Shot in 1936 by a German-American family who visited Germany for the Olympic Games, this home movie is one of several in the Periscope Film LLC archive. We’d love additional information about the places seen in the film, so if you have any insights please leave them in the comments section. This film includes footage of Munich, the Kneippianum Wellvital Hotel, a small Nazi Rally (3:30 mark) and calisthenics that may have been part of the Strength thru Joy movement or Kraft durch Freude (3:40), and then a trip to New York aboard the liner SS Hansa.
More about the Hansas: This ship was originally the SS Albert Ballin, an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1923 and named after Albert Ballin, visionary director of the line who had committed suicide several years earlier.
Albert Ballin was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, and served on the Hamburg-New York City route. In 1928 a tourist class was added. Originally built as a 16 knot ship, the engines were replaced in 1929 resulting in a speed of 19 knots. In 1934 she was lengthened by 50 feet, and speed increased again, this time to 21.5 knots.
In 1935 the new Nazi government ordered the ship renamed to Hansa (Ballin having been Jewish). Hansa’s last Atlantic crossing was in 1939. In 1945, she was employed to evacuate Gdynia, but on 6 March hit a mine off Warnemünde and sank.
The wreck was raised and rebuilt by the Soviet Union around 1949, and renamed Sovetskiy Soyuz (Russian: Советский Союз; meaning Soviet Union), becoming the largest passenger ship operating under the Soviet flag. From 1955 she operated between Vladivostok and points in the Far East. Renamed Tobolsk in 1980, she sailed under that name for only a year before being scrapped.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
