A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
Berlin, 1932. Weimarrepubliken slits sönder i kampen mellan höger- och vänsterextremister och Berlin är en krutdurk. Nattklubbssångerskan Henny Dalgow lär känna den socialdemokratiske riksdagsdelegaten Albert Goldmann, och de två blir ett något omaka par. Den judiske läkaren Albert är svuren pacifist efter sina erfarenheter i det första världskriget. I strid med sina övertygelser går han med på att agera kurir åt sin bror Edwin, som tillhör en radikal kommunistisk cell.
Berlin på 1930-talet, under nazismens framväxt. Hermann Hermann, rysk emigrant och chokladfabrikant, gift med den nyckfulla Lydia, tappar humöret mer och mer för varje dag när han har att göra med sina arbetare och andra affärsmän. Tills han träffar Felix, en vagabond, som tycks vara fysiskt identisk med honom; ett förvirrande faktum som får Hermann Hermann att planera en särskild väg ut ur en falsk värld som han egentligen hatar.
Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”
How Germany was when its people entered the nightmare of World War II? Despair and fear lead a hungry population to follow the chilling call of just one man to world domination. A real-life horror story, an ominous tale of violence and deception, which takes place from 1919 to 1934. (Entirely made up of restored, colorized archival footage.)
Presents a unique and disturbing look at the rise of the Nazi party. The documentary, directed by Lutz Becker, attempts to remain as objective as possible, serving as a neutral observer of the years 1918 through 1933 in Germany. Via newsreel footage and clips of features from the era, the film offers a kaleidoscopic view of the many elements that fueled the rise of the Socialist Nationalist Party, including post-WWI poverty. Hitler occupies a central place in the documentary.
Filmjournalisten och filmkritikern Rüdiger Suchsland undersöker den tyska filmen från 1919, då Weimarrepubliken föddes, till 1933, då nazisterna kom till makten.
On February 26, 1920, Robert Wiene's world-famous film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin. To this day, it is considered a manifesto of German expressionism; a legend of cinema and a key work to understand the nature of the Weimar Republic and the constant political turmoil in which a divided society lived after the end of the First World War.
Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories is the only thing the man was ever good in, so he does not know what to do now. As political circumstances are changing dramatically these days in Germany, he gets new hope that things will again be going better for him...
In this film essay, critic Peter Buchka explores the German cinema of the 1920s, ranging from the disquieting images of Fritz Lang's Metropolis to the castrating sexuality of Marlene Dietrich in Die Blaue Engel. The program provides an introduction to Weimar cinema, with Buchka's essay narrated over the images from film clips of 1920s era German films.
The intricate history of UFA, a film production company founded in 1917 that has survived the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, the Adenauer era and the many and tumultuous events of contemporary Germany, and has always been the epicenter of the German film industry.