German 160B Finals Study Guide PDF

Title German 160B Finals Study Guide
Course Facism And Propaganda
Institution University of California, Berkeley
Pages 19
File Size 419.2 KB
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Final Exam Review...


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Review Sheet/ Final Exam 160B Question #1: (10 pts) refers to source (fact-based)= we are not supposed to summarize the source (we should show our understanding on our source. Question #2 (10 pts) is a knowledge question Ex. Describe why Jud Suss is a propaganda film? -We would talk about all definitions of propaganda (Welch, Jowett and O’Donnell, -We should include know central theme and thesis (know most important Please describe the process of power consolidation. (not for final; she gave this as example from midterm question to show what a knowldge question looks like) Exhibition of degenerate art-- important July 1937 If we talk about Jud Suss we must date the primary source Question #3: another knowledge question. Ex. What’s most important steps to Vergleichushung? Question #4: (20 pts) Ex. We will have to answer to know two primary sources and make connections.

Leni Riefenstahl’s film Olympia (1938) •David B. Hinton, The Films of Leni Riefenstahl, Lanham 2000,g, Later Essays,New York 2017, pp. 54-77 Chapter 3 (Write ½ a page) 1. What is film: Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia s howed 1936 Berlin Olympics (has 2 parts; track&field + ). Changed Filmmaking bc one of first successful Olympic Games filming (Franck tried 1928 failed). Inspired by friend Professor Carl Diehm of Berlin after Triumph of the Will c overing a massive event. Documentary style showing genuine insight about true beauties + hardships of international comp→ approved by Germ and Intern’l commitees. Had 6 cameramen-- Hans Ertl underwater cameraman. Trademark: low-angled shots. Showed 3 japanese finalists and three american finalists.

a. Positives: poems + hymn + ode to beauty b. Negatives: paean to nazism 2. What is it about: a. Part I: Track + field (Test der Volker”(“Festival of the People”)) i.

Discus= stylized dreams (camera tracking thru temple +visually caressing temples) 1. Discus thrower: Discobolus (left), German decathlete Erwin Huber (right) L  ecture #16, slide 3

b. Part II: Fest der Volker (Festival of the People) i. Decathalon 1. Polevault---> split by preliminaries and finals. Mix of music ii. 100 m dash 1. No music

3. What is the result: 4. What is the problem: a. The film had to get approval from German and intern’tl committees i. Denied balloon hovering over stadium idea w/ remote controlled camera + minature camera (kinamo)--->too blurry shots b. Restaging of scenes i. Pole vault-- too much light, distracting ii. Diving scenes 5. How does David Hinton interpret Olympia in a different way: Hinton’s university bases things on facts. Hinton has a positive interpretation-- he bases his interpretation based on facts. It was not propaganda. She was never affilated w/ Nazi party. Facts like great dramatic tension and rowing competition-- he lists how she used humor on horse scene to prove point. Same montag principles. Riefenstahl captured movements of athletes. Filmed 400,000 m--edited five rooms. List numbers for rooms. Spent 18 months editing Olympia - - she actually edited it herself (for artistic control), let assistants slice. Editing known in diving and marathon scenes. Hinton listed how Riefenstahl felt bout editing length of marathon scene (strength theme)-- “to put audience in mind and body of the participants” (Hinton). Stylize reality w/ poetic atmosphere feel w/ distorted shadows (loneliness of long distance runner). Kinamo camera used. Diving scene remarkable editing cloud background (“symphony of mov”). Significance of comp suspens of motion (divers from sky), space (defy gravity), and time (slow motion). Stalin wrote praise letter bout film. 1938 not shown in U.S-- boycotted Riefenstahl said was propaganda-- Disney supported her. It is more documentary-- it was never on propaganda.

U.S Correspondent Henry McLemore, said Olympia.. “It is not propaganda, but a magnificent filming of the greatest athletes in the history of the world It could have been taken anywhere England, France,Greece,or Switzerland. If it is not shown to the youth of this country, the youth of this country will be the loser. From start to

finish-and it runs almost four hours-its only message is the joy and the glory that comes from the development of a superb body.”

•Susan Sontag, Fascinating Fascism (1974), in: Susan Sontag= She says yes, “Triumph of the Will” (3.5 hrs long, two parts; Festival of People + Festival of Beauty) is a propaganda film. Anyone saying Olympia i s a documentary is ingenuous (naive). ○ Central question: Why is a dictatorship and racist so attractive to many people? ■ Answer: --> Riefenstahl made theses ideas beautiful, healthy, and fashionable ○ What are her arguments +facts: ■ She thinks fascism is usually evil but attractive to many people.

