How The Nazi View Of A Women 's Role During Society From The Beginning Of The War Until 1944

The creation of propaganda films and posters required a small amount of people to produce, but was still a key part in the grand scheme of propaganda. The Nazis had a Film Academy in which they taught new recruits how to make films and distributed the films that the experts made on their own. These films discretely captured the thoughts of Jews in the minds of Nazis, filling them with stereotypes and threats to the community. The film “The Blue Light” is a film featuring a character that depicted a Jewish woman who found herself near a cave filled with tantalizing, glowing crystals. As she approached the cave, she slipped on a cliff and fell to her death. Later, an entire village of people learned of this cave of riches. Instinctively, they took up arms to carry out an expedition on a potential fortune. Instead, the whole village plummeted to its death. These characters were depictions of greed, a stereotypical characteristic of the Jewish people. These offensive displays were part of the propaganda that persuaded France and Great Britain into declaring war to begin World War II.

Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most revolutionary and certainly most controversial filmmakers of the early twentieth century. The lasting influence of her innovative filmmaking techniques on twentieth century cinema is undisputed by scholars throughout history, but the exact nature of her work is surrounded by ongoing controversy. Riefenstahl’s production of the feature films “Triumph of the Will” (Source 3) and “Olympia” (Source 1) have left a lasting imprint on history; these films established Riefenstahl’s influential career as a film director under the years of the Nazi regime. Although these films are attributed by scholars and critics to be Riefenstahl’s greatest achievements they are also considered to be her greatest fault, for

Just like France, the United States, and Russia, Germany also began to make films, as a way to entertain the working class in an inexpensive way. By 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power, creating very harsh social condition that made several writers, actors, and directors flee Germany because they feared that if they stayed they would have gotten killed. Joseph Goebbels later came to run the UFA, as a government owned production company to make films that were shown to civilians and the military as propaganda on March 13 , 1933, and intended to censor German cinema to make the people believe that they were fascist. Numerous movies in that period of time tried to steer clear of talking about the Holocaust to distract people from what was really happening and to make Hitler seem almost godlike. One film in particular directed by Leni Riefenstahl called The Triumph of the Will became a well known example of propaganda in film history. Throughout the film, you really get to experience a sense of historical context that influenced thousands of people during the time of World War 2. Today, several people view The Triumph of the Will and have a difficult time distinguishing whether or not they can conclude if they view the film as propaganda or an actual piece of art.

As the film opened in Germany and around the world it became obvious that Riefenstahl had achieved overall success, beyond all expectations. In America, specifically New York it was called “flawless” and “a highly fascinating fantasy”. The Blue Light was even awarded a silver medal at the first Venice Biennale that year. Riefenstahl still saw herself primarily as an actress, but after her new found success, expected to continue filmmaking as a career. If The Blue Light had not influenced her career path she would not have reached her prominence with her films such as Triumph of the Will and Olympia to come. Riefenstahl did not only gain wider international fame, she also gained the admiration and support of Adolf Hitler. According to Audrey Salkeld, “Hitler was already an admirer of hers, having been won over by her first dance of fluttering veils in her first movie.......From then on, he had followed her career with interest, The Blue Light in particular catching his imagination.” Indeed the success of The Blue Light was one of the determining influences on Riefenstahl’s rise to prominence as she states, “This film was pivotal in my life, not so much because it was my first successful effort as a producer and director, but because Hitler was so fascinated by this film that he insisted I make a documentary about the Party rally in Nuremberg. The result was Triumph of

Nietzsche was seen as a misogynist and his views towards women were influenced by Schopenhauer. The Nazi’s on the other hand allowed women to have influential roles aside from having roles in the household or at churches. Women served as resistance fighters, physicians, propagandists, and even as journalists. Jane Anderson was a Nazi propagandist who spread propaganda on Hitler, life in the Third Reich, and anti-American views (Cosner 6). In addition, women participated in the Women’s Labor Service in young women spent a few months to a year helping build community projects for to develop towns and local communities (Stephenson 242). These projects were designed to have young women earn pay and serve the interests of the community. This united women together to serve for the Third Reich and it elevated their status and role in society. While Nietzsche had a negative view of women, The Nazi’s saw that women were useful in their party politics and could manage the household. Both women and men of the Aryan race were united on racial consciousness of their ethnic background and superiority during the Third

In 1933, Germany became the living hell for a lot people in Germany. They were persecuted for their color and religion by a well known man named Adolf Hitler and his devoted followers. Hitler changed the way people saw life and felt about it because of the hate he got after his horrible experience in World War I. He believed that they lost because German people had become weak and pathetic, He basically thought and said that they lost because of the Jewishs or any other race that was not his pure white race. The Jewish suffered pain and were ridicule. The German women also felt pain and were made less. The role of women and children in Nazi Germany was greatly humiliating. They might not have gotten gassed or persecuted for their race, but the Nazi forced them to follow rules and treated them as animals. The only ones that had a word or say in anything were Nazi men. Women’s life as a hard working woman was not allowed anymore after Hitler took over. The education and music in Germany were changed to fit Hitler’s views of the Master Race. However, there was a couple of things that Hitler did good such as creating campaigns against smoking and animal cruelty. Hitler was a great artist as well and he supported artists.

