Overview
- Description
- Introduced with German titles throughout, beginning with "Kamera Regie Schnitt Maexie". Blurry at first. Extreme CUs of the three boys (shot individually). On August 8, 1936, the family loads into a car and drives away with Leithner as the help waves goodbye. They visit the grave of Johanna Regenstreif in Poetzleinsdorf. The car moves along the city streets before the boys exit at the train station, purchase a newspaper, and board the train. Fritz Regenstreif and Leithner shake hands at the railcar door. The boys and their grandfather wave goodbye to Leithner and others on the platform. Majestic views of the countryside, castles, and riverside from the train window. They eat in the dining car. The boys pose on the platform in Linz with their grandfather Fritz. View of Salzburg, a mountain pass, castles, and the countryside from the train window. The family stops to visit Bad Gastein. The boys and their grandfather pose for the camera in front of the Hotel Germania (seen later at 04:20:56). They walk and talk with their grandfather on a path in the mountains. Waterfall. The boys (with a nanny?) walk through the country town, meeting people and children along the way. They become friendly with one boy and tour/play in the forest with him. Maexie distributes goodies to eat. Views of the countryside. The boys play in a stream. More mountain views as the boys continue along in the countryside. View from the top of a mountain of the surrounding peaks.
- Film Title
-
Gastein '36 (part one)
- Duration
- 00:12:16
- Date
-
Event:
1936 August 08
- Locale
-
Bad Gastein,
Austria
Linz, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Vienna, Austria
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yvonne Illich
- Contributor
-
Camera Operator:
Ellen R. Illich
- Biography
-
Ellen (Maexie) Regenstreif Illich (1901-1965) came from a family of converted Sephardic Jews who had settled in Germany. Her industrialist father, Fritz (Pucki) Regenstreif (1868-1941), had a lumber business in Bosnia where he owned a sawmill at Zavidovic and an Art Nouveau villa on the outskirts of Vienna in Pötzleinsdorf built by Friedrich Ohmann. Piero Ilic (1890-1942) came from a landed family in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia with property in Split and extensive wine and olive oil producing estates on the island of Brac. Ellen and Piero married in 1925 and established a home in Split. There was a resurgence of anti-foreign and anti-Jewish sentiment in Yugoslavia, so in 1932, Ellen returned to her father's villa in Vienna with their three children: Ivan (1926-2002), Michael (Micha) (b. 1928), and Alexander (Sascha) (1928-2009). Piero died of natural causes in Split in July 1942 (the boys never saw their father after they moved to Vienna). After the death of Fritz Regenstreif on May 8, 1941, the splendid home was taken by the Nazis in a forced sale, and Maexie moved into a pension in Vienna with the children. In Nazi Austria, Maexie was considered an ethnic Jew although she was a baptized Christian, and the children were classified as half-Jewish. In 1942, they made their way to Florence by way of Split, where they lived for three months. Later, Maexie made her way to the United States, where she died in 1965.
Physical Details
- Language
- Silent
- Genre/Form
- Amateur.
- B&W / Color
- Black & White
- Image Quality
- Good
- Time Code
- 04:00:00:00 to 04:12:16:00
- Film Format
- Master
Master 2914 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w and color
Master 2914 Video: Digital Betacam - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Master 2914 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w and color
Master 2914 Video: Digital Betacam - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Master 2914 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w and color
Master 2914 Video: Digital Betacam - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Master 2914 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w and color
Master 2914 Video: Digital Betacam - b&w and color - NTSC - large- Preservation
Preservation 2914 Video: Betacam SP - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2914 Video: Betacam SP - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2914 Video: Betacam SP - b&w and color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2914 Video: Betacam SP - b&w and color - NTSC - large- User
User 2914 Video: DVD - b&w and color
User 2914 Video: DVD - b&w and color
User 2914 Video: DVD - b&w and color
User 2914 Video: DVD - b&w and color
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- This archival media can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing stations.
- Copyright
- Yvonne Illich
- Conditions on Use
- The Museum does not own the copyright for this material and does not have authority to authorize third party use. For permission, please contact the rights holder, Ms. Yvonne Illich.
