We are thrilled to present our three-year anniversary edition, featuring new essays and film dossiers as well as updates on recent publications and restorations. We are grateful to the following contributors for their essays: Tom Gunning, Noah Isenberg, Maggie Hennefeld, Anne Nesbet, and Chris Horak. We would also like to thank the guest curators of new film dossiers: Hannes Charen on Dr. Mabuse and Molly Harrabin on The Oyster Princess. We also include a new dossier on M by Tony Kaes. If you are interested in the larger film-archaeological project behind our film dossiers, click here.
We are pleased to welcome Molly Harrabin as an associate editor, Sibi Saravanan as our new website developer, and Olivia Poppe as an editorial assistant. We also received assistance from Linus Mao and Philipp Stiasny. Many thanks to everyone who worked on this edition!
If you would like to submit an online essay or curate a dossier about your favorite Weimar film, please let us know. If you want to be notified about the release of our next issue and receive occasional updates, please sign up for our mailing list.
If you are attending the upcoming Pordenone Silent Film Festival from October 4–11, 2025, please get in touch with us so we can arrange a time to have dinner together and celebrate three years of WeimarCinema.org!
• At the 2025 meeting of the German Studies Association in Arlington, there will be various papers dedicated to the history and culture of the Weimar Republic, including a panel examining 'Weimar Cinema's "Nasty Women"' on Sunday, September 28. Taking inspiration from the Cinema's First Nasty Women DVD/Blu-ray set, the panel revisits and rethinks feminist approaches to Weimar cinema. Mary Hennessy (University of Wisconsin-Madison) offers a new view of Ossi Oswalda beyond her role as Lubitsch star. Molly Harrabin (University of Warwick) examines instances of gender non-conformity in Weimar films not usually considered queer. Owen Lyons (Toronto Metropolitan University) examines the women's rights movement and the depiction of women as financial speculators in Weimar cinema. Full program available here.
• The 2025 Pordenone Silent Film Festival will take place October 4 to 11 2025. Full program will be available from mid-September.
• On November 6, Noah Isenberg will deliver the Center for Jewish Studies Lecture at UC Berkeley, "Runnin' Wild: Billy Wilder, Hot Jazz, and Weimar Jewish Culture", in Dwinelle 142, at 5 pm. On Friday, November 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., there will be a workshop with Prof. Isenberg on the 1929 film "Menschen am Sonntag" for which Wilder wrote the script.
• The 28th San Francisco Silent Film Festival will take place November 12–16, 2025 at the Orinda Theatre in the East Bay town of Orinda. Full program will be available from mid-October.
• The Rethinking Weimar Cinema conference will take place at the University of Oxford from June 17 to 19, 2026. The conference aims to revisit Weimar cinema through fresh critical lenses and innovative methodologies and invites participants to reconsider its cultural, political, and aesthetic significance in light of new archival discoveries, theoretical frameworks, and interdisciplinary approaches. Papers are due October 31, 2025. Click here for the full call for papers.
EVENTS (MOSTLY) IN BERLIN AND VIENNA
Letter from our German correspondent Philipp Stiasny
More and more films from Weimar Germany are restored and digitized. Only recently, the premiere of the new restoration of Gustav Ucicky's "Der Sträfling von Stambul" (1929) by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung took place at the Ufa Filmnächte in Berlin. One of Ufa's last silent films, it starred Betty Amann together with Heinrich George. https://www.ufa-filmnaechte.de/filme/der-straefling-aus-stambul
Another newly restored film is Richard Eichberg's "Die Kleine vom Bummel" (1925) featuring Lilian Harvey. Filmmuseum Düsseldorf's new restoration premiered in early September at the StummfilmLiveFestival #16 at Cinema Babylon in Berlin.
