UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Moving History: The Cinematic Regime of Historicity in Weimar Germany Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50h0z01v Author Allred, Mason Kamana Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Moving'History:'The'Cinematic'Regime'of'Historicity'in'Weimar'Germany' ' by' ' Mason'Kamana'Allred' ' ' A'dissertation'submitted'in'partial'satisfaction'of'the'' ' requirements'for'the'degree'of'' ' Doctor'of'Philosophy' ' in' ' German' ' and'the'Designated'Emphasis' ' in' ' Film'Studies' ' in'the' ' Graduate'Division' ' of'the' ' University'of'California,'Berkeley' ' ' ' Committee'in'charge:' ' ' Professor'Anton'Kaes,'Chair' ' Professor'Chenxi'Tang' ' Professor'Kristen'Whissel' ' ' ' Spring'2015' ' ' Abstract! ! Moving!History:!The!Cinematic!Regime!of!Historicity!in!Weimar!Germany! ! By! ! Mason!Kamana!Allred! ! Doctor!of!Philosophy!in!German! ! Designated!Emphasis!in!Film!Studies! ! University!of!California,!Berkeley! ! Professor!Anton!Kaes,!Chair! ! ! This!study!shows!how!historical!film!confronted!popular!memory!and!the!dominant! sense! of! history,! to! deconstruct! and! supplant! these! modes,! resulting! in! a! media! revolution! for! historical! transmission! and! experience.! With! its! inherent! potential! and!oftMlamented!drawbacks,!I!argue!that!film!came!to!shape!a!primary!regime!of! historicity,!one!that!made!history!internationally!shared,!primarily!imagistic!rather! than! narrative,! explicitly! constructed! and! a! sensory! experience! specifically! for! embodied! viewers.! In! order! to! closely! analyze! this! emergence! of! cinematic! historicity! I! turn! to! symptomatic! contemporary! developments! that! expose! the! power! of! cinema! on! historical! thought! and! writing.! The! project! begins! by! tracing! historical! film’s! pedagogical! inflection,! first! in! its! international! context! as! a! connective! force! for! peace! and! understanding! and! then! by! focusing! in! on! the! potential! of! historical! film! in! Weimar! classroom! instruction.! Next,! I! detail! the! response!and!appropriation!of!cinematic!possibilities!for!historians!and!the!invasion! of!the!popular!form!into!the!academy.!After!treating!the!international,!pedagogical,! and! historiographical! contexts,! I! argue! for! the! corporeal! experience! of! history! on! film! as! shaping! the! popular! “sense”! of! the! past! and! offering! a! qualitative! gain! in! historical!transmission.! The!first!chapter!reveals!the!entanglement!of!historical!films!immediately!following! the! Great! War! as! transnational! and! interconnected! products.! The! chapter! historicizes!Ernst!Lubitsch’s!and!Germany’s!entry!into!the!international!film!market! and! the! attendant! politics! of! promoting! world! pedagogy! through! world! history! in! the!“universal!language”!of!silent!film.!This!sentiment!is!traced!in!the!conception!of! borders,!limits!and!expansion!in!both!the!formal!construction!of!Lubitsch’s!history! films,!Passion'(1919),!Deception'(1920)!and!The'Loves'of'Pharaoh'(1922),!as!well!as! the!discourses!surrounding!them.!The!chapter!intervenes!in!traditional!accounts!of! this! period! that! perpetuate! a! purely! nationalist! view! of! marketing! spectacle! and! instead! treats! the! transnational! element! of! history! films! in! form,! content,! and! reception.! This! focus! reveals! Germany’s! cultural! and! economic! connection,! ! 1! understood!as!an!alternative!to!the!largely!ineffective!League!of!Nations.! The! next! chapter! localizes! the! issues! of! historical! film! by! surveying! educational! attempts! to! incorporate! historical! film! in! the! official! pedagogy! of! early! Weimar.! Focusing!on!previously!untreated!debates!centered!on!the!effect!of!the!medium,!this! chapter!uses!the!figure!of!youth!from!Benjamin’s!writings!to!consider!an!alternative! mode!of!history!film!reception.!This!mode!is!tied!to!the!ontological!realism!of!the! medium!and!is!shown!to!eschew!“historicism,”!while!foregrounding!the!constructed! and!illusory!nature!of!creating!history!out!of!the!past.! The!third!chapter,!“Clio!in!Crisis,”!starts!from!the!address!given!at!Ernst!Troeltsch’s! funeral!to!explore!the!international!hope!for!