The city without Jews

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Movie
Original title The city without Jews
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1924
length 80 minutes
Rod
Director HK Breslauer
script HK Breslauer,
Ida Jenbach based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer
production Walterskirchen and Bittner
music Saunders Kurz
(version 1928) /
piano - Gerhard Gruber , violin - Adula Ibn Quadr , percussion - Peter Rosmanith
(new version 2000) /
Olga Neuwirth
(new version 2018) /
Walter Arlen /
(new version 2020)
camera Hugo Eywo
occupation

Die Stadt ohne Juden is an Austrian silent film from 1924 based on the novel of the same name by Hugo Bettauer , published two years earlier, and assigned to the genre of Expressionism . From today's perspective, the novel of the day after tomorrow, as the subtitle reads, is often ascribed prophetic foresight in relation to the events of the Third Reich , which is also reflected in the cinematic images of the expulsion of the Jews. The director was Hans Karl Breslauer . In 2019, a fully reconstructed version of the film, which was temporarily considered lost, was released .

action

In historical Vienna in the 1920s, referred to in the film as utopia , the population is dominated by three epoch-making basic experiences: a feeling of loss, threatened social declassification and a mood between revolutionary spirit and a culture of excitement. In addition, inflation and unemployment are exacerbating the tense situation. The people demand the expulsion of the Jews who hold them responsible for the negative developments. The Federal Chancellor “Dr. Schwerdtfeger ”, initially reserved, sits at the ideological head of this movement for tactical reasons and, in his speeches to parliament, provides reasons for the impossibility of living together with the Jewish population. To this end, various stereotypes are taken up that almost completely agree with anti-Semitic rhetoric in general and certain stylistic devices from the speeches of that time. The deportation of Jews by train or on foot is demonstrated in detail. The Jewish worlds are shown side by side and not only, as in the Golem , as Jewish and Christian areas. Rather, it is increasingly divided within the Jewish community into the "acculted" Viennese Jews and the newly arrived Jews from the East , between whom there are virtually no connections.

All parts of society are portrayed in cliché, which was deliberately staged and consciously used. Most of the characters move in the urban-bourgeois milieu or in the upper class. The Jews from the East are introduced in poor conditions and in relation to religious symbolism. They mainly react to the deportation with suffering and tolerance. After the hoped-for economic upswing, the cultural and economic decline occurs very soon. Vienna "evaporates". Only works by Ludwig Ganghofer and Ludwig Anzengruber are performed in the theaters . Many coffee houses are empty or are being converted into standing beer halls. Trade falls sharply or moves to other cities; in the book it's Prague and Budapest. Chancellor Schwerdtfeger begins to regret his decision and falls into a depressive lethargy.

The protagonist "Leo Strakosch" returns incognito as a painter from Paris with forged papers and, thanks to his wealth of lists, he succeeds in making it possible for the Jews to return to the city. The ruse consists, on the one hand, of influencing public opinion in favor of the Jews: He places notices in the city of the fictional covenant of the “true Christian”, which draw attention to the worsening situation without the Jews. On the other hand in the incapacitation of the greatest anti-Semite and alcoholic Bernard and the plot with his servants through bribery. This enables a vote in favor of the return of the Jews, while “Council Bernard” finds himself in an asylum. In an expressionist setting, consisting of an asymmetrical cell in a claustrophobia-inducing environment, he suddenly sees himself threatened by stars of David that light up everywhere . The ultimately happy reunification of the lovers is intended to symbolically demonstrate the need for harmony within the entire population. The protagonists are the intellectual, romantic lovers Lotte, the “sweet Viennese girl”, and Leo, as well as the comedic couple of servants in the house of the “Volbert Council”. The latter, on the other hand, destroys his own family with his careless vote for the expulsion of the Jews (and thus his son-in-law). The couples each consist of a Jewish man and a Christian woman.

