This film can only be appreciated if one knows its background. It was made in this curious country the GDR, and Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the German communist party before the Second World War. In fact, Thälmann was seen by the GDR-elite as something of a founding father, perhaps in the same way as the Americans admire Washington or Lincoln. Just like the carving of the first American presidents in rock, so one finds megalomaniac statues of Thälmann in the former GDR. This was of course a bit much for the common people, but the film had a relative success (perhaps also because bus loads of school children and personnel clubs were driven for free to the cinemas - try that with YOUR boss!). Somehow the people in the GDR saw that the roots of communism lie in humanism. Even now most people in the former GDR think of their past as indeed living in a dictatorship, but not in a wrong state. Just look at for instance the realistic, touching and much loved film "Paul und Paula". In addition it should be kept in mind, that Thälmann was active in the same political organization as the much mourned Rosa Luxemburg. On the other hand he was also associated with Walter Ulbricht, who started his career in the GDR as a Stalinist. Thälmann had already been put in a Nazi jail by the time that the cruelties of Stalin reached their climax. The film "Ernst Thälmann" portrays (in 2 DVDs!) his life and death, in a realistic way, but with extreme willingness. Political films are commonly biased, in both east and west, and the communist system has always been to weak to endure criticism from within. The story is therefore a straigthforward historic epic poem, in which the actors do a good job. It is all realism, you get what you see, and there are no hidden meanings, false bottoms or other "bourgeois" deceptions. There is nothing wrong with that. Of course the film can not conceal the violent nature of the communist party, and her destabilizing effect on the Republic of Weimar. In fact it does not even try, since the bringing about of the revolution and the fall of capitalism is the ultimate goal of Leninism, and thus seen as a virtue. The viewer should also bear in mind that in the roaring twenties the Comintern had already become an instrument for the protection of Soviet interests. The revolutionary climate died around 1920. Whereas the proletarian resistance against the fascist Kapp Putsch (1920) was justified and successful, this was not longer the case for the ensuing Ruhr uprising by the communists in 1921. By that time the socialdemocrats and the trade unions had already abandoned the armed resistance against the German military. The Ruhr uprising (against the disarmament of the workers) was without chance, and ordered by the Comintern (with the Soviet president Lenin behind it as driving force) mainly to weaken the German neighbour. The script has no room for such criticism or even doubts. If Thälmann has ever made a mistake, it is certainly not visible in this movie. For some strange reason, the personal glorification of the leaders has always been typical in communist countries. They were probably supposed to represent the human goodness, and be the ultimate example for the common people. With Thälmann this turned out to be especially easy, after his eventual murder by the Hitler fascists. If one is able to feel empathy, and to accept the rather unusual ideological perspective, then the viewer is rewarded with a nice impression of the Republic of Weimar, and the rise and establishment of Nazism.
