16844

SoSe 17: National Socialism in Film

Muriel Ernestus

Comments

Subject: Three weeks before the final collapse of Nazi Germany, the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, tried to boost the morale of his staff by presenting them with the prospect that in a hundred years they could be immortalised as the heroes of a beautiful colour film about the “horrible days” they were living through. 70 years later there are hundreds of films dealing with “the horrible days” of the Nazi regime. In fact, no other historic period has been the subject of feature films and documentaries as often as the years between Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the end of World War II in 1945. The range of different cinematic approaches to National Socialism is accordingly wide and heterogeneous, ranging from melodramatic propaganda films through seemingly neutral documentaries to anti-Nazi comedies. That Goebbels would have liked their messages, let alone considered them as “beautiful”, is highly unlikely. Despite the great number of films dealing with National Socialism, its cinematic representation has always been considered a sensitive matter. That applies particularly to the genocide of European Jews: the stupefying dimension of the state-organised mass murder raises the fundamental problems of its representation and the danger of trivialising human suffering by turning it into products of mass culture aimed at entertainment.
Program: Based on brief introductions into film analysis and the history of the Third Reich, we will discuss a representative selection of films dealing with National Socialism. The course is divided into three parts. In part one we will focus on analysing propaganda techniques in both fascist and anti-fascist propaganda films released between 1933 and 1945. In part two, we will discuss different approaches to dealing with the Holocaust. The last part will be dedicated to contemporary films such as “Inglourious Basterds” reinventing history in quite an unorthodox way. Please keep in mind that despite the three-hour lessons, the total number of SWS is only 2 because there will be fewer lessons.
Is this course suitable for you? This course is open to students from all academic fields. You should be interested in analysing films and reading academic texts about them. You should be prepared to participate in a working group which presents its findings briefly in class.
Workload and Assessment: In order to obtain 5 ECTS credits, you will have to

attend the course regularly (at least 9 out of 10 sessions);
watch the films discussed in class;
study the weekly course materials (an average of 15 pages of English texts per week);
participate in a working group with a brief presentation in class;
pass the written examination (90 minutes).