- Copyright Holder
- Yvonne Illich
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection - not accessioned
- Note
- There is no burn-in time code on the DVD (user copy).
- Film Source
- Yvonne Illich
- File Number
- Legacy Database File: 5441
Source Archive Number: Reel 8 - Special Collection
-
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 08:03:09
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1004522
Download & Licensing
- Request Copy
- See Rights and Restrictions
- Terms of Use
- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
In-Person Research
- Requires Research Visit
- Plan a Research Visit
Contact Us
Also in Ellen Rose Regenstreif Film Collection
A collection of twenty reels of 16mm film dating from 1936 to 1943 illustrating the daily life of a prominent Austrian family named Regenstreif and Illich. The films were taken under the name Maexie. Ellen (Maexie) Rose Regenstreif Illich (1901-1965) came from a family of converted Sephardic Jews who had settled in Germany. Her industrialist father, Fritz (Pucki) Regenstreif (1868-1941), had a lumber business in Bosnia and owned an Art Nouveau villa on the outskirts of Vienna in Pötzleinsdorf built by Friedrich Ohmann. Piero Ilic (1890-1942) came from a landed family in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia with property in Split and extensive wine and olive oil producing estates on the island of Brac. Ellen and Piero married in 1925 and established a home in Split. There was a resurgence of anti-foreign and anti-Jewish sentiment in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav government made claims against her father as a landowner in Bosnia at the International Court in the Hague, so in 1932, Ellen returned to her father's villa in Vienna with their three children: Ivan (1926-2002), Michael (Micha) (b. 1928), and Alexander (Sascha) (1928-2009). Piero died of natural causes in Split in July 1942 (the boys never saw their father after they moved to Vienna). After the death of Fritz Regenstreif on May 8, 1941, the splendid home was taken by the Nazis in a forced sale, and Maexie moved into a pension in Vienna with the children. In Nazi Austria, Maexie was considered an ethnic Jew although she was a baptized Christian, and the children were classified as half-Jewish. In 1942, they made their way to Florence by way of Split, where they lived for three months. The films were kept in a wooden cabinet in the basement of Sascha's New York home from 1961 to 2006, when they were preserved by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Illich family visits the Dolomites, 1937
Film
Introduced with Maexie Films logo (drawing of Maexie holding a film camera), "Agfa 1937", and German titles. The Illich family exits a car with their luggage. INTs of a train. Good CUs of Grandfather Fritz and the boys. The family tours the countryside (mountains, farms) by automobile on their tour of the Dolomites (a mountain range in the Alps). They stop in the medieval town of Lienz in Eastern Austria (Tyrol) - shops, bicycles, pedestrians, hotels. They cross the border from Austria to Italy and sightsee by Mercedes car - filming mountains and villages from the window. They stop at lookouts from major peaks in the Italian Dolomites (each introduced with name of peak and elevation). Cars struggle up the mountain, so the family exits and hikes up the road. More mountain views from the car. Returning to the border with an official and cars in queue, and to the town of Lienz with the boys walking towards the camera. More sightseeing - mountains and towns - including Mt. Glockner where the boys and their grandfather stop at the overlook and snack. View of the glacier, Pasterze, and snow. Driving along the beautiful Grossglockner High Alpine Road which opened in August 1935. (ends abruptly)
Illich family tours Italy, 1937
Film
No title card, but includes German intertitles. Film can says "Bilder aus Italien (1937)". The Illich family visits Rome (there are no shots of family members in the entire reel). Pan of the cityscape, the Coliseum, and other ruins, statues, fountains, buildings. Includes brief views of Italians, street scenes, and other spectators. The family then tours Perugia, Assisi, and Venice. Gondola ride, populated narrow city streets. Waves crash along the shore. 04:53:52 (color) Sightseeing in Venice, including wonderful scenes of the famous architecture, people, and the harbor.
