German Expressionism is a film movement that emerged with films that were subjectively interpreted and conveyed with extreme depictions by film directors in Germany, which were devastated in many ways by the First World War. Expressionist films have permanently determined the method for expressing emotions such as strangeness, weirdness and uncertainty that are difficult to describe.

Expressionism originated primarily in Northern Europe in the field of poetry and painting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Expressionist works present the world only from a subjective perspective of the artist with their modernist features.

Erich Heckel – Two Men at a Table Depictions are radically distorted to evoke feelings and ideas in the art lover. Artists’ ways of expressing the emotional experience they want to convey away from reality and objective approach, by using extremism have revealed the concept of expressionism.

At the beginning of the 20th century, German cinema first produced works within the Cinema of Attractions movement. Cinema of Attractions was a theory that emerged with the motivation of filmmakers to convey images that are not usually encountered in daily life in films in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Filmmakers made low-cost but remarkable films within this movement and made a profit.

Film d’Art Film Studio Over time, German films moved away from the Cinema of Attractions and became closer to another French film movement, “Film d’Art”. With the Film d’Art movement, adaptations of theatrical productions and literary works were filmed. Film d’Art films belonged more to the theatre than the cinema, as they did not use the capabilities of the cinema. While the productions were copied from the theatre, the audience experience was also copied from the same source.

Although the Cinema of Attractions and Film d’Art movements were economically working models, Germany was going through a rapid change. German cinema lovers, filmmakers and directors were being driven away towards an area that was economically and psychologically not covered by these movements.

As the First World War approached, the German economy gradually contracted. Alongside the contraction of the economy, Germany became an increasingly isolated country. This affected the German people as well as the artists and filmmakers. The number of films shot gradually decreased. Interest in German further decreased.

The Student of Prague “The Student of Prague“, shot in 1913 just before the First World War, was an important production for German cinema. The film was interesting with its story reminiscent of Faust. But more importantly, the feeling of helplessness, weirdness, being trapped, and the method of conveying these feelings was innovative. The powerful depiction of “The Student of Prague” at low costs was an important opportunity for German cinema to overcome the crisis of the time.

In 1913, “The Student of Prague“, directed by Paul Wegener and Stellan Rye, was one of the first steps towards the transition to expressionist films. With “The Student of Prague”, German cinema gave the most important signal of its exit from the Film d’Art hegemony.

The First World War Period

Cinemas of European countries filming during the First World War were hit by the destruction of their infrastructure and facilities. Furthermore, countries’ film crews and film equipment were deployed on and behind the front lines to document the war. German, British, French, Russian and Italian cinemas could not produce films independently of the state for a very long time.

Universum Film – Aktien Gesellschaft logo In 1916, the German government started to impose an embargo on all foreign films due to the increased anti-Germanism. In 1917, German cinema was commissioned by the German government to document the war and to shoot propaganda films. All German cinema studios, crews and equipment entered into the service of the German Supreme Army Command. The new structure that would dominate the German film industry for a long time was named Universum Film-Aktien Gesellschaft (UFA).

With UFA, all studios, crews, equipment, filmmakers were centralized and turned into a single studio. UFA suddenly became the most important film producer in Europe due to its technical capabilities and continuous funding. While the number of films produced in Germany was 24 in 1914, this number increased to 130 in 1918 with the UFA. UFA’s high production capacity as well as the film shortage in the domestic market due to the embargo on foreign films had a significant effect on the increase in the number of films produced. After the war ended, UFA would become the world’s largest studio.

After the First World War

After Germany lost the war, the “The Weimar Republic” period, which would continue between 1918 and 1929, began. In this period, some new variables emerged that would trigger the German Expressionist films:

In such a chaotic environment, the UFA’s situation was very promising for German cinema. The UFA, which was centralized and financed for war, no longer had to produce for war. With the films shot during the war, the interest of the society in German films also increased. All of these factors allowed Expressionist film directors to go further beyond the boundaries in their films. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Fritz Lang, Robert Wiene would take expressionist cinema to the highest level with their unusual narration methods and innovative visual designs. But what really triggered German Expressionism had not yet happened.

UFA film set at the Templehof Studios In 1920, Deutsche Eclair (Decla), an independent studio, shot “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” under the direction of Robert Wiene, using methods developed to overcome technical impossibilities. The movie was visually completely different from the films made until that day. The film succeeded in depictions made with make-up, light and shadows created with sharp border lines. In the film, 2-dimensional spaces and unreal perspectives were created by painting the decor with a light grey background with sharp lines in black. Again, with painting, light and shadows were created. With similar cinematographic by-passes, a masterpiece that changed the cinema was brought into being. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” created reference points for the upcoming expressionist films with its allegorical story structure, set, decor, lighting, make-up, and costumes.

