The Mattress (1969)
A fresh wind blew through the Thyssen trade fair pavilion at the Hanover Trade Fair in 1969: August Thyssen-Hütte AG hired Klaus Havenstein as presenter for a two-hour, light-hearted revue with games, films, interviews and specialist lectures. The short film with the working title "The Mattress", which visualizes various quality tests, was also created for this trade fair show.
A man, played by Klaus Havenstein, tries to dispose of a mattress core made of spring steel in a grotesquely exaggerated manner. His attempts are in vain: the mattress bounces back from the illegal rubbish dump. An elephant and a locomotive are used. But they cannot get rid of the mattress. He is resigned to the "damned quality"! After the presentation of the film at the trade fair, a man from the audience came forward and introduced himself as an employee of the Westphalian Union. The Westphalian Union was a wire manufacturer and belonged to the Thyssen Group. The employee explained to Havenstein that his attempts in the film to destroy the mattress were actually belated quality tests. However, these tests were carried out at the Westphalian Union anyway. As examples, a demonstration of a twist test on wires and an ultrasound test of weld seams then followed on the trade fair stage.
The German actor Klaus Havenstein (1922–1998) was known to the public through television and as a member of the Munich Lach- und Schießgesellschaft, a cabaret with biting and provocative entertainment. Thyssen not only hired Havenstein for the Hanover Trade Fair in 1969, but also in the 1970s and 1980s the steel company employed the cabaret artist for various presentations and events. The Düsseldorf-based Dido Deutsche Industrie- und Dokumentationsgesellschaft GmbH produced the trade fair revue on behalf of the August Thyssen-Hütte and hired the Austrian jazz musician Roland Kovac (1927–2013) for “Die Matratze”. The short film works without a narrator's text, only with sounds, original sound and the music of Kovac. The spot will be shown for the first time on a large cinema screen in November 2024 at IndustrieFilm Ruhr in Essen: a cinema premiere, so to speak!
Astrid Dörnemann, thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
Filmographic information:
Year of production: 1969
Client: August Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg
Producer: German Industrial and Documentary Film GmbH
Book: Dieter Rüsse
Music: Roland Kovac
Format: 16 mm magnetic tape
Color: black and white
Runtime: 2 minutes
Archive: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
Contact
thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives
Astrid Dörnemann MA
Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 12
47119 Duisburg
The actor and cabaret artist Klaus Havenstein presents his stage program at the Hanover Fair for August Thyssen-Hütte AG, 1969. Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
Still from the film “The Mattress”. Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
Still from the film “The Mattress”. Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
Still from the film “The Mattress”. Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg