The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 100 years ! (1)

A day like today, hundred years ago,The Cabinet of Dr Caligari had its premiere, at the Marmorhaus theatre of Berlin. Today considered a masterpiece of the Seventh Art, Robert Wiene’s film was far from a success when first screened.

One of the reasons was the music chosen to accompany the projection of the silent movie : can Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and finally Paul Lincke's “Frau Luna” (an operetta) be a congenial music for a kind of expressionist psychological thriller about the double life of the director of an asylum, who orders his medium Cesare to commit murders ?

That was not really the director’s choice. As the premiere was improvised, it was the musicians themselves who decided of the background music.

Already finding a venue was difficult. Initially, the Marmorhaus showed no interest for "that crazy thing", and when it finally accepted, it was only because another film planned there had not been finished in time.

There is a different version of the premiere, where the film, far from being a failure, was a great success. One hundred years later, it is difficult to know. What we do know is that an extensive advertisement campaign was launched, even before the film was finished (and it was finished just one month before the premiere). Many posters and newspaper advertisements included the enigmatic phrase, featured also in the film, "Du musst Caligari werden!", or "You must become Caligari !"

Caligari had then its premiere on February 27, 1920 at the Berlin film theater "Marmorhaus". The work became famous for its novel style, which combined painted and built, grotesquely distorted backdrops with high-contrast lighting, light and shadow, which is why it is often referred to as a prime example of expressionist film. The buildings of the film came from Walter Reimann, Hermann Warm and Walter Röhrig and were created in the studios of the German film production company Decla-Bioscop in Neubabelsberg, today's Babelsberg studio in Potsdam. [

Caligari, which did become a success in the end, helped German film to be internationally recognized after the First World War and significantly shaped its “image”. In 1933 it was banned in Germany and in 1937 it was part of the “degenerate art” exhibition. A high distinction, as we see it today.

The Marmorhaus, on the Kurfürstendamm

Interior of the Marmorhaus theatre

From stadtbild-deutschland.org

From stadtbild-deutschland.org

    

The very beautiful Carola Neher

Carola Neher (1900-1942), a famous actress of the Weimar years.

Happy Valentine's Day !

Some photographs from the prestigious magazine Uhu, published between 1924 and 1934 by Ullstein Verlag.

    

Schnarrenberger: the New Objectiviy

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1924

Wilhelm Schnarrenberger (1892-1966) was a representant of Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity). After the First World War he made drawings for publications like Der Weg, Wieland and Simplicissimus. In 1924 he was one of the founders of ORNA, a designers’ workshop. In 1937, his art was labeled "degenerate". After the defeat of the Nazis, he was awarded a professor position at Karlsruhe’s art school.

The art movement of The New Objectivity found its expression in various genres such as painting and film. The term was coined in 1925 on the occasion of a highly acclaimedexhibition of post-expressionist art in the Kunsthalle Mannheim. The time frame of the New Objectivity is generally equated with that of the Weimar Republic: 1918 to 1933. It began immediately after the First World War with the turning of many artists to socially critical picture subjects and ended in 1933 with the seizure of power by the National Socialists.

1925

1928

1923

    

Otto Griebel

Die Internationale (1930)

Otto Griebel (1895-1972), was a German painter and graphic designer of the New Objectivity.

He studied at the royal drawing school in Dresden, where he met Otto Dix. From 1911 to 1915, he studied the art of stained glass at the School of Applied Arts in Dresden and painted his first oil paintings. After having been a soldier during the First World War, he returned to Dresden, collaborated in the revolutionary workers 'and soldiers' council, became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and met Oskar Kokoschka. He works with the Dadaists and befriends George Grosz and John Heartfield, then moves to Berlin. He is a member of the Novembergruppe in Berlin and is a co-founder of the Rote Gruppe in Dresden.

Thanks to his friend Otto Kunze, a puppeteer, he made puppet theater (hand puppet) but could not bring himself to make it his profession.

In 1933, Otto Griebel was arrested by the Gestapo and his paintings were declared contrary to the standards of official Nazi art and thus degenerate.

Most of his work was destroyed in February 1945, during an air raid on Dresden.