Lifestyle Propaganda: Modernity and Modernisation in Early Thirties Films
Author(s)
Elsaesser, T.
Abstract
German cinema in the early 1930s presents a startling image of the state using an art form as a means of indoctrination and garnering of support for state ideals. The huge popularity of such films, almost all of which espouse Nazi ideals including unquestioning support of the state and German pride, is confounding in its persisting hold on the population. Thus, despite the films’ status as “tainted goods,” the tenacity of the populace with regard to their preference of such films is rather troublesome. Various theories have been put forward, that it may be a means of regaining some sense of pride in the face of clearly atrocious past deed, or that the films may have entered nationalistic concerns as the State established an industry from these films, seeking to compete with the consumerism and popularity of other Western film-makers. In the end, it appears that the German cinema of the early thirties was concerned with the establishment of consumption and lifestyle, not ideology, and that these were the aspects to which German audiences were, and still are, drawn.
