Weimar and the Political Film: From Die Weber to Kuhle Wampe

When writing of ‘Weimar Culture’ cultural historians tend to describe the period as ‘a golden age for the German cinema’, 2 and certainly the German films produced between 1918 and 1933 bear comparison with the best produced in the world. However those looking in the German cinema for the range, diversity and vitality of the theatrical activity of that period, miss the differentiated attempts to produce a drama which could persuade thinking men and women to change their attitudes to society. No period of German literary history had seen such a plethora of dramatic and theatrical experimentation in the cause of socio-political drama, with film playing a crucial role in the work of Piscator, but it is perhaps one of the disappointments of ‘Weimar culture’ that the cinema for the most part remained ‘ Traumfabrik ’ (a dream factory) — escapist, trivial and sometimes, if we follow Kracauer’s thesis, 3 sinister, in so far as it pandered to the worst elements of the German psyche. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.