In the film version, which was reconstructed in 2000, Bernard finally wakes up in the tavern, which explains the events as the content of his dream, through which he recognizes the importance of peaceful coexistence. In the newly reconstructed version, however, Bernart remains in the madhouse, the film ends with the greeting of the returned Jews by the Viennese mayor Laberl, the statement about the importance of peaceful coexistence appears as a general closing title and is not assigned to a single person.

Differences to the book template

Some scenes from the novel were rearranged for the film or new ones were added. The film left out provocative chapters of the novel - such as the one in which prostitutes complain about the expulsion of their wealthy Jewish clients. The biggest change, however, is the veiling of the city of Vienna as well as the political party landscape of the time, which are explicitly mentioned in the book, as in the chapter "The End of the Swastika". The parliament is also originally divided into several groups and individuals, which in the film became two hostile lodges. Federal Chancellor Schwerdtfeger is partly modeled after the real politician Ignaz Seipel (Austrian Federal Chancellor at the time the novel and film were made), partly also from the anti-Semitic Mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger , but is shown less fanatical in the film, but more morally torn than in the original book. The recesses should serve to defuse the political explosives and had the purpose of addressing the audience as broadly as possible. Also the allusion to the pedophilia of the Bernard Council is omitted. In addition, Lotte's family history and her illness were omitted, which is the reason in the book why her father forbids her further contact with Leo. The couple's reunion takes place in Lotte's villa and not in a garden scene as in the novel. The dandy- like and fashionable affinity of the Jewish population is only hinted at in the film, but is often addressed in the literary source. In general, the expulsion of the Jews is portrayed much more dramatically in the novel, but passive suffering is made much more prominent in the film adaptation. In addition, the crowd scenes in the film by 68 supporting actors waving their hats or fists synchronously in front of the external camera, depending on their liking or displeasure, are not perceived as an adequate equivalent for the described crowd, although actual documentary recordings have been inserted.

The most noticeable difference is the two versions of the conciliatory happy ending. In the novel, Leo is the first returnee to be greeted by the mayor with the words “my dear Jew”. In contrast, in the edited version published in 2000, the whole thing turns out to be a dream of the anti-Semite Bernard, who wakes up in the tavern - and thus banishes Expressionism in the dream world - and closes with the words: " Thank God that the stupid dream is over - we are all just human beings and we don't want any hatred - we want to live - live quietly next to each other. " to Leo, as the first returned Jew, the words of welcome "My dear Jew!"

Emergence

The book “The city without Jews - a novel of the day after tomorrow” goes back to the then popular novelist Hugo Bettauer, who came from an acculted Jewish family in Vienna, but converted to the Protestant faith at an early age. The “City without Jews” was his big breakthrough and was also translated into several languages. Bettauer himself describes his idea for the novel as a random mind game, triggered by the scribble "Jews out" in a public toilet room. Only a few months after the premiere, Bettauer was shot in his office by the temporary NSDAP member Otto Rothstock, whereupon he, although charged as an "assassin", only had to spend a few months in various mental hospitals and was released in 1927 without any further conditions.

The director Hans Karl Breslauer worked with Ida Jenbach on the script and also let the author of the novel participate in the creation process. Breslauer himself was an actor in the first part of his life, later a screenwriter and director. The film adaptation of "The City Without Jews" was his last directorial work. In retrospect, he primarily appeared as a writer and joined the NSDAP in 1940. After the war he rented an inn, but was unable to build on his old successes and died in poverty. He produced the film with film companies, which in retrospect had no legal status and should possibly stand for private investors.

