Der große König

Filmed at the height of Nazi Germany's triumph in late 1940 and early 1941, Der große König was Germany's most ambitious film to date. Both Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler were fascinated by Frederick the Great (1712–1786), and invoked him in their propaganda as a proto-National Socialist hero. Amidst vividly realized battle scenes, the film depicts Frederick II and his rule from 1740 to 1786, including Prussia's triumph in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). The film's ending shows an omniscient Frederick the Great with his eyes watching over the homeland and its people, in a propagandistic reference to Germany's own Führer. Upon its release, the film received the rare "Film of the Nation" distinction and the director won the Mussolini Cup for Best Foreign Film at the 1942 Venice Film Festival.