Kaiser's Pirates
director   Jürgen Stumpfhaus
camera Hans Rombach, Hans Jakobi
sound Norbert Schröder
editor   Josef van Ooyen
length   2 x 45 min
format digi-beta
broadcasted 1999 ARD, 2000 WDR,NDR,Phönix
synopsis
Their task was to seize and sink ships. Their oponents were the freighters of the Allies loaded with urgently needed supplies. Their speciality was camouflaging themselves as cargo ships.

Kaiser's Pirates documents the worlwide raid of a sailing ship equipped with canons whose name became legend. The "Seeadler" set sail from Bremenrhaven in 1916 under the command of Felix Count Luckner. The men aboard lived like "pirates of the seven seas", a white skull-and-crossbones painted on her banner and they sunk dozens of ships. But never was anybody hurt by the "gentleman-pirate". Finaly a huge fleet was hunting the "Seeadler" around the globe. Due to a stupid mistake they were shipwrecked at Mopelia, an Island in the South Seas togetjer with a load of english and american prisoners. But Count Luckner managed to escape the island in a tiny dinghy and made it back to Germany. Back home his adventures became legend and his storys turned into book.

The story is told with a lot of rare archival footage and careful re-enactments at original locations.

back to catalog