Johannes Riemann , who portrays Leo Strakosch, who is committed to the return of the Jews, later became a member of the NSDAP and state actor and appeared in front of guards at Auschwitz, while the actors of the biggest anti-Semites, Hans Moser and Eugen Neufeld , experienced the opposite : Neufeld was temporarily detained due to his critical stance against the Nazi regime and de facto banned from practicing his profession.Moser, who refused to divorce his Jewish wife, was still allowed to work because of his popularity, but was forced to to part with his wife and daughter, who both had to emigrate abroad. Due to the European film crisis and the emerging sound film , many of the other actors were unable to stay in the film industry. As in many of Breslau's films, the director's future wife, Anna Milety, served as the leading actress . Some well-known Jewish actors in smaller roles, Gisela Wer District , Sigi Hofer and Armin Berg , as well as the non-Jewish Hans Moser, came from the Budapest Orpheum and the Jewish entertainment theater and were supposed to bring a correspondingly entertaining flair. The popular weightlifter Josef Steinbach played a small role as a house servant . The performers of the Jews from the East were actually hired from this segment of the population to portray stereotypes. They are not listed individually in the opening credits. Hans Moser received his fourth screen role in this film.

Performance history and reconstructions

The film premiered on July 25, 1924 in Vienna. In 1933 the film caused a stir for the last time when it was shown in the Carré Theater in Amsterdam as a symbol against Hitler's Germany . After that, the film was largely forgotten and was considered lost for a long time .

The copy of the film shown in Amsterdam in 1933 is probably the one discovered in the Nederlands Filmmuseum in 1991 . The incomplete nitrate film, which was already showing signs of decomposition, was "not copied" soon afterwards by the Koblenz Federal Archives and reconstructed by the Graz company HS-ART Digital Service using the "DIAMANT" software developed by Joanneum Research on behalf of the Austrian Film Archive . Not only did the end of the program have to be extracted from the program, the titles translated back from Dutch, extremely faded passages had to be colored - and therefore suggestive afterwards - but also the complete setting had to be replayed, as it is not known what the respective live orchestras contributed to the cinema halls . An analysis of the film must therefore ask the question whether individual elements were added intentionally or just out of embarrassment and now suggest a false assumption of conscious expressionist presentations. This is not only true in relation to the reconstruction. For example, some buildings were lavishly staged by the architect Julius von Borsody for the shoot , but partly because they simply had not received permission to shoot at the original locations. The reconstructed, shortened and heavily reworked version of the film was copied to VHS and released on DVD in October 2008 as part of the expansion of the series Der Austrian Film .

In October 2015 a film collector found a complete copy of the film at a Paris flea market, which was handed over to the Filmarchiv Austria in spring 2016 . A crowdfunding campaign initiated by the film archive managed to raise funds for a restoration. The first performance of the reconstructed version took place on March 21, 2018 in the Metro-Kino in Vienna.

Historical background

The parallels between the fictional plot and historical reality show that the zeitgeist of the 1920s is reflected in both the novel and the film. Vienna, as the interface between east and west, was next to Budapest and Warsaw the city with the highest Jewish population. The Jews were well represented in banking, commerce and the liberal professions above average. Many lawyers and doctors were also Jews. They were seen as a driving force in the political and cultural fields and brought German-Austrian film with them to Hollywood. Whereby they also brought in topics from their culture and migration experience (mostly men of the bourgeois upper and middle class) who - often in the slapstick style and thus popular - were also taken over by non-Jewish cultural workers.

On the other hand, anti-Semitic stereotypes were also used when one wanted to get rid of Jewish competition or to take action against modernization. The censorship also worked more for the good of the republic's reputation than it actually acted against anti-Semitic content. At that time, Vienna was a colorful mixture of resident and newly immigrated citizens. As a result, a certain resentment developed within the Jewish community, as the local residents did not want to be equated with the newly immigrated Jews from the East. Around 1919 a particularly large number of anti-Semitic rallies took place in Vienna, among other things under the banner “Jews out!”.

reception

Assignment to expressionism

Occasionally "The City Without Jews" is seen as a contribution to expressionist cinema. Strictly speaking, this assignment can only refer to a single scene towards the end of the film. In this sequence, the anti-Semite Bernart has a vision in the madhouse in which he sees himself being persecuted by stars of David and believing himself to be a Zionist. The film architecture of this scene is optically, with its inclined planes and inclined walls, clearly from the equipment of the expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari influenced.

