The Mitläufer in two German postwar films: Representation and critical reception

History and Memory

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 64-93

  Weckel, Ulrike ^a  

^a TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN   (Germany)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84871323159     PISSN: 0935560X     EISSN: 15271994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/ham.2003.0013     Document Type: Review

References (74)

1. On German postwar cinema, see Eric Rentschler, "Germany: The Past that Would Not Go Away," in William Luhr, ed., World Cinema Since 1945 (New York, 1987), 208-51;
2. Fritz Göttler, "Westdeutscher Nachkriegsfilm: Land der Väter," in Wolfgang Jacobsen, Anton Kaes and Hans Helmut Prinzler, eds., Geschichte des deutschen Films (Stuttgart and Weimar, 1993), 171-210;
3. Wolfgang Becker and Norbert Schöll, In jenen Tagen... Wie der deutsche Nachkriegsfilm die Vergangenheit bewältigte (Opladen, 1995);
4. Heide Fehrenbach, Cinema in Democratizing Germany: Reconstructing National Identity after Hitler (Chapel Hill and London, 1995);
5. Robert Moeller, War Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of Germany (Berkeley, 2001), 123-70;
6. Sabine Hake, German National Cinema (London, 2001), 86-114.
7. Contemporaries seem to have used the term "rubble film" dismissively, and theater owners assumed that audiences wanted to escape a harsh reality rather than see it on screen. So, such films soon went out of fashion. On the genre, see Peter Pleyer, Deutscher Nachkriegsfilm 1946-1948 (Münster, 1965);
8. Thomas Brandlmeier, "Von Hitler zu Adenauer: Deutsche Trümmerfilme," in Hilmar Hoffmann and Walter Schobert, eds., Zwischen Gestern und Morgen: Westdeutscher Nachkriegsfilm 1946-1962 (Frankfurt/Main, 1989), 33-59;
9. Christiane Mückenberger, "Zeit der Hoffnungen: 1946 bis 1949," in Filmmuseum Potsdam, ed., Das zweite Leben der Filmstadt Babelsberg: DEFA-Spielfilme 1946-1992 (Berlin, 1994), 8-49;
10. Bettina Greffrath, Gesellschaftsbilder der Nachkriegszeit: Deutsche Spielfilme 1945-1949 (Pfaffenweiler, 1995);
11. Robert R. Shandley, Rubble Films: German Cinema in the Shadow of the Third Reich (Philadelphia, 2001).
12. Lutz Niethammer, Die Mitläuferfabrik (Bonn, 1982);
13. Klaus-Dietmar Henke, "Die Trennung vom Nationalsozialismus: Selbstzerstörung, politische Säuberung, 'Entnazifizierung,' Strafverfolgung," in Klaus-Dietmar Henke and Hans Woller, eds., Politische Säuberung in Europa: Die Abrechnung mit Faschismus und Kollaboration nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Munich, 1991), 21-83.
14. Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema (New York, 1975);
15. Klaus Kreimeier, Die Ufa- Story: Geschichte eines Filmkonzerns (Munich, 1992);
16. Karsten Witte, "Film im Nationalsozialismus: Blendung und Überblendung," in Jacobsen, Kaes and Prinzler, eds., Geschichte des deutschen Films, 119-170;
17. Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi-Cinema and Its Afterlife (Cambridge, 1996).
18. All films that Staudte directed or acted in are listed in Hans-Michael Bock, ed., Cine Graph: Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film (Munich, 1993).
19. For Staudte's biography, see Malte Ludin, Wolfgang Staudte (Reinbek, 1996).
20. See two interviews with Staudte, one from 1963 published in Ulrich Gregor, ed.,Wie sie filmen: Fünfzehn Gespräche mit Regisseuren der Gegenwart (Gütersloh, 1966), 19-53, especially 46-47
21. the other from 1974 published in Egon Netenjakob, et al., Staudte (Berlin, 1991), 131-49, especially 131-32.
22. Regarding the Susanne Wallner story not told by the film and the function of women for male returnees, see my article, "Die Mörder sind unter uns oder: Vom Verschwinden der Opfer," WerkstattGeschichte 9, no. 25 (2000): 105-15.
