Chapter 5: Germany in the

1920s
Files

Notes

Week Week 4

The German Situation after World War I

Germany's lost to World War I led to severe economic and political problems.

However, the film industry emerged.

1918-the Nazi rise to power in 1933

German Cinema ranked second only to Hollywood in technical sophistication

and world influence.

Year after the Armistice (1918) - [a formal agreement of warring parties to stop
fighting. Not necessarily the end of a war, but a cessation of hostilities
(ceasefire) while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace], because of
lack of everything, morale, soldier, supplies, food.

German films were seen widely abroad.

A major stylistic movement, Expressionism, arose in 1920 - 1926.

France was victorious, but their film industry didn't rejuvenate.

Question: How did the defeated Germany's Film Industry become so powerful?

Most foreign films were banned by the government in 1916 which led to the
German film industry to expand.

Theaters demanded more films!

So producing companies rose from 25 (1914) to 130 (1918).

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 By the end of the war, the Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa) started a
trend toward mergers and larger companies.

The 1916 import ban was a good thing for the German film industry. If they
lifted this after the war, foreign films would have taken over again.

German government supported filmmaking throughout this period. (unlike

France!)

The Import ban continued up until December 31, 1920 giving producers about 5
years of minimal competition in their domestic market.

The expansion continued

In 1921, 300 production companies were formed.

In 1922, anti-German sentiment in enemy countries had largely faded, and

German cinema became famous internationally.

Ironically, Germany film industry arose to success while the nation suffered

By late 1918, the country was in debt. And there was widespread hardship.

During the last month of the war, open revolt broke out. They demanded the
end of the monarchy and the war.

November 9, two days before the armistice, the German Republic was declared,
abolishing the monarchy.

Radical and liberal parties struggled for control.

mid-January 1919, the extreme left-wing was defeated.

Generally, the left-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as

freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism"
while the right-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as
authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism".

During the 1920s, the political climate drifted gradually towards the right-wing.
This culminated the ascension of the Nazi Party in 1933.

Internal strife by the Allies against Germany

The war officially ended with the signing of the infamous Treaty of Versailles on
June 28, 1919.

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 Participants: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Soviet Union, United Kingdom.

Great Britain and France decided to punish Germany instead of healing them.

"War Guilt" clause in the treaty blamed Germany as the conflict's sole
instigator.

German territories were given to Poland and France. They lost 13 percent of
prewar land.

Germany was forbidden to have more than 100,000 soldiers. (no weapons!)

The Allies expected Germany to pay for wartime damage to civilian property,
in the form of money and goods. (The US objected and signed their own
peace treaty with Germany in 1921.)

Resentment over these measures eventually helped right-wing parties come

to power.

In the short run, these reparations gradually pushed the German financial
system into chaos.

The reparations agreement required Germany to send high payments in:

Gold and ship coal, steel, heavy equipment, food, and other basic
goods.

They never got to fulfill the amounts demanded and soon developed
domestic shortages.

Inflation beginning from the end of the war and becoming hyperinflation by
1923.

Food and consumer goods become costly.

In early 1923, the mark, which had been worth approximately 4 to the dollar
before the war, sank to about 50,000 to the dollar. By the end of 1923, the
mark fell to around 6 billion to the dollar. People carried baskets of paper
money simply to purchase a loaf of bread.

People had little reason to save since money lost its value.

Wage earners spent their money while it was still worth something.

Chapter 5: Germany in the 1920s 3

 Movies, unlike food or clothing, were readily available.

Film attendance was high during the inflationary period. New theaters were
built.

Inflation encouraged export and discouraged import, giving German

companies an international advantage.

Consumers less likely to buy foreign goods.

Conversely, companies could sell goods cheaply abroad.

Film producers benefited from this competitive boost.

Importers brought only a few foreign films, while countries in South America
and Eastern Europe could buy German films cheaply. (compared to
Hollywood films)

For about two years after the war, the import ban protected the film market
from competition.

And even after, unfavorable exchange rates boosted the domestic cinema.

Even during the war, the German film industry led to hopes for export.

But what sorts of films would succeed abroad?

Germany found the answers.

Genres and Styles of German Postwar

Cinema
Partly because the German film industry operated in near isolation between 1916
and 1921, there were radical changes in the types of films made.

The Fantasy genre continued to be prominent.

Films like The Golem (1920, Wegener and Carl Boese)

Der verlorene Schatten ("The Lost Shadow," 1921, Rochus Gliese)

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 After the war, the leftist political climate led to a brief abolition of censorship.

Films on: prostitution, venereal disease, drugs, and other social

problems.

These were believed to be pornographic. Therefore, censorship was

reinstituted.

Comedies and dramas (which dominated productions in Germany and most

countries) continued to be made

Three trends gained prominence:

The Spectacle genre

The German Expressionist Movement

The Kammerspiel Film

Spectacles
Pre-war, Italians won worldwide audiences with historical epics. The Germans tried a
similar tactic.

They found success in German historical spectacles.

This revealed the first major German Director of the post-war era, Ernst
Lubitsch.

Spectacular costume films were common among countries however, only big
production companies (large budgets, such as Hollywood) could compete
internationally.

During Inflationary period, larger German companies could finance historical

epics.

Some could afford extensive backlots — then expanded studio facilities

The costs of labor for constructing sets and costumes were reasonable.

Crowds of extras could be hired at low wages.

The films were impressive enough to compete internationally. It earned stable

foreign currency.

Madame DuBarry (1919) by Ernest Lubitsch

reportedly costed $40,000.

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 When it was released in the United States (1921), experts estimated such
film costed $500,000 to make in Hollywood.

At the time, a high price tag for a feature film.

Ernst Lubitsch

Became the most prominent director of German historical epics.

Began his film career in the early 1910s as a comedian and director.

His first big hit was Schuhpalast Pinkus ("Show Palace Pinkus", 1916) in
which he played a brash young Jewish entrepreneur.

This was his second film for Union Company, one of the smaller firms
that merged to form Ufa where he directed more prestigious projects.

Ossi Oswalda

an accomplished comedienne

starred in several comedies by Lubitsch

Including Die Austernprinzessin ("The Oyster Princess," 1919)

and Die Puppe (“The Doll,” 1919)

Pola Negri

Polish star that Lubitsch achieved international recognition.

Negri and Lubitsch first worked together in 1918 on Die Augen

der Mumie Ma ("The Eyes of the Mummy Ma")

This melodramatic fantasy took place in an exotic Egyptian

locale and was typical of German productions of the late
1910s.

Negri's co star was rising German actor Emil Jannings, and

with these two Lubitsch made Madame DuBarry, made
loosely on the career of Louis XV's mistress.

It was enormously successful both locally and

internationally.

Because of this, he went on to make similar films such as Anna Boleyn

(1920).

In 1923, he was the first major German director hired to work in Hollywood.

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 He quickly became one of the most skillful practitioners of the classical
Hollywood style of the 1920s.

Historical spectacles remained in vogue.

as long as severe inflation enabled the Germans to sell them abroad at

prices that no other country could match.

However, in the mid-1920s,

inflation ended

budgets became more modest

The spectacle genre became less important.

The German Expressionist Movement

In late February 1920, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, premiered in
Berlin which was recognized as something new in cinema.

It's novelty to the public imagination gained its success.

The film used:

stylized sets (distorted buildings painted on canvas backdrops and flats in a

theatrical manner)

Less realistic performances, more jerky dance-like movements.

Critics then announced that the Expressionist style, already known for other arts,
made its way to cinema.

Expressionism in the Arts

Began in 1908 through painting and theater.

Evident in other countries, but most intense manifestations in Germany.

German expressionism was one of several modernist movements that rejected

realism.

Favored extreme distortion to express an emotional reality rather than

surface appearances.

Two groups in painting that fostered Expressionism:

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 Die Brücke (“The Bridge”)

Formed in 1906

Members: Ernest Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel

Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”)

Formed in 1911

Supporters: Franz Marc and Wassili Kandinsky

Other Expressionist artists: Oskar Kokoschka and Lyonel Feininger

They all had distinctive styles, but shared similar traits.

(Informal) Traits of Expressionist art:

Avoided the subtle shadings and colors that gave realistic paintings their
sense of volume and depth. Instead, the Expressionists often used large
shapes of bright, unrealistic colors with dark, cartoonlike outlines.

Figures elongated

Faces wore grotesque (deformed, distorted), mask-like expressions and

might be livid green.

Buildings sagged or leaning

ground tilted up (defying traditional perspective)

These were difficult for films shot on location, but Caligari showed how studio-
built sets could approximate the stylization of Expressionist painting.

Expressionist Theater

a more direct model for stylization in setting and acting.

As early as 1908, Oskar Kokoschka’s play Murderer, Hope of Women was

staged in an Expressionist manner.

this style quickly caught on, often in stagings of leftist plays protesting the war
and capitalist exploitation.

The sets resembled Expressionist paintings (large shapes of unshaded color)

Performances were distorted

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 Shouting

screaming

gestured broadly

moved in choreographed patterns.

The goal was to express feelings in the most direct, exaggerated fashion
possible.

Similar goals led to extreme stylization in literature, and narrative techniques

such as frame stories and open endings were adopted by scriptwriters for
Expressionist films.

By 1910s, Expressionism was widely accepted, became fashionable and styled.

That's why when The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered, it wasn't much of a
shock.

Other Expressionist films followed.

This trend lasted until the beginning of 1927.

Formal Traits of Expressionism

What traits characterize Expressionism in cinema?
Some say,

Distorted, graphic style of mise-en-scène derived from theatrical Expressionism

(resembling The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)

Stylistic distortion that function in the same ways that the graphic stylization in
Caligari does. (broader definition)

Like French Impressionism, German Expressionism uses the techniques of the

medium—mise-en-scène, editing, and camerawork—in distinctive ways

A Stress on Composition
French Impressionism main defining traits lay in the area of camera-work.
German Expressionism is distinctive primarily for its use of mise-en-scène.

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 In 1926, set designer Hermann Warm (worked on Caligari) quoted, "the film
image must become graphic art."

German expressionists emphasize composition. (to an exceptional degree)

Any shot in a film creates a visual composition, of course, but most films draw
our attention to specific elements rather than to the overall design of the shot.

In Hollywood films, sets, costume, and lighting are usually second to the actors.

In Expressionist films, the expressivity associated with the human figure extends into
every aspect of the mise-en-scène.

In 1920s, sets were "actors" that blended with the actors' movements.

In 1924, Conrad Veidt (played Cesare in Caligari and acted in several

other Expressionist films) explained,
“If the decor has been conceived as having the same spiritual state as that which
governs the character’s mentality, the actor will find in that decor a valuable aid
in composing and living his part. He will blend himself into the represented
milieu, and both of them will move in the same rhythm.”

Thus, while the setting functioned as almost a living component of the action, the
actor’s body became a visual element.

The blend of set, figure behavior, costumes, and lighting fuses into a perfect
composition.

Narrative Film vs. Expressionist Film

In Narrative films, the plot must advance, and the composition breaks up as
actors move.

In Expressionist films, the action often proceeds in fits and starts, and the
narrative pauses or slows briefly for moments when the mise-en-scène
elements align into eye-catching compositions.

These composition need not to be static.

Dancelike movement may combine with a stylized shape in the set to create
visual pattern.

Expressionist films tactics to blend shots

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 Stylized surfaces

symmetry

distortion

Juxtaposition of similar shapes

Stylized surfaces might make disparate elements

within the mise-en-scène seem similar.

For example, Jane’s costumes in Caligari are painted with the same jagged
lines as are the sets (see 5.2).

In Siegfried, many shots are filled with a riot of decorative patterns (5.5).

In The Golem, texture links the Golem to the distorted ghetto

sets: both look as if they are made of clay (5.6).

Symmetry offers a way to combine actors, costumes, and sets so as to emphasize

overall compositions.

The Burgundian court in Siegfried (see 5.5) uses symmetry, as

do scenes in most of Fritz Lang’s films of this period.

Another striking instance occurs in Hans Werckmeister’s

Algol (5.7)

Exaggeration and Repetition

The most pervasive trait in Expressionism is the use of distortion and
exaggeration.

Houses are often pointed and twisted

Chairs are tall

Staircases are crooked and uneven

Performances in Expressionist film may look simply like extreme versions of silent-
film acting.

Expressionist acting was deliberately exaggerated to match the style of the

settings.

In long shots, gestures could be dancelike.

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 Conrad Veidt “blend[s] himself into the represented milieu” in Caligari when he
glides on tiptoe along a wall, his extended hand skimming its surface (5.11).
Here, a tableau involves movement rather than a static composition.

This principle of exaggeration also evident in close-up shots.

Expressionist actors worked against natural behavior, moving jerkily, pausing,

and then making sudden gestures.

Such performances should not be judged according to realism, but by how the
actors' behavior contributed to the mise-en-scène.

A crucial trait of Expressionist mise-en-scène is juxtaposition of similar shapes within

a composition.

Human figures posed beside distorted trees to create similar shapes.

Along with Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau was one of the
major figures of German Expressionism, yet his films contain relatively few of the
obviously artificial, exaggerated sets that we find in other films of this movement.

He did create, however, numerous stylized compositions in which

the figures blended in with their surroundings.

Expressionist films used simple lighting.

Front and sides, illuminating the scene flatly and evenly to stress the links
between the figures and the decor.

Although sometimes shadows were used to create additional distortion.

Editing and Camerawork

Works unobtrusively to display the mise-en-scène to best advantage.

Most editing is simple

Draws on continuity techniques such as shot/reverse shot and crosscutting.

Slower paced during this period.

The slow pace gives us time to scan the distinctive compositions created by the
Expressionist visual style.

Camera work is functional, not spectacular.

Many use false perspective to form ideal compositions.

Camera tend to remain on a straight-on angle

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 Eye level or chest-level height

In some cases, a camera angle could create a striking composition by

juxtaposing actor and decor.

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