19:00 - 23:45
Mutter, Kassel
The CAMPUS KINO Kassel, a student film club, Together with the UNIPARTY association and the Kasseler Sparkasse, we are also planning a performance this year 1943 “Feuerzangenbowle” shot under fascist rule in the rooms of the University of Kassel.
The film “Die Feuerzangenbowle” was made in 1943 directed by Helmut Weiss and based on a novel by Heinrich Spoerl. The premiere of the harmless film took place 1944 took place in war-ravaged Berlin. At this point in time, the Nazi regime was clinging to and attempting to pursue a war of aggression by all means possible, the war-weariness of the population (after a devastating defeat of the German army in Stalingrad 1943) to compensate. The systematically organized genocide and strategic crimes against humanity in the concentration camps were in full swing.
Like the entire cultural industry, The film industry was also subordinate to the fascist propaganda ministry. Who now thinks?, that this is a bunch of obvious Nazi propaganda films (like Veith Harlan’s “Jud Süß”) resulted, mistaken. In fact, the majority of films were light-hearted entertainment films. After (mentioned) At the end of the war in Stalingrad, this proportion increased even further. “The Feuerzangenbowle” also falls into this category of “happy” diversionary films.. It is precisely the failure to show the reality of war at the time that makes “the Feuerzangenbowle” an instrument of normalization and continuation of a National Socialist everyday life based on human hatred, mass destruction and war. So it is claimed, the film is apolitical and does not show any direct Nazi propaganda, must be countered, that he fulfilled his propaganda purpose by deliberately ignoring the reality of the time. A subtle glorification of fascist ideology can be seen in the film, among other things, in the history lesson presented. This is shown in a brochure from the AG Antifascism at the University of Hamburg (accessible via QR code).
Key people in the film, like the main actor Heinz Rühmann, took on central functions for the National Socialist system. What kind of position Rühmann held becomes clear, if you consider, that he made it through his relationships with the Nazi leadership, to avert an impending ban on “Feuerzangenbowle”.. The then Reich Minister of Education tried to bring about this ban, because in the film one (supposed) corruption of teachers can be seen (see QR code).
Und last but not least: The screening rights for the film belong to the former board member of the AfD-Münster, Dr. Cornelia Meyer zur Heyde, like the mirror 2018 headlined: “‘Die Feuerzangenbowle’ has a Nazi past – and an AfD present”‘ (see QR code).
Our society is in an alarming state, which requires critical questioning. What we don't need is trivializing entertainment through Nazi feel-good – 81 years after the premiere, celebrated by the student film club of the University of Kassel. What we need, are university spaces, where an anti-fascist attitude is welcome.
We say, We would never go to Feuerzangenbowle!
We go to mother instead!
Come on(t) but with.