23. "Die Mörder sind unter uns: Ein Film von Wolfgang Staudte," unpublished exposé, Nachlass Staudte, Filmmuseum Düsseldorf.
24. On Rotation, see Marc Silberman, "The Discourse of Powerlessness: Wolfgang Staudte's Rotation," in idem, German Cinema: Texts in Context (Detroit, 1995), 99-113. Silberman and I mostly agree in our interpretation of the film and its protagonist, though he is much more interested in pictorial and filmic details than I need for my argument here.
25. It is only then that Helmuth turns in the leaflets, not immediately after finding them, as Silberman claims. Helmuth can therefore not be blamed for his uncle's capture and death by torture. His parents, who are both cunningly interrogated by the Gestapo but steadfastly refuse to give any information about Kurt and the underground, are also not responsible. The montage could suggest other wise, but there is no hint of this in the script. See Silberman, "The Discourse of Powerlessness," 108.
26. Interview with Staudte from 1963, 40-41;
27. interview from 1974, 134. Staudte reported that this argument had been crucial for him personally.
28. Films were expurgated not only in the GDR, but also in the FRG. While there was no overt West German censorship, several powerful devices such as government-secured bank loans, state film prizes, and tax breaks for films that did not question the political and social status quo had a similar function. See Rentschler, "Germany: The Past That Would Not Go Away," 214-15;
29. Jürgen Berger, "Bürgen heisst zahlen - und manchmal auch zensieren: Die Filmbürgschaften des Bundes 1950-1955," in Hoffmann and Schobert, eds., Zwischen Gestern und Morgen, 80-97;
30. Stefan Zahlmann, "'Besonders wertvoll': Filmeinschätzung und Zuschauerfokussierung in der BRD und DDR der 60er Jahre," in Wilhelm Hofmann, ed., Visuelle Politik: Filmpolitik und die visuelle Konstruktion des Politischen (Baden-Baden, 1998), 36-48.
31. See Staudte's letter to the director of DEFA, 22 Sept. 1949, unpublished, Staudte Nachlass, Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. There Staudte wrote he would not have left the DEFA because of various earlier disagreements if additionally he had not come to "the sad realization that DEFA had been capable of sacrificing the historical truth because of insignificant political reservations
32. Anneke de Rudder, "'Warum das ganze Theater?' Der Nürnberger Prozess in den Augen der Zeitgenossen," Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 6 (1997): 218-42.
33. In an early sequence of the film, a drunk Mertens plays chess in the dressing room of a cabaret theater with one of the dancers. He blows cigarette smoke over the chessboard and asks rhetorically whether or not the board looks like a battlefield. Cinematography and soundtrack further underline this association. When the dancer risks two of her pawns to save her king, Mertens mocks her "monarchist heart." The woman defends herself by pointing out that it is just a harmless game with chessmen made of wood. "Wood, ivory or bones!" Mertens exclaims. "The spirit of eternal reaction. The motto of the infantry is: Save the King. The pawns can go to hell as long as the King is secure. How I hate this game." He then throws the chessboard on the floor. This scene portrays all soldiers, including the German soldiers in World War II, as victims, and the political authorities in the Soviet occupation zone shared this point of view. The communist theory of fascism held only the economic, political and military elites responsible. See Olaf Groehler, "Der Holocaust in der Geschichtsschreibung der DDR," in Ulrich Herbert and Olaf Groehler, Zweierlei Bewältigung: Vier Beiträge über den Umgang mit der NS-Vergangenheit in den beiden deutschen Staaten (Hamburg, 1992), 41-66.
34. For example, in the review by M.L.R., "Neuorientierung des deutschen Films: Der erste Spielfilm der DEFA," Die Union - Landeszeitung Sachsen der Christlich-Demokratischen Union Deutschlands, no 92, 23 Oct. 1946.