■ Riefenstahl struggled w/ sexism of Goebbels for Olympia ■ Got arrested for NSDAP affiliation ■ More lies: to say that Riefenstahl “continued making films of herdevising, unconnected with the rise of Nazi Germany, until 1941. ■ After Olympia→ made Tiefland (from 1941, 1944-1954) ■ Sontag alludes Riefenstahl is a liar→ claims 2 film documentaries, but 4 of 6 films (financed by Nazi Gov) ■ Riefenstahl struggled acceptance from Germ + Intern’l committees→ why Olympia was propaganda (comple commission + financed by Nazi Gov).*cough Goebbels* 32 cameramen in SA uniforms ■ Uses facts to describe--Riefenstahl’s 1974 The Last of Nuba =  12 black + white photos, chronological expressions (from sultry safaris to a march of age). + Olympia. ● One aspect of the fascist ideal: a society in which women are merely breeders and helpers, excluded from all ceremonial functions, and represent a threat to the integrity and strength of men. ■ Trick is to filter out all political ideolodies of films. ● Fascism= life as art + cult of beauty + festization of courage + disolution of alienation in ecstatic feelings of community (repudiation intellect+ family of man) Main difference in opinions: Sontag questions everything that Riefenstahl says about her film Olympia and calls it all lies to show that the film is a propaganda piece, where is Hinton uses what Riefenstahl says to prove his point that the film is not a propaganda piece but rather a great masterpiece that was admired by people like Walter Disney. Both Sontag and Hinton base their arguments on facts but they have different results. I think this point of view is more convincing because (especially for question #4-- we can use this to support our point of view).

ANTI-SEMITIC FILM PROPAGANDA: “JUD SÜSS” “Jud SÜSS” (1940) produced by Terra Filmkunst on behalf of the Nazi regime. Conceived as an antisemitic propaganda film. Directed by Veit Harlan (social relations w/ Goebbels), got ideas from 2 prior screenplay writers Wolfgang Eberhard Möller and Ludwig Metzger (credit issue). Starred Ferdinand Marian (Joseph Suss Oppenheimer) and Kristina Söderbaum (Harlan's wife). Partially from 1925 historical novel Jud Süß by Lion Feuchtwanger + 1827 novella by Wilhelm Hauff. The film, the novel, and the novella do not correspond to the historic sources regarding Joseph Süß Oppenheimer as still accessible at the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. Played on basic Nazi stereotypes of Jews (hooked noses, materialism, immoral, cunning, untrustworthy and physically unattractive). Main character, a Jew, in 1738 unsuccessfully pursues and then rapes a non-Jewish woman, commits suicide→ executed in cage, and all Jews are expelled from the state. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who had commissioned the film, was very pleased with it, and appeared sitting next to the director Harlan at the premiere in the UFA Palast in Berlin. Heinrich Himmler ordered the members of the SS and police to watch the movie. It became a great success in Germany, with some 20 million viewers. Jewish extras were "recruited" (coerced into performing) in Prague (the capital of the German occupied Bohemia-Moravia) and the scenes showing the entry of the Jews into Württemberg and worshipping in a synagogue were filmed there. •Susan Tegel, “Veit Harlan and the Origins of “Jud Süss”, 1938-1939: Opportunism inthe Creaton of Nazi Anti-Semitic Propaganda”, in: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 16:4 (1996), pp. 515-531 •Why is “Jud Süss” (1940) a propaganda film? 1. Negative stereotypes of Jewish ppl a. Physical

i. Hooked noses b. Unsympathic i. Ex. Duke c. Crooked + Animalistic + disasterous behavior i. Ex. Protagonist Joseph Süß Oppenheimer,  typical example of Jew posesing danger to host country not through concealing his Jewishness through assimilation. [33]

ii.

Film's intention was made clear: Germans beware of the enemy in your midst, the Jew in disguise.

iii. 2. The director Veit Harlan went on trial from November 1938 to 1939--found he wasn’t initiator of project. Then went to trial in 1949-1950 a. Harlan was known for being a propagandist. 3. Hidden agenda from Goebbels (Minister of Propaganda) a. Btwn Oct or Nov 1938 near Kritallnacht→ *ordered ALL Germ film comp to continue anti-semitic films* RETALITION FOR U.S ANTI-NAZI FILMS b. Mar 1938-1939= Austria--> Sutenland and Czech state annexed-->more jews to Germ Reich c. 1939= Tegel says Jews→ 2 comic film stars (Tobis-made Robert und Bertram) and (Wienfilm's Leinen aus Irland) i. Oct 1939= Jewish austrian citizenship expelled germ citizenship→ caused germ Nazi program Kristellnacht (Nov 9 + 10th, 1939) d. Goebbels liked Harlan→ demanded him as final director behind Metzger and Harlan 4. Importance= a. Antisemitic legislation i. April 7, 1933=”Law for the Restoration of the Early Civil Service. b. Nuremberg law Sep 15, 1935→ Germ agnst jews i. 1st screenwriter Ludiwig Metzger had ½ Jew wife--divorced ii.

