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115-534: The idea to build and race a rocket-powered car was suggested to von Opel by Max Valier. After the war, Valier became highly interested in rocketry. Valier, in 1927, became one of the founders of the German Verein für Raumschiffahrt , or “Spaceflight Society,” a group of later highly influential scientists who would play a major role in making rocket spaceflight a reality. Valier was more interested in publicizing rocketry than marketing Opel automobiles but came to

230-565: A German nationalist businessman, cancelled UFA's debt to Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after taking charge of the company in April 1927, and chose to halt distribution in German cinemas of Metropolis in its original form. Hugenberg had the film cut down to a length of 3,241 metres (about 118 minutes), broadly along the lines of Pollock's edit, removing the film's perceived "inappropriate" communist subtext and religious imagery. Hugenberg's cut of

345-407: A novel of the same title written by Harbou for the sole purpose of being made into a film. The novel in turn drew inspiration from H. G. Wells , Mary Shelley and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam 's works and other German dramas. The novel featured strongly in the film's marketing campaign, and was serialized in the journal Illustriertes Blatt in the run-up to its release. Harbou and Lang collaborated on

460-563: A 5-km stretch of straight track near Hanover. Some 20,000 spectators watched RAK 3 breaking the existing world speed record of railcars by nearly 40 km/h. The resulting international publicity after RAK2 and RAK3 demonstrations was enormous and gave the science of rocketry a major boost. A replica of the RAK 2 rocket-propelled car is on display at the Opel museum in Rüsselsheim , another one at

575-558: A RAK.6 car. Friedrich Wilhelm Sander Friedrich Wilhelm Sander (25 August 1885 in Glatz (Kłodzko) – 15 September 1938) was a German pyrotechnics and rocket technology engineer as well as manufacturer remembered for his contributions to rocket-powered flight as key protagonist of the Opel-RAK program. Sander was the son of a professional soldier. He went to school in Uslar on

690-526: A cost of more than five million Reichsmarks , or the equivalent of about €21 million. Made in Germany during the Weimar period , Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen,

805-415: A costume that would both appear metallic and allow a small amount of free movement. Helm sustained cuts and bruises while in character as the robot, as the costume was rigid and uncomfortable. Gottfried Huppertz composed the film's score for a large orchestra. He drew inspiration from Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss , and combined a classical orchestral style with mild modernist touches to portray

920-467: A half times the original budget. Producer Erich Pommer had been fired during production. The effects expert Eugen Schüfftan created pioneering visual effects for Metropolis . Among the effects used are miniatures of the city, a camera on a swing, and most notably, the Schüfftan process , in which mirrors are used to create the illusion that actors are occupying miniature sets. This new technique

1035-582: A kind of wooden armament, and because the shot took so long, I didn't get enough air." Despite the hardships, Thea von Harbou recounted how the film set was paradise for the hundreds of poor, malnourished children used as extras. In 1927 in Metropolis Magazine , von Harbou describes their warm and clean rooms, time for play, and ample toys and hot meals four times a day. "No film ever had more enthusiastic and willing collaborators than these little children," she recalled, "always willing to dash into

1150-417: A large crowd assembled outside of Frankfurt, the intrepid von Opel made a successful flight of almost 3.5 km in 75 seconds, reaching an estimated top speed of around 150 km/h. RAK.1 made a hard landing, but it had made an emphatic point about rocket aviation and popularized rockets as means of propulsion immensely, causing a so-called global "rocket rumble". The aircraft is sometimes also referred to as

1265-551: A larger, two-story factory building at Fährstrasse No. 26 as a prerequisite for accepting development contracts offered by the Navy. In 1928, he was approached by Max Valier , on behalf of Fritz von Opel to provide rockets to propel cars and aircraft as a means of popularizing the use of rockets for propulsion and for promoting the Opel company. Their joint projects within Opel-RAK , the world's first large-scale rocket program, involved

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1380-642: A legal battle on her divorce, particularly bitter about the custody of both sons, and because of her public aversion to Nazi leadership, friends of her former husband Willy Sachs . Elinor's German assets were blocked and confiscated by the German Reich government. Valier continued the rocket development after the Opel RAK break-up on his own. In collaboration with Heylandt-Werke, he also was focusing his efforts on liquid-fuelled rockets. Their first successful test firing with liquid fuel (five minutes) occurred in

1495-535: A long restoration process that required additional materials provided by a print from New Zealand, the film was 95% restored and shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010. Metropolis is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made , ranking 67th in Sight and Sound ' s 2022 critics' poll , and receiving general critical acclaim. In 2001,

1610-732: A luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize". He added "The sight of Neuyork [sic] alone should be enough to turn this beacon of beauty into the center of a film..." The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly informed by the Art Deco movement; however, it also incorporates elements from other traditions. Ingeborg Hoesterey described the architecture featured in Metropolis as eclectic, writing how its locales represent both "functionalist modernism [and] art deco" whilst also featuring "the scientist's archaic little house with its high-powered laboratory,

1725-591: A member of the Party in 1933. She and Lang divorced the following year. Lang later moved to the United States to escape the Nazis, while Harbou stayed in Germany and continued to write state-approved films. According to Roger Ebert , " Metropolis is one of the great achievements of the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it