Touring Austria for Maexie's birthday
Film
Introduced with German titles throughout. House in a sparse mountain village in summer. Ivan and a dog. Good CUs of the boys playing in the forest with their driver Leithner. Camera view from the top of the Austrian Alps in November. Snowy mountains in Schneeberg, Maexie points at the lookout. The boys ski and slalom down a mountain. Mountain peaks above the clouds (from an airplane?). Two St. Bernard puppies. More views of the majestic clouds. Frost and icy buds. 03:38:50 Blossoms in spring line the streets. Driving tour with visits to small towns in lower Austria in the springtime (each introduced with a slate): churches, palaces, storefronts, houses, lakes, farms, etc. Includes Stift Goettweig, Durnstein (Hotel Richard Loewenherz), Schwallenbach, and Artstetten. The driver Leithner poses next to an automobile on a barge/ferry. In Semmerung, more beautiful pans of the mountain scenery.
Vienna tourist sites
Film
UFA logo. Official film of buildings in Vienna, introduced with German titles (this was not filmed by Maexie). Includes shots of St. Stephens Church, Ringstrasse, bustling street scenes, Rathaus, Burgtheater, pedestrians/street scenes, State Opera, traffic, Stadtpark, art/statues, tram, fountains, amusements, and crowds. Ende.
Illich family escapes to Florence, 1943
Film
[no title] The three Illich boys (much older and leaner) overlook the cityscape of Florence, Italy, where the family fled to in 1943. They eat and place flowers on a grave. The boys walk down a street with cyclists behind them. Horses run on a racetrack. An older man (priest) stands in the streets with the Illich boys and other young schoolboys/classmates. CU, another priest with the twins.
Illich family visits Bad Gastein, 1936
Film
More scenes of life and the family visit to Bad Gastein, beginning with a farmer and his boys shoveling hay into a wagon. The family eats at an outside restaurant. The boys walk along a path in the mountains with their grandfather Fritz (and a nanny/host?). Waterfall. The boys enjoy another meal outdoors. The family takes a carriage ride through the city, and into the mountains. The boys pick flowers and rocks for their grandfather, who rests on a boulder, and then they thank him with hugs. Countryside. Cows meander about on a country road, near village homes. The boys ride horses and walk along mountain paths. The family eats outdoors, surrounded by tall mountains. The boys hike along a rocky path. Views of the countryside and homes. A hiker and his three dogs. River. The boys snack and then bid farewell to their new friends (hotel staff of Hotel Germania seen earlier in Story 1253 at 04:06:26), who pose for a group shot. They load a bus with their luggage and take off from the Bad Gastein rail station (good views). Countryside from the window of the train.
Illich family visits Bad Gastein, 1937
Film
Out of focus in the center of the frame for a few seconds. The boys sit on a wooden fence in the country surrounding an unknown teenager. CUs, Grandfather Fritz (Pucki) at an outdoor café, then Sascha. At the train station, the boys lean their heads out of the train window, waving to Pucki, Leithner, and Uncle Paul on the platform. Leithner follows the train as it departs. View of another station, the boys walk through it (filmed from a distance). Mountains, farms from the train window. A train pulls into the platform with Pucki, the boys greet him with hugs. The city of Bad Gastein, waterfalls, mountain vistas. Micha exits Hotel der Kaiserhof with his grandfather. The boys sit along a wooden fence with their grandfather and the unknown teen. They hop over the fence and hike along a country road. Picturesque scene. Caged animals at a farm and a handsome dog. The boys wrestle in the grass and play on logs in the forest. The boys hike and backpack through lower Austria. Beautiful tree and mountain views, streams and waterfalls. Good shot of Ellen (Maexie) and the boys resting on boulders, eating apples. They continue hiking and make a campfire. They board a train to Zell am See, visit the town shops, and go swimming in a mountain lake, splashing each other and playing in the sand. Sunset and sunrise. Beautiful alpine vistas. The boys play with a dog and take a chairlift to the top of a mountain. A large group of friends gather with the Illich family in a country road, the older fellow swings the twins in a circle. One of the twins tries to feed cows walking on the road. View of log cabins and dirt road. (ends abruptly)
Illich family activities in 1939
Film
Family activities in the year 1939. Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. Frame line of the opening scenes are off. The three Illich boys pull their cousin Hanni and their grandfather in a sled on the snow on New Year's morning in 1939. In the Third Poetz Revue, one of the twins plays the guitar and sings for the camera (the first revue after Marion Stein's family fled Austria). Play-acting in costume. 02:37:54 (B/W) People walking through a garden in early spring, flowering trees. Children take photographs. 02:38:51 Fritz, Ellen (Maexie), and the three boys singing outdoors, very happy. Playing in the gardens, chickens, taking a walk. 02:40:02 (Color, kodachrome) A religious procession for Corpus Christi through Vienna city streets. Fritz Regenstreif walks through the garden (beautiful colors). The twins in Lederhosen pick flowers and go for a drive with Franz Leithner in an open car. (B/W) They children visit Schloss Leithner (the driver's home in the country). A car drives up a path towards a house. The twins bathe in a well outside, shine shoes, push a wheelbarrow, play with a dog, swim in a brook. They enjoy tea and cake. 02:45:25 They play with kittens in the yard. Cousin Hanni kicks around a ball with her father Paul. They ride bicycles. The three boys sit and eat Christmas dinner with their grandfather. They play music in front of the Christmas tree and visit their grandmother's grave at the Christian cemetery.