35. Peter Kast, "Tiefernste Mahnung zur Wachsamkeit," Vorwärts - Berliner Volksblatt, no. 159, 17 Oct. 1946.
36. Even if Mertens bears some of the traits of a tragic hero, this reading goes against the grain. The film emphasizes throughout that people have choices and that they decide for themselves how to act or not to act. The later "rubble films" did a much better job of satisfying the audience's desire for tragic, inexorable fates (and their apologetic function). In Zugvögel (Migrating birds) of 1948, for example, one character explicitly said: "We can't do anything; things simply happen to us." See Rentschler, "Germany: The Past That Would Not Go Away," 211-12.
37. E. F. Gürtler, "Wir dürfen nicht vergessen... Zum ersten deutschen Spielfilm," Aufbau, no. 11 (Nov. 1946): 1172.
38. For example, Enno Kind, "Menschenschicksale von heute," Neues Deutschland, 7 Oct. 1946.
39. G. H., "Die Mörder sind unter uns," Filmdienst der Jugend, no. 128 (1948). The first sentence in the German original is: "Den Traum von einer Zivilbegegnung mit unseren steinernen Kriegsvorgesetzten hat nach der Heimkehr aus der Gefangenschaft mancher von uns geträumt
40. Walter Lennig, "Ein Film der deutschen Wirklichkeit: Zur Uraufführung des DEFA-Films Die Mörder sind unter uns," Berliner Zeitung, 17 Oct. 1946.
41. See for example, Friedrich Luft, "Die Mörder sind unter uns: Der erste deutsche Film nach dem Kriege," Tagesspiegel, 16 Oct. 1946.
42. Wolfdietrich Schnurre, "Film-Rundschau," Deutsche Rundschau, no. 8 (Nov. 1946): 161.
43. Th. K. [Theodor Kotulla], "Die Mörder sind unter uns," Filmkritik 4, no. 1 (1960): 27-28.
44. Arbeitsausschuss der Freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle FSK, Jugendprotokoll, 15 July 1959, Prüf.-Nr. 20097, unpublished, Landesbildstelle Berlin.
45. On the similarities and differences between Rotation and the proletarian cinema in the Weimar Republic, as well as Bertolt Brecht's concept of epic theater, see Silberman, "The Discourse of Powerlessness," 104-6;
46. for Brecht's definitions of Lehrstück, see Jan Knopf, Brecht-Handbuch, Vol. 1: Theater: Eine Ästhetik der Widersprüche (Stuttgart, 1980), 417-25.
47. For example, Hermann Müller, "Rotation: Ein Wolfgang Staudte-Film," Vorwärts, 18 Sept. 1949;
48. G.G., "Rotation: Ein DEFA-Film," Sächsisches Tageblatt, 1 Oct. 1949;
49. schu- [sic], "Staudtes Rotation," Hamburger Freie Presse, 10 July 1950.
50. "Rotation," Film-Dienst 10, no. 5981 (11 July 1957);
51. n- [sic], "Ebbe in der moralischen Kasse: Import-Film zur Woche der Brüderlichkeit," Die Andere Zeitung, Nov. 1961;
52. Fred Gehler, "Rotation. DEFA-Erinnerungen," Sonntag, 22 April 1979.
53. Hans-Dietrich Weiß, "Diktatorische Filmpolitik: Wo bleibt der DEFA-Film Rotation," Die Welt (Berlin edition), 6 July 1949.
54. Karl Andreas Eppenhagen, "Mitläuferproblematik im Film: Bemerkungen zu dem DEFA-Streifen Rotation," Die Welt, 25 May 1950.
55. As soon as the resistance was identified in terms of party membership, everybody seems to have felt the lack of representatives of their own group among it. For example, the Catholic journal Filmdienst also criticized the film for failing to mention Christian anti- Nazism. See, "Rotation," Film-Dienst.
56. Kurt Blank returns from Prague, where the Social Democratic Party (SPD) executive went into exile. At a time when the Social Democrats were not at all pleased with the compulsary unification of their party with the Communist KPD in the Soviet occupation zone/GDR, Staudte may very well have deliberately avoided mentioning any specific party in order not to reduce the number of sympathizers with the resistance in the audience. (At least the East German Communists at that time stressed the notion of a united working class.) On the compulsory unification of the East German SPD with the East German KPD to form the SED, see Andreas Malycha, Auf dem Weg zur SED: Die Sozialdemokratie und die Bildung einer Einheitspartei in den Ländern der SBZ (Bonn, 1995).
