Minutes for Monday, September 29

 

§       Schedule change- Wednesday’s schedule was followed today. Riefenstahl will be discussed Wednesday

§       The Midterm will be on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Become familiar with all readings including:

o      Cook: pages 110-138. The edition may change. Read section on German film regardless of pages

o      Hull: 3 chapters. Reads fast. Gives background on Nazi film. Good overview

o      Gianetti: Chapters 1-2. Become familiar with expressionism

§       Questions will be taken from class notes found online as minutes. NO OPEN BOOK or OPEN NOTE. Be able to deal with broader issues besides facts and dates

§       Viewing of a compilation documentary, GERMANY AWAKE, put together from other materials not produced exclusively for the film. Directed by LEISER, settled in Sweden after the war and made films e.g. Mein Kampf which covers Hitler’s rise to power through news reels.

§       Germany Awake takes clips of Nazi films to create a narrative about National Socialist ideology. The film tries to direct us to propaganda and make us conclude that all German films were this way. Leiser sometimes gives a distorted picture of German films during the period by taking scenes out of context.  Many German directors made movies simply to compete with Hollywood.  Nevertheless, the films are all part of the Nazi ideological system in that even as entertainment, their themes and stories stress the ultra nationalistic and ultra conservative values of the Third Reich.

 

Overhead

Genre: Narrative, comedy, melodrama, romance, documentaries, newsreels

Motivations of Filmmakers: entertainment, distraction from contemporary events, morale boosting, propaganda

Leading Figure in Industry: Joseph Goerbels/ Minister of Propoganda

            He made sure scripts & directors were something he could oversee

Icons of period in postwar films:

 Zarah Leander

            Radio

            Wunschkonzert (wish concert) - songs dedicated to soldiers, etc.

Nazi banners, symbols, etc. – a number in Germany Awake. Goerbels believed Nazi symbols should be kept out of films

Hitler’s speech announcing beginning of war

Leni Riefenstahl – sometimes portrayed as mannish, beautiful woman in postwar films.

Films of Leni Riefenstahl


 

 

Films: Dawn (Pre Nazi, 1933)

            Hans Westmar (Allusion to Horst Wessel, 1933)

            Hitlerjunge Quex (1933)

            Bismarck (1940)

            Venus on Trial (1941)

            Heimkeer (1941)

            Victory in the West (1941)

            Stukas (1941)

            Wunschkonzert (1940)

            Der Ewige Jude (1938)

            Jud Sues (1939)

            I Accuse (1941)

            Die Grosse Liebe (1942)

            Damals (1943)

            Kolberg (1943)

 

  • Not much propaganda in German films, but strict rules regarding production e.g. fallen women, etc., generally played by a non-German
  • Three films alluding to a young man dying for the Nazi cause – Hitlerjunge Quex, Hans Westmar, and S.A. Mann Brand
  • Middle class tragedy – Middle class women were objects of lust to powerful men who took advantage of them sexually.  The Nazi version of Jud Süss used this formula to turn a non-antisemitic novel into an anti-Semitic film 
  • The film begins! Germany Awake by Leiser. Includes clips from such films as
    • Mein Sonn, Herr Minister
    • For Merit
    • Venus on Trial
    • Refugees
    • Heimkeer
    • Bismarck
    • Victory in the West
    • Stukas
    • The Crew of the Dora
    • Wunschkonzert