Charity Campaign Ideas

OCR Media Studies: Foundation Production Unit

The hands of a cyberbully? Your opportunity to campaign against this!

Introduction

The development of mass media and the ability to communicate information fast has meant that media has played a powerful role in developing and maintaining improved standards of citizenship nationally and in the wider World.  Many charities and pressure groups have harnessed the power of the media to expose injustice and exploitation. They have often created broadbased campaigns to create awareness, persuade people to take action and therefore influence institutions, companies and the government of the day to make better policies. The ability to communicate powerful messages and values through effective advertising campaigns has played a fundamental role in this. In the foundation production unit you will be developing your skills in this area. 

For this specification you will need to be developing a powerful web-based media campaign. The general specification demands that it is as follows:

Main task: produce a campaign website including sound and video, including a sound and video for a campaign (eg political, health, charity, environmental. The site should include a logo, original photographs, (minimum four per candidate), written text, audio, video and easy navigation. (OCR Specification Document November 2007)

Below I have made some suggestions for campaigns based upon topical issues which can also link into other aspects of the New OCR Media specification for first delivery in September 2008. You will also find that the new draft specification for the WJEC Board will allow for a campaign of this nature. Teachers and lecturers will of course need to check out the specifications as they are fully accredited.

Choosing Your Campaign

As it currently stands the OCR specification allows you to invent your own campaign. The approach being taken here is to campaign for the development and maintenance of citizenship rights on a global basis. The production unit will be used to dvelop an understanding of three common areas where good policy needs to be accompanied by alert citizens to create awareness of hidden problems in our society.  This also affords us the opportunity to think about the important relationship the media can have with specialist organisations working towards ending specific abuses within our society. 

Public Service Broadcasting & Journalism

Many of you will be taking Media Studies with ideas of becoming a journalist. Good journalism and reporting has always managed to bring unpleasant issues into the spotlight and all aspects of media have their role to play. Good journalism must be supported by a good broadcasting framework which sees serving the public / citizens as a fundamental human right. We call this Public Service Broadcasting and is something we deal with in greater depth in the A2 year. Please note that most of the stories on this posting have emanated from the BBC not the commercial broadcasting companies who are primarily concerned with making money. As the links have been gleaned from general searches this shows you the importance of the BBC.

Campaign Against Abuse of Citizens

Previously campaigns have been focused upon four options however it is now easier to open up the range of choices. The first four choices relate to issues of abuse. 

1. Firstly: the development of cyberbullying and other internet related issues. This will contribute an added dimension to the unit which we will study later on New Media Technologies
2. Secondly: there will also be the option of developing a campaign for Amnesty International to help expose and stop the growth of the sexual exploitation of young women from poverty stricken countries who are trapped in a cycle of illegal immigration, violence and sexual exploitation. This links to the ooption to study Women and film for your A2 research project.
   
3. Thirdly: we will look at the issue of child abuse in general which is still a big problem as shown by the work of the NSPCC.
   
4. For the fourth option we will look at the issue of elder abuse which is now being recognised as an increasing problem in Britain
   

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying appears to be coming more common. Communications systems as they are usually envisaged have the purpose of making life more transparent and opening up opportunities for all citizens of whatever age to develop their capabilities. However  most technologies can be used for unpleasant purposes and even downright criminal ones which oppress and repress people. Eternal vigilance  coupled to  an ethic of good quality citizenship rights for all  need to be combined to ensure that misuse of technologies for abusing fellow citizens is  resisted and eradicated as far as possible.

In the past one or two of my sixth-form students have taken up aspects of cyberbullying in the last couple of years and knew more about it than I did. But the phenomenon was still relatively limited. As it develops the issues of Cybercitizenship rights at a global level need to be taken very seriously. Below I have provided an initial webliography for students to do some initial research into this. It must be born in mind that this phenomenon is likely to get worse before it gets better which means that major charities are likely to get involved in the problem soon. 

For those of you who decide to take up this option you sh

ould see yourselves in a pioneeering and important role. Remember it is you rather than your lecturers / teachers / examiners who are likely to be more aware of this phenomenon in your everyday life. It is possible that major charities such as the NSPCC will take an interest in your work. Think of this project as your entry ticket into the adult world.  The fact is you can make a difference!  The combined results of personal research required for this project will provide  some useful data which we may wish to publish electronically.  If people from  a lot of colleges  find this positing and contribute then the pool of available data will become wider and the information potentially more valuable.  How valuable depends on the quality of the research.!

Cyberbullying Webliography 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/4412530.stm. East Sussex Council is one of the earliest to take Cyberbullying seriously.  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2902777.stm. About the growth of bullying of adult workers.  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1929944.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1930552.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1929944.stm. Link here to BBC Video on cyberbullying 

Striking back at Cyberbullies:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4912766.stm

Bullied girl sent hate e.mail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/4807396.stm

Cyberbullying on teachers (April 2007):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6522501.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6541073.stm

Social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace must do more to police what users do, warns Computing Which?http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5344722.stm

Alan Johnson as the Education Minister under Tony Blair recently pledges to deal with cyberbullying (April 2007): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6527133.stm

Websites urged to act on cyberbullies (April 2007):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6539989.stm

Anger at cyerbullying in Cornwall (April 2007):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/6586735.stm

cyberbullying gathers pace in the US (June 2007):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6245798.stm

Presenting yourself on the Internet 

A new chief safety officer, Dr Rachel O'Connell, described as "one of Europe's foremost experts in internet safety", is being appointed by Bebo on 17 July. Tunbridge Wells Grammar School monitors how its girls presented themselves on the internet. Their naievty was putting them at risk. As media students should know there can be significant differences between what the producers of media intend (preferred reading) and how audiences might gain meaning from them (negotiated reading). See the story here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/5140316.stm

Guidance on how to use social networking sites safely could be a good thing to campaign on.

Bebo safety tips: http://www.bebo.com/SafetyTips.jsp

Wired Safety: http://www.wiredsafety.org/

Anti-trafficking Campaign 

Trafficking in human beings to provide very cheap labour or else to feed the exploitative sex trade has  become an increasing problem in rescent years with the spread of globalisation as this image from a Danish anti-trafficking campaign makes clear.

A recent powerful film by the Swedish  director Lucas Moodysson called Lilya 4-Ever was inspired the story of a teenage Lithuanian woman who was lured to Sweden and enslaved in the sex trade. The film is one which is considered as a representation of women for the research unit on Women and film. There is a posting on this blog which gives you a good range of internet links to research the film and this unpleasant aspect of social reality further: Lilya 4-Ever. Human trafficking is not limited to just the sex trade as the recent British drama documentary Ghosts has shown. This is also a film which we look at in year 2 for the unit Contemporary British Cinema in the OCR specification. This is a link to a posting on this site which again gives a range of external links to explore: Ghosts.

Many of the undocumented Chinese labourers who were employed as cocklepickers represented in Ghosts were drowned on Blackpool Sands

Child Abuse & the NSPCC

For many years the NSPCC have run vey effective campaigns to highlight child abuse and child murder.  The design of these has often been in black and white and the mise en scene is often based on real looking locations and very poignant slogans which fit well with the image.

NSPCC & child Abuse Webliography

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/whatwedo/whatwedohubpage_wda33342.html

The NSPCC FULL STOP Campaign

Full NSPCC Report on Child abuse 

Unicef Report on Slave Britain  

Slave Britain Exhibition 

Access Robbie Williams film  More Precious than Gold

BBC on Parenting: Your Kids - What is Child Abuse?

Kidscape: Bullying and Child Abuse

Elder Abuse

In recent years abuse of the elderly has been recognised as an increasing problem and several charitable organisations have developed to combat this whilst older charities such as Help the Aged have devoted an increasing amount of energy to this issue.