Illich family visits Salzburg
Film
The three Illich boys stand outside a car with their luggage. Boarding a Lufthansa bus. A Nazi plane ("TACA D-AJAT" and swastika) takes off from an airfield. On the river, large buildings, taking photographs at a bridge, swastika banners. City street scenes, INT of café. Salzburg train station. Shots of the countryside from a train. The twins walk through a field. Taking a boat tour of the lake, photographs, rowboat with all three boys. A large group of tourists walk through the village - swastika, Konditerei, small streets, marching band, boat. Shots from inside a cave. Mountains in the distance. Church, small boat on the water, esplanade gardens and fountains, boys throwing debris in the lake, walking on a dirt road.
Illich family activities in 1940
Film
Family activities in the year 1940. Introduced with Maexie Films logo (drawing of Maexie holding a film camera) and some German titles. Fritz Regenstreif walks down a walkway amidst the snow; the entire villa is under snowy cover. Ivan shoveling and the twins, Micha and Sascha, digging in the snow. Ellen Regenstreif (Maexie) struggles to make it through the snow. The boys cross country ski through the forest. Inside the villa, the twins play music and take violin and piano lessons (Blüthner piano) with "Olgica". The boys and their teacher sing songs. On April 21, 1940 (Maexie's birthday), the twins ride their bikes outside on villa property. Cousin Hanni appears. 03:06:36 (Color) A blossoming tree in the spring. Fritz Regenstreif smells the yellow tree buds, the boys play in the yard. A religious procession for Corpus Christi descends a stairwell and must stop to allow the Hitler Youth to march by on the road. The procession proceeds with girls dressed in white, a priest, and the twin boys holding flags. Hiking in the Alps (Rax), the boys stand on an observation deck and overlook the scenery. Cows grazing in a meadow, then on the hiking trail, CUs. The boys rifle through a leather satchel and eat lunch. Cousin Hanni with a red umbrella laughs and poses for the camera. The twin boys dig in the dirt. Ivan hugs Hanni and helps her with a toy scooter. 03:10:07 (B/W) The boys and friends play croquet on the grounds of Villa Regenstreif. The boys bike through the streets with their driver Leithner and wave to the camera. Sascha poses with his grandfather Fritz in the garden. The boys wrestle in the grass and swim in a pool. They nap on a blanket in the grass. Ivan works with a microscope and Sascha plays the cello. 03:13:17 (Flawed color) Pan of the snow on the trees in Villa Regenstreif. The Illich twins slide on the ice and play in the snow. Good views of the house and a plowed road in Poetzleinsdorf.