1840-526: A replica of RAK.1 as the world's first dedicated rocket-plane on display. The original aircraft designer of the Opel RAK.1, Julius Hatry, personally supervised the construction of the aircraft replica. According to Frank H. Winter , curator at National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, the Opel group was also working on liquid-fuel rockets (SPACEFLIGHT, Vol. 21,2, Feb. 1979): In a cabled exclusive to The New York Times on 30 September 1929, von Opel

1955-416: A rocket researchist. Schaberger supervised all the details involved in construction and assembly (of rocket cars), and every time I sat behind the wheel with a few hundred pounds of explosives in my rear, and made the first contact, I did so with a feeling of total security [...] As early as 1928, Mr. Schaberger and I developed a liquid rocket, which was definitely the first permanently operating rocket in which

2070-549: A second unit was ready to go, Sander tied a 4,000-meter-long rope to the rocket. After 2000 m of rope had been unwound, the line broke and this rocket also disappeared in the area, probably near the Opel proving ground and racetrack in Rüsselsheim, the "Rennbahn". The main purpose of these tests was to develop the propulsion system for the aircraft for crossing the English channel. Therefore, the flights of these two (compared to

2185-486: A speech on the donation of a RAK 2 replica to the Deutsches Museum, von Opel mentioned also Opel engineer Josef Schaberger as a key collaborator. "He belonged," von Opel said, "with the same enthusiasm as Sander to our small secret group, one of the tasks of which was to hide all the preparations from my father, because his paternal apprehensions led him to believe that I was cut out for something better than being

2300-407: A trance, enthusiastic and enraptured at the same time—I can't forget the incredible strain that they put us under. The work wasn't easy, and the authenticity in the portrayal ended up testing our nerves now and then. For instance, it wasn't fun at all when Grot drags me by the hair, to have me burned at the stake. Once I even fainted: during the transformation scene, Maria, as the android, is clamped in

2415-508: A tremendous influence on Lippisch, whose experience with the rocket-powered "Ente" eventually paved the way to the Messerschmitt Me-163 , the first operational rocket fighter craft. The Opel RAK experiments excited also the interest of the German military, which provided funding for further development of rockets as a replacement for artillery. This led to an array of military applications, among them Germany's V-2 terror weapon,

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2530-644: A weighted average, assigned the film a score of 98 out of 100 based on 14 critics, Indicating "universal acclaim". It also ranked 12th in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. The 2002 version was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Awards "Special Award" for the restoration. In 2012, in correspondence with the Sight & Sound Poll, the British Film Institute called Metropolis

2645-468: A wingspan of just under 40 feet, and a length of some 14 feet, the Ente featured a canoe-like fuselage, canard surfaces, and rudders mounted outboard on a straight rectangular wing. Each of the aircraft's two 44-pound-thrust rocket engines were tightly packed with about eight pounds of black powder. Designed to fire in sequence, the rockets were ignited electrically by the pilot. An automatic counterweight system

2760-442: Is a dark dream of the city of 2026, where the idle rich live in penthouses and play in rooftop pleasure gardens while the faceless workers toil in the machine caverns far, far below." The film has an approval rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A visually awe-inspiring science fiction classic from the silent era." In Metacritic, which uses

2875-400: Is not just the daring feat itself, but its aftermath: Both the public and academics have finally seen the light and have begun to believe in the future of the rocket as an engine for new rapid transit devices. Otto Willi Gail, Illustrierte Zeitung, Leipzig, 1928 A world record for rail vehicles was reached with RAK3 on June 23, 1928, with the car attaining a top speed of 256 km/h over

2990-399: Is open to interpretation. The 2010 re-release and reconstruction, which incorporated the original title cards written by Thea von Harbou, do not specify a year. Before the reconstruction, Lotte Eisner and Paul M. Jensen placed the events happening around the year 2000. Giorgio Moroder's re-scored version included a title card placing the film in 2026, while Paramount's original US release said

3105-502: Is quoted as saying: "Sander and I now want to transfer the liquid rocket from the laboratory to practical use. With the liquid rocket I hope to be the first man to thus fly across the English Channel . I will not rest until I have accomplished that." At a speech on the donation of a RAK 2 replica to the Deutsches Museum, von Opel mentioned also Opel engineer Josef Schaberger as a key collaborator. "He belonged," von Opel said, "with

3220-438: Is to usurp him as ruler by sparking a revolution. Rotwang kidnaps Maria, fashions the robot in her image, and presents her to Fredersen. Freder finds the two embracing and, believing his father to have betrayed him, falls into a prolonged delirium. Intercut with his hallucinations, the false Maria preaches to the workers that they must rise up against the surface world, resulting in chaos and dissent. Freder recovers and returns to

3335-487: The Gothic in the scenes in the catacombs , the cathedral and Rotwang's house – and lauded its complex special effects, but accused its story of being naive. H. G. Wells described the film as "silly", and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls the story "trite" and its politics "ludicrously simplistic". Its alleged communist message was also criticized. The film's long running time also came in for criticism. It

3450-627: The "Deutsches Museum" in Munich. After testing at Wasserkuppe , in June 1928, Fritz von Opel had purchased an Alexander Lippisch -designed sailplane , the Ente , and fitted it with rockets. Fritz Stamer was the pilot during the OPEL RAK experimentations with Lippisch's design. Opel did not get the chance to fly it, however, as the aircraft was destroyed by an engine explosion on its second test flight. With

