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  2. Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape

Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape

Ofer Ashkenazi 2020
Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape studies an overlooked yet fundamental element of German popular culture in the twentieth century. In tracing Jewish filmmakers' contemplations of "Heimat"—a provincial German landscape associated with belonging and authenticity—it analyzes their distinctive contribution to the German identity discourse between 1918 and 1968. In its emphasis on rootedness and homogeneity Heimat seemed to challenge the validity and significance of Jewish emancipation. Several acculturation-seeking Jewish artists and intellectuals, however, endeavored to conceive a notion of Heimat that would rather substantiate their belonging.

 

This book considers Jewish filmmakers' contribution to this endeavor. It shows how they devised the landscapes of the German "Homeland" as Jews, namely, as acculturated "outsiders within." Through appropriation of generic Heimat imagery, the films discussed in the book integrate criticism of national chauvinism into German mainstream culture from World War I to the Cold War. Consequently, these Jewish filmmakers anticipated the anti-Heimat film of the ensuing decades, and functioned as an uncredited inspiration for the critical New German Cinema.
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Series
  • Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-13201-0 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12691-0 (ebook)
Subject
  • Jewish Studies
  • Media Studies:Cinema Studies
  • German Studies
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  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. Sally’s Nightmare: German-Jewish Landscapes and the Emergence of Anti-Heimat Cinema
  • Chapter 2. The Menace and Promise of Heimat in the Early Weimar Era: E. A. Dupont’s Cinematic Landscapes
  • Chapter 3. The Weimar Legacy: Helmar Lerski and the Outing of the Anti-Heimat Film
  • Chapter 4. The Beloved Soil of the Vaterland: Returning Exiles and the West German Landscape
  • Chapter 5. No Way Back: Jewish Rémigrés and the City as Heimat
  • Chapter 6. History as Heimat: The Puzzling German Landscapes of Konrad Wolf
  • Epilogue: The Aftermath of the German-Jewish Anti-Heimat Film
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
  • Index

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  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 23
  • Chapter 35
  • Chapter 42
  • Chapter 52
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A young couple sits on the mountain slope.

Romance in nature, Höheluft (1917)

From Introduction

Fig. 1. Höhenluft (1917, dir. Rudolf Biebrach) provides Heimat clichés as a “holiday from history” (courtesy of the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek).

A cartoon caricature comparing nature and cinema. The left panel shows a man and woman under a tree. The right panel shows a man and woman in a movie theater.

"Jewish Culture" vs. "Aryan Culture" in Der Stürmer, August 1929

From Introduction

Fig. 2. Jews watch The Sweet Sin in the movie theater, whereas “real” Germans look at the natural landscape with generic Heimat motifs (Der Stürmer 35, August 1929).

A young man and woman hike along a forest trail.

Friendship in nature, Meyer aus Berlin (1918)

From Chapter 1

Fig. 3. Sally and Kitty in a parody of sentimental Heimat imagery. Meyer aus Berlin (1918, dir. Ernst Lubitsch).

Two men and two women sit under a blanket, yawning.

The morning after, Meyer

From Chapter 1

Fig. 4. Jews and non-Jewish Germans sharing a “home” on the mountain. Meyer aus Berlin.

A man stands on a mountain slope. An electricity pole is behind him.

Electricity in the village, Die Geierwally (1940)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 5. The remake of Wally as the “correction” of Dupont’s version. Die Geierwally (1940, dir. Hans Steinhoff).

A man stands over a woman lying on the floor of a room.

The abusing father, Die Geier Wally (1921)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 6. Wally’s home as a place of violence and anxiety. Die Geier-Wally (1921, dir. E. A. Dupont).

A woman holding an axe and a man stand in front of a pile of wood scraps. Between them, a man lies on the ground.

Violence in Die Geier Wally (1921)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 6. Wally’s home as a place of violence and anxiety. Die Geier-Wally (1921, dir. E. A. Dupont).

Farmers working in a field.

Cliché of a provincial scene, Sprengbagger 1010 (1929)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 8. A cinematic cliché of Heimat. Sprengbagger 1010 (1929, dir. Carl Ludwig Achaz-Duisberg).

Workers stand in front of a giant construction drill.

Modernity in nature, Sprengbagger 1010 (1929)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 9. The modernization of Heimat. Sprengbagger 1010.

A construction machine scoops up dirt.

The destruction of nature, Sprengbagger 1010 (1929)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 10. The joyful destruction of Heimat. Sprengbagger 1010.

The shadow of a man playing ball.

On the beach of Tel Aviv, Lerski 1936-1938, 1

From Chapter 3

Figs. 11 and 12. Helmar Lerski, Zionism detached from Heimat, from footage of a short film dedicated to the building of Tel Aviv’s Harbor, 1936–38 (courtesy of the Spielberg Archive, Jerusalem).

A young man’s head and shoulders, with his face in profile against a clear sky.

On the beach of Tel Aviv, Lerski 1936-1938, 2

From Chapter 3

Figs. 11 and 12. Helmar Lerski, Zionism detached from Heimat, from footage of a short film dedicated to the building of Tel Aviv’s Harbor, 1936–38 (courtesy of the Spielberg Archive, Jerusalem).

A happy couple (a man and a woman) on a hill, with a village in the background.

Generic Heimat imagery in Die goldene Pest (1954)

From Chapter 4

Fig. 13. Generic Heimat scenery conceals the true nature of the village. Die goldene Pest (1956, dir. John Brahm).

Smokey air, with a church and trees behind a broken fence

The morning after the fire, Die goldene Pest (1954)

From Chapter 4

Fig. 14. Heimat as an emblem of amnesia: the church rises from the ashes of yesterday’s tragedy. Die goldene Pest (1956, dir. John Brahm).

A street scene shown from above.

Cold War Berlin, Weg ohne Umkehr (1953)

From Chapter 5

Fig. 15. West Berlin as a reference to Weimar Berlin. Weg ohne Umkehr (1953, dir. Victor Vicas).

A man peers through a window over a lace curtain.

Closed windows in Tunnel 28 (1962)

From Chapter 5

Fig. 16. The city as a fragmented space, divided by fences, walls, and closed windows in Tunnel 28 (1962, dir. Robert Siodmak).

Fog on a river.

The opening scene of Ich war neunzehn (1968)

From Chapter 6

Fig. 17. The dialectic of Heimat imagery in Konrad Wolf’s Ich war neunzehn (1967–68). Against this background, the protagonist declares: “The war is lost, and you are in a hopeless position.”

A man looks through a barbed wire fence.

The fragmentation of space in Sonnensucher (1957/1958)

From Chapter 6

Fig. 18. Overcoming fences as a symbol for the reconstruction of Heimat in Wolf’s Sonnensucher (1957–58).

A woman looks through a barbed wire fence.

The fragmentation of space in Sterne (1959)

From Chapter 6

Fig. 19. Fences as a symbol for the deception of Heimat in Wolf’s Sterne (1959).

A woman looks through a barbed wire fence.

The fragmentation of urban space in Tunnel 28 (1962)

From Chapter 6

Fig. 20. Robert Siodmak’s adaptation of Wolf’s spatial symbolism to Cold War Berlin. Tunnel 28 (1962).

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