Illich family activities in 1941 to 1942 including forced sale of villa
Film
Family activities in the years 1941-1942. [There are no German titles.] Leader shows "Agfa 1942" and "Agfa 1941". (Color) Pan of the Vienna skyline at dusk. The boys saw a tree stump with the help of their driver Leithner. Good CUs. Fritz Regenstreif and nurse walk arm in arm down a cobblestone road [this is the last film of Fritz before dying a natural death in his house on May 8, 1941]. The boys continue sawing and Maexie appears for a brief moment. One of the twins awkwardly pushes lumber in a wheelbarrow. Aerial views of the villa grounds. 03:17:15 (B/W) Boxes and furniture are being loaded into a trailer as the Nazis prepare for taking over the Regenstreif villa. (See RG-60.1245 at 02:25:14 for an earlier view of the villa foyer). The boys play around a GUSTAV KNAUER truck filled with their belongings. Men (Nazis) stand behind the trailer discussing as the doors are closed. Leithner is at left. The overweight bald man, with a Nazi party pin on his lapel, seals the truck doors shut. A tractor pulls the trailer with Regenstreif belongings and art down the road with the twins riding on the back. They wave goodbye as the truck leaves the property. Family members sit outside in a garden saying goodbyes - drinking, smoking, and laughing. CUs of individuals: Leithner with Lisl (Grandfather Fritz's secretary who worked in a Jewish hospital and was deported to Auschwitz), a woman smelling flowers, Maexie cutting blossoms (wearing black after Fritz's death), and ladies walking through the garden. The women say farewell. Ivan and the twin boys give the women flowers. Pan of cityscape of Vienna from the terrace on villa grounds. An older Ivan sits at a table on an outside terrace with his family, eating their last supper there. 03:20:57 The three boys drive away on the bed of another moving truck filled with personal luggage and wave to the camera [the family moved into a pension after the forced sale of the villa at Poetzleinsdorf]. Three adults descend the stairs of the Regenstreif home - the NSDAP man wears a long leather jacket. The boys, dressed in suits, give a basket to the man containing the keys to the villa. CUs of the three adults (two men and one woman). This is the final "sale" of the Poetz villa to the Nazis. More views of the house. 03:21:53 At their new home at Pension Schiedl in the cottage district of Vienna in May 1941, Maexie and a friend knit and lounge outdoors. One of the twins plays with a dog in the yard. Overhead shot of Hitler Youth marching with flags in a courtyard of the boys' school which ended in June 1941. The group practices queuing up with a swastika banner, prepares for a parade, takes the flag down, and marches by (CUs). The boys bid farewell to their teachers. The family walks along the streets with a priest in Poetzleinsdorf and visits the graves of their grandparents, Fritz and Johanna Regenstreif (Fritz died on May 8, 1941). They have lunch; Ivan and Micha pose with their mother Maexie. The family visits friends (the Imhof Family) in the country, including children. 03:25:55 (Color) The boys walk down a tree-lined street and into the pension. They wait at a tram stop, "Meidlung Hauptstrasse", and then at another station with their piano teacher. Another excursion south of Vienna takes the family hiking towards a castle. Beautiful aerial views of the mountain. MS of Maexie and Micha. Farm scene. 03:27:54 (B/W) In 1942, the twins wait on a train platform with luggage for a trip to Mariazell. Maexie and Ivan are dressed warmly. [That night, Maexie received a call that her brother Paul would escape in the snow to Hungary.] The twins look over the snowy countryside from the moving train. The boys trudge through the deep snow in a village. Aerial view of the city. Boys out for another walk in the snow with an unidentified woman, visiting restaurants and shops in the Austrian city. CU, cross. At the top of the mountain, they throw snowballs and rest on tree stumps. They take a chairlift to the bottom of the mountain with the woman and walk through town. 03:31:57 Back in Vienna, the boys exit the gate to their pension (home) and walk through town with a teenage friend. The boys light a small camping stove and eat lunch. INTs, the family eating dinner. Maexie and a friend exiting the pension to mail a postcard. This is presumably the family's goodbye from Vienna. Good city view of Vienna with pedestrians and traffic.