In the early 1930s, Ukrainian-born actress Anna Sten experienced a short but very productive time in Germany working in the SPD production "Lohnbuchhalter Kremke" (1930) directed by Marie Harder and the independent film "Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff" (1931) before starring in two big Ufa productions, "Bomben auf Monte Carlo" (1931) and "Stürme der Leidenschaft" (1932). Her German films brought Anna Sten to the attention of Samuel Goldwyn who hired her to become the new rival of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in Hollywood. Her German films together with her previous Soviet and her later American films are part of the retrospective "Kyjiw, Berlin, Hollywood. Die vielen Gesichter von Anna Sten" at Zeughauskino, Berlin, starting on October 4. https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/filmreihe/kyjiw-berlin-hollywood/
During the Weimar Republic, Lotte Reiniger, Leontine Sagan, Ella Bergmann-Michel and Leni Riefenstahl were not the only women directors. There were also Gertrud David, Marie Harder, Hanna Henning, Lola Kreutzberg, Lissy Reincke, Olga Tschechowa and many more. What has survived, will now be shown in the retrospective "Filmpionierinnen! Regisseurinnen in Deutschland 1917 bis 1932" at Zeughauskino, starting on October 31. There is a lot to discover! https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/filmreihe/filmpionierinnen/
In the silent era many film makers came to Berlin by way of Vienna. In January and February of 2026 there is good reason to travel back and visit Vienna's beautiful Metro-Kino and enjoy two retrospectives consisting mostly of Weimar films. From January 16, Filmarchiv Austria will present a series of "Sensationsfilme" with male and female action heroes in collaboration with Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. Under the title "First Action Heroes – Der Sensationsfilm zwischen Kaiserzeit und Weimarer Republik", there will be films by Harry Piel, Rudolf Meinert, Joe May, Joseph Delmont and others, among them new restorations of "Der geheimnisvolle Klub" (1913) with Ilse Bois, "William Voss. Der Millionendieb" (1915), "Abenteuer einer Nacht" (1923), "Der Mann auf dem Kometen" (1925) with Luciano Albertini and "Masken" (1930). The retrospective is curated by Hemma Marlene Prainsack and Andreas Thein and will be accompanied by an exhibition on the genre of the "Sensationsfilm".
From early February, Vienna's Metro-Kino will host a retrospective of Weimar film star and producer Ellen Richter, showing both her silent and early sound films. The series will coincide with the first Ellen Richter monograph, written by Oliver Hanley and Philipp Stiasny, with contributions by Mila Ganeva, Anjeana K. Hans, Katharina Loew, Tobias Nagl and Michael Wedel (published by Synema – Gesellschaft für Film und Medien, Vienna). https://www.filmarchiv.at/de/kino/programm
Round about 1,000 fiction and non-fiction films from Weimar Germany are now accessible on video in the Digitaler Lesesaal of Bundesarchiv, the German Federal Archive. Many of these films are presented in new digitized versions. One such film, the German-British co-production "Haus Nr. 17" (1928) by Geza von Bolvary was recently shown in CineGraph Babelsberg's series "Wiederentdeckt" at Zeughauskino. A screener with French intertitles is available in the Digitaler Lesesaal: https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/video/1175/702629 Find out more here.
OF INTEREST
ChatGPT is increasingly incorporating dossiers and essays from WeimarCinema.org to provide engaging information about Weimar film for its users. Although AI is not always accurate, many researchers are using it as a useful entry point into the complex and evolving history of Weimar cinema. By drawing on our website as a resource, we hope that our work will become accessible to a broader public.
Weimar weiblich: Filmpionierinnen des Kinos der Moderne (1918-1933) is a richly illustrated volume (edited by Daria Berten, Annika Haupts, Anna Katharina Heizmann and Kristina Jaspers) that spotlights the women working behind the camera during the Weimar era. Through archival materials and visual documents, the book explores how these women shaped the industry, navigated creative challenges, formed networks, and pioneered thematic and formal innovation. Emerging from an exhibition at the Deutsches Filminstitut and Filmmuseum, the project situates itself within broader discussions of gender, modernity, and film historiography. Set for release October 2025, this volume reframes the narrative of Weimar cinema from an inclusive and gender-conscious perspective. Available here.
From August 27-29, Berlin's Museumsinsel hosted the 15th edition of the UFA-Filmnächte with open-air screenings of three restored Weimar-era silent films: Variété (E. A. Dupont, 1925), Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Wiene, 1925/26) and Der Sträfling aus Stambul (Gustav Ucicky, 1929). All films were accompanied by live scores from the UFA Syncopaters: Küspert & Kollegen, Metropolis Orchester Berlin, and PC Nackt.
The 41st Bonn Internationale Stummfilmetage (August 7 to 17, 2025) took place in the open-air courtyard of the University of Bonn, offering free evening screenings of newly-restored silent-era films from around the world, all with live accompaniment. This year's programme highlighted early female directors and stars, including Lois Weber, Anny Ondra, and Luise Heilborn-Körbitz, and spanned genres from slapstick to avant-garde. Films were also available online for 48 hours after screening.
In May 2025, the Deutsche Kinemathek reopened at its new home in the historic E-Werk in Berlin-Mitte. Film viewings are now available in the film archive, and the library is also open. All other archives will be accessible again starting September 2.
Filming of the fifth and final season of Babylon Berlin began in February 2025 and is set to be released in Germany before the end of the year. This series will be set in February 1933 as the Nazi Party takes power.
Robert Eggers' long-awaited remake of Nosferatu had its world premiere on December 2, 2024 at the Zoo Palast cinema in Berlin. It was theatrically released in the United States three weeks later, on December 25, 2024 with a UK release on January 1, 2025.
Read more...
The 2024 Pordenone Silent Film Festival
(October 7 to 14) will feature the following restorations and rediscoveries from the Weimar Republic:
Vanina (Arthur von Gerlach, 1922); Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923) Dagfin (Dagfin lo sciatore)
(Joe May, 1926); and Saxophon-Susi (Miss Saxophone) (Karel Lamač, 1928. In addition, two films with Anna May Wong will be shown:
Song (aka Schmutziges Geld ) (Richard Eichberg, 1928) and Großstadtschmetterling (Richard Eichberg, 1929).
On September 25, 5 pm (GMT),
the Weimar Film Network hosts an online discussion about plans to represent Weimar cinema's first "nasty women"
across various curatorial and archival initiatives. Participants are Kate Saccone (University of Amsterdam),
project manager of the Women Film Pioneers Project as well as Maggie Hennefeld (University of Minnesota)
and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam), curators of the DVD/Blu-ray set Cinema's First Nasty Women.
Register here!
Susan Neiman published a lengthy review titled "The Conformist" about Daniel Kehlmann's portrayal of G. W. Pabst in his biographical novel Lichtspiel. The review, which appeared in the June 12, 1925 issue of the New York Review of Books, coincided with the release of Ross Benjamin's English translation of Lichtspiel, published by Simon & Schuster, under the title "The Director."
German Film: From the Archives of the Deutsche Kinemathek is a monumental 1,000-page book featuring 2,600 illustrations of items from the Kinemathek's archives, including shooting scripts, music scores, cameras, and costumes. It also contains over 400 analytical mini-essays on individual films, directors, actors, genres, and concepts spanning 130 years of German film history. With nearly 200 pages of essays and illustrations dedicated to the period from 1918 to 1933, this book is an invaluable resource for the material history of Weimar cinema. The English translation was supported by the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. The elegantly designed book is available in both hardcover and eBook formats. Read Jan-Christopher Horak's review here.
At the 2024 meeting of the German Studies Association, Sara F. Hall delivered the presidential address, "1924/2024: Reflections on a Cinema Centenary."
Silent Film in Berlin: Ufa-Filmnächte
Ufa-Filmnächte: Kinomagie auf der Museumsinsel (August 21-23, 2024). The program can be found here.
— Stummfilmfestival im Babylon (September 5-15). This film series focuses on German and international
films released in 1924. The program features some of the best-known silent film musicians; it takes place
at the Babylon, an iconic movie theater from the late 1920s; and the entire festival is free. For the
full program, click here.
— The Zeughauskino is showing several restorations of Weimar films with live-music
from late November to mid-December. Click here for the program. Oliver Hanley presents his restoration of
Was ist los mit Nanette (1929) on December 12. Click here for details.
Silent Film in Berlin: Ufa-Filmnächte
Ufa-Filmnächte: Kinomagie auf der Museumsinsel (August 21-23, 2024). The program can be found here.
— Stummfilmfestival im Babylon (September 5-15). This film series focuses on German and international
films released in 1924. The program features some of the best-known silent film musicians; it takes place
at the Babylon, an iconic movie theater from the late 1920s; and the entire festival is free. For the
full program, click here.
— The Zeughauskino is showing several restorations of Weimar films with live-music
from late November to mid-December. Click here for the program. Oliver Hanley presents his restoration of
Was ist los mit Nanette (1929) on December 12. Click here for details.
MEGALOPOLIS, Francis Ford Coppola's
long-awaited film, premiered at Cannes in May 2024. Coppola wrote, directed
and financed the film himself in order to maintain complete control over it. Not only in its title, but
also in its futuristic urban setting, historical scope (from ancient Rome to the present), and philosophical
ambitions about the future of humanity, Megalopolis is reminiscent of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It also echoes
a lesser-known 1936 science fiction film, Things to Come, written by H.G. Wells, who published a scathing review
of Metropolis in 1927. Coppola's Megalopolis is distributed by Lionsgate Films and will be released in U.S.
theaters (including IMAX screens) on September 27, 2024.
Bauhaus and its relationship to National Sozialism
will be comprehensively examined in three exhibitions at three locations in Weimar: "The Bauhaus as a Site of
Political Contest, 1919-1933," at the Museum Neues Weimar; "Expelled - Confiscated - Assimilated, 1930/37,"
at the Bauhaus Museum; and "Life in the Dictatorship, 1933-1945," at the Schiller Museum. All are organized
by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and curated by Anke Blümm, Elizbeth Otto, and Patrick Rössler. The exhibitions
run from May 9 to September 15. For more information, please visit the exhibition website.
On the place of film in the Bauhaus movement, see Laura Frahm's recent book "Design in Motion: Film Experiments
at the Bauhaus" (2022).
A new score for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was performed live at a screening at
the Alte Oper in Frankfurt on February 17, 2024. The composer, former
"Kraftwerk" musician Karl Bartos, worked for four years on this new electronic
soundtrack, which is also available on CD. The film with the new
score can be found here. For details about the music and a reading of Caligari as a "key work
for transhumanism," see Andrian Kreye's enthusiastic review of the premiere
("Was für ein Triumph"). Bartos explains his "narrative music and sound design"
project in this 12-minute video (in English).
The 27th San Francisco Silent Film Festival moves for the first time from the
Castro Theater to San Francisco's historic Palace of Fine Art, April 10-14, 2024.
Among others, the Festival will feature restorations of Die Strasse (Karl Grune, 1923) and G .W. Pabst's forgotten 1928 film Abwege (The Devious Path). For more information,
click here.
The Stummfilmfestival Karlsruhe,
directed and founded by Josef Jünger, will
celebrate its 22th year of annual silent film festivals in 2024. There is also a new
website with a list of previous festival programs and
videos introducing rare silent films.
In a long review essay titled "Fragile, Resilient Weimar"
in the NY Review of Books
(February 8, 2024), Christopher R. Browning reflects on the precarious politics of
the republic between Hitler's two attempts--in 1923 and 1933--to overthrow
democracy. Browning's essay provides an important framework for examining
Weimar films, which are inherently part of that history.
Fritz Lang made a brief audio recording ("Leitworte")
about the universal language of cinema to mark the premiere of Metropolis in January 1927. The recording, transcript, and translation
are here.
Geschichte des dokumentarischen Films in Deutschland, vol. 2, the authoritative 673-
page history of documentary cinema in the Weimar Republic, is now available online. Edited by Klaus Kreimeier, Antje Ehmann and Jean-Paul Goergen, it was published by Reclam in 2005.
Vol. 1 (Kaiserreich) and vol. 3 (Drittes Reich) are also online. Vol. 4 (nach 1945) is in production.
Zensurkarten -- An extensive collection of German film censorship
records is now digitized and available online. (Thanks to Oliver Hanley for sharing this information here).
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