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Access to Electronic Thesis Author: Andrew David Edward Wormald Thesis title: Coming to terms with the National Socialist Past in teamWorx's TV Event Movies Qualification: PhD This electronic thesis is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No reproduction is permitted without consent of the author. It is also protected by the Creative Commons Licence allowing Attributions-Non-commercial-No derivatives. If this electronic thesis has been edited by the author it will be indicated as such on the title page and in the text. Coming to terms with the National Socialist Past in teamWorx’s TV Event Movies: Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Andrew David Edward Wormald Department of Germanic Studies The University of Sheffield December 2011 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1: Introduction and Defining Terms ................................................................................ 5 1.1: Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 1.2: Memory of the National Socialist past in contemporary Germany ........................................... 6 1.2.1: Theories of memory ......................................................................................................... 6 1.2.2: The Post-unification resurgence of memory of the National Socialist past .......................11 1.2.3: Uses and abuses of memory ............................................................................................12 1.2.4: Normalisation .................................................................................................................15 1.3: An Introduction to teamWorx ................................................................................................19 1.3.1: What are Event Movies? .................................................................................................20 1.3.2: A Short biography of Nico Hofmann...............................................................................24 1.3.3: teamWorx and history .....................................................................................................26 1.3.4: Hollywood, globalisation and international influences .....................................................31 1.3.5: „Quote‟ and „Qualität‟ .....................................................................................................35 1.3.6: „Kino fürs Fernsehen‟ .....................................................................................................38 1.3.7: teamWorx‟s influence .....................................................................................................40 Chapter 2: Defining Terms ............................................................................................................42 2.1: Authenticity ..........................................................................................................................42 2.1.1: Theories of authenticity ..................................................................................................43 2.1.2: The Perils of history on film............................................................................................45 2.1.3: Authenticity on television ...............................................................................................48 2.2: Hollywood ............................................................................................................................50 2.2.1: What is Hollywood? .......................................................................................................51 2.2.2: Breaking down the Hollywood/German dichotomy .........................................................52 2.2.3: Hollywood ideology .......................................................................................................57 2.3: Television .............................................................................................................................60 2.3.1: Trends in historical television .........................................................................................60 2.3.2: Dangers of historical television .......................................................................................63 2.3.3: Uses of historical television ............................................................................................65 2.4: Literature Review ..................................................................................................................67 2.4.1: Post-wall cinema ............................................................................................................68 2.4.2: The Holocaust on film ....................................................................................................71 2.4.3: German victimhood on film ............................................................................................75 2.4.4 Response from Germany ..................................................................................................81 Chapter 3: Germans as Victims: Dresden and Die Flucht ............................................................84 3.1: Background to the Germans as Victims Debate ......................................................................84 3.1.1: Rise in the victimhood discourse .....................................................................................84 3.1.2: Uses and abuses of the victimhood discourse ..................................................................91 3.1.3: Taboos on memory of German victimhood .....................................................................95 3.2: Dresden and Die Flucht .......................................................................................................103 3.2.1: Introduction to the films ................................................................................................103 3.2.2: Authenticity ..................................................................................................................107 3.2.3: Hollywood and international influences ........................................................................117 1 3.2.4: Debates .........................................................................................................................134 3.2.5: Criticism .......................................................................................................................167 3.2.6: Conclusions ..................................................................................................................171 Chapter 4: The Holocaust: Nicht alle waren Mörder ...................................................................175 4.1: Memory of the Holocaust in post-war Germany ...................................................................175 4.1.1: Should the Holocaust be dealt with in film at all? ..........................................................175 4.1.2: A History of Holocaust features ....................................................................................179 4.2: Nicht alle waren Mörder......................................................................................................197 4.2.1: Introduction to the film .................................................................................................197 4.2.2: Authenticity ..................................................................................................................199 4.2.3: Hollywood and international influences ........................................................................206 4.2.4: Debates .........................................................................................................................212 4.2.5: Criticism .......................................................................................................................225 4.2.6: Conclusions ..................................................................................................................228 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................231 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................246 Filmography .................................................................................................................................266 Appendix 1: Interview with Nico Hofmann.................................................................................267 Appendix 2: Interview with Kai Wessel ......................................................................................282 2 Abstract This thesis examines three made-for-television „Event Movies‟ from the German production company teamWorx, made between 2006 and 2007 – Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) – within the context of contemporary debates of „Vergangenheitsbewältigung‟ or „coming to terms with the past‟ in Germany. It will deal with specific debates in memory of the National Socialist past, namely representations of Germans as