3565-420: The "Rennbahn". The main purpose of these tests was to develop the propulsion system for the aircraft for crossing the English channel. Therefore, the flights of these two (compared to the airplane) small rockets were not published. The combustion tests with the aircraft rocket engine proceeded very successful. Unfortunately the plane was destroyed during a nightly transport on a truck on the Opel factory grounds, as

Opel-RAK - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-705: The "Verein für Raumschiffahrt", the world's first rocket program, Opel-RAK , leading to speed records for automobiles, rail vehicles and the first public manned rocket-powered flight in September 1929. Months earlier in 1928, one of his rocket-powered prototypes, the Opel RAK2, reached piloted by von Opel himself at the AVUS speedway in Berlin a record speed of 238 km/h, watched by 3000 spectators and world media, among them Fritz Lang , director of Metropolis and Woman in

3795-568: The 35th-greatest film of all time. In the 2022 version of the poll, Metropolis fell slightly to 67th place. Lane Roth in Film Quarterly called it a "seminal film" because of its concerns with "profound impact technological progress has on man's social and spiritual progress" and concluded that "ascendancy of artifact over nature is depicted not as liberating man, but as subjugating and corrupting him". Martin Scorsese included it on

3910-496: The Army Weapons Office (" Heereswaffenamt ") wanted to develop and manufacture the missile weapons itself. His company was run as Donar GmbH für Apparatebau without him. He died in 1938. Metropolis (1927 film) Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's 1925 novel of

4025-628: The English remained aloof; the French were stirred by a film which seemed to them a blend of [composer] Wagner and [armaments manufacturer] Krupp , and on the whole an alarming sign of Germany's vitality." Lang later expressed dissatisfaction with the film. In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich in Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors , published in 1998, he expressed his reservations: The main thesis

4140-464: The Gambler . Lang also cast his frequent collaborator Rudolph Klein-Rogge in the role of Rotwang. This was Klein-Rogge's fourth film with Lang, after Destiny , Dr. Mabuse the Gambler , and Die Nibelungen . Shooting of the film was a draining experience for the actors involved due to the demands that Lang placed on them. For the scene where the workers' city was flooded, Helm and 500 children from

4255-501: The Heylandt plant on 25 January 1930. Valier was killed less than a month later when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin. He is considered the first fatality of the dawning space age . His protégé  Arthur Rudolph  went on to develop an improved and safer version of Valier's engine. Sander was eventually engaged in the 1930s in German military projects under General Walter R. Dornberger but

4370-500: The Moon , world boxing champion Max Schmeling and many more sports and show business celebrities. A world record for rail vehicles was reached with RAK3 and a top speed of 256 km/h. After these successes, von Opel piloted the world's first public rocket-powered flight using Opel RAK.1 , a rocket plane designed by Julius Hatry . Timeline According to Frank H. Winter , curator at National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC,

4485-422: The Moon , world boxing champion Max Schmeling and many more sports and show business celebrities: … Nevertheless, few, if any, among the many thousands of onlookers who witnessed the demonstration on the AVUS track could help but feel that we are poised at the beginning of a new era. P. Friedmann, Das Motorrad No. 12/1928, June 9, 1928 The amazing thing about Opel’s rocket run on the AVUS track in Berlin

4600-478: The Opel RAK collaborators were able to attain powered phases of more than thirty minutes for thrusts of 300 kg (660-lb.) at Opel's works in Rüsselsheim," according to Max Valier's account. Max Valier also reports the launch of two experimental liquid-fuel rockets by Sander on 10 and 12 April 1929. In his book “Raketenfahrt” he describes the size of the rockets as of 21 cm in diameter and with a length of 74 cm, weighing 7 kg empty and 16 kg with fuel. The maximum thrust

4715-453: The Opel company backing would be stopped. A regular Opel test driver, Kurt C. Volkhart, was drafted to pilot the experimental vehicle. March 12, 1928, was selected as the date for the car's first trial run, applying only two rockets, which were to be ignited by conventional string fuses, for low-speed testing. The group went to an Opel race car, “RAK 1.” The RAK 1 demonstrator was stripped of its engine and radiator to reduce weight. To help keep

Opel-RAK - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-424: The Opel group was also working on liquid-fuel rockets (SPACEFLIGHT, Vol. 21,2, Feb. 1979): In a cabled exclusive to The New York Times on 30 September 1929, von Opel is quoted as saying: "Sander and I now want to transfer the liquid rocket from the laboratory to practical use. With the liquid rocket I hope to be the first man to thus fly across the English Channel . I will not rest until I have accomplished that." At

4945-651: The Opel rocket experiments were brought to an end by the Great Depression and also the Opel company focused its engineering capacities on vehicle development. Von Opel left Germany before 1930, first to the US and eventually to France and Switzerland where he died. He lived long enough to see the fulfillment of his dreams with the successful Apollo missions which can be traced back to Opel RAK. His sister Elinor von Opel had to flee Germany in 1935 with her sons, Ernst Wilhelm Sachs von Opel and Gunter Sachs von Opel, due to

