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It’s the beginning of March 1933, the Nazis just banned Fritz Lang’s latest film, The
Testament of Dr. Mabuse, for having an insane criminal ghost
spouting Nazi slogans in the film…
but it just seemed to fit so well!
Propaganda Minister and all-around douche, Joseph Goebbels called Lang to visit him in
his office. But instead of the slap on the wrist that Lang expected, Goebbels offered
him the position at the head of the entire German film industry. Lang, a half-Jewish man,
was like, ‘that sounds great… Not!” And split Germany for Paris, later continuing
his directing career in the United States.
But as you’ll remember, there are some inconsistencies in Lang’s story.
Wait. Can I just ask one question about Fritz Lang before we begin?
Fine.
So, he wore that monocle and that’s, like, a fancy rich guy thing to do, but, like
it's gotta cost less than a frame and a second lens, right? And he had to squeeze it between
his eyebrow and cheek, right? What kind of insurance did he have?
Are we really doing this right now?
Alright, alright…
Some information has come to light from the Deutsche-Kinemathek and the German Film Museum’s
program director Ronny Loewe. First off, the timeline of his initial meeting with Goebbels
doesn’t work, but we can chalk that up to a faulty memory. The Nazi’s took power
on January 30th, 1933 and the new German censorship under Goebbels didn’t start until March 14th.
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was still not quite finished, so it hadn’t yet been
submitted to the Ministry of Propaganda for review (Werner 495).
But wait a second… Something doesn’t add up. I thought he went in to meet with Goebbles
because the film was already banned. He said that he met with Goebbels at the beginning
of March. So how had Goebbels seen the film if it wasn’t even finished?
Here is where the timeline of his story is off. The premiere was supposed to take place
on March 24th, but it was due to reach the censors the same day.
The next step was the already publicized premiere of the film.
All along the Kurfürstendamm and near the Zoo Station,
where the theater for the premiere was located, all the billboards were covered with posters
for The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. By the next morning, they had all been papered over.
On March 29th, the German Board of Film Censors banned the film for the reason that it [quote]
“constituted a threat to law and order and public safety" (Werner 496). Goebbels said
that the film [quote] “showed that an extremely dedicated group of people are perfectly capable
of overthrowing any state with violence” (Wiki).
Well, you wouldn’t want that to happen… Did Goebbels think that people didn’t already
know they could do that? Like people who see the film are like, ‘wait a second,
we can just rise up against these mother fuckers.’
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was still released outside of Germany and a French version was
first shown in France in April.
Now, here is where it gets interesting: the day before Goebbels banned The Testament of Dr. Mabuse,
he invited the cream-of-the-crop of the German film industry— "producers, directors,
and technical staff” — to meet with him at the Hotel Kaiserhof and, according to reports,
Fritz Lang was there (Werner 497). After all, Lang was a devout nationalist and just the
day before the meeting, he had a part in founding the NSBO— a National Socialist directing
group with three other filmmakers (Werner 497).
Hold on, I thought Lang was anti-Nazi, but he founded a Nazi directing group?
Apparently so. It has been said that, at this time, Lang had “no intention of leaving Germany,”
but we’ll get to that later… At this meeting, Goebbels talked about four films
that made [quote] “an indelible impression on him” (Werner 497).
The films are: The Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein,
Anna Karenina— the American version—,
Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen,
and Der Rebell by Luis Trenker (Werner 497).
He thought that The Battleship Potemkin, in particular, was a great model for communicating
the power of a political idea (Werner 497).
That said, there is no mention in Goebbel’s highly-detailed diaries of him offering Lang
the position at the head of the German film industry (Werner 498).
In fact, Lang isn’t mentioned in Goebbel’s diary for 1933 at all (Werner 498).
The timeline really starts to get muddied when we look at Lang’s “escape.”
Looking at Lang’s passport dated from its issue date in 1931 to its expiration in 1936,
there are no “visas or exit stamps for the months of February, March, and the beginning
of April 1933” (Werner 498, 499).
The only exit visa on Lang’s passport during this time was on June 23rd, 1933, so he had
not left Germany in the months before that point (Werner 499).
There are several visas for Langs trips to Belgium from Berlin “at the end of June
and July 1933” (Werner 499).
Currency exchange transactions place Lang in Berlin on the 26th and 27th of June as
well as July 20th (Werner 499).
According to these transactions, Lang went back to Berlin after his time abroad and finally
left on July 31st 1933 (Werner 499).
Apparently Goebbels, on his thirty-sixth birthday in October of 1933, screened for his guests
Lang’s banned film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Werner 499).
Lang became an American citizen in 1939 and ultimately made twenty-three movies in the
states over a period of twenty years (Wiki).
Many of these movies were very anti-nazi.
For example, the opening of 1941’s Man Hunt shows a sport hunter who manages to get Hitler
in his crosshairs just for the fun of it.
Dave Kehr points out that Lang’s close-up shots of hands were usually performed by Lang
himself, so this shot of the finger on the trigger could very well have been Lang holding
the rifle (Kehr).
It should also be noted that Man Hunt was released while America was still neutral on
the war in Europe— it would be six months before they would join the fight (Kehr).
I don’t get it. If Fritz Lang was super against the Nazis, why would he need to lie
about his escape from Nazi Germany?
Lang had to make a name for himself in Hollywood. Many Americans hadn’t seen his masterpieces
like M and Metropolis and if they had,
they had seen versions that were heavily cut down from their original runtimes (McElhaney).
But above all, he had to show America that not only was he not a Nazi, he never was (McElhaney).
It wouldn’t look so good if he appeared to waffle on his decision to leave.
Some have argued that his 1927 epic, Metropolis, was a pro-Nazi film—
two of these arguers were Hitler and Goebbels themselves, who loved the film.
Hitler even said that he related to the main character (Hoffman).
However, Elly Hoffman argues that Metropolis is, in fact, an anti-Nazi film.
It is true that Lang’s wife at the time, Thea Von Harbou, —
a member of the Nazi Party—
wrote the screenplay and she stayed behind when Lang left Germany.
They divorced when he left and she continued writing pro-Nazi screenplays during their reign—
talk about your strange bedfellows... (Hoffman).
But as Hoffman points out, many of the ideals the film puts forth go completely against
ideals of the Third Reich.
First, the Fuhrer was seen as infallible and Godlike;
in Metropolis, Fredersen, in his position as the unquestioned leader of New Babylon,
is seen as flawed and needing to answer to the citizens (Hoffman).
Second, the film never uses race in its message of equality among the social classes—
the Nazis wanted to unite the German people
by considering themselves a superior race (Hoffman).
And third, whereas the Nazis used technology "for the war effort"
and ridding themselves of the Jewish people (and other groups),
the actual technological advances that were made were mostly useless for increasing the
quality of life for its citizens (Hoffman).
Metropolis sees technology as a way to make everyone’s lives better—
not to capture new territory and exterminate its people.
So, maybe Hitler and Goebbels were projecting their own skewed ideals into
their reading of Metropolis
and maybe thought that it fit with their vision so well that they were willing to forgive
the descent in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
and coax Germany’s most visionary director back to their side.
Right. The problem was that he was never on their side to begin with.
Perhaps Lang actually flirted with the idea of remaining in Germany or perhaps he only
left because he was afraid at how long he might last
as a half-Jewish citizen of Hitler’s Germany.
Biographers have said that he took six months to leave Germany “without causing himself
too much trouble” (Rogue Male).
Nevertheless, it isn’t hard to see a connection between the ideas put forth in The Testament
of Dr. Mabuse and his decision to leave Germany.
Lang once said that, “it is not so much that [a character] reaches a goal, or that
he conquers this goal—
what is important is his fight against it” (cinephiliabeyond).
“Look, when you put your finger something, on an evil,
you’re not a politician, you cannot change it,
but if you put your finger on an evil, which still exists,
that’s it.”
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Thanks for watching the exciting conclusion of Fritz Lang’s escape from Nazi Germany.
I don’t know about you guys, but I do not like Nazis.
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