The Weimar Republic's Cinematic Rebels

Introduction

Welcome to Part 3 of this series and we are now here to discuss how rebellion and rebels are presented in the films of the Weimar Era of Germany. Based with its own historical context, the society of the Weimar Era bore some pretty hardcore films: murder, mystery, horror, war and much more littered the scene. But the main questions are:

• How did it come about?
• What's so great about it?
• How has it influenced the future of film?

Here, we will not really seek to simply answer these questions but we will explore them in a way that serves as a great sequel to the second part of our series on the reflections of society in German Expressionist film.

The Weimar Republic's Cinematic Rebels

An Exploration of the Role of Dissent in Weimar-Era German Film

Historical Context

The Weimar Republic is often known as a turbulent time in German history due to the years it inhabits. Born out of the end of the First World War and the Versailles Treaty and falling as Hitler took power, 1918 through to 1933 is considered to be one of the most complex times of any European country in the 20th century. Cognitive dissonance, paranoia, the failed welfare state and the political outlook from other countries seemed to define how Germany was seen on the global stage and, the artists, filmmakers, actors and authors knew that well.

As Europe's economy blew into chaos and Germany owed millions in 'repairs', the country itself was forced to be the unloved underdog of Western Europe and have all the other countries watching it like a hawk. Though the problem may not have only been hyperinflation or even the policies forced on its people, Germany was still having issues with the upkeep of its middle class (Taylor, 2013). And, as that died and fell out of favour the world watched as cinema became a refuge for filmmakers who desired to show this turbulence on screen. Throughout this crumbling economy and hardship therefore came some of the most incredibly dark films, gothic romances and creepy mysteries the world has seen on screen.

Directors such as G.W Pabst, F.W Murnau, Fritz Lang, Paul Leni, Paul Wegener, Josef Von Sternberg, Carl Theodor Dreyer and many more took their films to the extremes to depict their metaphors, their prophecies and most important of all, their reactions to what was a great unrest amongst the country they lived in.

Film as a Reflection of Society

Rebellion would first begin in the depiction of dissent and images of unreliability in the cinema of the Weimar Republic. Criminality, sexuality and even androgyny were among some of the most unlawful ideas with Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich happening to lead the way for the image of the 'New Woman' as it were. This was an effort that Katharine Hepburn would have yet to make a step forward to in the United States for some years yet. Even though this rebellion became more common in order to reflect the changing society, it was also true that these icons became known for their unreliability - a lesson in deception. Rebellion was not simply about deception but about knowing that the political deception was happening and choosing not to answer to it (Wallach, 2020).

These deceptions included the depiction of gender roles, the anxiety of the 'other' and the destabilisation of policies regarding the welfare state (McCormick, 1994). Leaving people in uncertainty about the next move of politics, it also left an awful lot of room for art to expand as art usually does in times of unrest and hardship.

One of the key methods of seeing this move along is by analysing the different movements of art that came about during the era and defined the way we think about it today. Through political rebellion, free expression and geometry, audiences can understand how order may have been the revolution against chaos on stage and in film.

Expressionist and Avant-Garde Movements

German Expressionism

German Expressionism was probably the most famous movement of the Weimar Cinematic Era and for good reason - its depiction of the political landscape was so overtly dark that it was difficult to miss that effort in visualising failed government policy, uncertain futures in economic development and mass poverty.

It was not until 1920 that the boycott of the Allies on German film began to falter and breakdown and so, German Expressionism began to move oversees to London, Paris and even to New York. Commentators from the Allies who eventually watched the expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr Caligari would comment on its depiction of the cultural landscape in Germany as being like 'the odor of tainted food' (Elsaesser, 1997), discussing how brilliant its cinematography and symbolic metaphors were.

German Expressionism is said to reach decline in around 1924, but that is commonly rendered as false. The rebellion against its own post-war image lasted far longer as the films themselves were hardly products of simply one individual, they were ideas devised upon the progression or even degeneration of a society on the brink of collapse. Therefore, as the rebellion continues from its filmmakers for another five years or so, we cannot take 1924 as the date of the long decline of German cinema, especially not for the expressionist era.

Bauhaus in the Weimar Era

Bauhaus is an idea obsessed with geometry and symbolism in a means of order. The chaos of the Weimar Era therefore bore the rebellion that was order and intellectualism. Therefore, directors of stage and screen were more than apt at presenting something that did not coincide with the chaotic mind of a Weimar Republic citizen. One example of this would be the Triadic Ballet (1926) created by Oskar Schlemmer during the Weimar Republic Era in the Bauhaus Art School. One of the key images being a decentred self in a series of concentric circles. The decentred self therefore possibly representing that chaotic middle ground surrounded by control and order.

Throughout the avant-garde movements and the expressionism though, there have been more filmmakers that are still well-known to us today as opposed to the stagecrafters. In this next section, we will investigate how Expressionism and Bauhaus moved together in the key works of directors of the Weimar Era of cinema.

Key Filmmakers and Works

"Metropolis" by Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang's Metropolis is possibly one of the most important films to discuss when speaking on the topic of dissent and rebellion in Weimar Cinema (Kaes, 2000). Oppressed masses who rise up and take a stand in the most overt way possible on the screen is part and parcel of the image that Germany had of itself against the world that, even though the blockades were being lifted there was still something sour in the air between them.

The revolutionary spirit is therefore born from these works as before it would have simply been a discontent, filmmakers such as Lang were not just reflecting their environments but trying to project the next stage. As rebellious as the filmmaker was himself, nothing could have prepared Germany for what happened next. Metropolis today is known as one of the first dystopian movies and, with its metaphor of the oppressed/oppressor relationship, it is a timeless piece of film that can be applied and reapplied to even the next era of Germany. The rebellion continuing throughout the 1940s and yet, still being a reflection of the failed rebellions of 1918.

"The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" by Robert Wiene

Perhaps one of the best known films of the German Expressionist era complete with chaotic crowds and distorted Bauhaus streets, this film has been constantly thought of in the phrase the 'rebellion of the masses'. As we have already investigated in the previous article, there is something about Cesare which represents the ground down groups of the working class, watched over by someone who feels like they have the intelligence to control them without knowing what they truly want or need. We took a look at this quotation related to him as a character of metaphorical representation:

“Men stayed in bed for hours on end, or hung around in stairwells and courtyards. “Nothing is urgent anymore; they had forgotten how to hurry.” (Weitz, 2007)

But what about Dr Caligari? or what about Francis? How are they representative of the rebellious spirit of the age? It has been analysed that Dr Caligari may represent the widening psychological studies happening across Germany and Vienna and how the monstrous and grotesque has become part of the human psyche. Therefore, according to some he could possibly be a direct representative of the dream analyst, Sigmund Freud. Where the film takes its horror towards is a representation therefore of those inate and subconscious desires within the soul, those which to Freud contained much darker topics such as kidnapping, rape and other criminal activities (Walker, 2006).

The rebellion is encased in what happens when the subconscious desire meets reality and deals in itself with the possiblity of a rising crime rate due to the reparations required to be paid and the welfare state bound to fail. Dealing with the possiblity of social anarchy is one thing, but to take it to the formality of the subconscious mind and bring that out on to the screen for all to see is another. Yet, it does not stop there. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari also deals with its audience's reaction to this new found psychological analysis in the character of Francis. Where at the beginning Francis is frantic and failing to accept what is happening, by the end we realise that he is actually one of the many subjects of this analysis.

"Nosferatu" by F.W Murnau

Murnau is perhaps remembered as the greatest German director to ever live and his work including the iconic Nosferatu (1922) has lived on for just over one hundred years at this point. Like Lang's film Dr Mabuse, the Gambler, Murnau's Count Orlok of Nosferatu is a tyrannical presence that represents the metaphors of overlords across the Weimar Republic who may feel like they are idealistic but are instead the machiavellian evils that oppress the masses into subservience.

Possibly much more forward-thinking than it claimed to be, Nosferatu covers the tyrannical image in chaotic natures, forcing the characters to be better visions of the rising everyman. The protagonist of this film therefore is that everyman and, as a rebellion he attempts to triumph over the evil by not allowing it to step on to his home turf.

Here we can see three different films which represent the ideas of rebellion in the Weimar Republic whether that be in thought, in action or in representation - they all counteract the overlord or oppressor in some symbolic way which is timeless in accordance with the history of the Republic when it falls to Hitler in 1933.

Conclusion

So here we see how cinema was not only a factor of entertainment but a political tool to rebel against the policies and the outlooks for the future, even the experiments of the avant garde took to the stage and left their legacy of rebellion on the Weimar Stage. The main ideas include a rebellion against chaos, a rebellion against tyranny and a rebellion against oppression. Unfortunately due to the oncoming era that Germany was about to experience, these films would find themselves buried until the fall of the Third Reich with a resurgence in the 1960s when they were rediscovered.

Works Cited:

• Elsaesser, T. (1997). "The Politics of Film: On Weimar Film Historiography and Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler." In T. Elsaesser (Ed.), Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary. University of Wisconsin Press
• Jackson, K. (1999). Nosferatu (1922): eine Symphonie des Grauens: BFI Film Classics.
• Kaes, A. (2000). Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. Rochester, NY: Camden House.
• McCormick, R. W. (1994). "Private Anxieties/Public Projections: 'New Objectivity,' Male Subjectivity, and Weimar Cinema." Women in German Yearbook, 10, 1-18. University of Nebraska Press.
• Metropolis. (1927). Directed by Fritz Lang
• Nosferatu. (1922). Directed by F.W. Murnau
• Taylor, F. (2013). The Downfall of Money: Germany's Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• The Blue Angel. (1930). Directed by Josef von Sternberg
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (1920). Directed by Robert Wiene
• The Triadic Ballet. (1926). Choreographed by Oskar Schlemmer.
• Wallach, K. (2020). "Visual Weimar: The Iconography of Social and Political Identities." German Studies Faculty Publications, November 2020.
• Walker, J. A. (2006). In the Grip of an Obsession: Delsarte and the Quest for Self-Possession in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." Film and Theatre, 58(4), 617-631. The John Hopkins University Press.
• Weitz, E. D. (2007). Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Princeton University Press.