In Those Days

{{Short description|1947 film directed by Helmut Käutner}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = In Those Days | image = In Those Days (1947 film).jpg | caption = German film Poster | native_name = {{Infobox name module|de|In jenen Tagen}} | director = [[Helmut Käutner]] | writer = [[Helmut Käutner]]<br>[[Ernst Schnabel]] | starring = {{ubl|Gert Schäfer|[[Erich Schellow]]|[[Winnie Markus]]|[[Werner Hinz]]}} | music = [[Bernhard Eichhorn]] | editing = [[Wolfgang Wehrum]] | cinematography = [[Igor Oberberg]] | studio = Camera-Filmproduktion | distributor = Britischer Atlas-Filmverleih (British Zone)<br>Prisma-Filmverleih (French & American Zones)<br>Sovexport-Film GmbH (Soviet Zone) | released = {{Film date|1947|6|13|df=yes}} | runtime = 111 minutes | country = Germany | language = German }} '''''In Those Days''''' ({{langx|de|'''In jenen Tagen'''}}) is a 1947 [[Cinema of Germany|German]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[Helmut Käutner]] and starring Gert Schäfer, [[Erich Schellow]] and [[Winnie Markus]]. It was one of the cycle of [[Rubble films]] made in the wake of Germany's defeat during [[World War II]]. The film addresses issues of [[collective guilt]] during the [[Nazi era]], using the device of a car built in 1933 and dismantled in 1947 narrating the various experiences of its owners in a series of seven separate episodes. The film's objective was to highlight the private resistance of various figures to the Nazis even while they publicly accepted the repression of Nazi society.

==Plot== {{no plot|date= October 2025}}

==Cast== {{Cast listing| * [[Helmut Käutner]] as Voice of the Car * Gert Karl Schaefer as Willi * [[Erich Schellow]] as Karl * [[Winnie Markus]] as Sybille * [[Werner Hinz]] as Steffen * [[Karl John (actor)|Karl John]] as Peter Keyser * Erich Weiher as Fitter * [[Alice Treff]] as Elisabeth Buschenhagen * [[Franz Schafheitlin]] as Wolfgang Buschenhagen * [[Hans Nielsen (actor)|Hans Nielsen]] as Wolfgang Grunelius * Gisela Tantau as Angela Buschenhagen * [[Ida Ehre]] as Sally Bienert * [[Willy Maertens]] as Wilhelm Bienert * Erica Balqué as Dorothea Wieland * Eva Gotthardt as Ruth * [[Hermann Schomberg]] as Dr. Ansbach * Kurt Meister as Policeman * [[Hermann Speelmans]] as August Hintze * [[Fritz Wagner (actor)|Fritz Wagner]] as Lieutenant * Hans Mahnke as Niginski * [[Isa Vermehren]] as Erna * [[Margarete Haagen]] as Baronin von Thorn * [[Franz Weber (actor)|Franz Weber]] as Ein Polizist * [[Erwin Geschonneck]] as Schmitt * [[Carl Raddatz]] as Josef * [[Bettina Moissi]] as Marie }}

==Production== The film was produced in [[Hamburg]] in the [[British Zone]] as part of a growing post-war trend in western Germany of moving film production away from its traditional centre of [[Berlin]]. The film was made under extremely difficult conditions including a lack of raw [[film stock]] and hunger amongst the cast and technicians.<ref name=TUP>Shandley, Robert R. ''Rubble Films: German Cinema in the Shadow of the Third Reich''. [[Temple University Press]], 2001. p. 22–23 & 51.</ref> The director, Helmut Käutner, had several of his earlier films banned by the [[Nazis]] which led to him being perceived as possessing greater [[moral authority]] than many of his colleagues. Consequently, the film was seen as a standard-bearer for the values of the post-war German film industry.<ref name=TUP/>

==Reception== It was well received by the German public in 1947 who were generally receptive to its message. In the 1960s the film began to attract criticism for allegedly whitewashing ordinary Germans' acceptance of Nazi ideology. However, this criticism has in turn been challenged as being ahistorical and ignoring the conditions under which it was made - such as the constraints put on German film-makers by the Allied occupation powers and the aversion of contemporary German audiences to films that explicitly examined their possible collective guilt.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0039490}}

[[Category:1947 drama films]] [[Category:German drama films]] [[Category:Films set in Hamburg]] [[Category:Films set in Berlin]] [[Category:Films directed by Helmut Käutner]] [[Category:Films about Nazi Germany]] [[Category:West German films]] [[Category:Films about automobiles]] [[Category:West German black-and-white films]] [[Category:1947 German-language films]] [[Category:1947 German films]] [[Category:Films scored by Bernhard Eichhorn]]