Von Caligari zu Hitler
A Psychological History of the German Film is a book by film critic and writer Siegfried Kracauer, published in 1947. The book is considered one of the first major studies of German film between World War I and World War II. Among other things, the book is known for proposing a link between the apolitical and escapist orientation of Weimar-era cinema and the totalitarianism which followed in German society.
List activity
127 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
74 titles
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
- DirectorOtto RippertStarsOlaf FønssErnst LudwigAdolf PaulFoenss, a Danish star, is the perfect creature manufactured in a laboratory by Kuehne. Having discovered his origins, that he has no 'soul' and is incapable of love, he revenges himself on mankind, instigating revolutions and becoming a monstrous but beautiful tyrant, relentlessly pursued by his creator-father who seeks to rectify his mistake.
- DirectorHanns Heinz EwersStellan RyeStarsPaul WegenerGrete BergerLyda SalmonovaBalduin, a student of Prague, leaves his roystering companions in the beer garden, when he finds he has reached the end of his resources. He is scarcely seated in a quiet corner when a hideous, shriveled-up old man taps him upon the shoulder and whispers vaguely of a big inheritance for Prague's finest swordsman and wildest student if he will enter into a certain agreement. Balduin rebuffs him, satirically asking his weird companion to procure him "the luckiest ticket in a lottery or a doweried wife." The old man goes off chuckling and thence onward persistently shadows Balduin, exerting a sinister influence over him, while Balduin is still disconsolate under the frowns of fortune. The Countess Margit Schwarzenberg, hunting with her cousin, to whom her father has betrothed her, meets with an accident. She is thrown over her horse's head into a river, but Balduin, who has been directed to the spot by his evil genius, plunges in and rescues her. Subsequently Balduin calls to inquire as to her condition at the castle of her father, the count, but be makes a hurried departure when Baron Waldis arrives, the contrast in their appearance discrediting him. His desire to win the countess and to humiliate the baron becomes so pronounced that he readily accedes to the compact suggested by Scapinelli, the old man, who has so pertinaciously dogged his footsteps, particularly when he learns that untold wealth and power will be his when he assigns to the other the right to take from his room whatever he chooses for his own use as he desires. The agreement is signed. Balduin receives a shower of gold and notes as his portion; Scapinelli takes Balduin's soul exposed in concrete form by his shadow. Balduin prosecutes his love affair assiduously and with apparent success, till the baron is informed of it by a jealous gypsy girl. He challenges Balduin to a duel, and the latter, assured of his superiority as a fencer, readily agrees. Count Schwarzenberg learns of the impending duel and appeals to Balduin not to kill "my sister's child, my daughter's future husband, and my heir." Balduin gives his promise, but when he goes to the venue of the duel he meets, his own counterpart stalking away derisively wiping his gory sword on his cloak. Balduin turns and in the far distance sees the dying victim of the deed he swore he would not do. He rushes from the spot horror-stricken. When he regains sufficient composure he makes his way to the castle of the count, but is refused admission. Determined to explain that he had no complicity in the death of the baron, Balduin climbs into a room in which the countess is seated. She receives him coldly, but soon succumbs to his ardent wooing. Just as he seeks to leave her she notices he has no shadow and that the mirror gives no reflection of him; and she drops back affrighted, the ghastly apparition of himself which takes shape in the corner of the room sends Balduin scuttling away from the castle in a paroxysm of terror. He makes a frenzied flight through a woodland estate and the streets of Prague, but wherever he stops to recover his breath he is haunted by the counterpart of himself. He reaches his rooms and draws a murderous looking fire-arm from its case. As the phantasmagorical figure strides towards him with a sinister grin, he fires, and in a few minutes the blood gushes from his own side from a fatal wound.
- DirectorPaul WegenerHenrik GaleenStarsPaul WegenerHenrik GaleenLyda SalmonovaAn antiques dealer finds a golem, a clay statue that had been brought to life four centuries earlier by a Kabbalist rabbi to protect his people from persecution. The dealer resurrects the golem as a servant but it goes on a rampage.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftLya De PuttiPrologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeOtto WernickeThomy BourdelleA criminal mastermind uses hypnosis to rule the rackets after death.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeAud Egede-NissenGertrude WelckerArch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
- DirectorArthur von GerlachStarsAsta NielsenPaul WegenerPaul HartmannVanina loves rebel leader Octavio, who gets caught. He gets a pardon and marries Vanina. When he is captured again, Vanina helps him to escape prison. They are both caught, and after his execution she dies from grief.