“new!history”!and!the!implications!of! the! crisis! of! historicism.! The! chapter! then! treats! filmic! examples! of! thematizing! historical!visualization,!before!turning!to!the!way!cinema!shaped!historical!writing! and! thought! for! historians.! Walter! Benjamin’s! conception! of! alternative! historiography,! armed! with! film’s! “dynamite,”! together! with! Siegfried! Kracauer’s! thoughts! on! photographic! media’s! “dynamizing”! relation! to! history! and! memory! provide! examples! of! exploring! the! threat! and! promise! of! cinema! in! the! popular! presentation! as! well! as! the! very! writing! of! history.! I! argue! that! historical! productions,! both! that! of! individual! films! as! well! as! filmMinspired! thought! and! writing,!came!to!register!the!crisis!of!historicism!and!help!translate!it!into!culturally! consumed!terms.! The!final!chapter!begins!with!beheadings!on!film!as!a!modern!spectacle!tied!to!grave! sensory! history—cinematically! fragmenting! the! body! as! well! as! framing! bodily! experience! for! an! audience.! The! chapter! seeks! to! mitigate! Kracauer’s! dismissal! of! Lubitsch’s! history! films! (in! Caligari'to'Hitler)! by! using! his! more! sensoryMoriented! observations! in! Theory' of' Film.! The! chapter! shows! how! nineteenthMcentury! historicism! entailed! “selfMextinguishment”! and! thus! the! extraction! of! the! sensing! body! in! historiographical! construction! and! reception.! By! using! Vivian! Sobchack’s! film!phenomenology!to!read!Passion,'I!argue!that!historical!film!returns!the!body!to! the! historical! process! and! that! this! important! cultural! shift! escapes! the! lens! of! traditional!historiography,!but!captures!the!cinematic!regime!of!historicity.! ! ! 2! ! Table&of&Contents! Introduction,!Cinematic!Historicity&.......................................................................................&ii& ! Chapter&1&Entangling&Histories&...........................................................................................&1& A!Common!Past!......................................................................................................................................................!3! Cinematic!Historians!...........................................................................................................................................!5! History!for!Export!.................................................................................................................................................!9! Framing!Historical!Space!................................................................................................................................!12! Prosthetic!Mobility!............................................................................................................................................!14! The!Politics!of!Historical!Spectacle!............................................................................................................!16! Putting!the!National!in!International!........................................................................................................!19! Kultur/Film!...........................................................................................................................................................!20! Utopia!of!Cinematic!Historicity!....................................................................................................................!24! ! Chapter&2&History&Class&at&16&fps&.....................................................................................&28& Projecting!Pedagogy!.........................................................................................................................................!30! Lights,!Camera,!Reflection!..............................................................................................................................!33! Content!of!the!Form!..........................................................................................................................................!36! Space!and!Time!...................................................................................................................................................!39! Thinking!in!Images!............................................................................................................................................!44! The!Illusion!of!History!.....................................................................................................................................!47! ! Chapter&3&Clio&in&Crisis&........................................................................................................&56& Historical!Thought!in!Film!.............................................................................................................................!58! Film!in!Historical!Thought!.............................................................................................................................!62! The!Need!for!New!History!..............................................................................................................................!64! Dynamite!and!Dynamization!.........................................................................................................................!69!