Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 31, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Accompanying the two-part television film “Die Gustloff”, which will be broadcast on ZDF on March 2 and 3, 2008, at 8.15 p.m. each evening, ZDF is already offering an elaborate multimedia animation on its websites. At its centre is the computer-generated 3D model of the “Gustloff”, which was produced specially for the television film and prepared for online use. At http://www.gustloff.zdf.de, viewers can look at the ship model from every side and go aboard virtually. There, against the background of the original film sets, they can exclusively preview selected scenes from the film. Each scene is commented on by a member of the film crew and a contemporary witness. The multimedia offering thereby bridges fiction and history.
In January 1945, the former KDF ship “Wilhelm Gustloff”, with refugees and soldiers on board, was sunk by a Soviet submarine. More than 9000 people died; it was the greatest shipping disaster in maritime history. After extensive research, screenwriter Rainer Berg has cast new light on this piece of German history with the help of “Gustloff” survivor and chronicler Heinz Schön. With a top-class cast – Kai Wiesinger, Valerie Niehaus, Heiner Lauterbach, Dana Vávrová, Ulrike Kriener, Detlev Buck and many others – director Joseph Vilsmaier realised the material. Accompanying the two-parter, likewise on March 2 and 3, 2008, after the television film on each occasion, a two-part documentary describes the historical facts of the sinking of the “Gustloff”.
