Die Brücke

[DRUMMOND]

Any idea if this film has any base in fact and if so what is the location of the bridge ............PS.Sorry if this has been asked before :roll:

[B Hellqvist]

Gregor Dorfmeister, the author of the 1958 novel that was turned into a movie the following year, said in a German interview that (shitty translation by Google):

The last hours of the Second World-war: a few boys to defend a bridge. Only one survived - and writes about is-the novel "The Bridge". We visited Manfred Gregor Dorfmeister in Bad Tölz.

In Bad Tolz it rains on this Wednesday in early 2005. Manfred Gregor Dorfmeister Tölzer Isar is on the bridge. A sad and ugly building, which was rebuilt in the 60s again. Routinely endure the writer posing in front of the camera. He is 76 years old, but looks sporty and hemdsärmlig, wears cap and leather jacket. Behind him we see the editorial offices of the courier Tölzer, the newspaper where he was editor in chief for 34 years. The pensioner is next to the "bull by Tölz" probably the most famous people of his city. He wears the Order of Merit and is under the author name "Manfred Gregor" has become world famous. But he became what he is - a pacifist?

Dorfmeister is one who explains. Writing of who he is and who his comrades. Why do they have over the last days of World War II still fought the Americans and the orders of the National Socialists are followed. In the 60 years since the war ended he wanted to understand why two of his comrades were even spat upon in the death of an elderly woman. And why did he, the high school student Manfred Gregor Dorfmeister, these two comrades in the night of the second May 1945 has abandoned the Isar River Bridge in Bad Tolz.

His invitation he received to his 16th Birthday, the 7th March 1945. Ten days later he found himself in the SS Junker School in Bad Tolz, "a maniacal drill was suspended. The youngest in his room at the barracks were just 14 years old. Before the Fall, students who were to fight as he and his classmates in the "people's storm" against the advancing Allies. On the night of the 30th April it was time.

That afternoon, 60 years later, Dorfmeister has invited to his house in the district Tölzer Hintersberg. There he lives with his wife Frances, the two are married for 55 years. Her son is a doctor in Bad Tolz. One profession, the village master himself would have liked to exercise, but after the war it was said that he was once the 40-year study leave to an end. Instead, he chose to Munich newspaper and theater. "I wanted to be a doctor because I wanted to get people to kill instead of human lives." A wish that he may have transferred to his son. Have awakened this desire to experience the night of 1 May 1945.

What exactly happened that night, he remembers only in scenes. "The images fade away already," he says, and he looks hard. It is not easy to tell him. He makes it yet, because he considers it important.

His version of the horror he has processed in the literary novel "The Bridge": seven guys who are defending a strategically unimportant bridge. Only one survived: Albert Mutz, the figure is identified with the village champion. In reality there were two bridges, one about 20 kilometers from Bad Tölz in the forest and the Isar Bridge in downtown Tölz. The bridge in the forest has Dorfmeister never seen again. "I do not want more out. What I experienced there, is too horrible." He folds his hands in the telling and rubs his thumbs together. They are old, strong hands. And it takes a bit to get used him as a 16 year old can imagine.

Eight boys were also in the night of 1 May 1945, they jumped at the bridge in the forest from the truck. "We were not friends as in the book. I knew only two, the Knut and one-Napola student." Knut was Dorfmeister's friend, came from Berlin to the Kinderlandverschickung Tölz. Together they waited for the Americans.

"If, by noon the next day nothing had happened, we would have gone home," he says today. None of them was "clearly was intended to make war." When exactly were the tanks of the Americans now say he can not. The feeling for the time has come, over the years lost, seconds may have been hours. Only the weather has remained in his memory, snow, cold and wet. In the book he writes: "In even long threads he fell (the rain) from the sky. The tents and camouflage jacket of the seven met the water far from any more. On the contrary, the stuff was sucking up the water now, and all were up to the skin wet. (...) Entire streams green-yellow broth splashed on the pavement of the bridge sidewalk. " In their trenches in front of and beside the bridge they were standing in the water. Dorfmeister claims to have slept that night even.

Then at some point came the tanks. Two or three. She has electrified. "Suddenly the war was there. We were terrified, especially because we saw the enemy, but only heard."

Dorfmeister said this in his living room. It is comfortable, dry and secure. From his corner seat, he can see through the window to Blomberg, the Tölzer high mountain, 1248 meters. At Blomberg he moves every Monday. "No one can stop him Thereof," says his wife Franziska. Connected home he is probably why he has the offer to write for a large weekly newspaper in Hamburg, or even a job as a script writer in Berlin refused.

In the book had one of the guys in command, in reality, the war took no words. All shot simultaneously, with no sign, six or seven RPGs were flying at once. Without agreement. Two of the tanks arrived at the "ideal" place, between the tower and base. Then there was silence. For a while nothing moved - until the lid of a tank moving grating. A GI also climbed and fell on his stomach. His back was smoking.

"It was terrible," said Dorfmeister. "That was the moment when I became a pacifist." As was the 16 year old realized that he never shoot at a man would.

"Seconds later, all hell broke loose," explains. Flashes out of the woods, shots from behind, a loud crash. A little later, she ran away, "since we were only five of us," snow on a field. From above, they bombed an aircraft. "The hunted us like rabbits. When we arrived in the forest, we were only three of us. Knut, the Napola from Sonthofen and me."

Only home Dorfmeister had thought. At the foot of the Buchberg then they have broken through in the direction Tölz. As they passed the Tölzer Isar Bridge, came from the Mark Street two military policemen. A new contract: with sand bags and a machine gun, they should now defend the Isar Bridge. "When the were gone, I said to Knut and the Before the Fall: 'Now the air is pure, we go home.'" To his horror, they wanted to stay. The Napola held on to the "clear mandate", and submitted to the Knut. This was the worst Dorfmeister. "Maybe they were both so determined, because they had no home in the neighborhood, no one would have expected," tries to explain himself he is. The declaration hurts, even after 60 years. On his corner seat, he is no longer the boy, he is the old man, who regrets that he then could not find the words to save the lives of his friends. He went home. While they stayed and died on the bridge, Dorfmeister decided for life.

The next day he returned to the bridge, in civilian clothes. As an American soldier was leaning against the railing. On the edge of the bridge were Knut and Napola, old dead A woman walked by and spat upon them both. An image that is burned. "I can not understand until today," he says. "We were still children. We were used by the Nazis as cannon fodder."

Dorfmeister looks at the embroidered tablecloth. Eventually it was realized that he must find a way to process the experience. He chose the novel. From the office in Tölzer courier, he looked every day on the Isar River Bridge.

But only one newspaper report, that would always too short, have too little. "I wanted to make clear why we have been so stupid."

[DRUMMOND]

Thanks friend, much appreciated

[rutle62]

I finally was able to get a copy of the Dorfmeister's book, after seeing both versions of "Die Brücke." Does anyone know if there are any pictures of the bridge where the battle took place, or what it the area looks like today? I can't remember where, but I thought I read that the original one was torn down and a new one built. It would be great if any original pictures are out threre.

Thanks in advance

[B Hellqvist]

Found this (postcard marked 1936):

[Juha Tompuri]

Thanks for both the photo and the earlier Dorfmeister interview.

Regards, Juha

P.S. http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 0262&hilit

[rutle62]

Awesome, thanks a million!

Rob