In their secret plans for developing weapons (forbidden by the Versailles Treaty after being defeated in WWI) German navy managed great amounts of money to establish factories and shipyards out of the country. Many German companies settled in the Netherlands and kept on developing weapons which needed armies and navies of third countries to be tested: Turkey was one of the usual partners and so became Spain, thanks to the collaboration of Horacio Echevarrieta and his shipyard in Cádiz. A new submarine was built there for the Spanish Navy, but in Cádiz only parts brought from Rotterdam shipyards were assembled. Once finished, the E-1 turned out to be the best submarine in the world. For 1929 its technology was far better than the British or French models. It inherited the know-how of German engineers and WWI u-boots.
Submarine E-1 was never bought by Spanish Navy since government changed in 1930 and II Spanish Republic was declared in spring 1931. Even if Echevarrieta, owner of the shipyard was an active republican, he had become a close friend of King Alfonso XIII, whose Minister of Navy had committed verbally to buy 12 units of E-1. Seen as a pro-monarchy man, new government refused to buy not even the prototype (even if having proof of being best submarine in the world) and Echevarrieta had to struggle and even accept engaging in a secret operation that would send him to jail in 1935. Paying back his debts with Germany almost meant his bankruptcy and ruined most of his empire. Turkish navy (allied of Germany) finally bought it.
The German secret network for weapon development abroad during the between-wars years also ended up in a scandal when it was known that Captain Lohmann, with full control of the millions devoted to this purpose, had made crazy investments on his own, without any supervision. The most amazing one involved cinema: a friend of him had persuaded Lohmann to invest in Phoebus films, a production company with certain success in popular films and a network of cinemas a well. Phoebus needed to update and Navy funds were of great help, but still could avoid Phoebus difficulty against UFA competition. When bankruptcy arrived in 1927-28 and it was published that Navy money had been cleaned via cinema, the whole story became great scandal as "the Lohmann affair".
Films produced by German company Phoebus Films AG where part of the so-called "Lohmann scandal" with provoked the end of the international German program to develop forbidden weapons under the Versailles Treaty. Most of these films, very popular at the time, are lost or not accesible yet. Some excerpts were found in German archives, only a few were complete films, other just fragments. And little reference of the whole scandal and the track of Phoebus is also referred in German Film History books or studies. Having been absorbed by UFA after the scandal and bankruptcy, Phoebus seems to deserve only a little list.
In the search for historical footage many archives all over Europe were visited and searched. German military archives kept little reference of this secret mission and the Lohmann affaire only showed in old newspapers. Similar happened in the Netherlands, about the Fejjenoord submarine factory in Rotterdam, Spain, were family albums were a relief and in both cases chance came to help by finding particular collections key material. Excerpts from some historical films were also use to illustrate the between-war times in Europe.