GERMAN WAR STORY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20105, 8 December 1930, Page 11

GERMAN WAR STORY.

FIERCE BATTLE OF OPINION VIEWS OF POLITICAL PARTIES. (CXITED PEESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTHIC TELEGBAPH—COPSBIGHT.) (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) BERLIN, December 6. It is curious to note that although England received the film, "All Quiet on the Western Front," as a war masterpiece, a fierce battle of opinion is proceeding in Germany. Republicans regard the film as a true picture of war; to nearly everybody else, especially Nationalists, it is a grotesque caricature, and injurious to Germany in the eyes of the world. One Republican newspaper says: "It is astounding that this book, written by a German soldier, should be filmed in such a way that nowhere can anything be seen offensive to Germans." On the contrary, the great Catholic organ, "Germania," says: "The picture presented of the German soldier is a libel on millions of dead. Remarque's men are not men body and soul, but soul-less debauchees, thinking of nothing but guzzling and boozing, trembling iu every limb when in the trenches or exposed to shell-fire. The German soldier was not like that, even in the autumn of 1918, when demoralisation had already made rapid progress." The Monarchist and Fascist Press, of course, are furious, and describe the exhibition of the film as a political scandal. TROUBLE OVER A PICTURE FILM I!Eli I.IX. December u. Thro win*; stink bombs and cat-call-ing, Nazi (German Fascist) spectators broke up the production of the German version of the talkie, "All Quiet on the Western Front." Free fights occurred all over the theatre. Attendants trying to pacify the audience were shouted down with cries of "Wake up. Germany!" and "Down with the Jews!" Ex-soldiers shouted that the film w/is an insult to German soldiers. The police cleared the theatre with truncheons.