INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo­ graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the original text directly from the copy submitted. Thus, some dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from a computer printer. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyrighted material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are re­ produced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is available as one exposure on a standard 35 mm slide or as a 17" x 23" black and white photographic print for an additional charge. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 35 mm slides or 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ■UMIAccessing the World's Information since 1938 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA Order Number 8820367 Aesthetics and politics of fascism: West German women filmmakers in the nineteen seventies Weinberger, Gabriele W., Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1989 by Weinberger, Gabriele W. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or p ages______ 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print_______ 3. Photographs with dark background______ 4. Illustrations are poor copy_______ 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy _ _ J / Z 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page_______ 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several pages _ 8. Print exceeds margin requirements_______ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost in spine________ 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print_______ 11. Page(s)____________lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s) seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages numbered______. Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages ^ 15. Dissertation contains pages with print at a slant, filmed a s received 16. Other AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF FASCISM: WEST GERMAN WOMEN FIUMAKERS IN THE NINETEEN SEVENTIES. DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Gabriele W. Weinberger, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1988 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Dagtnar C.G. Lorenz / Judith Mayne — i— — ------r Henry J. Schmidt Adviser Department of German ©1989 GABRIELE W. WEINBERGER All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank the Center for Women’s Studies at the Ohio State University for supporting my dissertation research through its Research Award. With the help of this grant I conducted research in West Berlin. I am very greatful for the generous and always friendly help I received from Karl Winter at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, the library staff at the Film Academy, and the Basis Film Verleih. Thanks go to the members of my advisory committee, Drs. Judith Mayne and Henry J. Schmidt for their suggestions and comments. Above all, I would like to express my gratitude and sincere appreciation to my adviser, Dr. Dagmar C.G. Lorenz, for her guidance, support, encouragement, and for being both a critical teacher and a friend. Her trust in me as a colleague provided me with invaluable professional experience and made my work over the past years truly enjoyable. I VITA April 21, 1954 ...................... Born - Passau, West Germany 1980 ..................................Staatsexamen, English fit French University Regensburg, West Germany 1982 ....................... .......... M.A., German, The Ohio State University Field of Study: German TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................. ii VITA ............................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................ iv CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .......................................... 1 N o t e s ................................................. 18 CHAPTER II: Beyond the Private Sphere: Political Implications of Motherhood in Germany. Pale Mother ................... 22 Visual Code of Representation in Germany. Pale Mother 22 Nazi Ideology in Germany. Pale M o t h e r ........... 53 Germany. Pale Mother in the Context of the German Feminist Movement ................................. 78 N o t e s ............................................. 95 III: Through a Girl’s Eyes: Body Politics and Fear of War . 109 Marianne Rosenbaum and the Aesthetics of Angst . 109 Visual Code of Representation in Peppermint Frieden 134 N o t e s .............................................177 IV: Years of Hunger: Jutta Bruckner’s "Fraulein Wirtschaftswunder.".............................. 181 The Adenauer Era’s New German Woman. Self-image in Transition...................................... 181 Visual Code of Representation in Years of Hunger . 193 N o t e s .............................................244 V: CONCLUSION: Theory and Feminist Film Practice . 249 N o t e s .............................................269 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................... 273 FILMOGRAPHY ................................................... 284 iv INTRODUCTION A film about the past is a film for the future. Erwin Leiser That fascism lives on; that the much quoted coming-to-terms with the past was unsuccessful until today and degenerated to its caricature, the empty and cold forgetfulness, is due to the fact, that the objective social conditions which brought about fascism, have not ceased to exist. Theodor W. Adorno "What does "coming-to-terms with the past" mean." What can be written about, is overcome. Anna Seghers1 Since Germany’s defeat in 1945 the myth of a ’point zero’ (NulIpunkt), a new beginning, in cultural life and especially literature is commonplace. Contrary to its reappearance in many literary histories,2 the fallacy of this perceived break-off point and fresh start after the total defeat soon becomes obvious to any reader of post-1945 German literature, since virtually all narrative literature as well as films share the reference to the Third Reich in one way or another. The postulation of a "zero situation" — the belief that National Socialism had come to an end utterly and finally with the fall of Hitler’s regime as suddenly as it appeared to have arisen — this mandate of the "new beginning" has been made innumerable times 1 2 over the last 40 years down to President Reagan’s memorable visit in Bitburg on the anniversary of the capitulation of the fascist terror regime on May 8, 1985 when president Richard von Weizsacker addressed the combined assembly of the Bundestag and Bundesrat by saying "There was no point zero; rather we had the opportunity to start anew."3 The fact that not the end of the war but indeed the "Wahrungsreform" in 1948 stayed in the Germans’ consciousness as Stunde Null points to the problems of the new German society and its ways of coming to terms with the unassimilated Nazi past. After the defeat of the National-Socialist power, the Allies implemented programs of denazification and re-education. Impressed by the Nazi regime’s conspicuously successful exploitation of motion pictures, the press, and radio for war propaganda, the Allied forces began to produce their own films as part of these programs. The directive No. 1067 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff contained the five basic goals: the suppression of all forms of militarism, the denazification of the population, the dismantling of German industry, inculcation in the German people the idea of collective guilt for war crimes, and finally the strict prohibition of fraternization between occupation troops and local inhabitants. After the first phase (German movie theaters showed the first of these newsreels on May 18, 1945, only ten days after the capitulation), the Long Range Policy Statement of June 1946 initiated a second phase of the re-education policy in which the emphasis shifted from incriminations of collective guilt to the need to rebuild the country. Thus the goals of re-education and denazification — the impossible task of eradicating an ideological perversion by a population which themselves had not yet begun to fully understand — were rather quickly put aside as the fronts of the Cold War began to form and the population of the Western zones had to prepare for the "reacceptance into the family of peaceful nations." As Bob Dylan sarcastically commented in one of his songs on this Western alliance, which put Germany under the wings of protection, "They slaughtered 6 million, in their ovens they fried, but the Germans now, too, have God on their side." The peaceful Western Allies saw fit to give Germany an important role in their new cold war against the communist system through its assigned role in the defense of Europe. The extreme limitations of the denazification efforts become clear in Friedrich Kahlenberg's account: Meanwhile a rising number of older German films