after laws→ messed up 1st attempt for Jud Suss Version (Terra Studio)→ took to prop ministry Opportunists like Metzger, Brauer and Harlan (all non-party members) helped get the project off the ground to comply with Goebbels' demand. The postwar conflicting testimony of some of the principals, in which all claim to be friends of the Jews, is crass and self-serving. But amidst the self-serving evasions is enough documented fact to suggest how much

opportunism rather than ideology explains the gestation of the most successful anti-Semitic feature film ever made--in the period before the appointment of Veit Harlan as director. It was not virulent anti-Semites who helped launch this virulently anti-Semitic film

VISUAL PROPAGANDA I: PHOTOGRAPHY •Maiken Umbach, Selfhood, place and ideology in German photo albums, in:Central European History 48 (2015), pp. 335-365 Importance: peoples community w/ pract of inclusion () and exclusion. More ppl afford cameras in 21st century-- prior to being open to rich ppl who took studio photos. ● Central question: Do photos open a a window of ideology of NSDAP dictatorship? ● Significance of mass photography + album making from germans documenting their lives during the 3rd reich (1933-1945)? 1. Arguments: a. Umbach talks about relations btwn amateur snapshots (Private subjectivity) vs. propagandists + commer photos (pub ideology)→ borrowing + reappropriation i. Amateur pics= challenges→ too ordinary therefore insignificant for ego docs (diaries, letters) 1. peculiarly conservative medium 2. Radically removed from political world a. Ex. “Horst Umbach with classmates” 1941→ doc mittelschule (middle school) relates to class terms rich kids doing nothing w/ lives. b. Natural German i. British painter Joseph Wright of Derby’s 1781 “portrait of Brooke Boothby” early ex of germanizing east. ii. Propagandists= 1. Henrich Hoffman a. Portrayal of Hitler , “the Fuhrer as nobody knows”--> snapshot photography b. Historical photos been deceptive(Umbach)

i.

Represented Zeitgeist, spectatorship

c. Deliberate manip of photos i. Umbach→ pics not objective→ they’re duped by fascist regime + ideology. Planned→ reflects selfhood d. Pics tell us abt import Nazi period-- rootedness, subjectivity, new beginnings, movement, and authenticity-->not found in docs. e. Showed “happy times”

“The political significance of image-making cannot be reduced to the influence of Nazi ideology. Indeed, in a minority of instances, it could even be used to celebrate and memorialize poses and attitudes that clashed with certain aspects of what is normally considered to be a part of the National Socialist belief system.”

•Jugend um Hitler. 120 Bilddokumente aus der Umgebung des Führers. Aufgenommen, zusammengestellt und herausgegeben von Heinrich Hoffmann,Reichsbildberichterstatter der NSDAP, Berlin 1934 1. Why is Heinrich Hoffmann an important photographer for the topic of most famous photographer who created a human private face of Hitler Propaganda? Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler's official photographer, Nazi politician, publisher, and member of Hitler's intimate circle. Met Hitler in 1919. One of the earliest members of NSDAP. Captured spontaneity-- had 1934 photobook, Jugend um Hitler. H  offman's private snapshots significant to Hitler's propaganda campaign and NSDAP as significant mass phenomenon. He received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image, even on postage stamps, which made him a millionaire over the course of Hitler's reign. After the Second World War he was tried and sentenced to four years in prison for war profiteering. He was classified by the Allies' Art Looting Investigators to be a "major offender" in Nazi art plundering of Jews, as both art dealer and collector and his art collection, which contained many artworks looted from Jews, was ordered confiscated by the Allies. He recovered the art in 1956 by order of the Bavarian State.

Significance-- Most famous photographer to show and create a private face for Hitler: Know topic of photobook. ○ Should know some of the photobooks of Hitler supported by Aryan boys and girls. ■ “Jugend um Hitler” ○ Showed Hitler loving boys and girls. ○ Showed german youth choosing Hitler bc they “loved” him. ■ 1934-45=Hitler Junge 14 to 18 year olds in “HJ Uniform for boys” a small size, only boy suit, brown shirt, leather belt, swastika. Publicity for Hitler youth. ● 200,00 member in 1932--from power consolidation ● 1934= all germ youth organized by Reich-- children had choice. ● 1936= mandatory HJ membership-- 5 million membership ● Nov 9, 1938=Kristallnacht (“night of broken glass)= jew migration (youth alone) ● Girls of today mothers of tomorrow ● In 1940= not all boys belonged to Hitler (Children of Hitler). ○ Was one sided only showed desired German children (strong german children). No disabled children and children with glasses. Selected patients w/ Aryan traits. ○ Why was a single man with ○ Goebels and Herring were family men.

