Influence of German Film Industry in 1919-1945

Since 1919, due to the inception of the expressionist movement, and its increasingly artistic take on the medium, the German film industry had started to have major impacts on not only German culture but also how film had been viewed worldwide, from a form of entertainment for lower class citizens to an art form to convey complex plots and messages. Expressionist film, like ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, had used film to express the directors' emotions, especially his thoughts on the treatment of the German citizens during World War I, and films like this grew in popularity, as it empathized with the universal experience of Germans, giving them a new way to process their feelings. The mise-en-scene of ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ can be seen across Weimar culture, with its bizarre character design seen in art and the angularity of its set design seen throughout the Bauhaus architecture movement. However, as the Nazi party had been able to consolidate their power, they had also had many members infiltrate the film industry, as early as 1920, where they had placed themselves in a position of power, allowing them to take control overnight. An industry that once allowed people to express themselves, had become a stage where the Nazi party could spread lies, and hateful propaganda. They had even been able to normalize the 'Jewish-Bolsheviks', which they had been using since the end of World War I, where “all the assorted political, social, economic, and cultural ills of twentieth century Germany could be traced to the machinations of the Jewish-Bolsheviks”.

Even before expressionism had become popular the film industry had been able to promote the expression of traits that had been deemed improper, such as sexuality in media and especially the representation of homosexuality, but this had only been allowed for a brief period with the Weimar’s ban on censorship in 1919 in Article 118 of the Weimar Constitution, where it states: “Every German has the right, within the limits of the general laws, to express his opinion freely by word, in writing, in print, in picture form, or in any other way…Censorship is forbidden…”. One film particularly where the film industry made an impact was ‘Anders als die Andern’ (Richard Oswald, 1919). In July 1919, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexology’) had been founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, the institute housed lectures and research into the concepts of gender and sexuality, the institute had become a center for not only advancements of the understanding of queerness but also for queer liberation. When a Russian delegation of doctors arrived at the institute, they specifically requested to be shown ‘Anders als die Andern’, and were “surprised that a film of such serious and decent content should arouse any scandal at all and that it could be banned”. After this the former penalties on homosexuality had been completely abolished in ‘new Russia’. With Russia’s abolition of the penalties against homosexuality it can be argued that the German film industry had played a great part in early queer liberation, however apart from this ‘Anders als die Andern’ has mostly been lost, in 1920 the film had been incredibly censored by the government, releasing a new edited version which had only consisted of 50 minutes of the original version, removing any positive depictions of queer love. While the original film had initially been allowed in few educational environments, the full version had been almost completely lost when the Nazi Party burned several documents in the institute in 1933, however in recent years, the film has seen a partial restoration. Due to the fact it had only been viewed in its original form to so few it can be argued that the film, and so the industry, had not been able to have as strong an impact as an impact it could have had if it had not been censored and destroyed.

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Despite its initial growth, the film medium had yet to be taken seriously as an art form until the release of ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ (Robert Wiene, 1920) and the emergence of the Expressionist movement in film. Expressionism is defined as a style of art where the artist, “seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world”, rejecting traditional ideas of beauty, instead using distortion, exaggeration, and other unnatural techniques, “in order to emphasize and express the inner world or emotion”. While not a new concept, expressionism had not been as popular as it was in film before the release of ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, Expressionism had allowed Weine to visualize the feelings of abandonment and betrayal felt around Germany after World War I. With buildings warped and distorted, chiaroscuro lighting bathing the sets and shadows and its characters, especially Cesare wearing heavy makeup, leaving them with large bags, Weine expresses these pessimistic emotions. With the ban on foreign film and the relatability brought through Expressionism the German film industry had boomed, the audience had sympathized with Weine and to have such a visceral connection with a film at the time was uncommon. Not only were they able to connect emotionally but their ideologies were represented, specifically Dolchstoss (Stab-in-the-back myth) in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, they had related to Cesare and how he had been treated as an animal with no will of his own, and saw the November criminals in Dr. Caligari himself, using the innocent to further his own goals. Outside of film expressionist parallels can be seen in art and architecture, whether this be due to the increased popularity of expressionism through film, or the inspiration found in cinema for architects, examples of this are the set design in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ helping inspire buildings in the Bau Haus architecture movement or ‘Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden’ by Otto Dix, sharing aesthetics with the character design in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’. The expressionism in Weimar cinema did not only affect German culture, but it is also influenced culture across the world, especially in film, from aesthetics, genre, and narrative. The set design in ‘Metropolis’ (Fritz Lang, 1927) has been credited as being revolutionary for the advancement of film production and sci-fi genre, inspiring sets in critically acclaimed films like ‘Blade Runner’ (Ridley Scott, 1982). Without a doubt the cultural impact of the German film industry across the world had been incredible, inspiring some of the greatest directors in film, and bringing a new age of expressionism to Berlin, through its art and architecture.

