„Was willst du in Milano?“

Italy in Films and Books: Travel Documentaries

The public image of Italy in East Germany, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, can be summarised as follows: the country’s undoubted beauty contrasted with the severe poverty of some sectors of society, caused by capitalism and exploitation. In addition, there were some dangerous neo-fascist tendencies. However, the communist (or socialist) movement was already beginning to lead the country into a better, fairer future, and so the GDR entered into numerous coalitions, some of which were cultural or musical, with ‚progressive‘ forces in Italy, especially with youth organizations. This can be traced back to several sources.

Specifically, GDR travel documentaries repeatedly made explicit and detailed reference to Italy’s sometimes staggering social inequalities – a topic with a long tradition, even long before the existence of the GDR.^[14] In the context of East Germany, it is important to note that travelogues of all kinds are always officially sanctioned by the state and party apparatus, so they are always simultaneously propaganda. For example, in the short 15-minute film documentary „Licht für Palermo“ („Light for Palermo“, DEFA 1960, directed by Karl Gass, music by Hans-Dieter Hossalla), the lives of the rich and worldly are shown exclusively in colour, while black-and-white shots are used for the slums with their narrow and dark alleys full of poverty and disease. Hossalla’s soundtrack reflects this staging: the colour images are accompanied by lively sounds, mostly in a major key, while the black-and-white images of the slums are embedded in atonal or minor-key music. Only towards the end, when the connection between the problems of the poor and the pleasures of the rich becomes clear, are the colour images also accompanied by atonal music. After a short section with exclusively percussive sounds, the film closes – as a symbol for „Italy“ – with a sweet melody played, among others, by mandolins. In this documentary, the Sicilian World Peace Prize winner Danilo Dolci (1924–1997) is staged as the central bright spot, not only advocating for measures against social inequality in Sicily, but also successfully combatting the Mafia. At the end of the documentary, reference is made to the communist struggle of the working class, which, as the film says, was – as in many countries – also beginning in Italy. Thus, from the perspective of the GDR, the country was ultimately on the ‚right‘ path to socialism. The male voice sounds optimistic: „You don’t always see it, but the communists are strong in this country“, it says confidently from off camera.^[15]

The extensive introductory text to the popular illustrated coffee table book „Italy“, published by Brockhaus in Leipzig in 1973, also follows this per aspera ad astra narrative of a country moving from capitalist darkness towards the socialist light. We will therefore quote this text by Plinio Salerno^[16] in more detail: „The picturesque aspects of Italy are made up by those to whom Italian life seems picturesque because they see it from the outside. … But those who experience Italian reality in the country itself realize that it is almost always bitter and tragic.“^[17] According to the common East German interpretation of the 1970s, this refers – as mentioned in the film – to poverty („bitter and tragic“) and, with it, cruel social inequalities that those who see Italy merely as ‚Other‘ are unaware of. A purely objectifying view does not allow for insight. In a later passage the book says:

„Despite the hardship and misery … there are still millions of Germans, French and English who believe that Italians live in joy, that they are a people who are … cheerful and happy. … But guitars and mandolins do not always ring out in Naples. … Italy is in reality a dreary country. De Brosses writes that through the beauty of nature and the cities ‚here the eyes are satisfied‘, ‚but the heart is dissatisfied‘.“^[18]

The author thus sets out to comprehensively question the typical (Northern) European ‚Othering‘ of the South (in this case Italy) in the tradition of the Western ‚Orientalism‘ described and analysed by Edward Said,^[19] while at the same time implicitly inviting his readers to look more closely at the country and its people. What must be eradicated is nothing less than the common colonial gaze (although it is questionable whether Salerno can completely discard this gaze himself).