In terms of content, the expressionist content of the film seems otherwise rather low, since the film does not seem to be about individual fears and distorted perceptions. The (outside) camera cannot be described as "unleashed", even if it sways back and forth in the scene of drunken Bernard. Likewise, with regard to the mise en scène , the drama, as well as the props and costumes, there is little comparable to other films associated with Expressionism. The documentary style, even if it appears to be staged in a peculiar way, appears as a whole less expressionistic than naturalistic .

The mask is symbolically charged, as it not only denotes the main and secondary actors, but also various groups of the population according to the hierarchy. Protagonists are made up in a contrast of light and dark, while supporting actors and antagonists usually have shaggy beards. The difference between the assimilated and the newly immigrated Jews is clearer than that between the assimilated Jews and the Christian population.

Reviews

“The film adaptation follows the book in large parts almost literally, which makes its conciliatory conclusion all the more utopian. At the end, the surprised viewer learns that the entire dramatic plot only happened in a dream and therefore not really. The compromise-dictated happy ending on the screen not only negates the meaning of Bettauer's book, but also the very real historical anti-Semitism that is reflected in it. Instead, a not harmless and by no means dreamlike reality is documented. [...] This surprising twist, which deviates completely from the literary model and simplifies the event as a dream plot, can not only be seen as a simple dramaturgical aid, but as a prime example of the art of repression of the Austrian soul. The naive and perhaps crude attempt from 1924 can be read as a dress rehearsal for what was practiced in the country without properties after the Second World War . "

- Thomas Ballhausen , Günter Krenn (2006)

The author completely distanced himself from the film after the premiere. This happened officially because of the technically inferior copies that were made in a hurry for the highest possible profit, but may also have been due to the criticism that the literary and cinematic work subsequently received.

Even so, the cinemas were often full - but the film fell well short of the book's success in Austria as well as in Berlin and New York (The City without Jews), where the film premiered in 1926 and 1928, respectively. Some of the performances broke out into riots: National Socialists threw stink bombs into cinemas. The film was even banned from showing in Linz . The right-wing press demanded that the republic be protected from these slurs and started their smear campaign. Partly because of this film, partly because of other publications. On March 10, 1925, Bettauer was murdered by Otto Rothstock , a temporary NSDAP member . The murderer was celebrated as a hero. Although this was found guilty by the jury, the judge ruled that he was acquitted because of insanity and ordered him to be admitted to a psychiatric institution, from which he was released at the end of May 1927. The film failed almost uniformly with the critics of that time and the many magazines that had extensively advertised the film often didn't say a word about it afterwards. One can see from the more neutral reviews that the technical film level in particular was rated as poor. In addition to the - quite authentic, conciliatory first - a second message was perceived, which caused offense. The Arbeiter-Zeitung wrote: “This anti-Semitic film, directed against anti-Semitism, is also miserable in terms of film.” Another comment reads: “Kitsch must also be skillful.” The rental company responded with the opening text that it was a A trend piece and one should not express displeasure out loud. But it could not prevent the actual effect.

Great uncertainty can arise between the supposedly prophetic foresight and the statements made by the modes of representation. In fact, it is rather an entertainment novel, whose anti-Semitic imagery and, on a literary level, unquestioned narrative commentary is problematized in both past and present reviews. Especially in the film, the characters move between exoticism and stereotypes. The Jews cling to the stranger and are caught in their suffering. There is no balance between physical, cultural and religious signs. This means that anti-Semitic patterns are oriented between satire, drama and poetry of Jewish suffering. Neither the narrator's commentary on the literary source nor the cinematic representation destroy the clichés that have been built up, or at least negate them satirically. On the contrary, they are actually manifested. Presuppositions are the conspiratorial influence of the Jews on the world as well as very special character traits that should be inherent in every Jew and which, not least, make it possible for Leo to be able to bring the Jews back through cunning, bribery and fraud. At the same time, this is verbalized and approved by the figure itself - and in relation to it. The normality of anti-Semitism in the twenties of the twentieth century is not really countered by the novel and even less by the film in its maintenance of clichés.

