Blum Affair

{{Infobox film

| name = Blum Affair

| image = Blumaffair.jpg

| caption =

| director = Erich Engel

| producer = Herbert Uhlich

| writer = Robert A. Stemmle

| starring = Hans Christian Blech
Ernst Waldow
Karin Evans

| music = Herbert Trantow

| cinematography = Friedl Behn-Grund
Karl Plintzner

| editing =Lilian Seng

| studio = DEFA

| distributor =

| released = {{film date|1948|12|3|df=yes}}

| runtime = 109 minutes

| country = East Germany

| language = German

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Blum Affair ({{langx|de|Affaire Blum}}) is a 1948 German drama film directed by Erich Engel and starring Hans Christian Blech, Ernst Waldow and Karin Evans. It is based on a real 1926 case in Magdeburg in which a German Jewish industrialist is tried for murder.{{cite web |url=https://ecommerce.umass.edu/defa/film/3527 |title=The Blum Affair (Affaire Blum): Synopsis |publisher=DEFA Film Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst |accessdate=25 May 2015}} The film was produced in the future East Germany and produced by DEFA. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios and Althoff Studios in the Soviet zone. The film's sets were designed by the art director Emil Hasler.

Cast

Hans Christian Blech as Karlheinz Gabler
Ernst Waldow as Kriminalkommissar Schwerdtfeger
Paul Bildt as Untersuchungsrichter Konrat
Karin Evans as Sabine Blum
Helmuth Rudolph as Wilschinsky - Regierungspräsident
Alfred Schieske as Kriminalkommissar Otto Bonte
Gisela Trowe as Christina Burman
Kurt Ehrhardt as Dr. Jakob Blum
Gerhard Bienert as Karl Bremer
Herbert Hübner as Landgerichtsdirektor Hecht
Friedrich Maurer as Lawyer Dr. Gerhard Wormser
{{ill|Klaus Becker (actor)|de|Klaus Becker (Kabarettist)|lt=Klaus Becker}} as Hans Fischer - Gutsvolontär
Arno Paulsen as Wilhelm Platzer
Hilde Adolphi as Alma - das 'süße' Mädchen
Maly Delschaft as Anna Platzer
Hugo Kalthoff as Kriminalassistent Lorenz
Blandine Ebinger as Lucie Schmerschneider
Reinhard Kolldehoff as Max Tischbein - Lehrer
Emmy Burg as Therese
Renée Stobrawa as Frieda Bremer
Jean Brahn as Fritz Merkel
Albert Venohr as Waffenhändler
Gertrud Boll as Dienstmädchen bei Dr. Blum
Otto Matthies as Reporter
Herbert Malsbender as Redakteur
Werner Peters as Egon Konrad
Margarete Schön as Sophie Konrad
Eva Bodden as Sekretärin bei Wilschninsky
Arthur Schröder as Landtagsabgeordneter von Hinkeldey
Richard Drosten as Zahnarzt
Lili Schoenborn-Anspach as Patientin
Margarete Salbach as Ruth Tischbein

Reception

Bosley Crowther, critic for The New York Times, praised it as "a trenchant dramatic exposition of the way in which an innocent German Jew is almost destroyed by nascent Nazis—back in 1926."{{cite news |title=The Screen; German Drama at World |author=Bosley Crowther |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 18, 1949 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B03EEDA143BE23BBC4052DFB6678382659EDE}}

The film sold more than 4,330,000 tickets, making it one of DEFA's all-time most successful productions.[http://www.insidekino.de/DJahr/DDRAlltimeDeutsch.htm List of the 50 highest-grossing DEFA films.]