57. See David Beetham, "The Comintern: From 'Social Fascism' to Popular Front," in idem, Marxists in Face of Fascism: Writings by Marxists on Fascism from the Inter-War Period (Manchester, 1983), 17-23.
58. Eppenhagen, "Mitläuferproblematik
59. After the founding of the SED, the party indeed made efforts to integrate so-called "minor Nazi Party comrades" (i.e. kleine Pgs, the abbeviation for the term "Parteigenossen" that was used in the NSDAP). In announcements by the SED, these "minor" Nazi Party members were also named "Mitläufer." Because of its (successful) policy of integration, Jan Foitzik sarcastically characterizes the SED as a "new type of Mitläufer-party (eine Mitläuferpartei neuen Typs)." Jürgen Danyel, "Die SED und die 'kleinen Pg's': Zur politischen Integration der ehemaligen NSDAP-Mitglieder in der SBZ/DDR," in Annette Leo and Peter Reif-Spirek, eds., Helden, Täter und Verräter: Studien zum DDR-Antifaschismus (Berlin, 1999), 177-96;
60. Jan Foitzik, "Die stalinistischen 'Säuberungen' in den ostmitteleuropäischen kommunistischen Parteien: Ein vergleichender Überblick," in Hermann Weber and Dieter Staritz, eds., Kommunisten verfolgen Kommunisten: Stalinistischer Terror und "Säuberungen" in den kommunistischen Parteien Europas seit den dreißiger Jahren (Berlin, 1993), 415.
61. Eppenhagen, "Mitläuferproblematik
62. When the film was broadcast on West German public television in 1958, the party whip of the Gesamtdeutscher Block in the Bavarian State Parliament, Dr. Becher, started an official protest against this alleged "Communist propaganda action." See, "Film und Politik," Deutsche Woche, 11 June 1958.
63. For example, Ny, "Rotation im Filmclub," Ruhr-Nachrichten, 26 Sept. 1950;
64. "Film-Club zeigte Rotation," Westfälische Rundschau, 3 Oct. 1950.
65. Wolfgang Staudte, "Rotation," undated typescript, unpublished, Archives of the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin.
66. For example, "Neue Filme in München: Rotation," Abendzeitung, 8 Sept. 1953;
67. "Wolfgang Staudtes Rotation," Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11 Sept. 1953;
68. pth [sic], "Herausforderung des deutschen Gewissens: Die Staatliche Landesbildstelle zeigte Wolfgang Staudtes Film Rotation," Hamburger Echo, 29 Jan. 1958.
69. For example, E.S., "Rotation," Erlanger Nachrichten, 26 Jan. 1956.
70. For example, M., "Rotation: Defa-Film beim Unabhängigen Filmclub," Nürnberger Nachrichten, 29 Jan. 1951;
71. KS, "Rotation," Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 Oct. 1957.
72. This explanatory approach accords with Norbert Frei's thesis that it was the Germans themselves who invented the accusation of "collective guilt" and projected it onto the occupation powers in order to deny the accusation and feel insulted by it. Norbert Frei, "Von deutscher Erfindungskraft oder: Die Kollektivschuldthese in der Nachkriegszeit," in Gary Smith, ed., Hannah Arendt Revisited: "Eichmann in Jerusalem" und die Folgen (Frankfurt/Main, 2000), 163- 76.
73. First, the name "Mondschein" resembles Jewish family names; second, Susanne and Hans repeatedly stress that it was a miracle that the old man had survived. But since Mondschein's apartment house, and all its occupants, were untouched by the bombing that destroyed the rest of the neighborhood, it is hardly miraculous that an inhabitant of that building survived. However, it is miraculous that a Jew - no matter which building he lived in - survived in Germany. Finally, Mondschein receives a letter from his son, who now lives in the US. All this strongly hints at his Jewishness. For more on the reception of this figure and on his untold story, see my article, "Die Mörder sind unter uns
74. "Von der Rotation zum Widerstand," Berliner Morgenpost, 11 Dec. 1985.