The marginal official secondary literature as well as the isolated alternative sources contain partly contradicting information on individual aspects of the film, so that the film lacks a uniform and exhaustive research consensus.

literature

  • Barbara Eichinger, Frank Stern : Vienna and the Jewish Experience 1900–1938. Acculturation-Anti-Semitism-Zionism. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2009.
  • Walter Fritz , Josef Schuchnig (ed.): The city without Jews. Materials on the film (= series of publications by the Austrian Film Archive, volume 26). Austrian Film Archive, Vienna 1991, DNB 1201189136 .
  • Guntram Geser, Armin Loacker (ed.): The city without Jews. Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2000. In: Series Edition Film und Text, 3, ISBN 3-901932-08-9 .
  • Alexandra Lichtenberger: Comparison of the representation of women in the Jewish silent films "East & West" and "The city without Jews." Diploma thesis, Vienna 2009.
  • Irene Stratenwerth , Herrman Simon: Pioneers in Celluloid: Jews in the Early Film World. Edited by the New Synagogue Berlin Foundation - Centrum Iudaicum. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-89487-471-1 (exhibition catalog).
  • Otto Mörth: The film adaptation of the novel “City without Jews. 1924 ". In: Maske & Kothurn 40, 1-3 (2000), pp. 73-92.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peter W. Marx : "City without Jews" - Anti-Semitism as a topic in the entertainment film of the 1920s: Short review on Guntram Geser / Armin Loacker (ed.): The city without Jews. In: IASLonline . February 12, 2002, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Comparison of the portrayal of women in the Jewish silent films "East & West" and "The City without Jews". In: medien-buehne-film.de. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015 ; accessed on July 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Kivur, No. 1346, n.d., n.p.
  4. ↑ Books: About corpses. In: Der Spiegel . February 15, 1982, pp. 189–191 , accessed July 8, 2020 . Reinhard Krammer , Christoph Kühberger , Franz Schausberger : The researcher view: Contributions to the history of Austria in the 20th century; Festschrift for Ernst Hanisch on his 70th birthday. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2010, p. 202. ( Google Books ).
  5. ↑ Sensational find: The city without Jews (1924). In: Filmarchiv Austria. July 31, 2016, archived from the original on August 10, 2016 ; accessed on July 8, 2020 .
  6. ^ Filmarchiv Austria: New fragments from "The City Without Jews" (1924). In: Ö1 broadcast “ Leporello ”. November 28, 2016, accessed July 8, 2020 . Film Rescue: The City Without Jews (1924). In: Filmarchiv Austria. August 1, 2016, archived from the original on November 26, 2016 ; accessed on July 8, 2020 .
  7. ^ Robert Solomon Wistrich: The ghosts of yesterday. In: Shalom 49 , August 12, 2008, accessed July 8, 2020 . Evelyne Polt-Heinzl: Karl Müller and Hans Wagener (Hrsg): Austria 1918 and the consequences. In: literaturhaus.at. June 2, 2009, accessed July 8, 2020 (review).
  8. ^ A b c Murray G. Hall : An evening for Hugo Bettauer. In: murrayhall.com. July 5, 2002, archived from the original on April 21, 2005 ; accessed on July 8, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Thomas Ballhausen, Günter Krenn: (Alb) Dreamlike: The city without Jews. (pdf; 433 kB) In: Medienimpulse . Issue 57, September 2006, pp. 35–39 , accessed on January 19, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Heimo Halbrainer: "The city without Jews" - the Bettauer case. In: korso.at - information magazine for Styria. July 2001, accessed July 8, 2020 .
  11. ^ Rothstock released from the insane asylum. In: Baden newspaper . June 8, 1927, p. 5 top left , accessed on July 8, 2020 (reproduced in Anno ).