Kathlene a victim of elder abuse with her new carers. Link here to BBC London's expose as Kathlene tells her story.

Good journalism and reporting has always managed to bring these unpleasant issues into the spotlight and all aspects of media have their role to play. Good journalism must be supported by a good broadcasting framwork which sees serving the public / citizens as a fundamental human right. We call this Public Service Broadcasting and is something we deal with in our A2 year. Please note that most of the stories on this posting have emanated from the BBC not the commercial broadcasting companies who are primarily concerned with making money.  Highlighting the problem is one thing but helping to get everybody thinking about WHY these things go on is very important. Programmes such as Woman's Hour have an important role to play. Here you can listen to a Woman's Hour discussion on why elderly abuse is so prevalent in our society.  

Elder Abuse Webliography

Link to Action on Elder Abuse a charity specifically developed to deal with this issue

Report highlights Elder Abuse (June 2007): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6752965.stm

Elder abuse affects thousands (June 2007):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6751155.stm

Abuse of Elderly most common in UK (June 2007): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6751637.stm

Elderly abuse becoming common (Summer 2006):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5043896.stm

This link is strangely related to our unit on new media technologies for it is a BBC story about Child Abuse in Second Life the virtual world.  

Fashion Campaigns (1)

Website Catwalk Queen made the following pusillanimous comment about this campaign launched at the Milan fashion show in 2007:

You can view the image after the jump but be warned that some readers might find it disturbing.

Unsurprisingly the Italian advertising authority banned the advertising campaign for breaching its 'code of conduct'. The BBC has noted the following comment in an attempt to blame the victim of course:

The image "commercially exploited" the illness, the advertising body said.

Interstingly the campaign was sponsored by Flash and Partners a fashion design company.

Of course quite a lot of readers should be rather more disturbed that the fashion industry helps to encourage mental states that leads to these sorts of symptoms. Here we need to be asking who is constructing the current set of so-called beauty standards. Many would argue it is the construction of a male gaze which creates a mental state in women who are used to be looked at. It is rare that the reality is portrayed.

Old-fashioned posters can still be highly effective:  No Anorexia hits the streets of Milan

Shock anorexia billboard annoys fashion designers reports the Guardian

LONDON - Unilever, the maker of Dove cosmetics and Lynx deodorant, has banned size zero models from appearing in its advertising in response to public opinion. (Brand Republic 08-May-07, 14:00)

British Chiropractic Association (BCA) Backs Anti-Size Zero Campaign

Losing muscle mass means the support in vital areas such as the neck may not be enough to hold heavier structures like the head. This can potentially result in changes to posture such as forcing you to hold your head forward which causes the head to feel heavier, putting extra strain on the neck muscles, this can be linked to a number of long term problems such as headaches. In extreme cases significant weight loss can lead to loss of bone density (osteoporosis) and can cause changes to the menstrual cycle as well.

Fashion Campaigns 2

Children Sewing (slaving) For Primark

Primark & Child Exploitation

People & Planet groups organised a series of coordinated protests at Primark stores around the country on Saturday 10 March. Armed with banners and ironing boards they withstood counter-flyering attacks from Primark and collected hundreds of petitions.

Financial Times report on Primark 17 June 2008:

What you don’t know . . .

There are said to be 470 Facebook groups devoted to Primark, 392 of them positive. By severing links with three Indian factories for severe breaches of its ethical standards, including the use of child labour, the discount clothing retailer has given the other 78 something to chat about.

At least one campaign group castigated Primark for “cutting and running” rather than working with suppliers to improve. But most Primark customers, if not indifferent, will have taken the action as it was intended: a rapid, but considered, response to a grave breach that, according to Associated British Foods, the retailer’s parent, was so ingrained it would have been hard to correct easily.

