The red baron: a national hero at last

[daftandbarmy]

The red baron: a national hero at last

Manfred von Richthofen was Germany's greatest First World War hero. But a biopic of the ace fighter pilot is causing unease in a country where, since the defeat of Nazism, film has avoided the glorification of war, reports Tony Paterson
Monday, 17 March 2008


A British schoolboy would recognise it instantly: the plane that nowadays sits tucked away in the corner of a former Royal Air Force hangar on the western outskirts of Berlin is a life-sized replica of a fighter from the First World War. It has primitive solid rubber wheels, is painted a shocking shade of red and sports large black and white Iron crosses on its fuselage and triple-decked wings.


The model is a copy of the 1918 Fokker triplane piloted by Germany's legendary flying ace, Manfred von Richthofen, alias the Red Baron. It sits in one of Germany's few museums devoted to the painful subject of wartime aviation but still rates as one of the most famous aircraft in the world. Yet it is doubtful whether a German schoolboy would recognise it.

Ninety years after von Richthofen's death, Germany is about to change all that. A film about the heroic Prussian pilot who shot down a record 80 British, Canadian and Australian airmen during the First World War, will be shown at cinemas across the country next month. It will be the first time since the Nazi era that Germany will portray one of its own military figures in film as a national hero.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/the-red-baron-a-national-hero-at-last-796865.html?r=RSS

 

[geo]

Interesting.
Is it possible that Germany has at last shaken off the shame of it's WW2 defeat?
With the Bunderswerh's current involvment in Afghanistan limited by german public opinion, it is possible that the german gov't is using this and other (future?) events to change their people's views ... and thus permit a more active involvment in NATO / UN operations?

 

[vonGarvin]

I doubt that this has anything to do with shaking off its militaristic past.  This is just a movie.  The "Ritter" was perhaps forgotten post WW2, but I wouldn't make too much of this.  I mean, Heinz Guderian won't be lionised any time soon, nor Michael Wittman (or Hans Ulrich Rudel, for that matter).

 

[geo]

Don't get me wrong, I am certain that the German Chancelor has her work cut out if she is to ever contemplate obtaining support for the deployment of her troops into anyplace dangerous BUT, it's gotta start someplace.  The Ritter is a fairly "cleancut" individual that no one will take offence of.....

Ya gotta start someplace.

 

[George Wallace]

.........  The Ritter is a fairly "cleancut" individual that no one will take offence of.....

Ya gotta start someplace.

Times change.  Look what we have done with Louis Riel.  Next we will placate the Irish in Canada and lionize D'Arcy McGee. 

 

[geo]

what did we do for Riel? other than give him a necktie party & his full nudity statue behind the Winnipeg legislature

 

[vonGarvin]

what did we do for Riel? other than give him a necktie party & his full nudity statue behind the Winnipeg legislature

Well, since this guy Riel murdered Catholic missionaries, I suppose that we SHOULD lionise D'Arcy McGee.  :
Oh, wasn't it recently Riel day in Manitoba?  What did they do to celebrate?  Murder some mounties?  Kill some more Catholics?  :

 

[RTaylor]

I think Germany, in it's shame over Hitler and the Nazi party and all that was done under that regime, has not only tried to hide and ignore the WW2 era but seems to me that they've tried to do it to all wars they've ever had. I work with a German fellow and my neighbors are straight from Germany, and they've told me that they literally recieve no schooling in their military past and alot of them think that going into the military in any role is shameful.

Trying to resurrect the past and have it accepted with such a huge stigmata is akin to trying to educate alot of African nations that raping a virgin baby won't cure them of Aids. Yes, that is a valid comparison for many Germans. They have a proud history (in many respects) and shouldn't let that dark time keep it hidden.

 

[X-mo-1979]

Interesting.
Is it possible that Germany has at last shaken off the shame of it's WW2 defeat?
With the Bunderswerh's current involvment in Afghanistan limited by german public opinion, it is possible that the german gov't is using this and other (future?) events to change their people's views ... and thus permit a more active involvment in NATO / UN operations?

I don't think it's shaking off the shame,more so becoming nationalistic again.And about time IMHO.The German people have nothing to be ashamed of,and should be proud of it's national hero's who engaged and killed the enemy.

Let's face it they aren't making Goering day or anything.

Bravo Deutchland.

 

[geo]

Remember, it's not just Germany... Japan is going thru it's own problems as it steps out and assumes it's responsibilities.

 

[geo]

Well, since this guy Riel murdered Catholic missionaries, I suppose that we SHOULD lionise D'Arcy McGee.  :
Oh, wasn't it recently Riel day in Manitoba?  What did they do to celebrate?  Murder some mounties?  Kill some more Catholics?  :

Well, "Riel day":  while some people may celebrate his birth.... others can celebrate his necktie party.....

 

[JBG]

Interesting.
Is it possible that Germany has at last shaken off the shame of it's WW2 defeat?
With the Bunderswerh's current involvment in Afghanistan limited by german public opinion, it is possible that the german gov't is using this and other (future?) events to change their people's views ... and thus permit a more active involvment in NATO / UN operations?

It can shake off the shame of a defeat. Europe can never shake off the shame of its treatment of the Jewish people. It wasn't only, or even primarily Germany.

 

[time expired]

Germans seem to have a very strange appreciation of their
history.Consider for instance Bismarck,whenever his name
comes up in the media he is portrayed as a somewhat un-
savory character,I submit that in any other country in the
world he would be celebrated as the Father of his Country,
which he certainly was.Instead, people such as Rosa
Luxembourg,a communist agitator whose aim was to
establish a German soviet,are celebrated as the heroes
of a modern progressive Germany.
                            Regards

 

[vonGarvin]

Germans seem to have a very strange appreciation of their
history.Consider for instance Bismarck,whenever his name
comes up in the media he is portrayed as a somewhat un-
savory character,I submit that in any other country in the
world he would be celebrated as the Father of his Country,
which he certainly was.Instead, people such as Rosa
Luxembourg,a communist agitator whose aim was to
establish a German soviet,are celebrated as the heroes
of a modern progressive Germany.
                             Regards

Well said.  Bismarck kept the peace in Central Europe for many years in a turbulent Europe.
Rosa Luxembourg was a hack.  Pure and simple.

 

[geo]

People have forgotten Bismark.  In time they will rediscover nation builders.
The same way Garibaldi unified the Italian states, Bismark unified the germanic states.  The European union should make an effort to recognise the contribution of these individuals.

 

[George Wallace]

I think you will find that Bismark is fairly well remembered in Germany.  Lots of Statues of him everywhere, Monuments in Berlin, and "Bismark Towers" crossing the length and breadth of the country.

 

[time expired]

G.W.,very true however all erected prior to WW1,the point is how
he seen today in modern Germany.
                                      Regards

 

[JBG]

I think you will find that Bismark is fairly well remembered in Germany.  Lots of Statues of him everywhere, Monuments in Berlin, and "Bismark Towers" crossing the length and breadth of the country.

What English-speaking child of the 1960's doesn't know the Royal Guardsman song "Snoopy and the Red Baron"?

 

[Panzer Grenadier]

Germany (and Japan) I believe will have a reawakening of pride in self, of country and service, probably within the next 10 years. Its simply my own opinion and how I perceive matters to unfold in the next decade.  I could be fully wrong, right or just 50%; I do believe that Germany (and Japan) can return to having pride in who they are as German (and Japanese).

 

[geo]

Panzer...
The Germans have done a "mea culpa" for the NAZI war crimes.... the Japanese have setadfastly refused.
They are both pert much proud of themselves... they just have to gain trust in themselves when the leave their own country to "visit" that big world.