CZECH REPUBLIC: Movie about the life of the "Red Baron" being filmed in Prague

German production company Niama-Film is currently shooting a movie about the famed German WW1 fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen in Prague. The project has been planned for many years, director Niki Muellerschoen, who came up with the idea, told Reuters on Thursday (September 21). Muellerschoen said he was fascinated by the the young pilot's character. "He is celebrated all around the world, and he is in a way mysterious because everybody heard the name 'Red Baron', but nobody really knows who he was", Muellerschoen said. Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen was the celebrated and most talented fighter pilot of the Prussian military during World War One. He joined the still young fighter squadron in 1916, at the age of only 24. Until his death in 1918 he was the winner of 80 air battles. Very early in his short career von Richthofen was presented with medals and honours and given his own "Jagdstaffel" (fighter squadron). He surrounded himself with like-minded young pilots who shared his own code of honour, characterised by an athletic ambition, an obsession with technology and chivalrous respectability. Von Richthofen's younger brother Lothar also joins the group. In a war that was not going well for Germany von Richthofen and his circle of pilots ascended to stardom among the German public. His red Fokker DR-I became famous and he was subsequently named 'The Red Baron'. His conduct during air battles, aiming at destroying the planes, not the pilots inside them, earned von Richthofen some respect among his enemies as well. Towards the end of the war, the circle of friends and colleagues around the 'Red Baron' had diminished considerably, most of his pilots being killed during air battles. Manfred von Richthofen died during an air battle on April 21, 1918, a couple of days before he would have turned 26. Twenty-five-year old actor Matthias Schweighoefer finds it partly difficult to relate to Manfred von Richthofen, whose role he plays. "I can't imagine how it is to be a war man, just to kill people, just to fly with these planes five or ten thousand feet high", he tells Reuters TV on the set. "But I love him so much in real life, how he was, just a normal and calm guy who was shy and aggressive and arrogant." The production company have built 23 replicas of the aeroplanes the group around von Richthofen had flown. Some of them will announce the opening of the movie to a wider public when placed on the roof of cinemas. The production company also aims to auction some of them off for charity.

ITN Source | September 28, 2006

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