Another way in which the German film industry had a massive impact is in what it in advancing the media, through the development of new technologies and its extreme popularity in Weimar Germany. In the early stages of cinema there was not much in means of narrative or overall complexity. The first filmmakers were the Lumiere brothers, who had created the Cinématographe in 1895. Between 1895 and 1905, they had used their camera to make 1400 ‘actuality’ film, recording everyday life in France, these films had included a train entering a station and a workforce leaving the Lumiere factory in Lyon. As the medium began growing in popularity, films started growing more complex, with the introduction of a narrative and sets. ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’ is regarded to have been the first science fiction film, as well as the first film to use special effects, while it does follow a plot, it is simple and linear, still vastly different from the more complex plots like in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ or ‘Metropolis’. As the industry further developed a focus on silent comedy began to arise. Silent comedies had taken much inspiration from Vaudeville and circuses, Charlie Chaplin had found his origins in ‘Eight Lancashire Lads’, a clog dancing act. Chaplin would continue to work and gain credit in Casey’s Court Circus act and in 1908 joining the Fred Karno pantomime group. The actors’ routes in pantomime had made their performances exaggerated, with large movements and facial expressions, which were necessary due to the limitations that came along with the lack of dialogue; this style of acting can be seen in Weimar cinema too, although with a less slap stick feel. With the German film industry all aspects of film improved, whether this be set design, technology of even revenue. Prior World War I, it had been difficult for the German film industry to get funding from banks and only 15% of films shown at the cinemas had been German made and during the war due to anti-German themes in foreign films, the German government had banned all foreign films in 1916 and this started the expansion of the industry. Because of their low budgets, after the war filmmakers had started attempting to minimize production cost, and due to the ban on foreign films, low budget films like ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ or ‘The Golem’ had gained a large reception, and where originally Germany had only had 7 production companies in 1912, 230 had existed in Berlin alone in 1920. As well as the industry growing, the more complex nature of the films started to warrant complete, professional critiques, whereas they had been more “concerned with the design and make-up of the theatre, with technical innovations or with the alleged perverse influence of cinema attendance rather than with the film itself or its aesthetic qualities”. However, with growing complexity of films as they took a more artistic approach, critiques started to become more in depth, beginning in the early 1920s, select publications started offering film commentary that treated the medium as more than just entertainment. For the first time ever, writers judged films based on not only their entertainment value, but also their artistic merit. Due to the German film industry’s advancements in film to make art, and convey a complex narrative, it had allowed films to have been taken more seriously as an art form, warranting in depth critique and analysis. The film industry had also made strides in the advancement of film production techniques, especially with its lighting, set designs and special effects, the set designer for ‘Metropolis’, Eugen Schüfftan, “created pioneering visual effects among the effects used are miniatures of the city, a camera on a swing and most notably, the Schüfftan process in which mirrors are used to create the illusion that actors are occupying miniature sets”. These techniques have gone on to be used in widely acclaimed sci-fi films like ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ (George Lucas, 1977), specifically the ‘trench run’ scene. The German film industry had an incredible impact on how views had been viewed by audiences, introducing film as an art form, and enriching itself economically, the advancements it had made in special effects and storytelling were incredibly important for who the medium is used today, influencing the creation of some of the most important films in 20th century.

