AW: "Wie Micky unter die Nazis fiel"

[Cord Wiljes]

About the book "Wie Micky unter die Nazis fiel" ("How Mickey fell under
the Nazis") by Carsten Laqua (ISBN 3499191040, published in 1992):

Larry Giver wrote:

> Cord Wiljes called our attention to a book by Carsten Laqua,
> "Wie Micky unter die Nazis fiel" (no English translation available).
> Wow, there must be very few Americans who know that
> Disney characters were already out of this country prior to
> and during the second world war; certainly I didn't.
> We Americans are familiar with the Disney war-time cartoons
> where Donald and/or Mickey triumphed over the bumbling
> Japanese or German adversaries.  So are you saying the
> Nazis made similar use of Disney characters?

No, they did not make their own Disney films (or films with Disney
characters) but just showed those produced by the Disney studios in the
U.S.

> It would be great if someone interested in this history could
> translate this book into English!

I forwarded your request to the author of the book. Just some dates in
advance:

- in 1927, one year before (!) Mickey's birth, "Trolley Troubles" (a
Silly Symphony) was the first Disney film which was imported into
Germany
- in 1928 all 25 Oswald films and several Alice films were imported
- in 1929 Mickey Mouse tin toys were produced by a German company
(unlicensed)
- in 1930 the first Mickey Mouse features were imported (The Barnyard
Dance, Steamboat Willie)
- until 1935 a lot of Disney films were imported
- after 1935 no more licences were give to Germany. The old films were
still shown (mostly illegally)
- in 1936 the Nazis started to forbid sending money abroad so Disney had
problems getting their royalties. In the end they lost around 250.000
Reichsmark of royalties.
- On Dec 22 of 1937 Joseph Goebbels wrote into his diary: "I will give
30 films of the last 4 years und 18 Mickey Mouse films to the Führer for
christmas. He is happy about this treasure which hopefully will give him
much fun and recreation."
- in 1938 (according to her memoirs) Leni Riefenstahl visited Walt
Disney. Disney wanted to but could not see her Olympia film because he
feared that this might get public
- even after the start of WW II in 1939 Disney films were shown in
German cinemas
- in February 1940 a translated (!) copy of Snow White was added the the
Reichsfilm archive - but never shown publicly
- 1941 to 1945 Disney films were forbidden

> One question: Did the Disney company manage
> to collect copyright royalties from the Nazis government?

Not from the Nazi government but from the "Bavaria", which is the
company which distributed the films in Germany. There were also several
licensed (and some unlicensed) Mickey toys produced in Germany.

> Or maybe they didn't really use Mickey, but that European
> prince that looked just like him that Mickey had to
> fill in for a few months back in the 1930's.

Since the Nazis were anti-royal they probably liked the idea of a
working-class Mickey better than Mickey as Monarch of Medioka.

The book is highly recommended and has a lot of images. If you are
interested in the topic you can order a copy directly from the author's
site for EUR 8,- + postage:
http://www.comicoriginalart.com/seiten_englisch/eframeset.htm

Cord