Film and International Politics: The Banning of All Quiet on the Western Front in Germany and Austria,1930‐1931
1989; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 52; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1540-6563.1989.tb00773.x
ISSN1540-6563
Autores Tópico(s)European history and politics
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. This account of the public premiere is drawn from reports in the contemporary press and from an extensive three‐volume scrapbook on All Quiet in the Lewis Milestone Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills.2. New York Times, 27 April 1930. For a detailed account of the extended literary debate in Germany, see Calvin D. Gruver, “The Public Debate over Erich Maria Remarque's Im Western Nichts Neues, 1929–1931,” presented at the Northern Great Plains History Conference, October 1986, or Hubert Rüter, Erich Maria Remarque, Im Western Nichts Neues: Ein Bestseller der Kriegsliteratur im Kontext (Munich, 1980).3. Axel Madsen, William Wyler: The Authorized Biography (New York, 1973), 63.4. John Cutts, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Films and Filming 9 (April 1963): 58.5. Production Estimate, 12 December 1929, All Quiet Files, Universal Studios Collection, University of Southern California. Universal publicity claimed the film cost nearly $3 million to produce, but the actual outlay was closer to $1.2 million.6. On the operation of the SRO, see John Alan Sargent, “Self‐Regulation: The Motion Picture Production Code, 1930–1961,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1963), 43–44.7. Jason Joy to Carl Laemmle Jr., 21 August 1929, and Joy to Jack Gain, 2 January 1930, All Quiet File, Production Code Administration [PCA] Collection, Herrick Library. For a scene‐by‐scene synopsis of the film, see Leonard Leff, Film Plots: Scene by Scene Narrative Outlines for Feature Film Study, 2 vols. (Ann Arbor, 1983–1988), 7–12; the script is reprinted in Sam Thomas, ed., Best American Screenplays (New York, 1986), 13–72.8. Valentine Mandelstamm to C. Laemmle Jr., 31 March 1930, PCA Collection.9. Portions of the scene suggesting a sexual interlude were eliminated by state censors in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, as well as by the British Board of Film Censors. The sequence was run without cuts in France. Elimination Slips, All Quiet File, PCA Collection. London Chronicle, 8 June 1930.10. Joy, memorandum, 15 February 1930, PCA Collection.11. Joy, memorandum, 8 April 1930, PCA Collection. Von Hentig was obviously saying one thing to Universal and something different to the Foreign Office in Berlin. The Foreign Office statement against All Quiet was based on his negative report and he later claimed to have warned Universal against the anti‐German tendencies in the film. The motive for his actions may be explained by the fact that he was, at the same time, seeking an appointment to serve as Hollywood's special advisor on German problems. Joy, memorandum, 7 April 1930, PCA Collection.12. New York Times, 17 & 30 July 1930.13. Ted Herron to Will Hays, 22 November 1930, PCA Collection.14. Der Angriff, 6 December 1930, 1. For a positive review from a liberal perspective, see Vossische Zeitung, 6 December 1930.15. Michael T. Isenberg, “An Ambiguous Legacy: A Retrospective on World War I Films, 1930–1938,” Journal of Popular Film 4 (1975): 110. In the midst of the controversy, Carl Laemmle Sr. dispatched a thousand‐word cable, to be used as an advertisement in Berlin newspapers, which claimed that All Quiet“indicts no nation, no individuals, but it records an international human experience.”Exhibitors Herald-World, 13 December 1930, 25.16. Excerpts from several German reviews are reprinted in the appendix of Ruter, Erich Maria Remarque, 227–32. For an excellent discussion of German reaction to the film, see Modris Eksteins, “War, Memory, and Politics: The Fate of the Film All Quiet on the Western Front,” Central European History 13 (March 1980): 60–82.17. Joachim C. Fest, Hitler (New York, 1973), 287.18. On Goebbel s motives in the All Quiet affair, see Helmut Heiber, Goebbels (New York, 1972), 80–81. DerAngriff, 13 December 1930, noted that Carl Laemmle Sr. was listed in The International Jew and suggested that he had changed his name from Baruch to disguise his origins.19. Vorwärts, 10 & 11 December 1930; Völkischer Beobachter, 10 December 1930; New York Times, 9, 10 & 11 December 1930; London Times, 11 December 1930.20. On the vulnerability of Bruening's cabinet after the 1930 elections, see Erich Eyck, A History of the Weimar Republic, 2 vols., trans. Harlan P. Hanson and Robert G. L. White (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 2: 278–96. Eyck suggests that President Paul von Hindenburg may have pressured Bruening to ban All Quiet, but his speculation rests entirely upon inferences drawn from a conversation between Hindenburg and Prussian premier Otto Braun.21. The Exhibitors Herald‐World, hardly an unbiased observer, claimed in its December 27, 1930 issue that the Supreme Censor Board was composed of the chief censor, the editor of a nationalist daily, “a general's sister, two clergymen and a motion picture operator who had the night before banned All Quiet.”22. New York Times, 12 December 1930. Frederic M. Sackett, American Ambassador to Germany, prepared a report on the events surrounding the banning of All Quiet. The author's analysis of the Cabinet maneuverings relies on Sackett's report, contemporary press accounts and Ekstein's article “War, Memory and Politics.” Sackett to the secretary of state, 17 December 1930, ForeignRelation of the united states, 1931–2:309–1423. Vorwärts, 12 December 1930; Völkischer Beobachter, 13 December 1930; New York Times, 12 December 1930; London Times, 12 December 1930. Ironically, by the time the chief censor announced the board's decision, All Quiet had already been removed from the German screen. Prior to the ruling, the German Exhibitors Association adopted two resolutions, one condemning Laemmle for producing the picture and the second boycotting films which provoke public disturbances. In response, Universal withdrew All Quiet from further exhibition. New York Times, 10 December 1930. Seeger was still justifying the ban as late as January. See the account of his radio debate with film critic Herbert Ihering in Vorwärts, 7 January 1931.24. Der Angriff, 12 December 1930.25. Vorwärts, 12 December 1930.26. London Times, 17 & 19 December 1930; Oswald Garrison Villard, “On the German Front,”The Nation, 14 January 1931, 37–39.27. Villard, “On The German Front,” 37.28. Sackett to the Secretary of State, 17 December 1930, Foreign Relations, 1931 2: 311.29. Unsigned report of a U.S. Embassy official in Berlin, 18 December 1930, PCA Collection. The publicity surrounding the German ban on All Quiet promoted the film in the United States. Universal arranged for a new Broadway opening and the movie again played to packed houses. Exhibitors Herald‐ World, 18 December 1930.30. Jason Joy, resumé, 20 December 1930, PCA Collection. On the Hays negotiations in Europe, see Film Daily Yearbook of Motion Pictures, 1931 (New York, 1932), 559. On the Kontigent system and other problems facing American film distributors in Germany, see Film Daily, 20 October 1930, 10; and Reginald Wright Kauffman, “War in the Film World,” North American Review 229 (March 1930): 351–56.31. see a summary of the All Quiet situation in Germany, prepared by Fayette W. Allport, 29 December 1930, PCA Collection. Alfred Hugenberg, leader of the right‐wing German Nationalist Peoples party, controlled an extensive network of newspapers, a news agency and most importantly Universum Film Aktiengesell‐schaft [UFA], the largest German film corporation. The Hays Office had long suspected Hugenberg of using his political influence to exclude foreign competition from the German market, a concern which the All Quiet incident reactivated. The Hugenberg press criticized the film and called for censorship. Members of the Peoples party joined the demonstrations and supported measures in the Reichstag against the movie and UFA theaters refused to book All Quiet. Hugenberg personally urged German exhibitors to boycott it and sought President von Hindenburg's approval for a ban. Vorwarts, the newspaper of the Social Democrats, shared Hays Office suspicions that Hugenberg was masterminding the All Quiet protests. See Vorwarts, 10 & 12 December 1930.32. On the Heimwehr, the Nazis and the Viennese Socialists, see: C. Earl Edmondson, The Heimwehr and Austrian Politics, 1918–1936 (Athens, Ga., 1978); Martin Kitchen, The Coming of Austrian Fascism (Montreal, 1980); and Anson Rabinbach, The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: From Red Vienna to Civil War, 1927–1934 (Chicago, 1983).33. New York Times, 14, 19 & 23 December 1930; London Times, 17 December 1930; Variety, 24 December 1930.34. Stockton, U.S. minister to Austria, to the secretary of state, 13 April 1931, Foreign Relations, 1931 1:868. On the ill‐fated Austro German customs union, see Stanley Suval, The Anschluss Question in the Weimar Era: A Study of Nationalism in Germany and Austria, 1918–1932 (Baltimore, 1974), 146–65.35. Stockton to the secretary of state, 13 April 1931, Foreign Relations, 1931 1: 868.36. The American minister in Vienna provided Washington with a detailed account of the riots and their political consequences. Stockton to the secretary of state, 13 April 1931, Foreign Relations, 1931 1:867–72. For descriptions of the street fighting, see also the New York Times, 3–5 & 8–10 January 1931, and London Times, 5 & 8–9 January 1931.37. New York Times, 20 January, 4 February and 2 April 1931; Motion Picture Herald, 31 January 1931; Film Daily, 9 March 1931.38. The lobbying included an unsuccessful effort to win over the German crown prince whose voice still carried weight among conservatives and nationalists. Shown a newly edited version of All Quiet in March, he simply told Universal to take its case to the Nazis. Heiber, Goebbels, 81–82.39. New York Times, 13 December 1930. Vorwärts carried the All Quiet story on its front page from December 10 through December 13 and included feature pieces on the ban through January 7.40. A. J. Nicholls, Weimar and the Rise of Hitler (New York, 1968), 150; Eyck, History of the Weimar Republic 2: 297–98. Film Daily, 9 March 1931; New York Times, 7 March 1931.41. Sackett to the secretary of state, 11 March 1931; P. T. Culbertson, memorandum, 17 March 1931, Foreign Relations, 1931 2: 314–16. Approval for showing All Quiet to private organizations came in June 1931.42. The link between the German and Austrian film bans was made evident in a series of meetings between U.S. Minister Stockton and Austrian Vice Chancellor Johann Schober in April 1931. When Stockton inquired about lifting the ban, Schober informed him that “Austria was following Germany's lead in this matter and would act in concert with Germany.” Stockton to the secretary of state, 8 April 1931, Foreign Relations 1931 1: 867.43. Sackett to the secretary of state, 12 September 1931, Foreign Relations, 1931 2: 316. Some confusion about the exact cuts required under this agreement seemed to exist because in December the German Consulate complained to the Hays Office that Universal had failed to remove all of the required scenes from versions of the film then being shown in England and the U.S. The agreement did not affect the film's exhibition in Germany. Joy, memorandum, 28 December 1931, and Gustave A. Struve, German attache, to J. V. Wilson, Hays Office, 29 December 1931, PCA Collection.44. Harold L. Smith to Ted Herron, 5 November 1931, PCA Collection. The material cut to satisfy the German censor reappeared in the 1939 version of All Quiet, but by that time the German market excluded most American films.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJerold SimmonsThe author is Professor of History at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
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