Professor Mary-Beth O'Brien
PMH 406, x5216
Office Hours: Mon. 12-1pm and Wed. 2:30-3:30
mobrien@skidmore.edu

 

The Nightmare Come True:
The Image of the Enemy in German Film, 1919-1945

Focusing on the capacity of mass media simultaneously to reflect and shape public opinion, this course examines the changing image of the enemy in German cinema from 1919 to 1945. From its silent beginnings through the invention of sound, German cinema abounds in archetypal figures of unearthly destruction and social deviants from an equally hostile present. Increasingly, the filmic image of the enemy turns from a legendary monster one could only encounter in nightmares to a violent criminal one could meet on the street. Nazi propaganda films adopt both realistic and mythic traditions to construct an image of the enemy threatening the survival of the Third Reich. Incorporating the artistic vision of the Weimar Republic, Nazi films became a powerful weapon in disseminating fascist ideology. Viewing film as a symbolic language which inscribes cultural identity, we will explore anti-semitism, xenophobia, jingoism, misogyny, and fascism as well as changes in the public perception of the enemy that contributed to World War II and the Holocaust.

Required Readings:

Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. ISBN 0-06-131482-X.

Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. rpt. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1974. ISBN 0-691-02505-3.

Crew, David. F. Nazism and German Society, 1933-1945. NY: Routledge, 1994. ISBN 0-415-08240-4.

Rentschler, Eric. The Ministry of Illusion. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-674-57640-3.

Course Requirements:

1. Class and Film Screening Attendance 
2. Participation in Discussions (10%) 
3. Homework and Video Assignments (10%) 
4. Oral Report (10%) 
5. Film Analysis: an essay of 5 pages (20%) 
6. Mid-Term Examination: choice of essay questions (25%) 
7. Final Examination: choice of essay questions (25%) 
8. Late work will not be accepted.

Introduction to the Topic.

Construction of the Other and the Psychological Need for Enemies. What is an Image?

READING: Excerpts from Theodor Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality and Bruno Bettelheim, Dynamics of Prejudice.

WEEK TWO

World War I (1914-1918). The Construction of Reality in Images: Photographs, Paintings, Sculpture, Posters. The Birth of Ufa. Treaty of Versailles. Dolchstosslegende.

READING: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Introduction: pp. 35-39.

 

The Weimar Republic. Political and Economic Developments.

READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, Chapter 1, pp. 1-22 and 147-151.

Film and the Public Sphere. Cinematic Codes and Basic Terms. 
READING: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Introduction: pp. 3-15. Handout on Terms.

The Crisis of Modernity and the Hunger for Wholeness. 
READING : Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, Chapter 4, pp. 70-101.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Who is the Monster? Images and Frames.

READING : Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Chapters 4 and 5, pp. 43-76.
Group Work on the Net.

SCREEINING: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (1920)

Expressionism. The Visual Artists.

READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, Chapter 5, pp. 102-118.

The Legendary Enemy I: The Golem. 
Anti-Semitism and the Jew as Creator of Uncontrollable Violence. 
READING: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Chapters 6 and 7, pp. 77-95, 112-113.

Jews in the Weimar Republic and Austria.

SCREENING: The Golem, How He Came into the World. (1920)

The Legendary Enemy II: Dracula. 
The Threat from the East and Woman as Redeemer. 
READING: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Chapters 8, 9, 10, pp. 96-128. 
READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 151-155.

SCREENING: Nosferatu. (1922)

The Legendary Enemy III: The Siren. 
Woman as the Initiator of Evil or Temptation? 
READING: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, Chapters 13 and 14, pp. 153-180.

New Objectivity. 
READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 119-146 and 155-158.

SCREENING: Pandora's Box. (1929)

FILM ANALYSIS DUE ON MONDAY, MARCH 7 IN CLASS

From Silent to Sound Film. The Enemy Within and Projection of Desire.

READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 158-161.

SCREENING: Blue Angel. (1930)

The Criminal Enemy. Is there Justice? The Inversion of Authority.

READING: Peter Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 161-164.

SCREENING: M. (1931)

MID-TERM EXAMINATION ON FRIDAY, MARCH 25TH

National Socialism and the Totalitarian State. Constructing the Collective Identity. The Working Classes and the Communist Enemy.
READING: "The Honor of Labor," in David Crew, Nazism and Germany Society, pp. 67-109.
READING: Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion, Introduction, pp. 1-24 and Chapter 2, pp. 53-70.

Children in the Totalitarian State: The Hitler Youth Movement and Oppositional Movements.

SCREENING: Hitler Youth Quex. (1933)

Documentary Truth? The Führer Principle and the Soldierly Male.
READING: "The Hitler Myth," in David Crew, Nazism and German Society, pp. 197-215. 
READING: Susan Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism." Handout.

SCREENING: Triumph of the Will. (1935)

Anti-Semitism and Condoning Intolerance. Persecution of the Jews.

READING: Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion, Chapter 6, pp. 147-170.

SCREENING: Jud Süß. (1940)

WEEK TWELVE

Male Fantasy Production and Sexual Politics. The Roles of Women in Nazi Society.

READING: Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion, Chapter 8, PP. 193-214.

SCREENING: Baron Münchhausen. (1943)

Total War and the Willing Victim.

SCREENING: Kolberg. (1945)

FINAL EXAMINATION AS SCHEDULED BY REGISTRAR