Copyright 2012 Kevin B. Johnson Annexation Effects: Cultural Appropriation and the Politics of Place in Czech-German Films, 1930-1945 Kevin B. Johnson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Eric Ames, Chair Richard Gray Sabine Wilke Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Germanics University of Washington Abstract Annexation Effects: Cultural Appropriation and the Politics of Place in Czech-German Films, 1930-1945 Kevin Bradley Johnson Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Eric Ames Department of Germanics The dissertation maps various points of cultural transfer in Czech-German films of the 1930s and 1940s. Specifically, it examines the representation and performance of ethnicity and the layered connections between geographic space, national identity, and mass culture. My work illustrates that Nazi cinema’s appropriation of Czech culture was informed and, more importantly, legitimated by the Austro-Hungarian legacy. This analysis provides a framework for understanding the German film industry’s stake in the Czech lands and its people. The dissertation further demonstrates the peculiar position within the German cinematic imagination occupied by Prague and the Czech territories. At once “familiar” and “foreign,” these cinematic spaces become settings for ethnic confrontation and for the negotiation of German identity. Each chapter examines the intersection of German and Czech cinema from a different thematic or historical perspective. Chapter One deals with questions of authorship and transnationalism in films by Czech-German directors. Chapter Two looks at the staging of female bodies and the performance of ethnic masquerade by Czech actors in German films. Chapter Three explores the affinities between genre, geography, and concepts of Heimat in the context of German, Austrian, and “Bohemian” cinema. Chapter Four investigates the politics of place and identity in Czech-German multiple language version films (or MLVs) of the 1930s. Chapter Five examines the special role of “Prague” in the German cinematic imagination. Chapter Six analyzes films produced in occupied Prague within the larger context of Third Reich cinema. The study offers detailed analyses of various discourses relevant to German-Czech cultural transfer and appropriation in Third Reich cinema. It employs a broad base of resources including newspapers, film journals, unpublished correspondence, as well as films and advertising materials. My research combines close readings of films with background information (biographies, production notes, distribution and reception history, etc.) relevant for their cinematic and cultural contextualization. The dissertation integrates individual film analyses into larger discourses on popular film, genre, authorship, and national cinema. By addressing various sites of intercultural confrontation, the project contributes to the understanding of Third Reich cinema’s national and transnational imagination. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. ii Dedication............................................................................................................................. iii Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Foreign Attractions: Czech Stars and Ethnic Masquerade .................................... 41 Chapter 2: Accented Voices from Central Europe: Gustav Machatý and Karel Lama č .......... 112 Chapter 3: The Tropes of Bohemia: Ethnicity, Culture, and Space in Genre ......................... 176 Chapter 4: The Un-mixing of Bohemia: Hybridity and Heimat in Czech-German MLVs ...... 227 Chapter 5: Prague’s Uncanny Places: Reflections of a Divided City ..................................... 300 Chapter 6: (Re)Imagining German Bohemia: Prag-Film and Third Reich Cinema ................ 354 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 407 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 418 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to Social Science Research Council as well as the Graduate School, Department of Germanics, and Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington for providing the funding necessary to do the research for this dissertation. I am also thankful to the personnel at the numerous archives and libraries where I conducted research: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv (Berlin), Národní filmový archiv (Prague), Archiv Austria (Vienna), Státní ust řední archiv (Prague), Národní knihovna (Prague), and Staatsbibliothek Berlin. I am grateful to my advisor, Eric Ames, as well as to Richard Gray and Sabine Wilke for their guidance and advice throughout the planning and realization of this dissertation. For training in Czech, I am indebted to Jaroslava Soldanová (University of Washington), Letní škola slovanských studií and the Čestina pro cizince department at the Charles University (Prague), and the Summer School for Slavonic Studies at the University of South Bohemia ( České Bud ějovice). I also wish to acknowledge all of the coffee houses around the world, which provided fuel and setting for large portions of this dissertation to be written, most importantly: Victrola, Vivace, Top Pot (Capitol Hill), and Allegro in Seattle, WA; Ebel (Řet ězová) and Mama Coffee (Vodi čková) in Prague; and Brewed Awakenings/Aspen Coffee and Harmony Café in Appleton, WI. Most of all, I want to extend sincerest thanks to all of my family, friends, advisors, and colleagues for their patience and support throughout the long process of bringing the dissertation to paper. ii DEDICATION for Anna and Antonín iii 1 Introduction Of all the territories that were overrun by the Third Reich, Czechoslovakia occupies a special position. 1 -Johann Wolfgang Brügel, Tschechen und Deutsche, 1939-1946 Imagine the lobby of a hotel decorated in ornate art nouveau style. World famous German actor Hans Albers, wearing a fedora and long, dark coat, enters the room. He approaches the young Austrian actor O. W. Fischer. They have a discussion about the counterfeit bills that Albers has traced back to the Jakobi bookstore. From off-screen, a voice calls out “Cut!” Our view pans out to reveal Hans Steinhoff (infamous for his work on propaganda “masterpieces” such as Hitlerjunge Quex [Hitler Youth Quex, 1933] , Ohm Krüger [Uncle Kruger, 1941]) in the director’s chair. Nearby, we also observe many other well-known figures from the German film industry, such as actors Grete Weiser and Theodor Loos, cinematographer Carl Hoffmann ( Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler [Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, 1922]; Von morgens bis mitternachts [From Morn to Midnight, 1921]; Faust [1926]; Morgenrot [Dawn, 1933]), and set designer Julius von Borsody ( Berlin – Alexanderplatz [1931], 13 Stühle [Thirteen Chairs, 1938], Eine Frau wie du [A Woman like You, 1933]). It is March 1945—we are observing an episode from the final weeks of the “thousand-year” Nazi empire. However, this is not Berlin, nor is it Munich, nor even Vienna. The scene recreated here does not even take place on the territory of the German Third Reich proper. This is Prague, capital of the Nazi occupied Protektorat von Böhmen und Mähren (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) . 1 “Unter den Ländern, die vom Dritten Reich überrannt worden sind, nimmt die Tschechoslowakei eine besondere Stellung ein.” Brügel 9. Note: this is the very first line in the book. 2 Now taking a closer at the scene, we begin to notice a Czech technician holding the boom microphone, another one operating a camera, and yet another working the sound recording equipment. We are in the Barrandov studios at the southern edge of Prague, on the bluffs above the Vltava River. This is the set of the crime drama Shiva und die Galgenblume (Shiva and the Gallows Flower), a film produced by the German-owned Prag-Film AG. Like Shiva , the films made by this company featured German actors almost exclusively, but heavily utilized the labor of local Czech film production personnel, even occasionally putting a Czech in the director’s chair. This particular film project was never completed. On the eve of Prague’s liberation from the Nazis, production was halted and the German crew scattered in flight from the invading Red Army. Consequently, this episode of German film history has been mostly forgotten. 2 Despite its obscurity, this film points to series of intriguing developments in the German cinematic tradition. It is remarkable precisely because of the high degree of Czech involvement behind the scenes and because of the location of its creation: Prague. Due to these underlying Czech factors, Shiva and the Gallows Flower cannot be defined strictly in terms of German national cinema. Nor can the film simply be characterized as Czech. It is a curious cinematic hybrid—the result of certain intercultural affinities made expedient by war conditions. These moments in the spring of 1945 are the culmination of decades of Czech-German cinematic coproduction. At the same time, they signal the final words in this long chapter of transnational cooperation—the end of the war marked a fundamental shift in the relationship