Luther im Stummfilm: Zum Wandel protestantischer Mentalität im Spiegel der Filmgeschichte bis 1930

Esther Pia Wipfler

doi:10.14315/arg-2007-0108

ABSTRACT

The “Luther film” is still a little-examined source for the Protestant self-image, despite the fact that the medium was employed since 1911 to portray the history of the Reformation.

Of the four known silent films on the subject, two are preserved only as copies of a late censored version. There is a clearly recognizable paradigm shift in the portrayal of the reformer over the twenty-year span of these Luther films. Luther is transformed from the romantic aesthete of the “Wittenberger Nachtigall” in 1913 to the hero of the “deutschen Reformation” in 1927. Concerning the earliest films, made in 1911 (“Doktor Martin Luther”) and 1913 (“Wittenberger Nachtigall” renamed “Der Weg zur Sonne” in 1921), the circumstances of and grounds for production are no longer entirely clear. Most likely they were primarily concerned with commercial enterprise, but at the same time they reflected the spirit of the Luther-Renaissance in a popular way. Nevertheless the importance of the silent movie for the transfer of the patterns and images of Lutheran iconography into film cannot be underestimated. A fundamental difference from the later films is the focus of the earlier films’ biographical narrative upon Luther’s wedding. This approach would not be used again until after World War II.

The influence of the church can first be demonstrated in the Luther film of 1923. The initiative for the film - in light of the meeting of the Lutheran World Assembly in Eisenach on August 21, 1923 - probably came from the Baron von den Heyden- Rynsch, who was at that time head of the Eisenach city Bureau for Art, Sport and Tourism. The highest church authorities supported the production in two ways: they offered scriptwriting advice and also eventually allowed the film to be distributed through the Evangelical Picture Association (Evangelische Bilderkammer|). However, the resulting film received mixed reviews. This was due not only to deficiencies in the acting, but also to the tentative portrayal of the film’s religious subject matter. “Luther. Ein Film der deutschen Reformation” (1926-1927) was much more professionally and lavishly produced. It completely served the national Protestant propaganda of the Evangelical League (Evangelischer Bund|), which founded the production company. The chairman of the League, the Berlin cathedral pastor and university professor Bruno Döhring, had a decisive influence on the script. The film, which would be in wide release until 1939, effectively extended the cultural conflict between the two leading churches, Catholic and Lutheran. It would finally lead to the sort of denominational conflicts that halted the tradition of Luther films in Germany. (Translation by Heather McCune Bruhn, Pennstate College)

Luther im Stummfilm: Zum Wandel protestantischer Mentalität im Spiegel der Filmgeschichte bis 1930

ABSTRACT

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