5060-503: The Opel-Hatry RAK.1 or Opel-Sander RAK.1 in acknowledgment of its builder or the supplier of its engines respectively. In still other references it is called the RAK.3 to distinguish it from Opel's previous RAK.1 and RAK.2 rocket cars. As it happened, all three names, Opel, Sander, and Hatry were painted on the aircraft (with Opel's most prominent), as was the RAK.1 designation. The Mannheim Museum of Technology, Technoseum , has

5175-735: The Rak.2 car; 2 seconds at 447 feet (approximately 04:58) Max Valier seated in a RAK.2 car labeled "RÜCKSTOSS VERSUCHS WAGEN"; 2 seconds at 451 feet (approximately 05:00) Fritz von Opel seated in a RAK.2 car; 11 seconds at 460 feet (approximately 05:06) Fritz Von Opel drives the RAK.2 car on 1928 May 23 at the Avus Track in Berlin ; 2 seconds at 472 feet (05:14) Sander-Opel RAK.3 rocket car on 1928 June 23 running on railway tracks; 19 seconds at 475 feet (05:16 to 05:35) Opel-Sander RAK.1 rocket glider in 1928 September, preparation and launch; 6 seconds at 536 feet (05:57 to 06:03) Max Valier sitting and talking in

5290-709: The VCS Radio Symphony, which accompanied the restored version of the film at Brenden Theatres in Vacaville, California. The score was also produced in a salon orchestration, which was performed for the first time in the United States in August 2007 by the Bijou Orchestra under the direction of Leo Najar as part of a German Expressionist film festival in Bay City, Michigan. The same forces also performed

5405-480: The accident. Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings Fredersen strange maps found on the dead workers. Fredersen fires his assistant Josaphat for not being the first to bring him details about the explosion or the maps. After seeing his father's cold indifference towards the harsh conditions faced by the workers, Freder secretly rebels by deciding to help them. He enlists Josaphat's assistance and returns to

5520-428: The airplane) small rockets were not published. The combustion tests with the aircraft rocket engine proved successful. Unfortunately the plane was destroyed during a nightly transport on a truck on the Opel factory grounds, as the senior boss Wilhelm von Opel felt disturbed by the engine noise and wanted to stop this new “dangerous madness” of his son. Shortly after these activities and the September 1929 flight of RAK.1,

5635-425: The anticipated spaceflight application Opel as heir and director of the Opel company made the respective factory and testing track resources in Rüsselsheim, Germany, available for their program. The three men began their experiments using a standard Opel automobile. Von Opel wanted to be the test driver, but Sander and Valier talked him out of it. If something happened to him, they were convinced, all resources from

5750-486: The astronauts: what else are they but part of a machine? It's very hard to talk about pictures—should I say now that I like Metropolis because something I have seen in my imagination comes true, when I detested it after it was finished? In his profile of Lang, which introduced the interview, Bogdanovich suggested that Lang's distaste for his film also stemmed from the Nazi Party's fascination with it. Von Harbou became

5865-412: The attracted positive publicity for the science of rocketry, but also the Opel company. Nevertheless, it was clear to the RAK program leadership, they had no plans to commercially produce rocket cars for end customers, the aim was the development and demonstration of a rocket-powered aircraft. The group continued their land projects and built RAK 2, designed from the ground up by Volkhart as a rocket car. It

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5980-426: The car's wheels on the ground at expected high speeds, the group attached behind each front wheel a small, wing-like stub, set at a negative angle of attack. For propulsion, they elected to use 12 black-powder rockets, mounted in four rows of three rockets each and ignited electrically. The propellant, similar to gunpowder, burned in a subsonic deflagration wave and not in a supersonic detonation wave. A demonstration for

6095-582: The catacombs [and] the Gothic cathedral". The film's use of art deco architecture was highly influential, and has been reported to have contributed to the style's subsequent popularity in Europe and America. The New Babel Tower, for instance, has been inspired by Upper Silesian Tower in Poznań fairgrounds, which was recognized in Germany as a masterpiece of architecture. Lang's visit to several Hollywood studios in

6210-414: The catacombs, accompanied by Josaphat. Finding the false Maria urging the workers to destroy the machines, he accuses her of not being the real Maria. The workers ignore him and carry out her wishes, smashing the machines and triggering a great flood that threatens to drown their children. The real Maria, having escaped from Rotwang's house, rescues the children with help from Freder and Josaphat. Grot berates

6325-406: The celebrating workers for abandoning their children in the flooded city. The workers become hysterical and condemn the false Maria, burning her at the stake. A horrified Freder watches until the fire reveals her to be a robot. Rotwang, insanely believing Maria to be a reincarnated Hel, chases her to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Freder. The two men fight as Fredersen and the workers watch from

6440-410: The chilly water [...] like perfect actors". UFA invited several trade journal representatives and several film critics to see the film's shooting as parts of its promotion campaign. Shooting lasted 17 months, with 310 shooting days and 60 shooting nights, and was finally completed on 30 October 1926. By the time shooting finished, the film's budget leapt to 5.3 million Reichsmarks, or over three and

6555-587: The city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title : "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart". Metropolis met a mixed reception upon release. Critics found it visually beautiful and powerful – the film's art direction by Otto Hunte , Erich Kettelhut , and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus , Cubist , and Futurist design, along with touches of

