Song of the Wild is Heinz Sielmann's first feature film, made in black and white and a valuable contemporary document. Filming took place in 1948 and 1949 in the Deister, at the Meißendorf ponds near Celle, in the Lüneburg Heath, on the Ems between Papenburg and Lingen and in the Harz. At a time when food rations were low and poaching was everywhere, when the British victorious power had large areas of forest cut down, the film was intended to educate people about the value of the nature around them. The film premiered in the fall of 1949 and became a huge box office success.