GERMAN MILITARY RINGS – GERMAN MILITARY

German postcard by Ross Verlag, nr. 4772/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin.

Dignified German-Russian actress Olga Tschechova (1897-1980) was one of the most popular stars of the silent film era. She remained a mysterious person throughout her life, and was reportedly a Russian agent in Nazi Germany.

Olga Tschechova – or in Russian Olga Chekhova- was born Olga Von Knipper in Aleksandropol, Transcaucasia, Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). She was the second of three children in a bilingual Russian-German family. Her father, Konstantin Knipper, was a military railroad engineer. Olga was sent to Moscow to her aunt, actress Olga Knipper, Anton Chekhov’s wife, and joined a studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1914, at the age of 17 she married the Russian-Jewish actor Michael Chekhov, a nephew of Anton. (Thus, the niece of Anton Chekhov’s wife became the wife of Anton Chekhov’s nephew.) Their daughter, Ada Tschechowa was born in 1916. Olga separated from Michael Chekhov during the chaos and disaster of the Russian Revolution in 1917. That same year she made her film debut in a Russian silent film Anya Kraeva (1917, Nikandr Turkin). More small parts followed in the films Kaliostro/Cagliostro (1918, Wladyslaw Starewicz), and Posledeniye priklyucheniya Arsena Lyupena /Arsene Lupin’s Last Adventures (1918, Mikhail Doronin).

Olga Tschechowa married in 1920 an Austro-Hungarian officer, Friedrich Jaroshi, and took a train to Vienna, Austria. She had travel documents from the Russian government Commissar of Culture, and was helped by the secret service in exchange for cooperation. Later that year she moved to Berlin, where she was introduced to Ufa producer Erich Pommer, who gave her a leading role as a baroness in Schloss Vogelod/The Haunted Castle (1921, F.W. Murnau). The blonde and beautiful actress also appeared in films like the Henrik Ibsen adaptation Nora (1923, Berthold Viertel), and Tatjana (1923, Robert Dinesen) with Paul Hartmann. With her performance as a seductress and Grand Dame in Die Stadt der Versuchung/The City of Temptation (1925, Walter Niebuhr) she managed her breakthrough. She quickly became a huge star in Europe and played in more than 40 silent films during the decade, including the classic comedy Un Chapeau de Paille d’Italie/An Italian Straw Hat (1927, Rene Clair), Moulin Rouge (1928, Ewald Andre Dupont), and Diane (1929, Erich Waschneck), which was produced by her own company Tschechowa Film. Olga was joined by her ex-husband Michael Chekhov in several films, including Der Narr Seine Liebe/The Fool of Love (1929), which she directed herself. In spite of the positive critics this was her only direction.

In 1930 Olga Tschechowa became a German citizen. She continued her career successfully in the sound film era in Liebe im Ring/Love in the Ring (1930, Reinhold Schunzel), the incredibly popular Die Drei von der Tankstelle/The Three From the Gas Station (1930, Wilhelm Thiele), and Liebling der Gotter/Darling of the Gods (1930, Hanns Schwarz), and the German version of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Murder, Mary (1931, Alfred Hitchcock). She also did the German-language versions of films in Hollywood but preferred to work in Europe. She earned the best reviews of her long career for Max Ophuls’ early masterpiece Liebelei/Flirtation (1933). It was made shortly before the Nazis took over control of the German film industry and nothing would ever be the same again. Although apolitical and quite publicly expressing her fondness for American-style comedies and musicals, Tschechowa could not escape appearing in several of the so-called Friedrich-Filme, heavy-handed sturm-und-drang melodramas glorifying 18th century Prussian ruler Frederick the Great and much beloved by the political hierarchy. To her better films of the 1930’s belong Ein gewisser Herr Gran/A Certain Mr. Gran (1933, Gerhard Lamprecht) with Hans Albers, the delightful Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (1934, Willi Forst), Die Ewige Maske/The Eternal Mask (1935, Werner Hochbaum), Burgtheater/Burg Theatre (1936, Willi Forst), and Bel Ami (1939, Willi Forst). She was famous for her film image as a baroness or a countess. Olga was courted by the Luftwaffe boss Hermann Goring and by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, and became a personal friend of Adolf Hitler. She was photographed sitting next to the Fuhrer at official events of the Nazi Party. In 1936 she was honored with the title of ‘State Actress of the Third Reich’. She married a wealthy Belgian businessman Marcel Robyns, but two years later she divorced him and returned to her high society life in Berlin. In the 1940′s followed well-known productions like Der Fuchs von Glenarvon/The Fox of Glenarvon (1940, Max W. Kimmich, and Andreas Schluter (1942, Herbert Maisch. She survived and protected her daughter Ada Tschechowa from the Nazi anti-Semitism, by hiding the fact that her ex-husband Michael Chekhov was Jewish. Her brother Lev Knipper was held in a Nazi concentration camp

In August 1944, after the Normandy invasion of June and subsequent breakout at St. Lo, in July, the German High Command was prepared for a massive counter-offensive in an attempt to throw the Allied Armies back into the sea. Hitler, and his generals, moved massive amounts of armor and infantry to the area of Mortain, France, 150 miles west of Paris. At H-Hour, 7 August 1944, the troops of the XLVII Panzer Corps rolled forward in Operation Luttich with the 2nd SS Panzer Division headed directly for Mortain and Hill 317, a key terrain feature in the central sector of the attack, Above are depicted part of the Anti-tank Company, 3rd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division (N.C., S.C., Tenn.) during fighting on the second day. They had set up a roadblock adjacent to Hill 317, where the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry was dug in directly north of Mortain. The crews, manning the 57mm anti-tank guns, and troops of the 2nd Battalion with anti-tank rockets, were responsible for destroying over 40 vehicles during the action and stopped the German onslaught in the area. On the 7th of August, the roadblock and Hill 317 were surrounded and bypassed by the main body of German forces. The group surrounded on Hill 317, commanded by Capt. Reynold Erichson — about 700 men — were protected by a ring of artillery fire from the 35th Infantry Division artillery and fighter-bomber sorties flown by the 2nd Tactical Air Force RAF. This kept the Germans from taking Hill 317 and stopped the momentum of the counterattack in the area on the first day. The 35th Infantry Division, attacking the German penetration from the southwest, relieved the besieged troops at noon on 12 August. In one of the outstanding small-unit achievements of the war in Europe, the defenders held out for six days, sustained 300 casualties, but denied the enemy a key objective. For their valiant actions on Hill 317, the 120th Infantry Regiment was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. This proud fighting tradition of the 30th Infantry Division is perpetuated by the 30th Infantry Brigade, North Carolina Army National Guard.