6670-402: The city, he enters the lower levels in disguise to find her. In the machine halls, he witnesses the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures numerous workers. Freder has a hallucination that the machine is a temple of Moloch and the workers are being fed to it. When the hallucination ends, and he sees the dead workers being carried away on stretchers, he hurries to tell his father about

6785-536: The climactic scene where the false Maria is burnt at the stake (which resulted in Helm's dress catching fire), and his ordering extras to throw themselves towards powerful jets of water when filming the flooding of the workers' city. Helm recalled her experiences of shooting the film in a contemporary interview, saying that "the night shots lasted three weeks, and even if they did lead to the greatest dramatic moments—even if we did follow Fritz Lang's directions as though in

6900-501: The conclusion that building a successful rocket-powered car would achieve both goals. Von Opel confirmed his interest in realizing Valier's proposal. On behalf of von Opel, Valier eventually contacted Friedrich Wilhelm Sander , a German pyrotechnical engineer who, in 1923, had purchased H.G. Cordes, a Bremerhaven firm famous for its manufacture of black-powder rockets used mainly for harpoons, signal devices and similar devices. Opel, Sander and Valier joined forces and combined into one entity

7015-516: The creation of the world's first rocket car, the Opel RAK.1 and the first rocket glider, the Ente , and the world's first purpose-built rocket plane Opel RAK.1 . He was married to Cäcilie Sander and had three boys: Hans HW (1918-1998), Bruno (1918-1983) and Herbert (1920-?). Fritz von Opel and Sander were instrumental in popularizing rockets as means of propulsion for vehicles. In the 1920s, they initiated together with Max Valier , co-founder of

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7130-670: The culture of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Lang explores the themes of industrialization and mass production in his film; two developments that played a large role in the war. Other post-World War I themes that Lang includes in Metropolis include the Weimar view of American modernity, fascism , and communism . Metropolis 's screenplay was written by Thea von Harbou, a popular writer in Weimar Germany, jointly with Lang, her then-husband. The film's plot originated from

7245-456: The explosive was injected into the combustion chamber and simultaneously cooled using pumps. [...] We used benzol as the fuel," von Opel continued, "and nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer. This rocket was installed in a Mueller-Griessheim aircraft and developed a thrust of 70 kg (154 lb.)." By May 1929, the engine produced a thrust of 200 kg (440 lb.) "for longer than fifteen minutes and in July 1929,

7360-696: The factory's products to include signal rockets. From 1925, the Sander line-throwing rocket pistols designed by him for the rescue of shipwrecked people belonged to the equipment of the rescue stations and boats of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People and many similar organizations around the world. In 1925, Sander bought the Schultz ship telegraph factory in Bremerhaven, which gave him

7475-446: The family's real-estate business. The impact of Opel RAK was both immediate and long-lasting on later spaceflight pioneers. Opel, Sander, Valier and Hatry had engaged in a program that led directly to use of jet-assisted takeoff for heavily laden aircraft. The German Reich was first to test the approach in August 1929 when a battery of solid rocket propellants supported a Junkers Ju-33 seaplane to get airborne. The Opel RAK experiments had

7590-504: The film a remarkable achievement that surpassed even its high expectations, praising its visual splendour and ambitious production values. A month after their first review, Variety founder Sime Silverman reviewed the film in New York and considered the film to have mass appeal but called it "a weird story, visionary all of the time, without any degree of unusual imagination and offtimes monotonous". Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels

7705-505: The film once, at its original premiere. Sections of the score were recorded and released by the record label Vox. The full score was not recorded until 2001, for the film's first comprehensive restoration, with Berndt Heller conducting the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Saarbrücken . It was released internationally on various DVD editions beginning in 2003. In 2007, Huppertz's score was also played live by

7820-629: The film ran for 3,170 metres, or approximately 116 minutes—although a contemporary review in Variety of a showing in New York gave the running time as 107 minutes, and another source lists it at 105 minutes. This version of Metropolis premiered in the United States in March 1927, and was released, in a slightly different and longer version (128 minutes) in the United Kingdom around the same time with different title cards. Alfred Hugenberg ,

7935-490: The film takes place in 3000. A note in one edition of Harbou's novel says that the story does not take place at any particular place or time, in the past or the future. Meanwhile, the 1963 Ace Books edition, which is a reprint of the 1927 English edition, specifies the setting as "The World of 2026 A.D.". On 22 May 1925, Metropolis began principal photography with an initial budget of 1.5 million ℛ︁ℳ︁. Lang cast two unknowns with little film experience in

8050-477: The film was found in a museum in Argentina. According to the explanation in the restored film, "the material was heavily damaged and, because it had been printed on 16mm film stock, does not have the full-aperture silent picture ratio" and "in order to maintain the scale of the restored footage, the missing portion of the frame appears black" while "black frames indicate points at which footage is still lost". After

8165-491: The film was inscribed on UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register , the first film thus distinguished. On 1 January 2023, the film's American reserved copyright expired, thereby entering the film into the public domain . In the future, wealthy industrialists and business magnates and their top employees reign over the city of Metropolis from colossal skyscrapers, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate

8280-475: The film was released in German cinemas in August 1927. Later, after demands for more cuts by Nazi censors , UFA distributed a still shorter version of the film (2,530 metres, 91 minutes) in 1936, and an English version of this cut was archived in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) film library in the 1930s. It was this version which was the basis of all versions of Metropolis until the recent restorations. In 1986 it

