Zum Ruhme Englands’

This article examines the background to the Nazi film ‘Titanic’. Commissioned by the Propaganda Ministry in 1940, at the height of war with Britain, the film was able to draw on extensive German engagement with the fate of the ‘R.M.S. Titanic’, stretching back to the original newspaper reports of April 1912. The sinking of the ‘Titanic’ had made a deeper impression in Germany than in other European countries, perhaps because a substantial number of the victims were in fact German or had ties with Germany. The extent of the emotional engagement showed not only in the tone of the newspaper reporting but in the sheer range of tributes that appeared in Germany: newspapers apart, there were films, paintings, poems, novels, lectures or even children’s toys. The enduring interest in the ‘Titanic’ throughout the 1920s and 30s may explain the propagandists’ decision to exploit the topic for Nazi purposes. Widespread German unease about the apparent preference given to first‐class passengers during the rescue operation and rumours of financial improprieties surrounding the owners of the ‘Titanic’ made the topic especially attractive to the Nazis. Ultimately, however, the favourable German perceptions of ‘heroic British seamanship’ undermined the Nazi film and led Goebbels to restrict its release

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Christian ministry · German · Movie theater · Nazism · Newspaper · Painting · Political science · World War II · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

• Sinking Feelings

  Open Access•Andrew Wells•Journal of British Studies•2013

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