The number of Expressionist films increased in a very short time with the increase in society’s habit of going to movies, the funding of expressionist films by the UFA, and a reference film such as “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”.

Some of the most prominent examples of German Expressionist films emerged under the production of UFA.

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Fritz Lang The most important expressionist directors that UFA worked with in the early period were as follows: Ludwig Berger, Wilhelm Dieterle, Paul Czinner, Ewald André Dupont, Fritz Lang, Karl Grune, Ernst Lubitsch, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Hanns Schwarz, Arthur Robison, Joe May, Paul L. Stein, Wilhelm Thiele.

During this period, Fritz Lang and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau shaped German Expressionism and world cinema with their films, many of which were considered masterpieces.

Fritz Lang: M (1931), Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924), Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924), Metropolis (1927), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) …

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau: Desire (1921), The Haunted Castle (1921), Nosferatu (1922), Phantom (1922), Faust (1926) …

Although the UFA played an important role in the production of expressionist films, it was a structure under the control of the government. UFA was a monopoly; its establishment was realized by closing, merging and expropriating several companies. The UFA could put pressure on and censor the directors to make propaganda films.

German cinema became even more known along with the atmosphere that normalized after the First World War. Expressionist directors made numerous films with their high productive abilities in the chaotic post-war environment. The recognition of Expressionist films and their directors peaked after the lifting of the embargoes on Germany.

Germany’s re-opening to foreign countries after the First World War caused critical disadvantages in important matters for German cinema.

The exchange rate was stabilized after the agreements made on a global scale in order to restructure and finance Germany after the war. The stabilized exchange rate made it less expensive to import films than to produce them.

After the lifting of the embargoes, Hollywood films became more popular than German films in the German cinema market. The market shares of German films shrank.

The increasing obligations of the UFA after the agreements signed with the American Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer caused the company to experience financial difficulties. The purpose of UFA’s agreements with American companies was to open up to the American market and the world, however, German cinema started to become American as a result of these agreements. Although it became one of the largest studios in the world after its merger with Decla, UFA’s film revenues did not meet expectations.

The economic independence and production capabilities of UFA, whose market share decreased, were negatively affected.

In the 1930s, German cinema, which survived the First World War with UFA, was tested with different dynamics this time. Along with UFA, the cinema industry also sank into an economic depression. Hollywood’s market shares in Germany expanded more than expected. The Nazi party, on the other hand, put pressure on the artists and tried to bring them into a new system of propaganda cinema.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Joseph Goebbels was then brought to the 3rd Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda or Propagandaministerium). Goebbels and his team controlled all German media and art institutions, aiming to make their propaganda even stronger. The pressure that began to be exercised on filmmakers in the 1930s increased even more during this period. Many directors, writers, cinematographers, sound experts had to leave Germany due to pressure. Artists who left Germany preferred to go to Italy and France but mostly to America. During this period, famous names like Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Paul Leni, F.W. Murnau left Germany. Fritz Lang immigrated to America and joined Paul Leni and F.W. Murnau.

German Cinema, which got stronger during the Weimar Period and did works beyond its age, lost its talented names. The shooting of expressionist films came to an end in a short time.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari The characteristics mentioned below form the framework of German Expressionism. There are not many films that could come close to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, which offered all of these features together. For this reason, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is qualified as the reference film of German Expressionism.

German Expressionism emerged and went out of existence at a critical time. Between the two world wars, it undertook all the economic crises, pessimism, polarized nature and social conflicts of the period. Extremely dark and absurd films were shot, which would later become known as cults and classics. This showed points where cinema’s narrative forms could expand. The talents of cinema were reinvented. Expressionism found itself a prominent place in Film Noir with the horror and thriller film genres.

Horror cinema

Horror cinema or many techniques used today for scenes with an element of horror first appeared in German Expressionist films. Sharp lights and shadows, surreal characters, dementia, absurd camera angles and many more soon became indispensable elements of horror films.

Film Noir

With the effects of the Second World War, many filmmakers migrated from Europe, especially Germany, to America. Just as German Expressionism turned into a form of self-expression of German filmmakers during the First World War, it would also form the basis of Film Noir, the method of expressing the traumas that American filmmakers would experience after the Second World War.

The Lady from Shanghai Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Carol Reed, and Michael Curtiz are directors who best revealed the influence of expressionism with their noir films.

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