Additionally, the author stresses the relatively backward nature of gender relations in Italy, for which he principally blames the Catholic Church, but also the ‚ruling class‘: „A woman … is not regarded as a free human being“, but treated in legislation as little more than „a kind of slave“; the „modern girl“, on the other hand, is „almost unknown“ in Italy.^[20] (As is well known, the GDR claimed to have achieved complete gender equality under socialist conditions.^[21]) As in the aforementioned film „Licht für Palermo“, the working class, which is „quite powerful“ in Italy, especially in Milan, is presented in the book as a fundamental ray of hope for the future. Not only are „[t]he majority of peasants … communists and socialists“, but „almost all the big cities of Emilia, with Bologna at their head, … are run by leftist circles“; in Tuscany „the communists“ even „have the most votes“.^[22]

The image of Italy described by Salerno in 1973 was already in circulation in the 1950s, for example in the reportage on Venice „Barkarole 1957 – Venezianische Epigramme“ („Venetian Epigrams“) by Albert Donle, published in the travel magazine „Unterwegs“ („On the Way“) in 1958,^[23] even before the construction of the Wall. Here, too, the focus is on social inequalities, the accompanying poverty and crime, the inadequate, objectifying view from the outside, but also capitalist usury – Venice as a tourist trap. In detail, the author denounces the lack of hygiene and the small apartments, the heavy traffic, the unscrupulous entrepreneurial spirit of the Venetians („there is not a metre of beach on the blue Adriatic near Venice where you can get into the water for free“^[24]), the crime, the excessive prices, the hordes of (American) tourists and the souvenir kitsch; finally, in Venice, too, there is the „impudent luxury of smug idlers living alongside the misery of creative hands …, unconcerned and blind“.^[25] According to the author, the contrast between rich and poor was almost unbearable.

Reports of this kind appear repeatedly in the East German media. Thus, among others, the weekly news magazine „Der Augenzeuge“ 1960 in the two-minute film documentary „Italien – Traum und Realität“ („Italy – Dream and Reality“) reports on the social inequalities, the struggle of the working class against fascism, terror and exploitation and the cautious optimism with regard to the successes already achieved.^[26]

The structure of the background music, which transforms very rapidly, is particularly interesting: it begins with apparently intentionally ‚kitschy‘ music,^[27] an exaggeratedly beautiful melody that distantly echoes Franz Schubert’s song „Ständchen“ D 975, no. 4. The music then becomes a little more agitated in the style of Hanns Eisler’s politically engaged songs, composed in around 1930, with their characteristic marching rhythm (e. g. „Solidaritätslied“, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, written for the film „Kuhle Wampe“), and finally very restless. The film first presents postcard Italy, then characterises tourists as superficial and snobbish, and finally makes reference to the poor. At the end, the film portrays the communists and social democrats leading the country into a better future after bloody clashes in Genoa and elsewhere:

Fig. 1:

„Una lira signora!“.

Remarkably, although the concrete occasion for the report is political, the news programme first goes into considerable detail – supported by the music – about the clichéd image of Italy, which is then deconstructed. In fact, in the summer of 1960, the left-wing parties were outraged at the intention of the post-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) to hold its party conference in Genoa, the former stronghold of the anti-fascist resistance. This led to protests and demonstrations. On 7 June, street battles with the police broke out in Reggio Emilia, resulting in the deaths of seven demonstrators, members of the Communist Party (PCI). Fernando Tambroni himself tendered his resignation on 19 July 1960. Thus, in the „Augenzeuge“ current affairs were used to reaffirm the East German image of Italy outlined above, a process in which music plays a crucial role. If we consider the anti-fascist founding myth of the GDR, it becomes clear why the greatest possible distance was also maintained from (Italian) fascism. (The Wall, which was erected a good year later, was seen by East Germany as an „anti-fascist protective wall“.)

The film „Toscana Rossa“ (DEFA 1971, director: Uwe Belz, approx. 13 minutes) also focuses on communists, as in the Florentine town hall, and socialists, as in Siena, in addition to the workers’ and partisan movement in Tuscany: it reports, for example, on the courageous women workers who occupy a textile factory to prevent its closure.^[29] The tenor of these portrayals is always that Italy overall is characterised by exploitative capitalist conditions, injustice and a massive contrast between great wealth and abject poverty, that fascism recurrently flares up dangerously, but that all this must sooner or later, almost inevitably, lead to the victory of communism. In the GDR, friendship with Italy was also expressed through declarations of solidarity with ordinary Italian people and the country’s ‚workers and peasants‘, but also with the progressive youth^[30] – culturally reflected not least in musical cooperation, for example in the field of political song. At the „2. Festival des politischen Liedes“ („2nd Festival of Political Song“), held in East Berlin in February 1971, music groups from Italy (alongside those from Finland, Vietnam and Chile, among others) occupied a prominent space.^[31] Numerous (daily) newspaper articles also reported on occasions such as the „Treffen der Weltjugend“ („Meeting of the World Youth“) in Berlin (July 1973), at which the Italian composer Luigi Nono conducted a concert as a guest of honour,^[32] and politically engaged music groups such as the Canzoniere delle Lame from Bologna performed hits such as the famous „Bella Ciao“: „The audience sings along with the finale of the partisan song ‚Bella Ciao‘. Shouts of approval go up and everyone joins in with ‚Avanti popolo‘.“^[33] Conversely, musicians from the GDR were invited to Italy on various occasions, for example to Florence in 1975 at the national festival of the PCI (Partito Comunista Italiano), to which the FDJ singing group from Hoyerswerda was asked as representatives of the ‚guest of honour‘ GDR. The newspaper „Neues Deutschland“ reported on this on 5 September 1975: „Standing ovation when the girls and boys from the mining town sing the Italian partisan song ‚Bella Ciao‘.“^[34]

Meanwhile, the „DDR-Musiktage“ („GDR Music Days“) also made a guest appearance in the spring of 1976, in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy; the guest of honour, 81-year-old composer Paul Dessau, was unable to attend due to illness. The official newspaper report says, again in the style of the aforementioned socialist narrative, that on 1 May red flags, chants, banners „with slogans against imperialist policies, against exploitation and fascism“ could be seen everywhere. In particular, the northern Italian, communist-administered workers’ city that hosted the „Musiktage“ had a „decades-long tradition of proletariat struggle“: „from the ranks of the demonstrators, Italian workers’ songs ring out: ‚Bandiera rossa‘, ‚Bella ciao‘ … And then suddenly, songs of the German proletariat resound over the loudspeakers, the united front song and the solidarity song with Ernst Busch.“^[35] We could easily continue the examples of musical-cultural exchange.

‚Italy‘ in the GDR-Schlager

The Schlager,^[36] and entertainment culture more generally, presented a fairly undifferentiated image of Italy. As in the West,^[37] it was shaped by clichéd ideas of the ‚South‘ more broadly, including the supposed mindset of the inhabitants. But such stereotypes were challenged even in the 1950s, as illustrated by the feature film „Meine Frau macht Musik“ (DEFA 1958, directed by Hans Heinrich), among others. This film premiered on 3 April 1958 at the East Berlin Babylon theatre. In the „Berliner Zeitung“, it was not only characterised as „lowbrow“ but also as „markedly backward“ („penetrant vorgestrig“).^[38] The Italian singer Fabiani encourages the protagonist Gerda Wagner, a housewife and mother, to pursue a singing career – much to her husband’s annoyance. Fabiani, modelled on the Swiss singer Vico Torriani (1920–1998), corresponds to all the clichés of the sensual to schmaltzy and frivolous Italian: he indiscriminately distributes his erotic affections among all the women around him, who in turn adore him, yet his feelings remain superficial. He thus stands, as Stefan Soldovieri has noted, „for superficial feeling and a lack of authenticity“, while Gerda „embodies the deeper capacity for emotion that her last name – Wagner – evokes“.^[39] At the very beginning of the film, accompanied by his pianist and assistant Francesco, a kind of modern Leporello, he sings his first song with the banal lyrics: „I come from Italy, the beautiful land of songs (chorus: Signore, sì, sì, signore, sì, sì), / there’s a melody there that you sing over and over again (chorus: Signore, sì, sì, signore, sì, sì).“^[40] All the women present in the store, where the concert takes place, are obviously delighted.

Later, in anticipation of his first visit to Gerda Wagner, he not coincidentally sings the beginning of Giuseppe Verdi’s „La donna è mobile“ from „Rigoletto“, sung in the original opera by the Duke of Mantua in expectation of his next romantic adventure,^[41] whereupon his assistant is urged to take the precaution of clearing away the portraits of Fabiani’s mistresses scattered around the room.^[42] Finally, in the ‚Tivoli‘ theatre, Fabiani performs the song „In Sanremo blüh’n wieder die Rosen“ („In Sanremo the roses are blooming again“)^[43] with professional stage decoration and orchestral accompaniment, while the stagehand Pappke comments sarcastically, and in a clearly audible ‚Berlin‘ accent on Fabiani’s customary success, referring to the use of mere paper roses: „I’m also amazed that the trick still works!“ („Ick staune ooch, dass die Masche noch zieht!“)^[44] In this way, the suggested Italian sensuality and ardour, which in Fabiani’s case has become mere routine (and is thus turned into its opposite), is contrasted with (Northern) German sobriety and coolness – another cliché. There is thus no escaping the stereotypes, at least not in a film of this kind, which is, paradoxically, staged here in a self-reflective manner. Pappke’s remark functions as a quasi-Brechtian refraction, as it were, adding an interesting level of commentary to the film.

Fig. 2:

„Meine Frau macht Musik“ (DEFA 1958, dir. Hans Heinrich).

A year before the premiere of „Meine Frau macht Musik“, 1957, a lively debate about the future direction of the Schlager took place in the recently established magazine „Melodie und Rhythmus“ („Melody and Rhythm“), the quarterly specialist journal for dance and light music in the GDR.^[45] For example, Wolfgang Carlé demanded in his article „Sorgenkind Schlagertext“ („Problem Child Schlager Lyrics“) that the Schlager should not under any circumstances, as in the West, „stultify and distract the masses from the reality of life“ („zur Verdummung und Ablenkung der breiten Masse von der Realität des Lebens ablenken“). This also reflects the critical attitude towards German Schlager that was widespread in the West. Instead, he argued that the genre should entertain „in a substantial, good way. The lyrics should therefore be true to the content. As with all art, it has the self-evident obligation to provide a realistic portrayal of the world“.^[46]

Unfortunately, according to the author, all too often this was not the case in his own country; even in the GDR, a „majority of our lyrics are mendacious“.^[47] There is, and here Carlé refers to the East German writer and cultural official, a prominent member of the SED Politbüro, Alfred Kurella, a disproportion when countless pop songs take countries like „South America, Texas, Hawaii or Italy as their thematic topic“ and the lyrics are almost exclusively about „fiery caballeros and gauchos, Texas cowboys and gold prospectors, silver moons over Hawaii, Italians who incessantly warble funny little songs and drink wine, and Parisian women who are just as constantly in love“ – „[d]o only the sailors in the ports love, are only ladies in Italy and France kissed?“. The text continues:

„Of course, you can’t sing a hit song about how the moon shone golden over the – let’s say – Kombinat Böhlen during a first kiss. It should be clear that we do not mean such experiments, which are necessarily doomed to failure. … There are natural beauties in our homeland …; there are not only Jonnys and Jans as sailors, not only amore, but also love, not only glowing-eyed señoritas, but also very charming saleswomen in the HO department stores.“^[48]

So, according to Carlé, the future of the Schlager lies „in the sparkling, humorous couplet and in the quieter, more delicate, cultivated chanson“.^[49] The Schlager should ultimately become something different – but it did not succeed.

A few months later, in April 1958, Carlé took the subject up again. In the same magazine, this time under the title „Nochmals: Sorgenkind Schlagertext“ („Once again: Problem Child Schlager Lyrics“), he remarked that the Schlager was „fundamentally (like all art) a political issue“, even in the West, where it had a „very political mission to fulfil“, namely „to distract the listener from the reality of life and the damnably hard problems of a crisis-ridden present through kitschy depictions of a non-existent dream world“. In his own country, on the other hand, the aim should be to voice an „affirmation of life“ and to sing about „the beauties of our homeland“ – and especially when it comes to love, directly and in a way that was „morally clean without ambiguity“. A young girl in love, for example, is not „a ‚lover in herself‘ set in an unreal world“, but can be „a very real saleswoman or conductor or light bulb maker in our republic“.^[50] Julio Mendívil recounts in detail that the distraction from politics and the retreat into the private sphere were repeatedly perceived and discussed as a political issue, in West Germany as well, and that this connection was even a „favourite topic of Schlager research“, especially during the politicized 1970s.^[51] In passing, he further notes that the GDR Schlager is also, as in West Germany, ultimately intended to create a sense of home, in this case referring to East Germany as one’s homeland – after 1989 more than ever before.^[52]

