Breaking the Rules: Hollywood and the Limits of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939
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Breaking the Rules: Hollywood and the Limits of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939. by William Gregory Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2011 © Copyright by William Gregory, 2011 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “Breaking the Rules: Hollywood and the Limits of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939” by William Gregory in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: 25 August 2011 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: 25 August 2011 AUTHOR: William Gregory TITLE: Breaking the Rules: Hollywood and the Limits of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of History DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2011 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED......................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...........................................................1 CHAPTER 2: LIGHTS, GLAMOUR, FASCISM: HOLLYWOOD STARDOM AND NAZI "PERSONALITY"............................................................22 CHAPTER 3: SADDLING UP FOR NATIONAL SOCIALISM: LUIS TRENKER'S THE EMPEROR OF CALIFORNIA.....................................53 CHAPTER 4: SCREWBALL COMEDY, NAZI STYLE: FANTASIES OF AMERICA IN LUCKY KIDS..............................................................84 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A MONO-CULUTRAL IDENTITY……………………………….......................................................113 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................120 iv ABSTRACT The emulation of Hollywood by German films studios in the 1930s caused significant problems from an ideological perspective. “Germanized” Hollywood productions incorporated the exciting elements that made American films so popular in the Third Reich in an effort to displace them. However, a glorification of consumer capitalism and political individualism accompanied Californian style assembly-line filmmaking, even in Nazi Germany. In particular, Hollywood style stardom, western films and remakes introduced potentially dissonant ideas and messages into Germany’s public sphere. These films broke the rules and depicted worlds that subtly questioned Nazi ideology in their depiction of non-Nazi modes of identity. “Germanized” Hollywood deviated from Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’s attempts to reconstruct the cinema as a location of indoctrination. The presence of American social values in German films resulted in a mixed articulation of “Germanness” in the regime’s preferred medium of propagandistic persuasion. v List of Abbreviations Used BFI British Film Institute MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer RKO Radio-Keith-Orpheum RM Reichsmark SA Sturmabteilung SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – Social Democratic Party of Germany SPIO Spitzenorganisation SS Schutzstaffel Tobis Tobis Tonbild-Syndikat AG UFA Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft UFI Ufa-Film-GmbH vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people to whom I am forever indebted. My supervisor John Bingham has been there along the way, patiently pointing me in new directions and helped shape this project into a workable piece of writing. He allowed me to pursue my interest in film and gave me the time and space to find my way. The history departments at both Mount Allison and Dalhousie have my thanks. My undergraduate supervisor Will Wilson convinced me I could tackle difficult academic topics and succeed. Denis Kozlov’s class on Soviet literature broadened my thinking about culture and poltics, and how they intersect. The lessons learned in his seminars translated directly to the writing of this thesis. He and Phil Zachernuk took the time out of their busy schedules to be on my committee and I thank them for their questions and input. Without the administrative magic of Val and Tina I would have likely missed every single official deadline. Thank you so much for your kindly reminders. I owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to my parents. They supported me emotionally, and sometimes financially, during my time at Dalhousie. I know I could not have completed this thesis without their love and encouragement. My good friends in the history department Ken, Ellie, Chris, and Danielle gave me the knowledge that I wasn’t alone and always helped revive my flagging spirits. They, and many other non-historians, the Jons, Colin, Corrine, Fran, Rob, my sister Ellen, made Halifax a wonderful place to be over the last two years. I would not even be at Dalhousie if not for Justine Galbraith. She convinced me to pursue a Masters degree and displayed immeasurable patience and humour throughout. Her love kept me going through all of the stress and anxiety. Thank you so much. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “We must give film a task and a mission in order that we may use it to conquer the world. Only then will we also overcome American film” declared German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940.1 Goebbels’s interest in the cinema was considerable; it presented the regime with a powerful medium to influence and articulate the Nazi vision of “Germanness.” Ideally, the cinema became the site of collective experience, a microcosm of the people’s community. However, this pedagogical superstructure never came to fruition and a completely Nazified cinema was never realized. Nor could Goebbels fully displace Hollywood despite generous government funding and preferential legislation. Hollywood entertainment continued to dominate the tastes of the masses; its slick, sophisticated imports routinely crushed German features at the box office. The struggle to “overcome” American film lasted until Goebbels resorted to force. In 1940, he banned the further importation and exhibition of American films. The superficial erasure of Hollywood from the German film world obfuscates the immense impact Hollywood studios had on German film in the 1930s. Before Goebbels erected a cultural embargo, German studios actively emulated aspects of Hollywood films in an effort to translate Hollywood’s popularity into domestic and international successes for German films during the 1930s. Instead of a constant barrage of propaganda in feature films, audiences received mixed and often conflicting messages. Hollywood films glorified individualism as the basis of social and political interactions defined through consumerist consumption. Emulation not only defied strict interpretations of 1EricRentschler,“TheTestamentofDr.Goebbels,”FilmHistory8no.3(1996),318. 1 Nazi ideology, but also caused fractures in the pedestal of the state’s propaganda monument. Americanized entertainment allowed the presentation of non-Nazi values and lifestyles in the very medium designed to articulate a uniform political identity. The individualist and consumerist themes underwriting Hollywood entertainment became subversive when introduced to the closed ideological conditions of the Nazi regime. Evaluations of German culture under the Nazi regime must take propaganda into account. Any cultural artifact that promoted a specific political worldview in a clear manner can be considered propaganda; the audience could not be confused about the intended message. Nazi propaganda was often explicit, framing the narrative of a novel, play or film around a central, politically defined theme such as anti-Semitism or xenophobic nationalism. Political directors and authors worked to manipulate emotional involvement and identification to score the highest possible resonance with the audience. There was a wide diversity of propaganda produced in the Third Reich ranging from blunt, repetitive sloganeering to sophisticated political-entertainment epics. The former, however, were far more common, with simple slogans such as “Jews are our Misfortune” appearing across Germany. Even with the commitment of the Propaganda Ministry and the studios, an effective fusion of politics and entertainment remained elusive. The leaders of the Third Reich viewed political propaganda as indispensible in the creation of the Nazi regime. Hitler treated propaganda extensively in Mein Kampf and advocated a simplistic, repetitive campaigning style to convince the gullible masses: the receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, and their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence