U 9 Weddigen

'U 9 Weddigen' is one of those dead-earnest dramas that tries to make deeply meaningful statements such as 'War Is Bad', but which has nothing significant to offer.

The early scenes are set in the last years of the 19th century. Mathilde Sussin plays a German widow with two strapping sons. After her husband's death, she marries an Englishman, moves to England, and bears him one more son ... then the Englishman dies, having fulfilled his usefulness to the plotline. Years pass. All three sons follow a similar course, but in their respective homelands. In England, der mamma beams with pride as her youngest son (Fred Solm) becomes a Royal Navy officer. Back in the fatherland, the two older sons (Gerd Briese, Ernst Hofmann) become submarine officers in the Kaiser's fleet. We can see where this is heading.

By now it's 1914, and Der Mamma decides it's time for her to pay a visit to Germany and see her two older sons. So her ship sails out from Southampton. Guess what happens in the Northern Sea. Guess who the U-boat officers are. Guess who shows up to rescue Der Mamma.

This is one of those movies where you know, far in advance, how every scene is going to play out ... and then it does. Interestingly, both the British and the Germans are depicted sympathetically ... but that's the only point of interest in this movie, which beats us over the head with the irony of a war fought by (all together now) Brother Against Brother.

There are very few movies I'll rate an absolute zero, but this is one of them. The German submarine in this movie is designated U-9, but it ought to be U-"nein" as in "no!" Let this leaky vessel sink without a trace.

As with the silent film THE BATTLE OF SANTIAGO BAY, I really have not seen this film at all, so I will refrain from commenting on it's contents. Instead, I want to take a moment to discuss it's interesting title: U9 WEDDIGEN.

How many people recognize these names: Oswald Boelke, Raoul Luftbery, Rene Fonck, Charles Nungesser, Georges Guyneymer, Albert Ball, Manfried Von Richtofen, Werner Voss, Eddie Rickenbacker, Frank Luke.

I suspect Richtofen and Rickenbacker make people recall the great World War I aviation aces of both sides. They did manage to add a dash or false chivalry to the general slaughterhouse of the war, and they were advancing aviation by twenty years in their personal battles against each other.

Now how about these: Walter Schweiger, Von Trapp, Otto Weddigen.

That is more difficult, although the central name may help. Most of you will think, "Von Trapp" and visualize Christopher Plummer singing "Eidelweiss" while Julie Andrews and the children surround him. And you would be right. But you have to think carefully about the story of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Remember that Von Trapp has a military background, and he is being ordered by the Nazis (whom he despises) to go to Wilhelmshavn or Bremen for his next orders after the Anschluss. That is why he and the family flee. Also he is called "Captain Von Trapp". In reality Herr Von Trapp was Austria-Hungary's sixth ranking submarine ace (and surviving one) at the end of the First World War. That is why his services are desired by the Third Reich, despite his political dislike of the regime.

Submarines, like airplanes, were a new form of warfare in 1914, and the successes of submarine commanders led the German public to call them aces, like Von Richtofen. Walter Schweiger sank nearly 300,000 tons of allied shipping in World War I, before his death in a submarine disaster in 1917. Schweiger is best/worst remembered for one ship he sank...on May 7, 1915. He torpedoed R.M.S. Lusitania.

And Otto Weddigen - hey, his last name is in the title of this film!

Yeah, it is. Because Otto Weddigen did an amazing thing in September 1914 that no other sub commander ever did, and which all of them (no matter what navy they are in) dream of repeating. In his submarine, U9, he sited three antiquated English light cruisers: H.M.S. Aboukir, H.M.S. Cressy, and H.M.S. Hogue. In rapid succession he sank all three ships, killing 1,400 seamen. Never did a submarine win such a total victory over it's foes. Weddigen's career lasted into 1915, and he received Germany's highest medals for his work. Like Schweiger he died in action when his submarine (not the U9 anymore) was sliced in half by the H.M.S. Dreadnought.

The film's use of his submarine and Weddigen's name was to remind the audience of a major naval victory by Germany at the start of World War I. And since it was off the coast of Holland it is in the North Sea, which was the scene of the major action of the film's plot (as outlined in the previous comment). So the movie title is meant to bring in an audience from Germany (and even from England) that would be more in the know about these matters than we of a later period would.