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The burgeoning film industry in the Weimar Republic was, among
other things, a major site of German-Jewish experience, one that
provided a sphere for Jewish "outsiders" to shape mainstream
culture. The chapters collected in this volume deploy new
historical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to
understanding the significant involvement of German Jews in Weimar
cinema. Reflecting upon different conceptions of Jewishness - as
religion, ethnicity, social role, cultural code, or text - these
studies offer a wide-ranging exploration of an often overlooked
aspect of German film history.
The burgeoning film industry in the Weimar Republic was, among
other things, a major site of German-Jewish experience, one that
provided a sphere for Jewish "outsiders" to shape mainstream
culture. The chapters collected in this volume deploy new
historical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to
understanding the significant involvement of German Jews in Weimar
cinema. Reflecting upon different conceptions of Jewishness - as
religion, ethnicity, social role, cultural code, or text - these
studies offer a wide-ranging exploration of an often overlooked
aspect of German film history.
New essays examining the differences and commonalities between late
Weimar-era and early Nazi-era German cinema against a backdrop of
the crises of that time. Hitler's Machtergreifung, or seizure of
power, on January 30, 1933, marked the end of the Weimar Republic
and the beginning of the Third Reich, and German film scholarship
has generally accepted this date as the break between Weimar and
Nazi-era film as well. This collection of essays interrogates the
continuities and discontinuities in German cinema before and after
January 1933 and their relationship to the various crises of the
years 1928 to 1936in seven areas: politics, the economy, concepts
of race and ethnicity, the making of cinema stars, genre cinema,
film technologies and aesthetics, and German-international film
relations. Focusing both on canonical and lesser-known works, the
essays analyze a representative sample of films and genres from the
period. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of
Weimar and Third Reich cinema and of the sociopolitical, economic,
racial, artistic, and technological spheres in both late Weimar and
the early Third Reich, as well as to film scholars in general.
Contributors: Paul Flaig, Margrit Froelich, Barbara Hales, Anjeana
Hans, Bastian Heinsohn, Brook Henkel,Kevin B. Johnson, Owen Lyons,
Richard W. McCormick, Kalani Michell, Mihaela Petrescu, Christian
Rogowski, Valerie Weinstein, Wilfried Wilms. Barbara Hales is
Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston-Clear
Lake. Mihaela Petrescu is Visiting Lecturer at the University of
Pittsburgh. Valerie Weinstein is Assistant Professor of Women's,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies and German Studies at the University
of Cincinnati.
Today many Germans remain nostalgic about "classic" film comedies
created during the 1930s, viewing them as a part of the Nazi era
that was not tainted with antisemitism. In Antisemitism in Film
Comedy in Nazi Germany, Valerie Weinstein scrutinizes these comic
productions and demonstrates that film comedy, despite its innocent
appearance, was a critical component in the effort to separate
"Jews" from "Germans" physically, economically, and artistically.
Weinstein highlights how the German propaganda ministry used
directives, pre- and post-production censorship, financial
incentives, and influence over film critics and their judgments to
replace Jewish "wit" with a slower, simpler, and more direct German
"humor" that affirmed values that the Nazis associated with the
Aryan race. Through contextualized analyses of historical documents
and individual films, Weinstein reveals how humor, coded hints and
traces, absences, and substitutes in Third Reich film comedy helped
spectators imagine an abstract "Jewishness" and a "German" identity
and community free from the former. As resurgent populist
nationalism and overt racism continue to grow around the world
today, Weinstein's study helps us rethink racism and prejudice in
popular culture and reconceptualize the relationships between film
humor, national identity, and race.
Today many Germans remain nostalgic about "classic" film comedies
created during the 1930s, viewing them as a part of the Nazi era
that was not tainted with antisemitism. In Antisemitism in Film
Comedy in Nazi Germany, Valerie Weinstein scrutinizes these comic
productions and demonstrates that film comedy, despite its innocent
appearance, was a critical component in the effort to separate
"Jews" from "Germans" physically, economically, and artistically.
Weinstein highlights how the German propaganda ministry used
directives, pre- and post-production censorship, financial
incentives, and influence over film critics and their judgments to
replace Jewish "wit" with a slower, simpler, and more direct German
"humor" that affirmed values that the Nazis associated with the
Aryan race. Through contextualized analyses of historical documents
and individual films, Weinstein reveals how humor, coded hints and
traces, absences, and substitutes in Third Reich film comedy helped
spectators imagine an abstract "Jewishness" and a "German" identity
and community free from the former. As resurgent populist
nationalism and overt racism continue to grow around the world
today, Weinstein's study helps us rethink racism and prejudice in
popular culture and reconceptualize the relationships between film
humor, national identity, and race.
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