That still leaves the question why the problem was uncovered by the BBC and not Primark’s supply auditors. The problem for companies sourcing products from developing markets is summed up in Primark’s statement that it would never “knowingly permit” the activities now uncovered.

Not knowing, lobbyists would argue, is no longer an excuse.

The Associated British Foods share price was in the article. Obviously serious campaigns will hurt the share price.

BBC Panoarma investigation into Primark and Child Labour

The Times, June 17, 2008

Primark drops firms using child labour

Primark takes action over child labour

By Maggie Urry

Bargain retailers Tesco's, Asda and Primark depend on sweatshops - report By SEAN POULTER,  Mail Online

: 30 Jun 2007 08:42 |  Tags: A Level Media Studies Anti Anorexia Campaign Cyberbullying Elder Abuse Nolita Nspcc Ocr Media Studies Ocr Media Studies New Specification Primark And Child Labour Sex Trafficking |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Directors for Contemporary British Cinema

British Directors in Contemporary British Cinema

Return to Contemporary British Cinema Hub

All active links lead to in house pages on the specific director. Some are still under construction and may not be currently accessible. Please try again soon.

Each page will have a specific webliography and will also have both internal and external links to a range of their films. Obviously this is a major development undertaking and there are currently 30 directors listed below with some more who need to be added. 

Apologies for any shortcomings. British contemporary cinema is going to be a key development area in the coming weeks as many visitors are likely to be having an exam on it in the summer. It is recommended that you vist the relevant pages reasonably frequently as there will be quite a lot of change. Pages will be opened as soon as possible and the priority will be to provide a range of the best possible current web links which are considered as good quality.  

I hope you will find the system useful.  

Introduction

This posting is aimed at the interested general viewer in keeping up to date with British Films and film makers. It also functions as a core resource for the current OCR A2 Unit on Contemporary British Cinema.

Please note the term British Cinema is not the same as British Films. Cinema refers to the industrial systems of production, distribution, and exhibition as a whole. It can also refer to the criticics and reviewers who are employed at any given moment. Directors and the films they make here are only a small part of the industry as a whole.

The list below is primarily taken from the BFI Screenonline Directors on British and Irish Cinema.  There are a couple of inclusions of directors who don't really make films in the UK or about the UK. Sir Ridley Scott being one of these and Sir Alan Parker being another. They tend to prove the rule that Hollywood is the global centre of filmmaking which is both American and yet has an extra dimension to it which proves highly attractive to the most successful filmmakers in the world in terms of gaining audiences at least. There are some surprising omissions from the Screenonline listings such as Paul Greengrass. Here I have linked to Wikipedia in the first instance.

List of Contemporary British Directors

Arnold Andrea (1961 -).

Attenborough, Richard (Lord) (1923 - ) 

Bird, Antonia (1959 - ) 

Boyle, Danny (1956-) 

Branagh Kenneth (1960 -) 

Broomfield, Nick (1948 -) 

Chadha, Gurinder (1960 - )

Corbijn Anton

Dibb Saul (?) 

Daldry, Stephen (1961 - )

Davies, Terence (1945 - )

Figgis Mike (1948 -)

Forsyth, Bill (1946 -) 

Frears, Stephen (1941 -) 

Gavron, Sarah (    ) 

Gilliam, Terry (1940 - ) 

Greenaway, Peter (1942 -)

Greengrass, Paul (1955 - )

Hodges, Mike (1932 - )

Herman, Mark (1954-)

Joffe Roland (1945 - ) 

Jordan, Neill (1950 -) 

Julien, Isaac (1960 - )

Kapur, Shekah (  )

Leigh, Mike (1943 - )

Loach, Ken (1936 - ) 

Madden, John (1949- )

Meadows, Shane (1973 -) 

Minghella, Anthony (1954-2008)

Parker, Alan (Sir) (1944-) 

Pawlikowski Pawel (?)

