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Some remarks to Researching "Pastor Hall"
may be a little bit too long - but this is the first hint of this film , to
whom I have a special relation:
Researching for a documentary on Martin Niemoeller we heard in the 80's about
the film "Pastor Hall", but never got hold of it, therefore it's interesting
to hear that this film really was screened in Columbia, Maryland.
Our feature length documentary named "Martin Niemoeller - the man who defied
Hitler" was publishes 1985 - a year before Niemoeller died in Wiesbaden,
Germany. We shot thousands of meters in 1992 and only stopped shooting caused
by Niemoellers illness.
Whole lifetime he was an engaged and controversial personality that changed
several times in his life very dramatically.
He started as submarine commander in WW I, became an ultraconservative
nationalist minister in the 20th, became leader of the "confessing church",
opposing Hitler, not for political reasons, but to stand up for the free right
to minister.
Niemoeller was jailed as "personal prisoner" of Hilter to concentration camps.
At this time his story was known world wide and was the basic for lecturers,
radio dramas and obvious to the film "Pastor Hall". Eleanor Roosevelt seemed
at that time to be a big admirer of Pastor Niemoeller, but turned her opinion
after the war, because in her eyes turned out not to be such a hero as she
imagined. Niemoeller was responsible for an declaration of the Protestant
church, blaming themselves that they did not resist the Nazi system as they
should have done.
After W.W.II he became head of the Protestant church of the German state of
Hesse, was one of the first people that contact to Soviet-Union in the 50th,
for him seemed "the mammon (the money) to be more dangerous than communism",
was engaged in anti rearmament activities in Germany, was one of the
presidents of the World Council of Churches. He traveled to nearly every
country of the world, included North Vietnam, also a very controversial
activity, and in the 70th he was engaged in the peace movement.
Surely a very interesting biography. He refused to be named as a political
person, but some of his activities had important political impacts. His motto
- and that's the direct translation of the German title of the docu was "What
would Jesus say about that".
Our film was screened in German cinema and aired in TV in Germany and other
European countries and includes unique footage and intersting biographic
statements of Niemoeller. Its completely edited without any commentary.
I asked the Niemoeller archive if they have any knowledge of the film "Pastor
Hall",
but they hadn't heard of it - neither any material. Sorry.
Added title and main credits of our documentary:
Martin Niemoeller - Was wuerde Jesus dazu sagen
(English title: Martin Niemoeller - the man who defied Hiltler)
35 mm color / black and white
Running time 110 minutes
directed by Hannes Karnick and Wolfgang Richter
coproduced with: Berlin Public TV "SFB"
production company: docfilm, Darmstadt, Germany
first screening Ocotber 1985
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Hannes Karnick
docfilm
KARNICK & RICHTER OHG
Heidelberger Landstr. 89
D-64297 Darmstadt
Germany
Office: Phone +49 (0) 6151 51771, Fax+ 49 (0) 6151 52100
Email: [log in to unmask]
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