From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film

A landmark, now classic, study of the rich cinematic history of the Weimar Republic, From Caligari to Hitler was first published by Princeton University Press in 1947. Siegfried Kracauer--a prominent German film critic and member of Walter Benjamin's and Theodor Adorno's intellectual circle--broke new ground in exploring the connections between film aesthetics, the prevailing psychological state of Germans in the Weimar era, and the evolving social and political reality of the time. Kracauer's pioneering book, which examines German history from 1921 to 1933 in light of such movies as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M, Metropolis, and The Blue Angel, has never gone out of print. Now, over half a century after its first appearance, this beautifully designed and entirely new edition reintroduces Kracauer for the twenty-first century. Film scholar Leonardo Quaresima places Kracauer in context in a critical introduction, and updates the book further with a new bibliography, index, and list of inaccuracies that crept into the first edition. This volume is a must-have for the film historian, film theorist, or cinema enthusiast.In From Caligari to Hitler, Siegfried Kracauer--the German-born writer and film critic who shared many ideas and interests with his friend Walter Benjamin--made a startling (and still controversial) claim: films as a popular art provide insight into the unconscious motivations and fantasies of a nation. In films of the 1920s such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M, Metropolis, and The Blue Angel, he traced recurring visual and narrative tropes that expressed, he argued, a fear of chaos and a desire for order, even at the price of authoritarian rule. The book has become an undisputed classic of film historiography, laying the foundations for the serious study of film. In From Caligari to Hitler, Siegfried Kracauer made a startling (and still controversial) claim: films as a popular art provide insight into the unconscious motivations and fantasies of a nation. In films of the 1920s, he traced recurring visual and narrative tropes that expressed, he argued, a fear of chaos and a desire for order, even at the price of authoritarian rule. The book has become an undisputed classic of film historiography, laying the foundations for the serious study of film. Kracauer was an important film critic in Weimar Germany. A Jew, he escaped the rise of Nazism, fleeing to Paris in 1933. Later, in anguish after Benjamin's suicide, he made his way to New York, where he remained until his death in 1966.He wrote From Caligari to Hitler while working as a "special assistant" to the curator of the Museum of Modern Art's film division. He was also on the editorial board of Bollingen Series. Despite many critiques of its attempt to link movies to historical outcomes, From Caligari to Hitler remains Kracauer's best-known and most influential book, and a seminal work in the study of film. Princeton published a revised edition of his Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality in 1997.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations vii Editor's Note xiii Introduction to the 2004 Edition xv Preface li Introduction 3 I: THE ARCHAIC PERIOD (1895-1918) 1. Peace and War 15 2. Forebodings 28 3. Genesis of Ufa 35 II: THE POSTWAR PERIOD (1918-1924) 4. The Shock of Freedom 43 5. Caligari 61 6. Procession of Tyrants 77 7. Destiny 88 8. Mute Chaos 96 9. Crucial Dilemma 107 10. From Rebellion to Submission 115 III: THE STABILIZED PERIOD (1924-1929) 11. Decline 131 12. Frozen Ground 138 13. The Prostitute and the Adolescent 153 14. The New Realism 165 15. Montage 181 16. Brief Reveille 190 IV: THE PRE-HITLER PERIOD (1930-1933) 17. Songs and Illusions 203 18. Murderer Among Us 215 19. Timid Heresies 223 20. For a Better World 232 21. National Epic 251 SUPPLEMENT: PROPAGANDA AND THE NAZI WAR FILM 1. Nazi Views and Measures 275 2. Film Devices 277 3. The Swastika World 280 4. Screen Dramaturgy 288 5. Conflict with Reality 297 Note on the Inaccuracies 309 Bibliography 315 Updated Bibliography 327 Name Index 333 Film Index 339

About the Author :
Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) was a film critic and independent film historian and theorist. He is the author of "The Mass Ornament" and "A Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality", edited by Miriam Bratu Hansen (Princeton). Leonardo Quaresima is Professor of Film History and Criticism and Director of Cinema Studies at the University of Udine, Italy.

Review :
"The thesis of this unusually interesting book is that the German films of the twenties were filled with premonitions of the German totalitarianism of the thirties."--Nation "One of the great works of film history, this look at early German cinema, first published in 1947, is still a must-have for cineastes and scholars alike."--H.J. Kirchhoff, Toronto Globe and Mail "The book is an invaluable guide to a golden period of cinema."--Christopher Wood, The Times