Opening of the Kiel Canal
About Opening of the Kiel Canal
Birt Acres’s actuality is tied to June 20, 1895, when Kaiser Wilhelm II opened the Kiel Canal and the yacht Hohenzollern made the first passage. The English Wikipedia describes what survives as a quay with a winged statue, three men rowing in, and a boy who turns to the camera. The German Wikipedia adds views of Wilhelm and Empress Augusta Victoria at the ceremony.
Cast & crew
More about Opening of the Kiel Canal
Acres photographed the short in Kiel in June and July 1895. He and Robert W. Paul produced it. The Science Museum dates the negative to July 1895 and says this reel appears to have been shot on June 20. Other films Acres made on the same visit have not survived.
Themes
Background
The canal, then also called the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, gave the German navy a route from the Baltic to the North Sea. The German Wikipedia treats this reel as the oldest documentary shot in Germany.
Making
The English synopsis calls the water the North Sea Canal. That name belongs to a Dutch waterway. The canal in the title is the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, opened at Kiel.
Reviews
Nicholas Pronay called the film one of the archetypes of the newsfilm: not much to look at, but about an event the audience already cared about.
Look
Birt Acres shot it himself, on 35mm.
Music
Silent. No score is credited.
Preservation
The Science Museum in London holds the original 35mm nitrate negative and a duplicate positive, credited through the National Media Museum, Bradford. Most of the other films Acres shot on this trip are gone.
Notes
- Another title is Inauguration of the Kiel Canal by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
- Wikidata times the film at 18 seconds. The German Wikipedia says about one minute. The English Wikipedia infobox says 13 seconds.
- The keystone ceremony was at Holtenau on June 21, the day after Hohenzollern’s first transit.
- Acres soon filmed The German Emperor Reviewing His Troops, another Kaiser subject.
- The Science Museum Group object number is 1946-312, cellulose nitrate 35mm.
Scenes
- Three men row toward a quay where a boy is waiting.
- The boy turns and faces the camera.
- German descriptions add the Kaiser and the Empress at the opening.