VISUAL PROPAGANDA II: “DEGENERATE ART” •Olaf Peters, Fear and propaganda: National Socialism and the concept of “degenerate art”, in: Social Research 83 (2016), pp. 39-66 Central question: Did art help to create the final solution for propaganda? “B oth the historic and current "Degenerate Art" exhibitions, says Peters, have relevance today, providing us with the occasion to "reflect on the freedom of art at present,and on the extent to which art, particularly contemporary art, can be considered a cultural asset,a critical authority, or even a provocative alternative to the existing world."” The connection between a stylized, magical “power of images,” which the National Socialists actually feared (and, according to Richter, instrumentalized for the “final solution to the Jewish question”), and the discourse on “degeneration” “Degenerate art”: the slogan represents National Socialist cultural barbarism and the destruction of modernism in Germany between the wars. Hitler and his party-liners did

not invent the phrase, but they adopted it, intensified it, and derived from it their destructive policies on art. One thing should remain clear in all this: the National Socialist policy did not come out of nowhere. (mostly based on stolen art) Arguments/ facts: ● “Degenerate art”= not made by NSDAP ● There are some ppl agnst mainstream art (like Woody Allen)--> created degenerate art bc NSDAP in 1937 (third reich) controlled images portrayed (Joseph Goebbels). ● Tool of propaganda dehumanizing ppl→ led to solution of propaganda (social and political) ● 1893= Parisian neurologist Jean Charot, Nordau→ degeneration is a mental illness. ● Nordau thought jews were degenerate who’ve been seperated by modern ppl. ● NSDAP 1927 w/ National Socialist Scholarly Party (later Militant League for German Culture)

•Diane M. Bolz, The Nazis’ war on modern art, in: Moment Magazine 39 (2014)4, pp. 21-23 Arguments/ facts: ● Modernism is vilified as “un-German” ● Main aim of the show was to mock and demonize Expressionist, Dada & Cubist art, among other forms that were deemed un-German ● July 1937= NSDAP opened degenerate art exhibit in Berlin→ declared state run war.

Which art and artists were presented in the exhibition “degenerate art”? ● Otto Freundlichs “Der Neue Mensch” (1912) was apart of the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Had cheap paper in catalogue. Relates to book burning May 1933. ● Cover of the exhibition program “Degenerate Music” on Dusseldort (1938) ● Emile Nolde “The Burial” (1915) Norway ● Paul Klee “Flower Myth” (1918) Hannover/Germany ● Otto Dix “Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden” (1926) Paris.

Welch says propaganda reinforces existing beliefs. The Degenerate Art Exhibition (German: Die Ausstellung "Entartete Kunst") was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in counterpoint to the concurrent Great German Art Exhibition. The day before the exhibition started, Hitler delivered a speech declaring "merciless war" on cultural disintegration, attacking "chatterboxes, dilettantes and art swindlers". Degenerate art was defined as works that "insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill". One million people attended the exhibition in its first six weeks.

Highlights of the exhibition include a number of works shown in Munich in the summer of 1937, including such seminal paint-ings as Swiss German artist Paul Klee's The Twittering Machine and The Angler (pg. 23),and German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's The Painters of the Brücke (pg.22), one of the icons of modern German art. Works by Austrian expressionist Oskar Kokoschka, German Danish painter and printmaker Emil Nolde and German artists George Grosz and Max Beckmann, among others, are also on view •Which art and artists were presented in the“Great German Art Exhibition ”which was on view in the House of German Art in Munich? The art of the Third Reich was the government-approved art produced in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. In the case of Germany, the model was to be classical Greek and Roman art, seen by Hitler as an art whose exterior form embodied an inner racial ideal. It was, furthermore, to be comprehensible to the average man. This art was to be both heroic and romantic. The Nazis viewed the culture of the Weimar period with disgust. Their response stemmed partly from conservative aesthetics and partly from their determination to use culture as propaganda. ● Arno Breker was a famous degenerate artist of “Die Partei” ● Jurgen Wegner “Thanksgiving” in Great German Art Exhibition (1943) ● Poster of the “Great German Art Exhibition” House of Germ Art Munich 1937

•How did censorship work in the “Third Reich”? Censorship was rampant throughout Nazi Germany. Censorship ensured that Germans could only see what the Nazi hierarchy wanted people to see, hear what they wanted them to hear and read only what the Nazis deemed acceptable. The Nazi police dealt with anyone who went outside of these boundaries. Censorship dominated the lives of the ordinary citizen in Nazi Germany. The prime mov...


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