- DirectorLeo BirinskyPaul LeniStarsEmil JanningsConrad VeidtWerner KraussA wax museum hires a writer to give the sculptures stories. The writer imagines himself and the museum owner's daughter in the stories.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBernhard GoetzkeLil DagoverWalter JanssenWhen a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPaul RichterMargarete SchönTheodor LoosSiegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsMargarete SchönGertrud ArnoldTheodor LoosPrincess Kriemhild vows to avenge her husband's murder but must overcome her brothers who swore allegiance to Hagen. She marries Etzel, King of the Huns, and persuades his army to attack Hagen, but she loses more than she bargained for.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsFern AndraHans Heinrich von TwardowskiErnst GronauGenuine is an ancient and cruel divinity, who seduces men and induce them to kill as a proof of love.
- DirectorLeopold JessnerPaul LeniStarsHenny PortenFritz KortnerWilliam DieterleA crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in the same building he does in one of the city's poor neighborhoods. She, however, is in love with a wealthy, handsome young man. Desperate to win her love, he begins to intercept love letters they send to each other and replaces them with his own messages, which each thinks is from the other. His plan seems to be succeeding, but then something happens that bring tragic results to them all.
- DirectorLupu PickStarsWerner KraussEdith PoscaHermine Straßmann-WittSet during the winter, the story tells the tale of a track checker and his family who live a poverty-stricken life next to a railway line. They receive a telegram announcing the arrival of the section inspector, who is to live with the family.
- DirectorLupu PickStarsEugen KlöpferEdith PoscaFrida RichardThe film is set in a bar on New Year's Eve. We see plenty of Germans swilling beer non-stop and the owner of the bar and his wife await the arrival of his mother for a little celebration together.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
- DirectorArthur von GerlachStarsArthur KraußneckPaul HartmannRudolf ForsterA lord falls in love with one of his serfs and chooses to be disinherited and stripped of his title in order to marry her. Her love and gratitude extend beyond the grave.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsGregori ChmaraHenny PortenAsta NielsenBy the director of Cabinet of Dr.Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story. An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain, who seeks to convince him that it is better to sacrifice ones own life than take the life of ones enemy. The framing story, taken from a novel, is believed to have been intended to give the Biblical story an anti-Bolshevist propaganda function. In any case, it was added without the knowledge of the actors in the Passion story, who included some of the major stars of the period Asta Nielsen as Mary Magdalene, Henny Porten as Mary, Grigori Chmara as Jesus, and Werner Krauss as Pontius Pilate -bampfa.berkeley.edu
- DirectorArnold FanckStarsHannes SchneiderFrida RichardErna MorenaNoch keinem Bergsteiger ist es gelungen, den Gipfel der majestätischen Guglia del Diavolo zu erklimmen - zu steil ist die letzte Wand, die zum Gipfel führt. Selbst der größte Kletterer Tirols versucht immer wieder vergeblich sein Glück und riskiert dabei jedes Mal sein Leben. Da seine alte Mutter es nicht erträgt, so oft um das Leben ihres Sohnes bangen zu müssen, gibt er ihr eines Tages das Versprechen, nie wieder einen Versuch zu unternehmen. Doch es gibt noch einen anderen Menschen, dem die Guglia del Diavolo keine Ruhe lässt: Hella, die Jugendfreundin und Schülerin des Bergsteigers. Zahllose Stunden hat sie schon damit verbracht, den gewaltigen Berg anzustarren, als würde sie dadurch eine Antwort bekommen auf die Frage, wie sie ihn bezwingen kann. Als Hella glaubt, einen sicheren Weg zum Gipfel gefunden zu haben, versucht sie, ihren Lehrmeister zu einer gemeinsamen Besteigung zu überreden. Der jedoch hält an dem Versprechen fest, das er seiner Mutter gab. Enttäuscht beschließt Hella, sich alleine auf den Weg zu machen. Als ein Unwetter aufzieht, eilt Hellas Vater in Todesangst um seine Tochter zu dem Bergsteiger und berichtet ihm, das seine Tochter sich auf den Weg gemacht hat, den Berg im Alleingang zu bezwingen. Nun hat dieser keine Wahl mehr: Er muss sein Versprechen brechen und Hellas Leben retten .
- DirectorPaul WegenerCarl BoeseStarsPaul WegenerAlbert SteinrückErnst DeutschIn 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.
- DirectorArthur RobisonStarsFritz KortnerRuth WeyherGustav von WangenheimA wealthy man invites the local wealthy bachelors over for a puppet show about men who covet another man's wife. The puppeteer is actually a witch and gives the men nightmares about what could happen if they date the lady of the house.
- DirectorKarl GruneStarsAnton EdthoferAud Egede-NissenLeonhard HaskelPresents two distinct plot lines until the two eventually merge: the first is that of the bored middle-aged man seeking a departure from monotony in his life; the second is that of the blind man and the little boy, his grandson, who are interdependent. None of the characters have been given names and are therefore referred to only by description. The city is an expressionistic nightmare, a dangerous and chaotic place.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsÉdith JéhanneUno HenningFritz RaspIn the Crimea, the Reds and the Whites aren't done fighting, and Jeanne discovers that the man she loves is a Bolshevik (when he kills her father). Penniless, she returns to Paris where she works for her uncle. Soon after, her lover Andreas is in France to organize the sailors in Toulon. So also is a thief, traitor, and libertine, Khalibiev, who wants to seduce Jeanne. His schemes, Jeanne and Andreas's naivete, and a lost diamond bring the lovers to the brink of tragedy.
- DirectorLudwig BergerStarsWilly FritschMady ChristiansXenia DesniThe story tells how Count Preyn is artfully trapped into a marriage with the cold, unemotional princess of Flausenburg. Poor Count Preyn, with his bubbling Viennese disposition, finds himself lost in the cold atmosphere of the Flausenburg court. On his wedding night he rushes away in desperation and finds a pretty Viennese orchestra leader in a cafe. A romance ensues, the girl never suspecting that he is the prince consort. The girl, Franzi, is hired to teach the princess the modern arts in order to win her husband's love. Right up to the last she is unaware that it is her lover that she is helping to win back for his princess wife.
- DirectorGerhard LamprechtStarsBernhard GoetzkePaul BildtAud Egede-NissenA young engineer lies to protect his fiancée, and is later convicted of perjury (after which his fiancée abandons him) and sent to prison. When he gets get, he tries to return to his former life and finds out that's easier said than done--no one wants to hire an ex-con, and when he finds himself broke and homeless, he is "saved" by a local prostitute, and discovers that his only real friends are the people that society deems to be the "lower classes" and "criminals". Just when he is starting to work his way back to "respectability", a situation arises in which he must risk everything he's worked for in order to help out the people who've helped him.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeGerda MaurusWilly FritschThe mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsWilly FritschGerda MaurusKlaus PohlA tenacious scientist blasts off for the moon in hopes of riches that may be found there.
- DirectorHenrik GaleenStarsConrad VeidtElizza La PortaFritz AlbertiFor Balduin, going out to beer parties with his fellow students and fighting out disputes at the tip of the sword have lost their charms. He wants to find love; but how would he, a penniless student, ever dare looking up to any woman worth of loving? Absorbed in his dreary thoughts and indifferent to the advances of Lyduschka, Balduin is unexpectedly offered a fortune by the mysterious money-lender Scapinelli - but on a strange condition...
- DirectorHenrik GaleenStarsBrigitte HelmPaul WegenerIván PetrovichA scientist with an interest in genetics impregnates a sex worker with the seed of a hanged murderer. The sex worker gives birth to a child who has no concept of love, whom the scientist adopts.
- DirectorBruno RahnStarsAsta NielsenHilde JenningsOscar HomolkaAn aging prostitute who falls in love with a young middle-class man and spends her life savings trying to gain a modicum of respectability before he is stolen away from her by a younger prostitute
- DirectorJoe MayStarsAlbert SteinrückElse HellerGustav FröhlichJoe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to its characters, and the ability to take a simple and essentially melodramatic story and turn it into something more complex and inherently cinematic.
- DirectorRüdiger SuchslandStarsRüdiger SuchslandHans Henrik WöhlerFritz LangFocuses on the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) and its 'collective spirit' in cinema. The purpose of film as a cultural tool is examined. Based on celebrated sociologist Siegfried Kracauer's seminal book 'From Caligari to Hitler' (1947).
- DirectorAkiva SchafferJorma TacconeStarsAndy SambergJorma TacconeAkiva SchafferWhen it becomes clear that his solo album is a failure, a former boy band member does everything in his power to maintain his celebrity status.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsAsta NielsenGreta GarboÁgnes EszterházyIn post-WWI Vienna, Greta (Greta Garbo), her kid sister, and retired dad try to make it through tough times.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsWerner KraussRuth WeyherIlka GrüningA scientist is tormented by an irrational fear of knives and the irresistible compulsion to murder his wife.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDorothy ComingoreFollowing the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsHermann PichaRosa ValettiAndré MattoniA young man shows his millionaire grandfather a film based on Molière's Tartuffe, in order to expose the old man's hypocritical governess who covets his own inheritance.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsBlanche BernisNina ChousvalowaPhilippe HériatThe life of a great city (Paris) from dawn until dusk, including the beautiful and the ragged, the rich and the poor, with little or no comment (intertitles) from the director, Cavalcanti (whose first film this was).
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinStarsVera BaranovskayaNikolay BatalovAleksandr ChistyakovA story about a family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsMarlene DietrichKurt GerronAn elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
- DirectorPhil JutziStarsHeinrich GeorgeMaria BardMargarete SchlegelFranz Biberkopf has served four years in prison. His return to normal life is not successful.
