Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture Edited by James Hardin (South Carolina) o Cultural History through p c a National Socialist Lens b ,I M ESSAYS ON THE CINEMA OF THE THIRD REICH of in b EDITED BY Es ROBERT C. REIMER of Th J dir ge fir film indi one the Ueb Naz thr KJei an aG past adap Hob see cont (conti CAMDEN HOUSE j 36. CULTURAL HISTORY THROUGH A NATIONAL SOCIALIST LENS 33 Notes FRANZA.FRANZA. BIRGELBIRGEL I See Viktor Reimann's views on these events in Goebbels (Garden City, N]: Doubleday, 1976) 74-77. Goebbels probably planned coining "unknown SA LuisLuis Trenker:Trenker: AA RebelRebel inin thethe ThirdThird Reich?Reich? man" during a riot-provoking talk in 1927 for a real SA man, who was DerDer Rebell,Rebell, DerDer verloreneveriorene Sohn,Sohn, DerDer KaiserKaiser vonvon wounded in the course ofthar talk in a struggle possibly staged by Goebbels's supporters. Kalifornien,Kalifornien, Condottieri,Condottieri, andand DerDerFeuerteufelFeuerteufel , It should be noted that thc proto-Nazi film Der Rebell is also echoed in SA­ Mann Braud but only subliminally in the theme of rebellion and self-sacrifice; HE TENTHTENTH ANNUAL TELLURIDETELLURIDE FILMFILM FESTrvALFESTIVAL of 19831983 may bebe the other tWO films of the trilogy realize the imagery of Der Rebell more radi­ rememberedremembered forfor threethree significantsignificant events. The firstfirst waswas Andrei cally. TT Tarkovsky'sTarkoysky's comment thatthat cinema "was not and should not be an en­ 3 For an overview of the premiere with its long lines of Hitler Youth and Bal­ tertainment,tertainment, only an art,"art)n whereupon he invitedinvited all thosethose present who dur von Schirach's eulogy ofthe sacrifice ofNockus, see Jay W. Baird. To Die to for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon (Bloomington: U of Indiana P, wanted toto bebc entertained by his new fiJmfilm NostalghiaNortalghia to leave.leavc. The sec­sec­ 1990) 125-26, and David Welch, Propaganda mId the German Cimma ond was Richard Widmark'sWidmark's rejoinderrejoinder that films had room for both art (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1983) 61. and entertainment,entertainment) and the thirdthird was a retrospective of Luis Trcnkcr'sTrenker's films with the then almost ninety-one-year-oldninety-one-yea.r-old fiJmmakerfilmmaker present 4 Also see Linda Schulte-Sasse who notes that rebirth is implied by the scene's unusual filmic style: " ... the frame begins to 'swim,' transporting Heini be­ (Everson 1983b, 6). Trenker, who died in 1990, is known in Germany yond reality, erasing time and the existing symbolic order." Entertaining the and Austria as skief,skier, mountain climber, director,director) producer,prOducer, actor, and Third Reich: Illusions ofWholeness in Nazi Cine'fna (Durham, NC: Duke UP) writer of filmscripts, memoirs, novels, and books on mountaineering. 266. He is further associated with environmentalenvirol1Jnental issues, guest spots on chil­ 5The lyrics of the refrain afC germane to the theme ofsacrifice in the "March dren's and talk shows, and promotions for Fiat automobiles and a line of the Hitler Youth" written especially for Hitln"jtmge Qpex: «OUf banner of organic health-catehealth-care products. Like LeniLen! RiefenstaW, Trenker began flU[tcrs before us. /Into the future we proceed man for man. /We march for his film career in the mountain films of Arnold FanckFanek and went on to Hitler through night and through need. /With the banner of youth for free­ direct his own filmsfUms during the Third ReichReich, but unlike RiefenstahlRiefenstahl, dom and bread. lOur banner flutters before us. lOur banner is the new TrenkerTrcnker was able to work again in the film il~dustryindustry after the Second time. lAnd the banner leads us into eternity. /yes, the banner is beyond World War. Trenker's appearance at Telluride and the screenings of his death!" (Arnold, et al. 253). Both the above match and the Horst Wessel films at numcrousnumerous Goethe Institutes in the United States for the 1983 song, the anthem ofthe Nazis, are the two major songs ofthe Nazi party. tricentennial celebration of German immigration to America were partpan 6 Sec Martin Loiperdinger, Ei1utellmtgsprotokolt, who maintains in the intro­ ofan unsuccessful effort to rehabilitate thethe controversial filmmaker and duction that one cannot compare Hans Westmar at the present time with the to introduceintroduce him to a largerlarger audience. In spite of these events and Wil­Wil~ original script ofthe film about Horst Wessel because it has been lost (ii). liam(iam K. Everson's work on his behaJf,behalf, mOstmost American film historians havchave forgonen Luis TrenkerTrenker or atat best relegated him inin aa few short paragraphs toto thethe categorycategory ofNazi