Poliakoff Stephen (1952-)

Potter, Sally (1949 -) 

Ramsay Lynne (1969 -)

Ritchie Guy (1968 - )

Scott, Ridley (Sir) (1939 -) 

Williams Paul Andrew (?) 

Winterbottom, Michael (1961 - ) 

Wright Edgar (1974 -   ) 

Wright Joe (1972- )

TO VIEW OTHER CINEMA DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE PLEASE GO TO THE CHRONOLGY OF EUROPEAN CINEMA HUB PAGE

Return to Contemporary British Cinema Hub

: 16 Jun 2007 07:43 |  Tags: Andrea Arnold British Cinema From 1990 British Film Directors Contemporary British Cinema Contemporary British Directors Hub Danny Boyle Gurinder Chadha Guy Ritchie Hub Page Ken Loach Kinoeye Lynne Ramsay Michael Winterbottom Mike Figgis Mike Leigh Nick Broomfield Ocr Media Studies Ors Paul Greengrass Peter Greenaway Sally Potter Sarah Gavron Shane Meadows Stephen Frears |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

British Women Film directors

British Women Film Directors

Return to British Cinema Hub Page

Introduction

Whilst of general interest to those dealing with issues of gender and cinema this posting should prove useful to those studying Women and Film within the current OCR specification.

Given the large number of British films and the very small number of Women directors the average rocket scientist can swiftly work out that there is a serious gender imbalance within the industry in the UK.  

The Directors

This list of directors is taken from the BFI list of Directors in British and Irish Cinema
plus some additions. Sue Clayton isn't in the list although appears elsewhereon the site. Nor does Andrea Arnold feature in the list. Arnold recently made the film Red Road (2006) and has won at the Oscars and at Cannes. The list amounts to 11 women film directors in the history of British cinema. Not a good record over the last 100 years. Of these several are active film makers and can be included in the specification for OCR Contemporary British Cinema. Of these 11 directors five are currently active and include: Andrea Arnold, Antonia Bird, Gurinder Chadha, Sally Potter, Lynne Ramsey.

Adler, Carine (1948-)

Arnold Andrea (1961 -)

Bird, Antonia (1959 -)

Box Muriel (1905 - 1991) 

Chadha, Gurinder (1960 -)

Clayton Sue (? )

Craigie, Jill (1911 - 1999)

Grierson, Ruby (1904-1940) 

Mander, Kay (1915 - ) 

Mulvey, Laura (1941 - )

Potter, Sally (1949 - ) 

Ramsey Lynne ( 1969 -)

Toye, Wendy (1917 - )

Webliography

Guardian feature on the 'Celluloid Ceiling'

Kate Kellaway Guardian blog: Why is that film-making continues to be the most gender inequitable career in the arts?

Rachel Millward Guardian blog: Kate Kellaway asked what could be done to encourage more women into film-making. Here are my suggestions.

Rachel Millward is the organiser for the Bird's Eye View Women's Film Festival. It is solely to celebrate women film makers and started in 2005 in venues across London.

Return to British Cinema Hub Page

: 16 Jun 2007 06:59 |  Tags: A Level Film Studies A Level Media Studies Antonia Bird British Women Directors Gurinder Chadha Kinoeye Laura Mulvey Lynne Ramsey Sally Potter Women And Film |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

British Cinema: Social Realism – Webliography

Introduction

This page functions as a portal into the important strand of British filmmaking described as social realist. Laid out chronologically this portal will be particularly useful for:
* Those unfamiliar with the history of the British cinema 
* Students following undergraduate film studies course to provide an overview before tackiling more in depth work 
* 'A' level media students following the current (2006 /07) OCR Media A2 Unit on Media Issues & Debates: Contemporary British Cinema. For the OCR unit it will historically contextualise the continuing use of social realism as a successful film form
* The WJEC Film Studies A level "British & Irish Cinema" Unit.

Overview

Social realism has played an important role in both British cinema and TV. The British documentary movement which developed under the leadership of John Grierson  was enormously influential in stimulating what became a strand of fiction film described as social realism.

Humphrey Jennings who started out with this movement brought a sense of the surreality of popular culture in everyday life to his work. His wartime docu-dramas and documentary work are exemplary pieces of art working across genres to produce some of the best work ever made by a British director.

Jennings was an inspiration to Lindsay Anderson and those who gathered around him in the British 'Free Cinema'. Technical discoveries by cameraman Walter Lassally were to influence the work of the French New Wave Filmmakers and cinematographers. 



The documentary work made by them led into the 'British New Wave' at the beginning of the 1960s.

This in turn led to social realist films and TV documentaries in the mid to late sixties with Ken Loach and Producer Tony Garnett being exemplary. Cathy Come Home was a TV drama which heldped the housing charity Shelter to set up. Poor Cow and Kes are classic Loach films from this period.


While the 1970s and 1980s saw less work of this style films such as Meantime by Mike Leigh were very influential. The actor Gary Oldman was outstanding in this and returned to this form as a director in Nil by Mouth made in the late 1990s.


There was a return to popularity for this kind of film in the 1990s particularly by Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. This has continued up until 2006 with Ken Loach winning the Palm d'or at the Cannes festival for The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) combining social realism with history.

Brtish social realism has also been strongly influential in other types of films which have combined genres into hybrids such as social-realist / comedy. The Full Monty (1997) and Brassed Off (1996) are good examples of this. Perhaps the first hybrid of this type was Billy Liar (1963) at the end of the British New Wave. This film provided a bridge into the 'Swinging Sixties' particularly in the next film by John Schlesinger Darling which starred Julie Christie  as well.

The BFI "Screenonline article on comedy" cites several films which also appear  elsewhere as social realistically inflected. Films dealing with changing British identity often combine social realist aspects of life with comedy including East is East (1999) and Bend it Like Beckham (2002).

Webliography laid out chronologically

This covers the British documentary movement and via Free Cinema moves into British Social Realism 

John Grierson Trust

John Grierson Director Page

Empire Marketing Board

Documentary Film Units and Film Sponsorship

BFI Screenonline Biography of Paul Rotha

Humphrey Jennings

Kinoeye:  Humphrey Jennings page.

Links previously on this page are now on the above page plus many more. The page is still under development and further links to analysies of his films are in the pipeline.  

Lindsay Anderson director page.

From Lindsay Anderson to the Free Cinema

The British New Wave: Social Realist film of the 1960s

The Impact and Influence of Social Realism in British Cinema a useful Screenonline article.


Tony Aldgate of the Open University discusses British Social Realism

Social Realists in British Cinema from 1990

These two directors have a reputation for working mainly within the social realist tradition although the approaches are still very different. Loach tends to be more macro whilst Leigh is more micro with a style closer to Kammerspiele or chamber plays.

Ken Loach

Mike Leigh

Other British Directors who have used social realism

These directors have made films at times which have been strongly influenced by social realism:

Stephen Frears with Dirty Pretty Things, 2002

Lynne Ramsey Ratcatcher

Michael Winterbottom Welcome to Sarajevo (1998) is a social realist influenced film based upon a true story. His recent The Road to Guantanamo (2006) is a political response to the events and aftermath of 9/11.

Some Social Realist Films From 1990

Life is Sweet, 1990: Mike Leigh. It is marketed as a 'bittersweet comedy" which is quite a good description of many of the social realist / comedy hybrid films

Raining Stones, 1993: Dir Ken Loach

Nil by Mouth 1997: dir Gary Oldman

Authors of British Social Realist Films

Alan Sillitoe

Here is a link to Alan Sillitoe author of Saturday Night Sunday Morning commenting recently on the coming ban on smoking in public places

: 16 Jun 2007 01:03 |  Tags: A Level Film Studies British Cinema British Cinema From 1990 British Documentary Movement European Cinema Film Genres History Of European Cinema John Grierson Kinoeye Social Realism Social Realism Webliography Social Realist Cinema |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Thyssen Fritz (1873–1951)

Thyssen Fritz (1873-1951).

