Entertaining the Third Reich: Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Cinema

Linda Schulte-Sasse

Duke University Press, 1996 - History - 347 pages

In this persuasive reversal of previous scholarship, Linda Schulte-Sasse takes an unorthodox look at Nazi cinema, examining Nazi films as movies that contain propaganda rather than as propaganda vehicles that happen to be movies. Like other Nazi artistic productions, Nazi film has long been regarded as kitsch rather than art, and therefore unworthy of critical textual analysis. By reading these films as consumer entertainment, Schulte-Sasse reveals the similarities between Nazi commercial film and classical Hollywood cinema and, with this shift in emphasis, demonstrates how Hollywood-style movie formulas frequently compromised Nazi messages.
Drawing on theoretical work, particularly that of Lacan and Zizek, Schulte-Sasse shows how films such as Jew Süsss and The Great King construct fantasies of social harmony, often through distorted versions of familiar stories from eighteenth-century German literature, history, and philosophy. Schulte-Sasse observes, for example, that Nazi films, with their valorization of bourgeois culture and use of familiar narrative models, display a curious affinity with the world of Enlightenment culture that the politics of National Socialism would seem to contradict.
Schulte-Sasse argues that film served National Socialism less because of its ideological homogeneity than because of the appeal and familiarity of its underlying literary paradigms and because the medium itself guarantees a pleasurable illusion of wholeness. Entertaining the Third Reich will be of interest to a wide range of scholars, including those engaged in the study of cinema, popular culture, Nazism and Nazi art, the workings of fascist culture, and the history of modern ideology.

Contents

• Courtier Vampire or Vermin? Jew Süsss: 47
• Young Friedrich Schiller historical painting: 54
• Coins Jew Süss: 74
• Karl Faber with injured hands Jew Süss: 88
• Frederick the Movie or The Return of: 92
• Frederick as a shadow The Great King: 109
• A caricature of Frederick The Great King: 116
• Fredericks eyes over windmill The Great King: 124
• Hans Steinhoffs: 126
• Dissolve with father The Old and the Young King: 134
• Herbert Maischs: 147
• Braiding scene Friedrich Schiller: 156
• Schiller in bed Friedrich Schiller: 158
• Hofmarschall von Silberkalb Friedrich Schiller 33 French gamblers The Old and the Young King 34 The Prince of Bayreuth The Old and the Young...: 160
• Schiller and Duchess Franziska Friedrich Schiller: 164
• Anomaly or Fascist Delusion of Female: 176
• Philine Komödianten: 188
• Hanswurst Komödianten: 198
• Traugott Müllers: 203
• Friedemann and Antonia Friedemann Bach: 208
• Court of Saxony Friedemann Bach: 214
• Dead Friedemann Friedemann Bach: 222
• Money: 231
• Gerda on carousel Hitler Youth Quex: 264
• Father Völker Hitler Youth Quex: 266
• Heini looks through foliage Hitler Youth Quex: 268
• Nazism and Machines: 274
• Martha Diesel stands in front of Diesels motor Diesel: 284
• The Olympic stadium Request Concert: 292
• Münchhausens Narrative: 302
• Select Bibliography: 319
• Filmography: 331
• Index: 339

About the author

Linda Schulte-Sasse is Professor of German Studies at Macalester College.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Entertaining the Third Reich: Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Cinema; Entertaining the Third Reich: Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Cinema, Linda Schulte-Sasse; Post-contemporary interventions
• Author: Linda Schulte-Sasse
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Duke University Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0822318245, 9780822318248
• Length: 347 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / General; Performing Arts / Film / General; Performing Arts / Film / History & Criticism; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Fascism & Totalitarianism; Social Science / Regional Studies