Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German LandscapeAnti-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 One 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
GermanJewish Landscapes and the Emergence of AntiHeimat Cinema | 17 |
E A Duponts Cinematic Landscapes | 40 |
Helmar Lerski and the Outing of the AntiHeimat Film | 72 |
Returning Exiles and the West German Landscape | 108 |
Jewish Rémigrés and the City as Heimat | 135 |
Other editions - View all
Anti-Heimat Cinema: The Jewish Invention of the German Landscape Ofer Ashkenazi Limited preview - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
acculturation Alpine alte Gesetz American Anonymous Anti-Heimat Cinema anti-Heimat film anti-Semitic authenticity Avodah Billy Wilder bourgeois camera cityscapes clichés Cold War critical depiction Deutsche director Dupont early East East Berlin exile Film-Kurier film’s Fred Zinnemann Fritz Fritz Lang Geier-Wally German Cinema German film German Heimat German identity German landscape German national goldene Pest Hecker Heimat culture Heimat iconography Heimat imagery Heimat-related Heimatfilm Helmar Lerski highlights History identity discourse instance Jewish filmmakers Jews John Brahm Josef Karl Konrad Wolf land Lubitsch Menschen am Sonntag Meyer aus Berlin modern mountain Nazi Nazism non-Jewish notion of Heimat novel Palestine political portrayal portrayed postwar protagonist provincial rémigré Robert Siodmak role rural Sally Sally’s scene shot shtetl Siegfried Kracauer social Soviet sphere Sprengbagger 1010 Steinhoff symbolism tion University Press urban Heimat viewers village visual Wally Wally's Weg ohne Umkehr Weimar Weimar-era West German Wolf's Zinnemann Zionist