Less suited for distribution abroad but just as successful in Germany was UFA’s second genre: the “national” film, usually featuring a Prussian subject and a more or less overt ideological direction. These films were not bound to the invention of sound film like the operetta film. They were, however, the second significant UFA creation. In 1930 Die Letzte Kompagnie (directed by Kurt Bernhardt) came out in theaters (…). In an interview with Mary Kiersch, Bernhardt explained how there was a scene he refused to film: “It was a scene written by Mr. von Wohl and added later to the film. Conrad Veidt was supposed to make a nationalistic, chauvinistic speech. The German captain from above the mill looks at the French general on horseback. The French man says: ‘There is no reason to defend the mill. Prussia doesn’t exist anymore.’ And the German answers back: ‘Where I am standing is Prussia.’ I refused to film this scene, and it almost cost me my life four years later.
Kiersch: Was it Joe May who shot this scene?
Bernhardt: Let me think… Yes, I think it was Joe.
Kiersch: And did Conrad Veidt have any objections to the speech?
Bernhardt: No.
The importance given to this passage of dialogue was a characteristic of nationalist film. The decisive element, the political message, had to be expressed in words and explicitly depicted, as if the undisputable meaning of the action were not enough. It was an element that would be a hallmark of Nazi propaganda.
Rainer Rother, Film operetta e film “nazionali”, in Schermi germanici. UFA 1917- 1933, edited by Giovanni Spagnoletti, Marsilio, Venice, 1993