Steel – theme with variations
Steel – Variations on a theme
Acier – Variations on a theme
(1960)
At the beginning of 1960, Mannesmann AG commissioned director Hugo Niebeling to make an image film to be shown at the Hanover Trade Fair. The result: an experimental short film with electronic music that received the highest national and international awards.
The film
“Steel: Theme with Variations” is one of the most unusual historical industrial films. Even today, over sixty years after it was made, its impressionistic style, which goes against all classical viewing habits, is striking.
The film was shown for the first time on April 26, 1960 at the Hanover Trade Fair. For the audience at an industrial trade fair, its very fast editing sequences, the partially color-distorted close-ups and the electronic music by Oskar Sala (1910–2002) were certainly an extremely unusual and memorable experience.
In an interview, Hugo Niebeling (1931–2016) said in retrospect: "I wanted to have top-notch camera and top-notch acoustics for 'Steel - Theme with Variations'." Nevertheless, the distribution of roles remained clear. According to Oskar Sala, it would have been "a kind of lese majeste [...] to change even one image." He was supposed to base the sound design on the image content specified by Niebeling, and Niebeling made it clear: "I don't want a naturalistic instrumental sound, that doesn't exist in the steelworks." (Quotes from Joachim Thommes, see reference). Nevertheless, this film was the beginning of a long-term artistic collaboration between Hugo Niebeling and Oskar Sala.
The plot
The film shows the path of iron and steel from the blast furnace to pipe production. The filming locations were the Mannesmann steelworks in Duisburg-Huckingen and the Mannesmann tube factory in Düsseldorf-Rath.
Dr. Kornelia Rennert, Salzgitter AG Corporate Archive
Filmographic information
Client: Mannesmann AG, Düsseldorf
Production: Film production group of Mannesmann AG
Director: Hugo Niebeling
Camera: Bert Meister
Music: Oskar Sala
Year of production: 1960
Format: 35 mm
Running time: 13 min.
Color, light sound, music only
Awards: “Particularly valuable” rating in 1961 from the Wiesbaden Film Assessment Board; Federal Film Prize “Filmband in Gold” at the 2nd German Industrial Film Days in Berlin, 1961; Special prize for the “best-rated film in terms of artistic design”; “Grand Prix” at the 1st International Industrial Film Festival in Rouen, 1960; “Golden Crown” at the 5th European Industrial Film Festival in Monza, 1961; “Grand Prix” in Gold in 1997 at a film festival as part of the documenta X in Kassel as the best industrial film of the years 1957–1997
Literature: Joachim Thommes: “I wanted to bring as much art into each of these films as I could.” Hugo Niebeling, the Mannesmann film production and the West German business film 1947–1987, Düsseldorf 2008
Archive: Salzgitter AG corporate archive/Mannesmann archive, Mülheim an der Ruhr
Contact
Salzgitter AG Corporate Archive
Mannesmann Archive
Dr. Kornelia Rennert
Wiesenstr. 36
45473 Mülheim an der Ruhr
Phone 0208 458-1666
Awarded the “Grand Prix in Gold”, Kassel 1997, for the film “Steel – Theme with Variations” by Hugo Niebeling. (Source: Salzgitter AG Corporate Archives, Mülheim an der Ruhr)
Still from the film “Steel – Theme with Variations” (Source: Salzgitter AG Corporate Archives, Mülheim an der Ruhr)