Fritz Lang's 1931 film M takes a look how one German town comes together to take down a prolific child serial killer. The film is interesting in theme, narrative, and editing and is a standout film in Germany's cinematic history. M can also be considered to be one of the last great German films to come out of the country before Hitler took over the German film industry in 1933 (Mast & Kawin 148). M is also Peter Lorre's first film and his performance helped to catapult him as an actor and allowed him to establish a villainous persona that he would later be known for. M is not only a significant film due to its narrative and editing, but it is also significant because of its style.

German Expressionism was commenced in Germany before World War I, but didn’t catch the audience’s eye till the 1920’s. German Expressionism impacted film tremendously, but also influenced music, theater, painting, sculpture and architecture. One of the first German Expressionism films were The Student of Prague (1913), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and From Morn to Midnight (1920). These films came about because of the isolation in Germany during World War I. Therefore, the government also banned any type of foreign films, which increased the production of domestic films. The production of domestic films went from 24 films in 1914 to 130 in 1918. However, it caught international audience eyes by 1922 and appreciated the German cinema.

The Impact of Nazism on the Women in the Years 1918-1945 Socio-economic factors and the demands of wartime had a greater impact on women in Germany than the Nazi regime. Furthermore, women’s experiences were vicariously influenced through Nazi race or eugenic policy rather than through women’s policy per se. Traditional analysis of German women has concluded that the impacts of Nazism were an increase in birth rate, a return to the domestic sphere and the total suspension of political power. Yet, more recent examinations reveal this conclusion to be mainly based on presuppositions. There was little real impact on the statistics of women in educational institutions, the workforce, nor a significant

The silent film, Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, released in 1927, reflects the social situation of the time in Germany during the Weimar Period, before the rise of Hitler power. At that time, there was a new political climate, which was in favor of an equity-oriented fascism rather than liberty-oriented capitalism. The film clearly gives viewers an idea that fascism way of the political system is the preferable ideology for the society by depicting the class struggles between capitalists and labours. Thus, the movie was often interpreted as a propaganda movie and being criticized.

During 1933 and 1945, the Nazi Party controlled Germany. During the Third Reich, the Nazis introduced many new policies in an effort the Nazi Party introduced many new policies to make a new great Volksgemeinschaft (the people’s community). Whether Nazism brought a social revolution to Germany is debatable. One of the key features of Nazism was ‘Kinder Kurch Kirche’ which is translated to ‘children kitchen church.’ Meaning that women were supposed to stay at home and raise children. But, really their role was set by the economic demands of the time. Therefore, their actions are better described as a social reaction rather than a social revolution. The Nazis’ implemented policies for women that sought to return moral values to the Biskmarkian

At the turn of the twentieth century, a new representation of the female race was beginning to emerge in German society. The was primarily a result of the brutal impact of WWI on the population of men in Germany. They had suffered immense loss of life and nearly drained their supply of young men because so many had died in the war. Meanwhile, German women had been forced to fill in the gaps in the labor force. While the men were off in battle, they would do the jobs that men would normally be doing. Consequently, many women became accustomed to working, being paid, and excelling in their careers. This gave way for the emergence of petitioning for other women’s rights such as women’s suffrage, equal pay, and other emancipations. Women began challenging fashion norms and breaking the stigma that a woman’s purpose was limited to the family and home. However, as veterans began to return from war, they began to reclaim their old jobs, women were laid off, and although progress had been made, there was (and still is) a long way to go in order to achieve true equality. Things began to slide back to the way they were, and with the enabling of the Third Reich any ideas of gender equality came crashing down completely.

The literal dislocation between East and West Germany was a major factor in the suffering of German cinema

German Expressionism is a genre of film that is arguably the start of the “enlightenment era” or the “renaissance” of cinema filming. This era lasted from 1910’s -1930’s leaving an everlasting impact on the film industry of today and yesteryear. An era of creativity and expressive individuality throughout the arts that really put emphasis on the symbolic meaning of the film as well as the emotions conveyed to the viewer; instead of the “elaborate” costumes and high-end budgets that was prevalent in Hollywood productions. This era was in the middle of World War 1 a time of war and isolation for Germany. The German regime halted the importation of foreign goods which also included movies. With the lack of big budget films, smaller “indie” German

As we look deeper into the historical contexts that came about in Germany during the 1920’s, Germany was confined due to the isolation the country was experiencing during World War I. During this solitude, the German government banned foreign films. German Expressionism was formed in result of the conclusion of World War I which compelled Germany to establish its own style of cinema. German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic