Over the next several months we will be closely examining the lives and works of various women throughout history. Today's post will continue our discussion on one of the first: Hildegard von Bingen. Having looked at her early life in the church, we will now take a closer look at the evolution of her theology as manifested in Scivias. "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy" -Acts 2:17-18 Completed over ten years, 1141-1151, Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias was an opus containing over thirty-five visions with accompanying images "set among a frenzied prophetic sense of peril…[for] the church."[i] Scivias, was shortened from three Latin words, scito bias domini, meaning "know the ways of the Lord."[ii] Hildegard’s spiritual revelations in Scivias all had three primary components: 1.) The ability to see the hidden things within our world or the world of God 2.) The actual experience of 'seeing' and 3.) The content of the vision itself.[iii] Thus, when Scivias was written it focused on both a detailed explanation of the dream itself, in addition to Hildegard's actual experience of seeing the hidden truths revealed. The publication signified that women were just as receptive to divine revelation as were men.[iv] Hildegard was called a female prophet, likened to the Old Testament prophets Deborah, Judith and even Jeremiah.[v] Yet, Hildegard only criticized the present, believing it would bring about a greater future for the Church, its leaders, servants and community; she did not believe she was prophesying. "She taught that now a woman would prophesy for the scandal of men and in her two most severe images of the demonic, patriarchy is itself pictured in the league of the devil."[vi] Although those may be Hildegard's most scathing images found within Scivias, her most profound illuminated manuscripts illustrate that men and women are both partner's in God's work,[vii] while highlighting the irreplaceable role of women within the Church. For the twelfth-century, Self-Portrait in Scivias is a unique blend of art and personal self-expression. The manuscript shows a building with Hildegard to the left under descending tongues of fire licking the surface of her face. She holds a tablet with a stylus in her hand for writing or drawing. Volmar is witness to the revelation, as he stands to her right. Little is known regarding how involved Hildegard was in the actual manufacture of the miniature illustrations found within Scivias. Nonetheless, most scholars believe that while receiving her visions, Hildegard drew rough sketches onto clay or wax tablets.[viii] These images then served as the inspiration for the completed images of Scivias, in which Hildegard directly supervised the execution.[ix] Therefore, this image depicts Hildegard in the act of receiving and illustrating her vision. Referencing the flames of the Holy Spirit from the Pentecost in the Book of Acts, the image marks the beginning of Hildegard’s missionary journey. Her beginnings mirror the apostles of the early Christian Church. "She was awakened by the parted tongues of fire that makes sense of babble and allows deep communication to happen among peoples."[x] Even after Papal approval of Hildegard's visions, she was deemed as insane. When he spoke in foreign tongues during the feat of Pentecost, Peter, the 'founder' of the Christian Church, was also viewed as unstable or disillusioned. Not only is Hildegard depicting herself as a recipient of God's divine revelation in Self-Portrait, but she is aligning herself with one of the two most powerful men of the early Christian Church, Saint Peter. Hildegard is the new apostle. In her biography, Vita, written by one of her later secretaries, Gottfried and the monk Theodoric, she is said to have received the "sting of divine punishment and become sick"[xi] due to her hesitance in writing down her visions from an early age. Self-Portrait portrays a woman who is now fully awakened and receptive to the ways and words of God. Hildegard compared wisdom with being awake and foolishness with being asleep. She will remain silent or asleep no more. As the flames kiss her face, Hildegard's eyes open, waking up to the Holy Spirit, aware of the message that is being presented to her and ready to present it to the Church and its peoples. Self-Portrait was one of the first images to be completed for Scivias. Taking nearly ten years to complete, Scivias is a fascinating examination on the evolution of Hildegard of Bingen's theology. During the following years of completion, however, Hildegard and the women of St. Disibode underwent several major upheavals. Shortly after the death of Jutta, pilgrims came to St. Disibode to visit her body, seeking miracles and intercession. The visitors were so frequent and noisy, the sisters had difficulty in practicing their silent prayers and offices.[xii] In addition, Hildegard began fighting for independence from the overly protective male monastery; thus leading her to seek a new cloister for the sisters. Then one day in a divine revelation, she was shown the location of where she and her fellow sisters were to take up residence: Rupertsburg in Bingen, along the Rhine River.[xiii] Abbott Kuno, however, fiercely opposed the move. Upon this refusal, Hildegard grew deathly ill. She solicited the help of the Archbishop Henry of Mainz and Countess von Stade, the mother of her secretary, Richardis.[xiv] In 1148, word was received from the archbishop that Abbott Kuno must let Hildegard and the women leave the cloister for Rupertsburg (Figure 1). Once Kuno's consent was finally given, Hildegard miraculously recovered from her mysterious illness.[xv] The new cloister at Rupertsburg, built on the holy grounds of Saint Rupert's former home, was state of the art for the mid-twelfth-century. It included a scriptorium, space for up to fifty nuns and running water in every room.[xvi] Volmar followed Hildegard to Rupertsburg and helped her establish the new cloister while still remaining her trusted secretary. Sadly, her other secretary and sister, Richardis von Stade, was offered the position of abbess at another monastery shortly after the move. After significant disagreement and unrest, Hildegard authorized Richardis' move, but Richardis died within weeks of the transfer.[xvii] It was in this environment that Hildegard completed and began her largest undertakings in addition to evolving her distinct feminine theology. In the midst of these events, Hildegard continued the production of Scivias, including one of her most unique and fascinating illuminated manuscripts, Ecclesia with Virginitas and Her Companions (Figure 2). The image contains Ecclesia wrapping her arms around numerous figures representing the monastic community. Ecclesia (the church) is depicted in the Hellenistic fashion as a crowned angelic figure maintaining a formal pose and holding numerous figures in her arms. Most notably, Ecclesia is female and the central figure of the image. Based on a hieratic scale, Ecclesia is the largest figure with the church community held within her arms depicted in a much smaller fashion. Standing prominently in front of Ecclesia's enclosed arms is a virginal orant in a red tunic. Behind her, are numerous virgins and a few priests and monks. Ecclesia is a statement about the various roles of the Church and its community of believers. Although the image’s hieratic scale emphasizes the Church's importance, its greater purpose is to illustrate the size of the Church as a whole. Hildegard is stating that the Church is a large entity which encompasses a worldwide community of believers. The illumination that was a trademark of such illustrated manuscripts, highlights the transcendent imagery within Ecclesia.[xviii] Furthermore, the three primary colors of the image's composition are symbolic of various aspects of the Christian community. White is symbolic for the priesthood, purple represents the monastic community of men and women while blue stood for the married laity.[xix] Three colors representing the totality of the Christian community, just as three beings comprise the totality of the Holy Trinity. Although Hildegard regards the entire Christian community and Church, her greater emphasis in Ecclesia is on the female religious community, more specifically, the virgins.[xx] For Hildegard, the woman's soul was the greatest expression of the image of God;[xxi] therefore her theological emphasis in the image was on the roles of the virgins within the Church. All the virgins in the image are crowned, some have even been martyred.[xxii] These women were most important element of the Christian church in the eyes of Hildegard.[xxiii] By doing so, a strong parallel has been drawn to all the nuns who have taken a lifetime vow of chastity to better serve God and glorify Christ. These nuns and virgins are the heart of Ecclesia. Strong women, she is saying, are the wisest ones and the most courageous workers. Virginity is not being celebrated as holier than sexual experience, but for producing wise and courageous workers. It is a fruitful virginity that is celebrated here, one of independence from patriarchy's dark shadow.[xxiv] Hildegard's insights challenged traditional medieval thinking not only for venerating the female members of the church more greatly than the men, but for celebrating virgins for their fruitful works, and not for their 'untainted virtue.' Figure 1 Figure 2 [i] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 29.
[ii] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 5. [iii] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 33. [iv] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 16. [v] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 10. [vi] Ibid., 14. [vii] Ibid. [viii] Emmerson, "The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience," 95. [ix] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 33. [x] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 27. [xi] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 44. [xii] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 4. [xiii] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 38. [xiv] Ibid., 107. [xv] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 27-28. [xvi] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 107. [xvii] Ibid., 108. [xviii] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 17. [xix] Ibid. [xx] Ibid. [xxi] Ibid., 19. [xxii] Ibid., 17. [xxiii] Ibid. [xxiv] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 72
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Over the next several months we will be closely examining the lives and works of various women throughout history. Today's post will begin with one of the first: Hildegard von Bingen. Starting with her early life in the church, subsequent posts will discuss the evolution of her theology as manifested in her various illuminated manuscripts. In the High Middle Ages of the German Renaissance--an era dominated by men--there emerged a single woman. She surpassed kings and popes in notoriety and personal accomplishments during her lifetime. She was a prolific writer, poet and musician. She was an artist. She was a visionary. She was Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was an innovative female figure of the monastic community who put women in the forefront of the arts and theological society. Through her revolutionary writings, visions, and illuminated manuscripts, Hildegard of Bingen created a theophany of the feminine that challenged the patriarchal domination of the Church while elevating the theological roles of women in medieval society. Upon birth, Hildegard's life was already given over to the service of God. Born the tenth child to a German knight at the castle of Bickelheim in 1098, it is believed Hildegard was "tithed"[i] to the Benedictine monastery of St. Disibode;[ii] she was given over on her eighth birthday. Prior to this consecration, Hildegard had already begun having visions as well as experiencing mysterious illnesses by the age of five. It was not for another thirty-eight years, however, that she was instructed to write about her spiritual revelations.[iii] Hildegard’s new home, St. Disibode, was the home of Jutta of Sponheim, a woman whom she came to view as both her mentor and educator (Figure 1). As a highly revered abbess of the monastery’s cloisters, Jutta was responsible for Hildegard’s education. Jutta molded Hildegard into an accomplished scholar, instructing her in biblical exegesis, the natural sciences, music, early Christian writings as well as philosophy.[iv] Hildegard spent the next thirty-five years at the cloister, advancing her training in, and understanding of, Latin while continuing to battle with her debilitating migraines and physical infirmities. Despite her formidable education, Hildegard’s historical significance truly began with the death of her educator and mentor Jutta, in 1136. Hildegard was elected the new abbess of the cloister by her fellow sisters,[v] marking the beginnings of her reputation as a revolutionary female Theologian and artist. During Hildegard’s time as abbess, she began to further evolve and expand upon her theological ideologies, most notably in her affirmation of a feminine theology. The twelfth-century gave rise to the cult of Mary which promoted an unattainable ideal for women. While the Virgin Mary was being venerated as a saint, women were being devalued and degraded for their inability to maintain such an ideal of virtue. Hildegard recognized the dangers of such an ideology and challenged the sentimentalization of Mary by creating awe-inspiring images of female spirituality. She did so through her teachings, within her numerous illuminated manuscripts and years later in her music.[vi] Themes centralized on God as mother, cosmic hospitality and art as meditation became the focus of her works and future preaching.[vii] Furthermore the male-dominated Church had focused on the doctrines of Saint Augustine’s Fall/Redemption ideology for centuries. Hildegard’s theology drastically contested these beliefs as the cosmic Christ and creation stories became a central focus to her work.[viii] Rather than concentrating on humanity’s estrangement from God, Hildegard examined how Christ was the spiritual force directing men and women to evolve spiritually in addition to their spiritual relationship with God’s creation. Her work began to fill the in gaps of a theology that had long over-looked women and their roles within the Church and God’s created world.[ix] In the midst of these theological manifestations, Hildegard received a revelation. When I was forty-two years and seven months old, a burning light of tremendous brightness coming from heaven poured into my entire mind. Like a flame does not burn but enkindles, it inflamed my entire heart and my entire breast, just like the sun that warms an object with its rays… All of a sudden, I was able to taste of the understanding of the narration of books.[x] Through a vision of light, God had appointed Hildegard as his messenger. She could no longer withhold her visions or remain silent; Hildegard was called to profess the word of the living light to God's people. As a woman, it was these visions that gave Hildegard her power and influence within the Church. Without them, "she would be a merely presumptuous female; with it found she had power precisely because that power came from God not her."[xi] She was simply a vessel used to channel the Word of God. Hildegard further emphasized her humble means, lowly female status and inability to write Latin in order to heighten the divine origins of her inspiration.[xii] Being female only meant shame for the men and priests who had grown negligent in their duties and unresponsive to God's guidance—not shame for Hildegard.[xiii] Despite the power of Hildegard's visions and their eventual international influence, she was initially brought under intense scrutiny from the Benedictine monks and other men of the Church. From the onset of her first vision in 1141, Hildegard shared her spiritual gift with Volmar, a trusted monk from her monastery in St. Disibode. As her initial confidant, Volmar recorded several of Hildegard's visions and shared them with Abbott Kuno, requesting his permission as the head of the monastery to transcribe the rest of her revelations.[xiv] Upon hearing this, Abbott Kuno called together the wisest men of the local cloisters to evaluate the validity of Hildegard's visions.[xv] The men were not responsive. Hildegard knew that spreading the message of her visions was imperative due to their divine origins; thus, she took matters into her own hands. A council of Bishops was to be held in nearby Trier and attended by one of the most powerful abbots and Doctor of the Church, Bernard Clairvaux. Knowing what transpired at the council would be passed on to Pope Eugenius III, Hildegard wrote a letter to Clairvaux beseeching his approval, not only of the divine origins of her visions, but also requesting official permission to share them.[xvi] The letter was presented at the Synod of Bishops at Trier of 1147-1148. After a favorable reception at the synod, Pope Eugenius III wrote to Hildegard and encouraged her "in the name of Christ and Saint Peter"[xvii] to share God's word and continue writing. This marked the beginning of Hildegard's strong, and often influential, relationship with the Pope(s) that both supported and pushed the Church leader to work harder for the church communities and strive for monastic reform.[xviii] With official Papal approval, Hildegard, with her secretaries Volmar and Richardis von Stade, began to work more earnestly on her magnum opus, Scivias (Figure 2). Figure 1 Figure 2 [i] Hildegard was given over to service within the Church since she was the tenth child in her family. As it is expected to give a tithe to the Church, 10% of one’s income, it is possible that being blessed with so many children during a time with a high mortality rate, Hildegard’s parents felt the need to express their gratitude by tithing their child. The practice, however, was not standardized or demanded by the Church of its followers.
[ii] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 4. [iii] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 27. [iv] Store, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 16. [v] McGuire, "Monastic Artists and Educators of the Middle Ages," 4. [vi] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 19. [vii] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 12. [viii] Ibid. [ix] Fox, “Hildegard of Bingen: Cosmic Christ, Religion of Experience, God the Mother,” in Knowledge of Reality, online.[x] Ibid., 9. [xi] Dickens, "Sybil of the Rhine: Hildegard of Bingen," 33. [xii] Ibid., 37. [xiii] Ibid. [xiv] Emmerson, "The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience," 95. [xv] Gottfried and Theodoric, The Life of Holy Hildegard, 38. [xvi] Storey, "Theophany of the Feminine: Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau and Herrad of Landsberg," 16. [xvii] Jaoudi, "Religion and Ecology: Hildegard of Bingen," 67. [xviii] Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen , 7. "If this film…can help to point out, like a hand upraised to warn and to exhort, the unknown danger that stalks us, the chronic danger—the constant presence among us of men with unhealthy or criminal tendencies—then it will have accomplished its primary function…." -Fritz Lang on the purpose of creating M At the dawn of a new decade, the Weimar Republic was in ruin, and the National Socialists Party “declared itself best suited to renew Germany.”[i] Originally named the German Worker’s Party, the group identified its “worker” as the heroic frontline soldier giving his life and honor to his country. Shortly after the group was formed in 1919, a decorated WWI soldier by the name of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) joined the party. By 1921, he became the face of its ideologies and ultimately its leader.[ii] It took many years for Hitler and the National Socialists to rise to power within Germany. Yet, despite several failed elections they still held a hypnotic grip on thousands of German citizens. They waited until the precise moment when all was not well in the Weimar Republic. Through strategic use of propaganda and playing upon the pervading psychological fears of the German people, Hitler and the National Socialists Party eventually gained the power they sought. Hitler stoked the flames of the “stabbed-in-the-back” myth and spoke of seeking revenge on the traitors who did so: the Jews and Bolsheviks. In addition, the National Socialists’ largest demographic was the working-middle class, the very people who were destroyed by the extreme inflation instated years earlier by Weimar leadership.[iii] This became an increasingly volatile period as fears were exploited and paranoia increased through frenzied Socialist rhetoric that promised a regenerated Germany. Many felt Hitler would indeed restore their country to her glory years, while others feared him and the party’s seemingly ruthless tactics for supreme power. Prior to Hitler and the Nazi’s seizing total control over Germany and its cultural production, an Austrian filmmaker by the name of Fritz Lang (1890-1976) created an Expressionistic warning to the dangers that lie ahead in the 1931 film, M. As earlier films, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, commented on the depraved state of Germany after the First World War, films such as Fritz Lang's M depicted how Interwar society would lead to the next. By 1931, Hitler was swiftly rising to full power—a mere two years before being named Germany's Fürher. He thrived during the Interwar period by fostering an atmosphere of suspicion and terror. Many citizens turned on each other based on a mere implication or innocent action. Lang beautifully captures this heightened sense of danger and paranoia in 1930s Germany. Although M is not as stylized as Caligari, it still creates an atmospheric labyrinth filled with threats hidden within the shadows of every razor-sharp angle [Figure 1]. Highly representative of future life under Hitler and the increasing disintegration of the German people, M pointed towards the future with a prophetic power.[iv] M begins with the shadow of a man greeting a young girl in the city of Berlin. Through a poignant montage highlighting the girl's absence from her home, the viewer learns that the child has been murdered. She is but one of many children to have been mysteriously killed over the past few months. As the deaths increase, so does the tension within the city. Everyone suspects their neighbor, believing each and every man or woman to be the concealed predator that is preying upon their children. Police unsuccessfully search Berlin by raiding the seedy underbelly of the city, believing it to be the hidden whereabouts of the murderer. Soon the city's underground crime lords, led by a man named Schränker, take up the campaign of searching for the murderer, worried that the continuous raids will be bad for business. Meanwhile, the killer is revealed to the viewer—a simple man named Hans Beckert [Figure 2], who makes grotesque faces in mirrors to try and reveal the monster he knows himself to be. Eventually, Beckert is identified as the killer by his trademark whistle and a chase ensues. It is a race between the Law and Berlin's criminal underground as they both pursue the frightened Beckert through the angular nighttime shadows of Berlin. Ultimately, he is captured by the criminals and tried in an underground "court of law." Beckert's angst-ridden monologue to the people of the "courts" is full of turmoil, as he claims that he has "no control over this, this evil thing inside me."[v] Just as the jury of his peers begins to riot and take the law into their own hands, Berlin's police officers step in and take Beckert to the true court of Law. As the film concludes, it becomes apparent that what initially appears to be a statement about mental health and the judicial system is actually an incisive critique of Hitler and the imminent collapse of the Weimar Republic. True to Expressionism, M is a film of shadows. In the film's opening scene, the viewer's first glimpse of Beckert is his silhouette cast upon a wanted poster [Figure 3]. Shadows are a recurring motif throughout M. Every character seems to either inhabit or emerge from the shadows—living within the darkness that has consumed them. Therefore, it is quite intentional that the men who form the criminal underground--as well as Beckert--are the characters most frequently shot as "men seen in shadows."[vi] In addition, this form of shadow play heightens the sense of an imminent threat lurking within the darkness. Paranoia only increased after the war and with the rise of Hitler. There was always a fear of a concealed enemy, like Beckert, waiting to attack a fellow German citizen. A group of men discussing the murderer in M eloquently capture this pervasive mindset when one states, "the danger is often hidden… [the] danger which always threatens."[vii] Furthermore, the chase scene showcases Berlin as a city of angles filled by an all-encompassing blackness, a dark maze that consumes Beckert, the criminals, police officers as well as the viewer. Indeed, the entire set is encumbered by long shadows that cast themselves upon the foreground, slowly encroaching on the space of the viewer. Berlin was the seat of Hitler, it was a city filled with deceit and political corruption during the 1930s. Lang accurately captures the ominous spirit of the city through his Expressionistic use of shadow. Heavily influenced by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Lang elaborates on the earlier film's profound stylistic influence to further comment on Berlin and Germany's foreboding pre-war atmosphere. The atmospheric depiction of Berlin in Lang’s M is the “portrait of a diseased society;”[viii] It is a city filled with menacing shadows, stark lighting and labyrinthine streets; Berlin is claustrophobic and its people are filled with moral decay. Bright whites are juxtaposed against deep blacks and buildings become mazes that devour all who enter. Camera angles crop rooms and the individuals within them, forcing the viewer to become part of the film’s anonymous crowd. Scenes are shot either in extreme close-ups, creating a feeling of intense claustrophobia, or from a voyeuristic perspective, as though “sinister surveillance”[ix] was being conducted by a hidden predator. Both camera shots serve to heighten the anxiety felt by the viewer as the film progresses, for this is the state in which Germans were living during the final years of the Interwar period. The pervasive sense of unease and distrust stems from the fact that the Weimar Republic was collapsing from within. Beckert as the murderer symbolizes the pathological infestation overtaking individuals and how it was bringing German society “to the point of disintegration.”[x] Lang comments on the impending collapse as a result of this moral depravity when an innocent old man is falsely accused of being the suspected murderer by his fellow German citizens. He is horribly beaten as the scene captures the frenzied mob-mentality that is bred from heightened mistrust. In Pre-World War II Berlin, everyone suspected their neighbor of being Jewish, a Bolshevik or some other form of dangerous revolutionary. M is an Expressionistic “reflection on the gathering storm that was to sweep away Germany’s first democracy.”[xi] Yet, the ambience of M is less Expressionistic than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari because the focus of the film is on the people. Berlin is a real, three-dimensional city, not as flat or angular as Caligari’s town of Holstenwall. Thus, Lang saves his Expressionistic distortions for his characters as Beckert and the crime boss Schränker come to symbolize all that is wrong with 1930s German society. Beckert as a film character embodies the “imprisoned spirit… [and] panic stricken souls,”[xii] that defined Interwar German Expressionism. His face is presented in a series of exaggerations that reveal his troubled soul. Indeed, even the actor chosen to play Beckert, Peter Lorre (1904-1964), was known for his distinctive voice and large, unusual eyes. The final scenes of M include Lorre’s tormented confession as Beckert But I… I can’t help myself! I have no control over this, this evil thing inside of me, the fire, the voices, the torment! … It’s there all the time, driving me out to wander the streets, following me, silently, but I can feel it there. It’s me, pursuing myself! I want to escape, to escape from myself! But it’s impossible. I can’t escape, I have to obey it. I have to run, run… endless streets. I want to escape, to get away! And I’m pursued by ghosts. …Don’t want to, but must! And then a voice