8395-443: The film's massive industrial city of workers. Nestled within the original score were quotations of Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle 's " La Marseillaise " and the traditional " Dies Irae ", the latter of which was matched to the film's apocalyptic imagery. Huppertz's music played a prominent role during the film's production; the composer often played piano on Lang's set to inform the actors' performances. Huppertz's score only accompanied

8510-406: The financing, the theoretical knowledge, and the practical capability necessary for success. Moreover, von Opel, Valier, and Sander said from the start that their experiments with cars were only a prelude to grander experiments with air- and spacecraft: They agreed on the final goal of working on rocket-powered aircraft at the same time they were building their famous rocket cars, as pre-condition for

8625-403: The first contact, I did so with a feeling of total security [...] As early as 1928, Mr. Schaberger and I developed a liquid rocket, which was definitely the first permanently operating rocket in which the explosive was injected into the combustion chamber and simultaneously cooled using pumps. [...] We used benzol as the fuel," von Opel continued, "and nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer. This rocket

8740-412: The great machines that power it. Joh Fredersen is the city's master. His son, Freder, idles away his time at sports and in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of their rich "brothers". Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder becomes fascinated by her. Against the strict rules of

8855-487: The launch of two experimental liquid-fuel rockets by Sander on April 10 and 12, 1929. In the preface of his book “Raketenfahrt” he describes the size of the rockets as of 21 cm in diameter and with a length of 74 cm, weighing 7 kg empty and 16 kg with fuel. The maximum thrust was 45 to 50 kp, with a total burning time of 132 seconds. These properties indicate a gas pressure pumping. The first missile rose so quickly that Sander lost sight of it. Two days later,

8970-462: The lead roles. Gustav Fröhlich (Freder) had worked in vaudeville and was originally employed as an extra on Metropolis before Thea von Harbou recommended him to Lang. Brigitte Helm (Maria) had been given a screen test by Lang after he met her on the set of Die Nibelungen , but would make her feature film debut with Metropolis . In the role of Joh Fredersen, Lang cast Alfred Abel, a noted stage and screen actor whom he had worked with on Dr. Mabuse

9085-405: The machine halls, assuming the identity of an ill worker. Fredersen takes the maps to the city's greatest inventor, Rotwang , to learn their meaning. Rotwang had been in love with a woman named Hel, who left him to marry Fredersen and later died giving birth to Freder. Rotwang shows Fredersen a robot he has built to " resurrect " Hel. The maps show a network of catacombs beneath Metropolis, and

9200-501: The military, so it was expropriated and all documents were confiscated. After three months in custody, Sander was released, only to be arrested again in November 1935. After a year in custody, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and a fine for treason. Sander had also sold his missiles to Italy and England. Since these were older versions of his powder rockets, he did not consider this to be forbidden. Sander speculated that

9315-640: The original film that it was "symbolism run such riot that people who saw it couldn't tell what the picture was about. ... I have given it my meaning." Lang's response to the re-editing of the film was to say "I love films, so I shall never go to America. Their experts have slashed my best film, Metropolis , so cruelly that I dare not see it while I am in England." The Hel storyline would be partially restored in Giorgio Moroder 's 1984 version, and subsequent versions completely restored it. In Pollock's cut,

9430-460: The plot as "laid on with a terrible Teutonic heaviness, and an unnecessary amount of philosophizing in the beginning" that made the film "as soulless as the city of its tale". He also called the acting "uninspired with the exception of Brigitte Helm". Nevertheless, Claxton wrote that "the setting, the use of people and their movement, and various bits of action stand out as extraordinary and make it nearly an obligatory picture." Other critics considered

9545-436: The poorest districts of Berlin had to work for 14 days in a pool of water that Lang intentionally kept at a low temperature. Lang would frequently demand numerous re-takes, and took two days to shoot a simple scene where Freder collapses at Maria's feet; by the time Lang was satisfied with the footage he had shot, actor Gustav Fröhlich found he could barely stand. Other anecdotes involve Lang's insistence on using real fire for

9660-414: The premiere was met with muted applause interspersed with boos and hisses. At the time of its German premiere, Metropolis had a length of 4,189 metres, which is approximately 153 minutes at 24 frames per second (fps). UFA's distribution deal with Paramount and MGM "entitled [them] to make any change [to films produced by UFA] they found appropriate to ensure profitability". Considering that Metropolis

9775-562: The press on April 11, 1928, in Rüsselsheim was arranged: Opel engineer and race driver Kurt C. Volkhart developed and tested the Opel-RAK 1, a converted racing car equipped with Sander rockets instead of an internal combustion engine, was the first rocket powered automobile. During the April 1928 experimentations RAK 1 reached, piloted by Volkhart, the symbolic speed of 100 km/h in just eight seconds. Von Opel, Sander and Valier were satisfied by RAK 1's performance, and in particular by

9890-415: The rockets exploded, punching holes in both wings and setting the aircraft alight. Stamer was nevertheless able to bring it down from a height of around 20 metres (65 ft) before hastily abandoning the Ente, which was burned beyond any hope of salvage. Despite the loss of the first rocket plane, von Opel immediately contracted with Julius Hatry for a specialized rocket aircraft. Hatry's design for Opel