Family life in Vienna, 1936
Film
Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. This film is titled "Dreibubenhaus" [The House of the Three Boys] in honor of a then current theatrical presentation in Vienna. CUs, the twin boys don hats and joke for the camera. Sequence of the boys waking up, saying prayers, washing faces, getting dressed, and ready for school. The three Illich boys eat breakfast and exit their home (filmed from mother Ellen (Maexie) Regenstreif's room on the top floor of the villa), walking the grand grounds of Villa Regenstreif. The governess "Selli" Frauer escorts the boys onto a tram and kisses them goodbye as they enter school. Pan of the city square with the school on one end, panning up to the grand Baroque Piarist Church of Maria Treu. The boys eat lunch with their grandfather, Fritz Regenstreif, and governess. Views of the ornate home. CUs of the boys eating. 01:05:34 Sascha and Micha play the piano and the violin with teacher and friend Olga Novakovic, and then sit at their desks and do their homework. Ivan holds a little bird named Hansi. The twins play with a wooden model house. The three boys say their prayers, kiss each other good night and go to sleep. 01:08:24 Part 2 - on Sunday. Pan of the Vienna skyline from the top of the landmark highrise building at Herrengasse ("Hochhaus Herrengasse", built in 1931-32 by architects Theiss and Jaksch, was Vienna's first highrise). The boys chase a car as it drives by the camera. The family makes a trip to the grave of their grandmother, Johanna Regenstreif (d. 1934), in Potzleinsdorf. 01:09:43 The boys go sledding in winter on the meadow of "Wasserturm". For Three Kings Day, the family dresses in costume and act for the camera. The women -- Maexie, friend Vita Kuenstler [who worked at the Neue Galerie and apparently took over its management when it was Aryanized], and the governess -- playfully hassle one another. One of the twins is costumed as Hans Albers, and another as Michael Moser [probably 'Hans Moser', a prominent film and stage actor of the 1930s whose role as the muckraking civil servant ("Amtsdiener" as the intertitle suggests) were legendary]. 01:12:56 Blossoms on the trees in springtime, followed by a sequence in autumn with the family visiting Vienna's most famous overlook at Leopoldsberg (a church and estate at the top of a hill). They continue on to the monastery at Klosterneuburg and pose for a photograph at St. Leopold with their grandfather. 01:15:10 Children gathered around a table with sweet treats for a birthday tea party. Ivan sits next to his friend, Marion Stein (daughter of Erwin Stein, a very important colleague of Mahler, Bartok, Weber).
Illich family activities in 1936
Film
Family activities in the year 1936. Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. The Illich boys play-act for the camera and take a walk through a park in April 1936 with their grandfather, Fritz Regenstreif. CUs of the spring blossoms and the boys getting into a car. A religious procession for communion on May 21, 1936. The twins are part of the ceremony, parade in the square in front of the Maria Treu Piarist Church, and gather with classmates for a group photograph. Ellen (Maexie), Ivan, Sascha, and Micha depart by foot and car. They speak with a priest and plant a tree on the Villa Regenstreif grounds. The family dons driving goggles and takes an expedition in a convertible car, visiting Langenlois and other places in Lower Austria. 01:25:01 The children take a school trip to Schneeberg in the Alps on June 9, 1936. Views of the boys inside the train and of the pastoral countryside. The children exit the train, and then board another up the mountain ["Mit Volldampf auf den Schneeberg" - "With full steam ahead off to Schneeberg"] Panoramic shots of the snowy mountain. The children gather around a lookout at the top, hike, and return to the train platform. 01:29:09 A grand parade for the feast of Corpus Christi in the streets of Vienna, including military troops and religious clergy. The family attends Turnfest, a sport and cultural display of gymnasts, at an outdoor arena on June 14, 1936. Crowds gather at the stadium, "Reichspost" balloon lift, demonstrations with flags and calisthenics, dancing, acrobatics, and track races. 01:33:44 The family takes another vacation in Austria in September 1936 to the villages of Moenichkirchen, Burgland, and Bernstein.