Thyssen was a  multimillionaire industrialist controlling the United Steel Trust. Joined the Nazi Party in 1923 who helped fund the Nazi Party. This financial support was particularly important in these early years. Was one of the group of industrialists who petitioned Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor but demanded that Otto Strasser and the SA should be repudiated for their continuous attacks on industry and their demands for nationalisation. In 1933 became head of the national employers association a powerful industry pressure group which enthusisatically embraced the corporatism of the Nazis. Quite a different position to that held by Gustav Krupp for example. In the Spring of 1933 Thyssen was extremely critical of Krupp and his leadership of the German Employers Federation (RDI) and Krupp’s tactic of trying to find a business/labour compromise in talks with the trade unions. But in 1938 he became rapidly disillusioned by the way in which autarky and the 4 Year Plan were overturning conventional economics and appeared to be dead set on a course to war. As a result he fled to Switzerland. Subsequently Goring’s Reichswerke took over slices of Thyssen’s empire which - somewhat ironically! - were confiscated under the law of 1934 which gave the Nazi state the power to expropriate the property of communists. Thyssen eventually went to France and was turned over to the Nazis by the Vichy government there, and was incarcerated in a concentration camp. He went to Argentina in 1948.

Extra 

This entry is linked to a posting on Visconti's representation of Nazism in The Damned. This posting supplements that article.   

: 09 Jun 2007 12:06 |  Tags: Kinoeye Nazi Consolidation Of Power Nazi Germany The Damned Thyssen Fritz Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Reichenau, Walter von (1884–1942)

Reichenau, Walter von (1884-1942)

Reichnau was a career army officer he followed General Blomberg into the Ministry of War in 1933 fully co-operating with the Nazis. Reichenau made the agreement with Himmler to keep the army confined to barracks during the 1934 Rohm Purge. After the event Reichenau even issued a statement justifying the murder of General von Schleicher. He commanded the 10th Army in Poland in 1939 and the 6th Army invading Belgium and France and was made a Field Marshall. In Russia he issued specific anti-Jewish orders and would almost certainly have been tried at Nuremberg had he not been killed in an air crash in 1942.

Extra 

This entry is linked to a posting on Visconti's representation of Nazism in The Damned. This posting supplements that article.   

: 09 Jun 2007 11:58 |  Tags: Kinoeye Nazi Consolidation Of Power Nazi Germany Reichenau Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lubbe, Marianus van den (1909–1934)

Lubbe, Marianus van den (1909-1934)

Luube was found in the Reichstag building on the night of the Reichstag fire and was executed by beheading for this the following year. Originally trained as a mason he was an itinerant construction worker. At one point had joined the Dutch communist Party but disliked the discipline and authoritarian codes therefore left to join an small anarcho-syndicalist group. He had his eyesight severely damaged by an accident at work and was almost unemployable. From February 1931 he had begun a trek towards Russia. Getting only as far as Poland he returned to Germany going to Berlin. Lubbe was a believer in ‘direct action’ which he thought would arouse the working classes from their apathy and passivity in the face of the growth of Nazism. He had practised ‘direct action’ in Holland which had caused his break with the Communist Party. He started a campaign of arson in Berlin beginning with an attempt on the 23rd of February to burn down a welfare office a symbol of the oppression of the working class through unemployment. He followed this up with arson attempts on the town hall and the former royal palace. These attempts had been frustrated by early discovery and had barely mentioned in the press. Lubbe then proceeded to attack the Reichstag itself. Although half blind he was able to gain easy access to the building and proceeded to start a series of fires. He was eventually found and overcome by Reichstag officials. Subsequent evidence confirms that Lubbe had been acting alone. Rudolf Diels the non-Nazi head of the Prussian police considered that Lubbe was a madman however Hitler ranted that it was a communist plot and that Communists and social democrats would be repressed mercilessly. Orders were issued for the arrest of over 4,000 Communists. Diels ignored the demand that they be instantaneously shot. There is huge debate about whether Lubbe was set up to do this work by Nazi agents. Certainly it is the case that the excuse for the repression of the communists only a few days before the last election of the Weimar period which saw Hitler being finally swept into power on a popular vote was an excellent pretext to use great physical violence to disrupt and fragment the Communist party and Social Democratic Party campaigns. The timing of this event and upping of the ante in terms of violence against left of centre opposition to Nazism legitimised through state institutions which led to the ability to pass the ‘enabling act’ provides strong circumstantial evidence pointing to a case of agent provocateurism. (For a useful recent account see Evans: 2003: pp 328-338). 