10005-485: The same 1924 trip also influenced the film in another way: Lang and producer Erich Pommer realized that to compete with the vertical integration of Hollywood, their next film would have to be bigger, broader, and better made than anything they had made before. Despite UFA's growing debt, Lang announced that Metropolis would be "the costliest and most ambitious picture ever." The film drew heavily on biblical sources for several of its key set-pieces. During her first talk to

10120-451: The same enthusiasm as Sander to our small secret group, one of the tasks of which was to hide all the preparations from my father, because his paternal apprehensions led him to believe that I was cut out for something better than being a rocket researchist. Schaberger supervised all the details involved in construction and assembly (of rocket cars), and every time I sat behind the wheel with a few hundred pounds of explosives in my rear, and made

10235-477: The same name (which was intentionally written as a treatment ). It stars Gustav Fröhlich , Alfred Abel , Rudolf Klein-Rogge , and Brigitte Helm . Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studio for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). Metropolis is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction film, being among the first feature-length ones of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at

10350-404: The screenplay derived from the novel, and several plot points and thematic elements—including most of the references to magic and occultism present in the novel—were dropped. The screenplay itself went through many rewrites, and at one point featured an ending where Freder flew to the stars; this plot element later became the basis for Lang's Woman in the Moon . The time setting of Metropolis

10465-457: The senior boss Wilhelm von Opel felt disturbed by the engine noise and wanted to stop this new “dangerous madness” of his son. From 1930, Sander (with other pyrotechnics factories) began secretly manufacturing rockets for military purposes, at the direction of Walter Dornberger . Without warning, Sander was arrested by the Gestapo on 31 January 1935. His company was subordinated to a trustee of

10580-489: The skyscrapers in New York in October 1924". He had visited New York City for the first time and remarked "I looked into the streets—the glaring lights and the tall buildings—and there I conceived Metropolis ," although in actuality Lang and Harbou had been at work on the idea for over a year. Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that "the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light,

10695-732: The southwestern edge of the Solling and then learned to be a mechanical engineer. At the Technikum Strelitz in Altstrelitz in Mecklenburg he became an engineer around 1908/09. In 1909 Sander moved to Bremerhaven. Here he worked in various areas. In 1920 he took over the company of master gunsmith H. G. Cordes in Bremerhaven , who had existed from 1853 and was known as the inventor of the whaling cannon. Sander soon expanded

10810-401: The street, and Rotwang falls to his death. Freder fulfills his destiny to unite the city and the underworld by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together. Metropolis features a range of elaborate special effects and set designs, ranging from a huge gothic cathedral to a futuristic cityscape. In an interview, Fritz Lang reported that "the film was born from my first sight of

10925-589: The tarpaulin off the Opel RAK 2 and carefully pushed it to the start. Eventually the rockets were installed and connected to the ignition mechanism. Police cleared the AVUS track and von Opel drove the RAK 2 car to a record-setting speed of 238 km/h, successfully mastering the challenge of insufficient downforce from the wings for these velocities. The RAK 2 rockets were operational for a ride of circa three minutes, watched by 3000 spectators and world media, among them Fritz Lang , director of Metropolis and Woman in

11040-428: The two men go to investigate. They eavesdrop on a gathering of workers, including Freder. Maria addresses them, prophesying the arrival of a mediator who can bring the working and ruling classes together. Freder believes he can fill the role and declares his love for Maria. Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria's likeness to the robot so that it can discredit her among the workers but is unaware that Rotwang's true plan

11155-685: The work at the Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan in August 2009. For the film's 2010 "complete" restoration premiere, Huppertz's score was performed live and subsequently re-recorded by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Frank Strobel . This version was released internationally on various DVD and Blu-ray editions beginning in 2010. Various artists have created other scores for Metropolis : Metropolis

11270-641: The workers, Maria uses the story of the Tower of Babel to highlight the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Additionally, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon , riding on the back of a many-headed dragon. The name of the Yoshiwara club alludes to the famous red-light district of Tokyo. Much of the plot line of Metropolis stems from the First World War and

11385-705: The world's first ballistic missile. After World War II, these German rocket and missile scientists and engineers would have an immense impact on missile and space programs by the United States of America. Walter J. Boyne , Director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, concluded "Working together, von Opel, Valier, and Sander had thrown a big rock of publicity into the mill pond of science. The ripples have not yet ceased to spread." The 1937 German film Weltraum Schiff I Startet Eine Technische Fantasie has short clips of various RAK vehicles: 11 seconds at 436 feet (approximately 04:47) igniters being wired to

11500-438: Was 45 to 50 kp, with a total burning time of 132 seconds. These properties indicate a gas pressure pumping. The first missile rose so quickly that Sander lost sight of it. Two days later, a second unit was ready to go, Sander tied a 4,000-meter-long rope to the rocket. After 2000 m of rope had been unwound, the line broke and this rocket also disappeared in the area, probably near the Opel proving ground and racetrack in Rüsselsheim,

11615-429: Was Mrs. Von Harbou's, but I am at least 50 percent responsible because I did it. I was not so politically minded in those days as I am now. You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale—definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture—thought it was silly and stupid—then, when I saw

