Figure 1.--Here is a movie poster advertising 'Kopf Hoch, Johannes' in 1941. It shows Johannes who did not want to join the Hitler Youth, embracing the movement and befriending a younger HJ boy at camp by carrying him on his shoulders. The NAZI flag behind the boys is the HJ banner. Majestic may be the theater where the film was shown. The movie was made with the sound-on-film system controlled by the German-Dutch firm Tobis, showning that the NAZIs honored many pre-War contracts, presumably because a German firm was involved.

"Kopf Hoch,Johannes" (Chin Up, Johannes) is a NAZI propaganda film about The Hitler Youth. Johannes, a boy from a privileged family, just the kind the NAZIs reviled as bourgeois. He is not of the "New Order". He doesn't understand the importance of "kamaradeschaft" (comradeship) and sacrifice. It seems he is initially resistant to joining the Hitler Youth (HJ), but ultimately is sent to an HJ camp where at last he becomes a dedicated Hitler Junge. The film is interesting because the NAZIs required children to join the HJ at age 10 (1936). By 1941 only a doctor's excuse could have kept a boy out of the HJ. It is different than 'Hitler Youth Quix' whose father tried to keep him out of the HJ. Here the resistance to the HJ comes from the boy. The film was directed by the German film matinee idol, Viktor de Kowa (who was married to a Japanese woman). The Japanese were a problem for the propagandists of the race-obsessed NAZIs. The plot is based on a script by Toni Huppertz, Wilhelm Krug, and Feliz von Edkardt (future Chancellor Adenauer's government spokesman). The chief character, Johannes, is the 14 year-old son of a wealthy German land owner. He was played by Clays Detlief.

Filmology

"Kopf Hoch, Johannes" (Chin Up, Johannes) is a NAZI propaganda film about The Hitler Youth. The film was directed by the German film matinee idol, Viktor de Kowa. De Kowa married Japanese Michiko Tanaka in 1939. The Axis Japanese alliance were a problem for the propagandists of the race-obsessed NAZIs. De Kowa continued to act during the war, but his pacifism caused him trouble with the Propaganda Ministry. The plot is based on a script by Toni Huppertz, Wilhelm Krug, and Feliz von Edkardt (future Chancellor Adenauer's government spokesman). We do not know the details about how the fil came about. We suspect that HJ authorities approached Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry about the need to make this film, perhaps Baldur von Schirach to or Artur Axmann. We can not yet subsrtantiate this.

Hitler Youth

The Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), the NAZI party's youth movement, indoctrinated German youth to perpetuate the "1,000 year Reich." The Hitler Youth movement emphasized activism, physical training, NAZI ideology, especially nationalism and racial concepts, and absolute obedience to Hitler and the NAZI Party. Indoctrinating children in National Socialist idelogy was a key goal of the NAZI Party. Once Hitler assumed control over the German state, he used the Goverment to make the Hitler Youth the country's all encompassing youth movement. Hitler and other NAZIs leaders saw the indoctrination of young Germans as of critical importance. In the same year that they took power, the NAZIs organized German youth organizations into two branches of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend), one branch for boys and one for girls. Membership was eventually made compulsory and all boys had to report to a neighborhood office to have his racial background checked and be registered for membership. There was then a typically elaborate introduction ceremony on the Führer's birthday. The Hitler Youth was not just a German version of the Boy Scouts. The Hitler Youth were more similar to the Soviet Young Pioneers, but even with the Pioneers there were major differences. Hitler from the beginning saw the Hitler Youth movement as a tool to hardening boys for their future role of soldiers. He wanted a generation of "victorious active, daring youth, immune to pain." There was to be no "intelectual" training for the boys of the New Order, Hitler saw intelectual pursuits as damaging to German youth. The NAZIs used the Hitler Jugend to educate German Youth " in the spirit of National Socialism " and subjected them to an intensive programme of Nazi propaganda. The NAZIs established the Hitler Jugend as a source of replacements for Nazi Party formations. The Hitler Youth leadership in October, 1938 entered into an agreement with Himmler under which members of the Hitler Jugend who met SS standards would be considered as the primary source of recruitment for the SS. The NAZIs also used the Hitler Jugend for pre-military training. Special units were set up whose primary purpose was training specialists for the various military branches. HBC has compiled the following information on the Hitler Youth movement and the uniforms the boys wore.

Cast

The chief character, Johannes, is the 14 year-old son of a wealthy German land owner. He was played by Clays Detlief. His younger friend at camp is I believe Panse, played by Gunnar Möller.

Music

There is music with the film composed by Harald Böhmelt . The most important is ‘Wir sind Kameraden’ (We are comrads). It starts with “Uns’re jungen Herzen sich vereinen…” and the refrain: “wir sind Kameraden, jetzt und alle Zeit, und wir sind true zu uns’rer Fahne…”.

Plot

The story concerns the spoiled boy Johannes, whose mother has raised him in luxury in Argentina and who is brought back to Germany after her death. Johannes comes from just the kind of family that the NAZIs reviled as bourgeois. Johannes is not of the "New Order". He doesn't understand the importance of "Kamaradeschaft" (comradeship) and sacrifice. It seems he is initially resistant to joining the Hitler Youth (HJ),Johannes does not get along well with his father, who decides that he needs to be taught discipline and manliness. The father is somewhat pig-headed and embittered by his bad marriage to the boy's late mother. The solution to Johannes' teenage problems of character is to send him to a Nazi Political Educational Institution, Castle Oranienstein in Westerwald. There the boy is surrounded by 300 Hitler Jugend boys of the same age, and in this quasi-military enviornment he gradually matures into a decent young man, abandoning his childish episodes of temperament and caprice. The experience of being a Hitler Jugend with its code of masculinity, obedience, and group loyalty molds him into an honest and reliable national comrade, a dedicated Hitler Junge. At the end Johannes not only grows into an ideal Nazi loyalist but fosters a marriage between his disillusioned father and his aunt, his mother's sister.

NAZI Propaganda

The film is interesting because the NAZIs required children to join the HJ at age 10 (1936). By 1941 only a doctor's excuse could have kept a boy out of the HJ. It is different than 'Hitler Youth Quix' whose father tried to keep him out of the HJ. Here the resistance to the HJ comes from the boy. Notice he is a boy raised in Argentina. (A foreign boy could be excused for lack of commitment, but a German boy would have been a different mstter.) We are not sure why this film was being made. It rather suggests that there were German boys without the dedication and fervor the NAZIs wanted. We wonder to what extent this was a real problem forthe HJ. The film was made in 1941. At thge time the War was going well for the NAZIs. There was not hint that the HJ boys would bec drawn into the military to fight the War.