While the German film industry had an incredible impact of cinema in the Weimar period, the nature of its impact changed with the growing power of the Nazi regime. Many Nazi films were propaganda, documentaries, which primary focuses were to either promote the idea of Hitler as a hero, along with nationalism, with films like ‘Triumph of the Will’ (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935) or to push and normalize the sub-human treatment of Jews, and the Jewish-Bolsheviks caricature, in, what had been presented as a documentary, ‘The Eternal Jew’ (Fritz Hipple, 1940). With the bitterness that the German people had still held for the ‘November Criminal’ as well as the trauma still held from hyperinflation, and the Wall Street crash, the Nazi had been able to utilize the Dolchstoss myth to use the Jews as a scape goat. Goebbels had used the Jewish-Bolsheviks to pin all of Germany’s down falls onto the Jewish community, setting them up as the grand architects for Germany’s ruin. The industry had been able to utilize the caricature for more than just the normalization of Jewish persecution, but to also in presenting Hitler as being “sent by God to deal sternly with 'Jewish putrefaction' and 'Bolshevik chaos', thereby resurrecting a crucified nation and restoring it to greatness”. They had also been able to use the Jewish-Bolshevik to target propaganda against other groups, specifically the USSR. The Ministry of Propaganda had used the Jewish-Bolshevik to correlate Germany’s downfall to Russians as well as Jews, depicting Russians of Jewish decent as greedy child murderers. The film ‘Red Terror’ (Karl Ritter, 1942), depicts the German, Olga Feodorovna, witnessing the slaughter of her family, by the hands of the Russian GPU, another example of this is ‘Hitlerjunge Quex’ (Hans Steinhoff,1933), where a young German boy, a member of the Hitler Youth, is murdered by Russian communist. Steinhoff creates a stark parallel with the Aryans and Bolsheviks, the boy brave, pure of heart and devoted to the Fuhrer, while the Russians “move like rats by night through the asphalt jungle. Physically unclean, they are given to heavy drinking, smoking, and fornication; they are at once the products of Jewish miscegenation”. The ministry of propaganda had been incredibly effective at utilizing the Jewish-Bolshevik to promote their antisemitic ideologies, and attack their opposition, the effectiveness of their propaganda can be seen through the compliance of the German population alone, the Genocide of their coworkers and neighbors, either ignored or promoted, seen as patriotic. Due to how incredibly effective the film industries propaganda had been it can be argued that it had a massive impact of Germany, however compared to its Weimar counterpart it had been unable to have a lasting effect on the world, culturally.

Another argument that can be made regarding the Nazi film industry was that in long term it had mostly failed in depicting Hitler as a hero, or even good leader. While most of the party’s propaganda had been focused on depicting Hitler and the Nazi party as Germany’s savior, with their posters depicting them as a shield to protect the Germany family, and the film ‘Triumph of the Will’, filmed as a documentary showing Hitler as a reliable leader, that can carry the country through the second world war. However, the effects of this propaganda were not long-lasting, compared to the influence Weimar film has had, with contemporary films depicting the Nazi regime, and directed by Jewish directors, consisting of comedies. An example of one of these films is ‘Jojo Rabbit’ (Taika Waititi, 2019), depicting Hitler and the Nazi party as fools, with idiotic practices, like the overuse of ‘Heil Hitler’, and arrogant nationalism. Contemporary directors that can depict the regime as irrational, racist, fool is able to dismantle the misconceptions around the regime, depicting it as the mess of ministries and with no real leadership it was. But along with the plethora of films that denounce the regime, there is still media that glorify it. Several contemporary films and shows attempt to use allegories of the Holocaust and Nazi regime, however in doing so can demonize Jewish people, or even sympathize and glorify the regime. A series of films known to do this are the Harry Potter films (Multiple directors, 2001-2010), with antisemitic caricatures in the banking Goblins, being oppressed by world's leading power, however any attempts of these revolt is demonized, and the oppressive regime still being presented as the morally correct force. While long term the impact of the Nazi film industry is culturally minimal, it had still been able imbed itself in mainstream culture conveying its messages even now.

To conclude, the impact of the German film industry has been tremendous, from how the Weimar film industry had revitalized German cinema, allowing a new age of culture to take place in Germany, inspiring architecture, and paintings. Weimar cinema had also allowed film to start being critically viewed as an art form and had opened room for the discussion of gender and sexuality, even playing a role in the lift of penalties against queer people in Russia. Additionally, expressionist cinema had impacted the production techniques and set designs used in some of the most critically acclaimed films of the 20th century, with ‘Blade Runner’ drawing inspiration from Metropolis. And while the contemporary impact of the film industry in Nazi Germany are not as prevalent as its historic impact, in its height it had been able to justify the genocide of Jewish people to German citizens and convince them that their mess of a regime had been good leadership. Despite the Nazi film industry having negligible impact on culture in the long term, the antisemitic characters, and glorification of Nazi’s can still be seen in modern media.