filmmaker.fiJrnmalcer. HisHis films deserve greatergreater attention not onlyonly because some ofof them are well made, combiningcombining entertainmententertainment and art,art, but also because ofoftheirtheir historical significance)significance, whicbwhich arisesarises fromfrom theirtheir problematicproblematic interplayinterplay betweenbetween politics,politics, ideol­ideol­ ogy,ogy, andand cinema.cinema. Today therethere areare twotwo conflictingconflicting narratives concerningconcerning thethe lifelife and careercareer ofofLuisLuis Trenker,Trenker, eacheach assertingasserting historiographichistoriographic certainty.certainty. OnOn thethe 38.38 • CULTURAL HISTORY THROUGHTHROUGH AA NATIONAL SOCIALISTSOCIALIST LENS LUIS TRENKER: A REBEL ININ THETHE THIRD REICH? •• 3939 one side, Trenker argues thatthat he was a loyalloyal South Tyrolean,Tyrolean, a Pan­ made between 1930 and 1932 aboutabour thethe GermanGcrman war of liberationliberation 2 German patriot 'whowho smuggled anti-Nazi statements intointo his filmsftlms and against Napoleon,Napoleon,' Der Rebell was toto become a protorypcprototypc forfor Hitler­Hitle,.­ who was firstfirst used and thenthen oppressedoppresscd by thethe National Socialists. As isis jungeJunge QJ'ex (Hitler(Hitler YOUtllYouth Quex, 1933), HamHans Westmar (1933),(1933), and thethe case with most filmmakersfilmmakers who worked inin Germany during thethe SA-MannSA-Mann BrandBl'and (1933),(1933), threethree filmsfilms about sacrificing one's lifelife forfor Na­ Third Reich, Trenker's own accounts must be viewed with a degree of tional Socialism. skepticism since they constitute more of a self-justification thanthan a con­ In his famous speech before representatives of thethe German mmfIlm in­in­ fession.fession. Among Trenker'sTrcnkcr's defendersdefendcrs are EversonEvcrson and David Stewart dustry on 28 March 1933, GoebbelsGoebbcls praised four filmsfilms as artistic mas­ Hull. RecentRccent critics include Jan-Christopher Horak and Eric Rentsch­ terpieces: Sergei Eisenstein's PotemkinPoteml,in (The(The Battleship Potemkin,Potcmkin, ler, who focus on the anti-modernist tendeneiestendencies and Nazi aesthetics of 1925), Edmund Goulding's Love (1927, based on Tolstoy's A"'laAnna Trenker's films, viewing him as a blood-and-soil ideologueideologuc and chau­ Karmina),Karenina), Fritz Lang's Die NibelungmNibelu'tgen (1924) and Trenker's Der Re­Re­ vinistic anti-American agitator who benefited from Hitler'sHitlcr's support. bell. RegarelingRegarding Trenker's film, Goebbels stated that it "could even Placed within thethc context of Third Reich ideology and history, overwhelm a non-National Socialist." Der RebellRebelt shows that "the Trenker's ftlmsfilms reflect Nazi ideology, lending themselves to interpreta­ proper attitude is not enough,enough) great ability is also necessary" to create a tions as fascist works. cinematic work of art (Albrecht 1979, 27). Goebbels, who watched the The question remains: What was Trcnker?Trenker? A rather naive Natttr~Natur­ film tlucethree times (at least twicetwiee with Hitler), realized that tllisthis was how bursche (nature-boy)(naturc-boy) as he presented himself in public? A Catholic fas­ the film of the future should be: "revolutionary, with very large mass cist? An opportunist? Amidst the opposing statements and views, the scenes, created with an inlmenseiyimmensely vital energy" (1934, 244; 1987,2: Trenker case will remain ambiguous and problematic. Florian Leim­ 342). Hitler even informed Trenker that he had seen Der Rebell four gruber'sgrubcr's eelitionedition of Trenker's file in the Berlin Document Center ex­ times and each time derived new pleasure from it (Wulf 371). poses a person who, even in difficult situations, looked out for his own Since the National Socialists liked to represent the rise of the Nazi financial interests, maneuvering like an acrobat between the National movement as an uprising by the people, this filmmm about thcthe Tyrolean Socialists and thcthe Italian Fascists to his own benefit, and e1isplayingdisplaying all revolt against Napoleon's troops became the prototype of the Third the traits of a "political chameleon" (4). The documents also reveal a Reich's filmsftlms about national uprisings. Like Fritz Lang)sLang's Nibetungen,Nibelungen, non-conformist who,who) according to his denouncers in early 1934}1934, wore a the film was intended to evoke myths of the past and create a sense of swastil'"swastika pin and boasted of being Hitler's friend,fi'iend, but who also criti­ pride among the Germans and Austrians after the Treaty of Versailles. cized thcthe book burnings and treatment ofofJewsJews (13,16-18,173-74).(13, 16-18, 173-74). According to Trenker, altilOughalthough he set thistllis filmfilm inin 1809, it was directed Scholars and critics today follow the