- DirectorGerhard LamprechtStarsRolf WenkhausKäthe HaackFritz RaspEmil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.
- DirectorLeontine SaganCarl FroelichStarsDorothea WieckHertha ThieleEmilia UndaAt an all-girls boarding school, Manuela falls in love with a teacher, to terrific consequences.
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsWolfgang LiebeneinerCarl EsmondMagda SchneiderVienna in the beginning of the twentieth century. Cavalry Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer is about to end his affair with Baroness Eggerdorff when he meets the young Christine, the daughter of an opera violinist. Baron Eggerdorff however soon hears of his past misfortune...
- DirectorRichard OswaldStarsMax AdalbertErnst DernburgWilli SchurA poor cobbler named Wilhelm Voigt purchased the second-hand uniform of a Prussian infantry captain. Wearing this, he traveled to the borough of Köpenick and ordered a troop of guardsmen to place themselves under his command. He then declared the town hall to be under military law, ordering the arrest of the mayor and treasurer and confiscating all the funds in the bank.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsFritz KampersGustav DiesslHans-Joachim MöbisA group of German solders fight on the front line in France at the end of World War I.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsLew AyresLouis WolheimJohn WrayA German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsSemyon SvashenkoGeorgi KhorkovAmvrosi BuchmaA soldier returns to Kyiv after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.
- DirectorVictor TrivasGeorge ShdanoffStarsErnst BuschVladimir SokoloffRenée StobrawaDuring World War I, five soldiers from different nations end up together in some ruins in no man's land and decide to stick together.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsRudolf ForsterLotte LenyaCarola NeherThe Gangster Macheath secretly marries the daughter of beggar king Peachum. When Peachum finds out, he instructs the police chief Brown to arrest and hang Macheath. If not, all the beggars of Soho will disturb the upcoming coronation.
- DirectorDennis GanselStarsJürgen VogelFrederick LauMax RiemeltA high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsAlexander GranachFritz KampersErnst BuschPlea against war and for friendship between peoples, through the story of French miners rescued by German colleagues after a firedamp explosion.
- DirectorPhil JutziStarsAlexandra SchmittHolmes ZimmermannIlse TrautscholdMutter Krause and her children live in the poorer section of Berlin's Wedding district. The film depicts the cruelty of poverty and communism as a rescuing force that reaches Mutter Krause and the child too late.
- DirectorSlatan DudowStarsHertha ThieleErnst BuschMartha WolterDuring Great Depression, a family is evicted from their apartment and with no other option they move to a tent camp called Kuhle Wampe.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGösta EkmanEmil JanningsCamilla HornThe demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
- DirectorErich EngelFyodor OtsepStarsFritz KortnerAnna StenFritz RaspSuspicion surrounds a lieutenant for killing his father: Dimitri asks his father for his heritage. The father says he wants to marry young Grushenka. Dimitri tries to talk the girl out of that plan and is himself totally smitten with her.
- DirectorDimitri BuchowetzkiStarsEmil JanningsWerner KraussOsip RunichThe true story of the conflict between Danton and Robespierre, the leaders of the French Revolution.
- DirectorHans BehrendtStarsFritz KortnerLucie MannheimGustaf GründgensAt the height of the French Revolution, the fanatic Robespierre brings the popular but more moderate leader Danton to trial and demands his execution.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsConrad VeidtTrude von MoloHeinrich GeorgeThe Marquis de Sévigné is put in a difficult position when he falls for the lovely Lady Falkland, a married woman whose husband, the strict Lord Falkland, subjects her to constant abuse.
- DirectorArnold FanckStarsHannes SchneiderLeni RiefenstahlRudi MattAn exhilarating view of skiing the German Alps, with a load in your pants.
- DirectorHarry WattStarsJohn CobbRichard PeirsePercy Charles PickardThe planning and implementation of an RAF night raid on Germany in World War II, concentrating on a low level mission by a Wellington bomber on an oil storage facility by the Rhine.
- DirectorHans BertramStarsHerbert GernotHermann GöringAdolf HitlerPoland was the first victim of Hitler's infamous blitzkrieg. Combat cameramen filmed the aerial campaign, showing preparations for flight, massive air strikes, and the appalling devastation wreaked upon Polish towns and armies. 'Norbert Schultze (I)''s original score lyrically enhances this Nazi propaganda vehicle.
- DirectorFritz BrunschWerner KortwichSvend NoldanStarsHarry GieseHermann GöringAdolf HitlerHitler's greatest military victory - the conquest of Holland, Belgium and France in the spring of 1940 - is graphically documented in this special Nazi feature.