The Condemned Village

Das verurteilte Dorf (The Condemned Village) is an East German propaganda film directed by Martin Hellberg. It was released in 1952.

Farmer Heinz Weimann returns to his small Bavarian village of Bärenweiler after several years in Soviet captivity. He tells his neighbors, who have been subject to anti-Soviet propaganda disseminated by the Nazis and the Americans, that the Soviets have treated him well. His old sweetheart Käthe has married another man, Fritz Vollmer, but he is not concerned with that. His joy on returning home is interrupted when the mayor announces that the American Army intends to destroy the village and to build an airfield on its lands, in preparation for a confrontation with the Soviet Union.

The people turn to the government and to the local bishop, but receive no assistance. Led by Heinz, they turn to peaceful protests. All residents refuse to leave their homes, except Vollmer. Heinz is arrested and imprisoned. Trade unions from throughout the Federal Republic of Germany mobilize to aid the villagers. When the United States Military Police arrives to evict the inhabitants, thousands of workers arrive in Bärenweiler, and the Americans are forced to leave and abandon their plans to build the airfield.

In 1951, the state control over the DEFA film studio was tightened, as manifested in the creation of the DEFA commission in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany's Politburo. On the backrougnd of the nascent Cold War, an emphasis was put on the creation of anti-Western films; all the six pictures released by DEFA in 1952 were dedicated to this theme.

Writers Jeanne and Kurt Stern wrote the draft of the script in early 1951, after reading a newspaper report about a protest against American military presence that took place in the West German village of Hammelburg. The draft was submitted to DEFA on 14 March 1951. The National Film Board dubbed it "a remarkable agitational work in our campaign against re-militarization, for the unity of Germany and for peace." The final version was completed on 16 May; the writers took care not to highlight the importance of communism but rather, the demand for peace. a positive figure of a cleric, the village's priest, was included in the plot; DEFA director-general Sepp Schwab decided that it would be unwise to portray the church in a wholly negative light. A happy ending was added, as well. In the original draft, the village was evicted.