The fact that the Schlager had so far not sufficiently reflected social grievances in Italy also appears recurrently, for example in an unlikely place such as review of a novel in „Neues Deutschland“ in April 1959. In an anonymous review of Dinah Nelken’s novel „addio amore“, the author makes the criticism that, unlike the novel in question, the genre of the musical Schlager (not only in the GDR) has so far been remarkably ‚unrealistic‘:

„There are said to be and have been in our latitudes … nearly a hundred Italian hits, but in none of these songs is there any mention of the rice workers in the Po Valley, who have work for a few weeks a year and no other unemployment benefits; of the workers in the Reggiane, who worked for peace enclosed in the factory for nearly a year …; of the low-paid tobacco workers; of child labour; of the squatters of Sicilian agricultural workers, driven by hunger to the fallow fields; of the hiring out of pretty, gifted children for the purpose of begging, dancing, singing, and thus making money; of the two and a half million or so unemployed in Italy!“^[53]

In fact, the Schlager, which almost by definition has always been more concerned with escapism than with political protest, does not seem an appropriate genre for such representations. As a consequence, with regard to Italy, political realities are still most noticeable in Schlager lyrics around and after 1960 when, with the building of the Wall on 13 August 1961, the country became unreachably distant for the citizens of the GDR. This was also the reaction of the Italienschlager, for example in the song „Was willst du denn in Rio?“ („What do you want in Rio at all?“), published in early 1962 (lyrics: Siegfried Osten, music: Jürgen Hermann). Its essential message is along the lines of: Why go far away when you can find love in your own country?

Here it again becomes clear that the discussion about the (Italian-)Schlager (and especially Schlager lyrics) in the GDR from the late 1950s was ultimately not about portraying the political and social realities of the country south of the Alps, as was the case in travelogues – this is not even possible for the Schlager genre. Rather, the authors involved in the debate were concerned with directing the focus towards their own country, the GDR. Thus the later Schlager song lyrics from 1962 are again about a global and undifferentiated ‚South‘, represented simply by the names of Rio, Milan, Zambezi and Trinidad, which ultimately exists only in the Northern-European imagination. (Added to this in the following stanza are Rio, Greenland and the Congo, to include other random parts of the world.) Ultimately, the objective is to erase the ‚foreign‘ or ‚strange‘ in the imagination of one’s own citizens by appropriating it: accordingly, love in particular is the same everywhere – with such an apolitical programme, the Schlager in turn comes into its own. But immediately after the construction of the Wall, this is an eminently political project.

„Was willst du denn in Rio,

was willst du in Milano,

was willst du in Sambesi und auf Trinidad?

Schau, hier in diesem Städtchen

gibt’s manches hübsche Mädchen,

das deinetwegen ganz verweinte Augen hat.

 

Drum lass doch dein Gepäck und fahr erst gar nicht weg.

Die Liebe ist in Rio, in Grönland und am Kongo

genau nicht anders als bei uns zuhaus.

Man sitzt auch gern beim Vino in Dresden und Berlino

mit einer zuckersüßen Maus.“

 

„Was willst du denn in Rio?“ (1962)

 

[Translation]

„What do you want in Rio,

what do you want in Milan,

What do you want in Zambezi and Trinidad?

Look, here in this little town

There’s a pretty girl

Who’s all teary-eyed because of you.

 

So leave your luggage and don’t go away at all.

Love is in Rio, Greenland and the Congo

no different than at home.

We also like to sit with vino in Dresden and Berlino

with a sugar-sweet mouse.“

 

„What do you want in Rio at all?“ (1962)

Sources of Figures

Fig. 1: Unterwegs. Magazin für Wandern – Bergsteigen – Zelten – Reisen 2,2 (1958), p. 25.

Fig. 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEb9xRmB3_A (no access outside Germany), film still: 00:04:00.