen Hentsch	...	Adjutant
Kurt Böwe	...	Sturmbannführer
Klaus Manchen	...	Blinder Soldat
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wolfgang Altus	...	Hitlerjunge
Martin Angermann	...	Offizier in Spandau
Walter Bechstein	...	1. befreiter Häftling
Hermann Beyer	...	2. befreiter Häftling
Else Bugatz	...	Bäuerin
Wilhelm Burmeier	...	Offizier in Spandau
Ingrid Böck	...	5-jähriges Mädchen
Richard Degen	...	Bauer
Susanne Düllmann	...	Frau des Bürgermeisters
Peter Ensikat	...	Offizier in Spandau
Curt W. Franke	...	Offizier in Spandau
Erich Giesa	...	Bürgermeister
Siegfried Göhler	...	Offizier in Spandau
Lutz Günzel	...	Offizier in Spandau
Detlef Heintze	...	Fähnrich
Dirk Jungnickel	...	Offizier in Spandau
Afanasi Kochetkov	...	Obersergeant
Otto Lang	...	Pfarrer
Fritz Mohr	...	Feldwebel
Czeslar Moissejew	...	Adjutant
Vladimir Ryabov	...	Oberleutnant am Kontrollpunkt
Achim Schmidtchen	...	Marineoffizier
Boris Tokarev	...	Unterleutnant
Martin Trettau	...	Gefangener in Oranienburg
Gerhard Vogt	...	Betrunkener Offizier
Viktor Volkov	...	Major im Jeep
Hermann Wagemann	...	Drucker
Dietmar Wenzel	...	10-jähriger Junge
Werner Wenzel	...	3. befreiter Häftling
Waldemar Wieser	...	Verwundeter Hitlerjunge
Ellen Wikittel	...	14-jähriges Mädchen
Wolfgang Winkler	...	Fallschirmjäger

Directed by
Konrad Wolf

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Wolfgang Kohlhaase		writer
Konrad Wolf		writer

Cinematography by
Werner Bergmann

Film Editing by
Evelyn Carow

Production Design by
Alfred Hirschmeier

Costume Design by
Werner Bergemann

Makeup Department
Günter Hermstein	....	makeup artist
Inge Merten	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Hans Berek	....	unit manager
Herbert Ehler	....	production manager
Karlheinz Haarnagell	....	unit manager
Horst Schmidt	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Doris Borkmann	....	assistant director
Rainer Simon	....	assistant director

Art Department
Rudolf Borchardt	....	property master: outdoor
Willi Schafer	....	set builder
Gisela Schulze	....	set builder
Peter Wilde	....	set builder

Sound Department
Konrad Walle	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Horst Klaucke	....	gaffer
Bernd Sperberg	....	still photographer
Peter Süring	....	camera operator

Other crew
Anton Ackermann	....	consultant
Nikolaj Surkow	....	consultant
Gerhard Wolf	....	script editor

Production Companies

• Deutsche Film (DEFA) (Gruppe "Babelsberg")

Distributors

• VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb (1968) (East Germany) (theatrical)
• Icestorm Entertainment (1999) (Germany) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"I Was Nineteen" - USA (video title)

Runtime:

Germany:115 min (TV version)

Country:

East Germany

Language:

German | Russian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 (video rating) | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Bernau, Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

Deutsche Film (DEFA)

Trivia:

Konrad Wolf picked the rather inexperienced drama student Jaecki Schwarz for the leading role, convinced that confronting him with unusual situations on the set would result in a very authentic portrayal of the situation.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)

This film is VERY deceiving.

I actually wanted to give this film a "7" or "8"; yet there are some terrible problems with the entire premise of it. The story comes from the memoirs of a former Soviet soldier whom the protagonist is based upon. Filmed in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) it portrays a person with his background (born German though raised in Russia) as being somewhat unusual (which it was and still is) but nonetheless a "good" or "noble" person.

In the 1930s the communist party was at it's zenith in popularity in the United States. In that day and age it was not uncommon to meet a communist, in the United States, who did not have an accent (Jack Reed of "Reds" fame was not the only such person in the United States). This is understandable due to the horrific Great Depression. However, Communists or Socialist Workers were still a minority party in our country. A few of them "progressed" from being members of a minority party to being total lunatics and actually migrated to the Soviet Union to live and work. During the Stalin purges of the late 1930s many of them were seen running to the U.S. embassy, being chased by KGB agents, and waving their (by then) useless passports trying to find asylum with their embassy of their former country. Usually they were gunned down before they reached the embassy. A movie dealing with similar emigrants to Russia after WWII is "East/West".

Anyway, the protagonist of this film is the son of similar wackos who lived in Germany prior to emigrating to the USSR. Most Germans at that time who fled the Third Reich (such as Albert Einstein) went to the west; NOT to Russia. One really has to question the motivation of the author's parents and the burden they saddled him with (having to live in a totalitarian regime for a long time afterwards). Anyway, this kid essentially became a "freak" by being a Soviet citizen born in Germany. His parents were obvious wackos and/or weirdos.

Still, I will have to admit that as bad as the Soviets were they palled in comparison with the Third Reich. That, unfortunately, is the truth. And, it shows just how terrible that regime was. Interesting film; showing the conflict of a pretty bad system (USSR) with an utterly terrible one (war time Germany). The film shows, as other reviewers have noted, the hope for a reconciliation between post war Germany and Russia. Fair enough, except the reconciliation was to include a socialist German (ALL of Germany; not just East Germany). Fortunately, like the battle of Spandau Fortress in the film, that never happened.