Extra 

: 09 Jun 2007 11:49 |  Tags: Kinoeye Marianus Lubbe Nazi Consolidation Of Power Reichstag Fire The Damned Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Gustav (1870–1950)

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Gustav (1870-1950)

The main inheritor of the vast industrial and munitions manufacturing group which went by the same name. From 1931 he was in the important position of Chairman of the Association of German Industrialists. Initially he had opposed the rise of the Nazis warning Hindenburg against them. However he was reconciled to Hitler’s leadership and following Schacht became an enthusiastic supporter. Underlying this support was the way that Hitler destroyed the unions and their political power bases in the Communists and Social Democrats, combined with the removal of Otto Strasser who posed a radical threat. Finally the very strong Nazi position on rearmament guaranteed a meal ticket for the foreseeable future of Krupps. Gustav thus made heavy contributions to the Adolf Hitler Fund administered by Martin Bormann.

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: 09 Jun 2007 09:20 |  Tags: Kinoeye Krupp Nazi Consolidation Of Power Nazi Germany The Damned Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Alfred (1907–1967)

Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Alfred (1907-1967)

The son and heir of Gustav Krupp he was an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler and in charge of weapons and munitions production at the company during WW II. He opened factories in Nazi occupied countries utilising slave and concentration camp labour. He was made minister of the war economy in 1943 and sentenced at Nuremberg to 12 years in prison and the confiscation of all his vast property worth many millions of pounds. He was released very early in 1951 and his property was restored to him.

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: 09 Jun 2007 09:11 |  Tags: Kinoeye Krupp Nazi Consolidation Of Power Nazi Germany The Damned Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Heydrich, Reinhard (1904 – 1942)

Heydrich, Reinhard (1904 - 1942)

Returned to The Damned Article 

Chief of Reich Security Head Office and Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Son of the founder of the Halle Conservatory. In a a contemporary Lexicon of Music and Musicians by his father’s name was a note which said ‘real name Suss’. There is therefore a clear implication that Heydrich was of Jewish extraction a fact that he sought to hide very carefully. His appearance was more Nordic and he was a skilled and fanatical organiser. He was continuously promoted within the SS and Security Services and was responsible for organising the Einsatzgruppen organised murder squads. As protector of Bohemia and Moravia he employed a carrot and stick approach. Those who served the regime were rewarded whilst others were fearsomely treated. The allies in London thought he was setting a dangerous precedent and this appeared to be one of the main reason why they organised his assassination. As a reprisal the village of Lidice was raised to the ground and thousands were transported to the camps. There was little danger of serious collaboration between the Czechs and the Nazis again. Heydrich’s reputation is one of an almost pathological cold ruthlessness.

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This entry is linked to a posting on Visconti's representation of Nazism in The Damned. This posting supplements that article.   

: 09 Jun 2007 09:01 |  Tags: Damned Heydrich Holocaust Kinoeye Nazi Consolidation Of Power The Visconti |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem