Film

Film series: Fascist beginnings

Thursday, 07/12/2023 / 08:00 PM - 10:00 PM / University of Freiburg - Institute of Biology II/III: Large Lecture Hall of Biology (GHS)

The film series focuses on the beginnings of National Socialist fascism from a retrospective perspective.

In this series we would like to look at the beginnings of National Socialist fascism in Germany. We do not look at contemporary documents, but try to approach the topic retrospectively. Thus, the four films of the series try to fathom the fascist beginnings from their respective positions. The films look for the reasons in the development to this in two points in time.

The first two films, "Das Weiße Band" and "Der Untertan", look at the time of Wilhelminism. The former focuses on a village community. The children whom the film follows there will later distinguish themselves as Nazis. The second is dedicated to a classic of literary history. Heinrich Mann's "Der Untertan" is considered the crown witness of Wilhelmine society. In particular, the book has a special status for its portrayal of the "authoritarian character" of the age. The film adaptation from the GDR takes on this material and wonders if an omen of fascism can be seen in the protagonist's features.

The last two films, "Despair" and "Cabaret," focus on the Weimar Republic. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Despair" shows the rising fascism in Berlin. The film portrays the "new" self-confidence of the German fascists. Topics such as their anti-Semitism, but also the crises of the republic, are considered here. The musical "Cabaret" shows Berlin in 1931 as the immediate scene of Hitler's rise to power. We follow the cabaret milieu of Berlin and see pictorially how the balance of power changes in the Weimar Republic.