About the film
D III 88 is a 1939 German drama film directed by Herbert Maisch and Hans Bertram, the latter also having co-written the script. It stars Christian Kayßler, Otto Wernicke and Heinz Welzel. It was made as a propaganda film with the support of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring, and was the last of a series of Nazi aviation films to be made before the outbreak of World War II.
It was one of the most commercially successful films released during the Nazi era. It was praised by Joseph Goebbels as "an irreproachable film of national destiny". The title, referring to the registration number of the Fokker Dr.I flown by one of the characters in World War I, was an attempt to re-inforce the propaganda link between the modern Luftwaffe and that of World War I.
A sequel, Battle Squadron Lützow, was made in 1941.
From the film's Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).