11730-501: Was buying the machines' output if not the workers, and found parts of the story derivative of Shelley's Frankenstein , Karel Čapek 's R.U.R. , and his own The Sleeper Awakes . Wells called Metropolis "quite the silliest film", but the New York Herald Tribune called it "a weird and fascinating picture". In The New Yorker Oliver Claxton called Metropolis "unconvincing and overlong", faulting much of

11845-493: Was cut substantially after its German premiere. Many attempts have been made since the 1970s to restore the film. In 1984, Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder released a truncated version with a soundtrack by rock artists including Freddie Mercury , Loverboy , and Adam Ant . In 2001, a new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival . In 2008, a damaged print of Lang's original cut of

11960-692: Was distributed by Parufamet , a company formed in December 1925 by the American film studios Paramount Pictures and Metro Goldwyn Mayer to loan US$ 4 million to UFA. The film had its world premiere at the UFA-Palast am Zoo in Berlin on 10 January 1927, where the audience, including a critic from the Berliner Morgenpost , reacted to several of the film's most spectacular scenes with "spontaneous applause". However, others have suggested

12075-647: Was far larger and more streamlined than its predecessor. The RAK 2 was powered by 24 rockets packing 264 pounds of explosives. On May 23, 1928, Fritz von Opel himself demonstrated the car, Opel RAK 2, on the Avus Speedway near Berlin . Prior to the start Professor Johann Schütte, Chairman of the Scientific Society of Aviation, and Fritz von Opel held prophetic speeches on the future of rocket-based aviation and spaceflight. After these introductory remarks, mechanics August Becker and Karl Treber then took

12190-588: Was impressed with the film's message of social justice. In a 1928 speech, he said, "the political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor, to begin their historical mission". Shortly after the Nazis came to power, Goebbels told Lang that, on the basis of their seeing Metropolis together years before, Hitler had said that he wanted Lang to make Nazi films. German cultural critic Siegfried Kracauer later wrote of Metropolis , "The Americans relished its technical excellence;

12305-415: Was imprisoned for treason by the Nazis and forced to sell his business, he died in custody 1938. Hatry tried to continue the work on his aircraft developments, but was sidelined by the Nazis since he had a Jewish grandfather. He had to start anew and became a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Hatry was drawn into theater and fiction, finally his mother convinced him after his father's death to take over

12420-429: Was installed in a Mueller-Griessheim aircraft and developed a thrust of 70 kg (154 lb.)." By May 1929, the engine produced a thrust of 200 kg (440 lb.) "for longer than fifteen minutes and in July 1929, the Opel RAK collaborators were able to attain powered phases of more than thirty minutes for thrusts of 300 kg (660-lb.) at Opel's works in Rüsselsheim," according to Max Valier's account. Max Valier also reports

12535-484: Was made." Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 's entry on the film reads, "Heavy going at times but startling set design and special effects command attention throughout." Colin Greenland reviewed Metropolis for Imagine magazine, and stated that "It's a measure of the sheer power of Lang's vision that it survives this heavy-handed cosmetic modernizing quite intact. Inspired by his first sight of Manhattan, Metropolis

12650-451: Was positively overwhelming and that there were some exceptional performances. Critic Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called it a "technical marvel with feet of clay". A review by H. G. Wells dated 17 April 1927 accused it of "foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general". He faulted Metropolis for its premise that automation created drudgery rather than relieving it, wondered who

12765-442: Was rather more elegant than the Ente. With a wingspan of 36 feet and length of 16 feet, the new aircraft Opel RAK.1 had a typical sailplane wing , under which a pod was suspended to accommodate the pilot and sixteen of Sander's solid rocket engines each with 50 pounds of thrust. The tailplane was mounted on booms behind the wing and high out of the way of the rocket exhaust. The first public flight came on Sept. 30, 1929. Before

12880-418: Was recopied and returned to Germany to be the basis of the 1987 Munich Archive restoration . Despite the film's later reputation, some contemporary critics panned it. Variety 's first review of the film in Berlin considered the scenario to be weak and felt that the artistic work had been wasted on the manufactured story although did acknowledge that nothing had been filmed like it before and its effect

12995-535: Was seen again just two years later in Alfred Hitchcock 's film Blackmail (1929). The Maschinenmensch – the robot built by Rotwang to resurrect his lost love Hel – was created by sculptor Walter Schulze-Mittendorff. A whole-body plaster cast was taken of actress Brigitte Helm, and the costume was then constructed around it. A chance discovery of a sample of "plastic wood" (a pliable substance designed as wood-filler) allowed Schulze-Mittendorff to build

13110-532: Was set to adjust the aircraft's center of gravity as the rocket fuel was consumed. An elastic launching rope was used to catapult the Ente into the air. After one false start, the aircraft took off and flew a 1,500 metre (4,900 ft) circuit of the Wasserkuppe's landing strip. On the second flight, the team decided to try firing both rockets together for increased thrust over a shorter period. Something went wrong, however, and rather than burning properly, one of

13225-453: Was too long and unwieldy, Parufamet commissioned American playwright Channing Pollock to write a simpler version of the film that could be assembled using the existing material. Pollock shortened the film dramatically, altered its inter-titles and removed all references to the character of Hel, because the name sounded too similar to the English word Hell , thereby removing Rotwang's original motivation for creating his robot. Pollock said about

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