Illich family activities in 1937
Film
Family activities in the year 1937. Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. Grandpa Fritz and the Illich boys are in costume performing a play for Three Kings Day in January 1937. Train. Ivan and Ellen (Maexie) walk along the mountain path. Good CUs of Maexie and Ivan with two photographic cameras. Ice sport (curling?). Three boys walking in the snow under "Kurhaus Semmering" sign. Fritz plays and hikes with his grandsons at the resort in the snow. Views of the mountainside from an open carriage ride, close shots of Ivan, Sascha, and Micha. Visiting the Prater amusement park in Vienna. Carousel with live horses. Boys in schoolboy caps. Filling the car with gasoline, snacking at a café, driving on a mountain road, visiting Dollfuss Church, changing a tire, and resting in a small town. Celebration of 25 years of the villa at Poetzleinsdorf. The twins pretend to be a couple, arriving in an open car with their driver Franz Leithner. The children perform, plant a new tree, and the driver and other staff gather around. Ellen (Maexie) and the children on a city street, enjoying a feast with their grandfather, exiting the home with their luggage, visiting Maria Schutz chapel near Semmerung, and driving along a road (trees budding). Corpus Christi religious procession at the Poetz villa. Crowds parade and gather at the terrace. 01:49:10 CU, boys in the car, then at the square in front of the Piarist Maria Treu church for a ceremony with Bishop Franz Kamprath. Parading, posing for a photograph, driving to an outdoor celebration where the boys eat on a terrace and play with balloons with their godfather and uncle Paul (Ellen's brother). The family continues on to visit Leopoldsberg, where there is another outdoor festival. In September, the boys and their grandfather Fritz visit Semmering, Maria Zell, the Rosegger home, a town square, factories, and the Alps. The boys enjoy a beverage at the top of a mountain. View of the boys on the ground from a chairlift. A stop at Hotel Laufenstein and the bookstore. The boys play with animals and other children on a farm.
Illich family activities in 1938
Film
Family activities in the year 1938. Introduced with Maexie Films logo (drawing of Maexie holding a film camera) and German titles throughout, some are comical. Micha and Sascha Illich roll out dough in a kitchen, making cookies. CU of a Christmas tree with a nativity scene underneath. The boys trudge through the snow with skis at Kurhaus Semmering. The twins ski down a large hill. Cousin Hanni cautiously walks in front of the camera with her father Paul in the BG. On holiday at Semmering, the three boys walk hand-in-hand and pose for the camera. Ivan with box camera. Train station. The boys on a horse-drawn sled through the snowy forest. Putting on a play, "Poetz Revue," and singing for the camera. The children playing in a pool, including friend Marion Stein (daughter of Erwin Stein, a very important colleague of Mahler, Bartok, Weber). A trip to Melk. The driver Franz Leithner blows into a carburetor. Castle across the Danube river. Visiting the driver's family at Schloss Leithner with a dog. (Wotan) The boys eat in the garden, wear Lederhosen, help farm, and play in a stream. CUs of Ellen (Maexie). They play with kittens and dogs. Portrait of the family under a tree. View of the river. In August, the family visits the church at Maria Zell, eats outdoors, and drives along a mountain road. They continue to tour and stop at Seckau at an outside café. Shell (gasoline) sign in BG left. Micha drinking beer, then Sascha, then Ivan. 02:14:08 The boys practice gymnastics. Touring Maria Zell again, with panoramic views from a mountaintop, cable car, crucifix. Ivan holds a camera. Maexie brushes her hair. A zeppelin flies overhead. The brothers are dressed in black suits as they walk together outside the villa.
Theatrical revue staged by Illich family and friends
Film
Introduced with German titles throughout, some are comical. Several elaborate revue scenes. Ivan performs for the camera. Micha and Sascha sing and dance together. 02:19:29 One dresses as the Mayor of Split. Marion Stein (daughter of Erwin Stein, a very important colleague of Mahler, Bartok, Weber) dances for the camera. Several scenes of the children, including Marion, performing with an accordion.
Villa Regenstreif in Vienna
Film
Introduced with German titles throughout. Views of the Villa Regenstreif (Poetz). Blossoming trees in the spring, the garden, outdoor pool, sculptures, and fountains. The fountain with a high water jet is a copy of New York's Central Park Conservatory. 02:25:14 View of the villa foyer (see Story 1249 at 03:17:15 for a view of the same foyer as the family is forced to sell the villa to the Nazis). In summer, terraces, sprinklers (beautiful shot), stairs. Film switches to color. The twins with red vests ride new bicycles. The garden is in full bloom. In autumn, more faded color scenes of the house, Yugoslavian flag hanging from the window after the Anschluss [the intention was to give the impression that the property was owned by foreigners], greenhouse, gardens, statues, and flowers. Grandfather Fritz appears at 02:30:36. Title introduces winter but the film ends with the Kodak logo.