screams! I can’t bear to hear it! I can’t go on! I can’t… I can’t… [xiii] Lorre delivers the lines through “exaggerated vocal inflections”[xiv] and distorted features. He claws at his face, unable to escape the infection within him. Beckert’s cries of pain, confusion and mercy as he holds his face arouses the same “interior psychic event”[xv] as Edvard Munch’s The Scream (Figures 4 & 5). Ultimately, Beckert is representative of every German, suffering from the societal corruption that has taken over the country. It is inevitable, it is too late—they can no longer escape Yet, Beckert is also symbolic of the disease as well as the crisis that is overtaking German society. Who will catch Beckert poses a crucial question: Who can save Germany: the leaders of Weimar Republic or Hitler and his Nazis?[xvi] M is not a police procedural about capturing a child murderer, but rather social commentary on the current state of Germany in the 1930s. It is the battle between the current leaders of the Weimar Republic and the rising National Socialists Party, as both seek to find the means to restore stability back to Germany. M’s police officers operate within the law and the realm of rationality, like the leaders of the Weimar Republic; this is sharply contrasted by the criminals who reflect the Nazis in their ruthless tactics. They operate outside of the law and see results based on their exploitation of fears and paranoia. Crime lord Schränker’s frenzied speech and rhetoric refers directly to Hitler’s signature style as he calls for the eradication of the problem troubling Berlin. “This monster has no right to live. He must disappear. He must be eliminated without pity, without scruples!”[xvii] Throughout the film Beckert is repeatedly referred to as a brute, beast or animal. He is described as subhuman, just like the Jews of pre-war Germany.[xviii] For Schränker, the problem is Beckert, for Hitler the problem was the Jews and Bolsheviks. M depicts Schränker as Hitler and the criminal underground as the Nazi Party. They ruthlessly pursue what they feel is the source of Germany’s disintegration and persuasively convince others to follow their plan of action. Initially, even the viewer is seduced by Schränker’s words and methods. Beckert is a child murderer after all. Every German citizen just wanted what was best for their country, wanted to restore it back to its proud pre-war prominence. Therefore, eradicating the source of the problem appears only necessary. Yet, the film asks, at what cost should this path be pursued? Released a little more than a year before Hitler assumed full control over Germany, M is a film that tries to warn against the dangers of life under Nazi rule. The viewer senses how much “Lang hated the people around him, hated Nazism, and hated Germany for permitting it.”[xix] Originally, M was to be entitled Murderers Among Us, but Lang faced pressure from the Nazi’s to change the film title. Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), believed the title to be a direct reference to the Nazi Party, and rightly so.[xx] Indeed, it is quite shocking that Hitler and the Minister of Propaganda even allowed such a film to be produced if they felt the name itself was threatening to their political image. Nonetheless, it was the last film directed by Lang to be shown in Germany and one of the last forms of Expressionism ever allowed within Interwar society.[xxi] Two years after M’s release, Hitler became Fürher and assumed full control over Germany’s art and cultural production. Lang claimed to have fled Germany in the night after Goebbels simultaneously informed him his film, The Testament of Dr Mabuse, was being banned and that the National Socialists intended for him to become the head of the country’s film studio. The Third Reich eventually denounced Expressionism as a form of “degenerate” art, touting it as the artistic production of the psychologically abnormal. Hitler ensured Expressionism’s eventual death by placing its artists at the forefront of his Degenerate Art Exhibition in 1937. The Exhibition included over 600 modernist works and was the counter point to the First Annual Exhibition of Great German Art. Despite the claims made by Hitler and his art exhibition, it is possible that he did not disapprove of Expressionism’s “degenerate” distortions; rather as a master of propaganda himself, Hitler fully understood the power wielded by Expressionist artists such as Lang. Expressionism had to be eliminated because these men were the prophets of Interwar Germany, boldly warning against the dangers of depraved men like Hitler and the “apocalyptic purge” they would bring in the form of the next world war. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 [i] Schivelbusch, Culture of Defeat, 239
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