Goebbels and the Führer is a recent German feature film that explores the intense relationship between Hitler and the man he called his Hexenmeister (‘sorcerer’), his Propaganda Minister. It shows how Goebbels created an image of Hitler that promoted him to almost god-like status and ensured that at every major occasion he was surrounded by cheering, adoring crowds. The movie also acts as a warning to a new generation of Germans, ending with a quote from Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz: ‘It happened… and it can therefore happen again. Therein lies the core of what we have to say.’
Such a message might have seemed excessive a few years ago. But with the far-right Alternative for Germany party (the AfD) accused of openly aping elements of Nazi ideology, or adapting them to the 21st century (for instance, by replacing anti-Semitism with Islamophobia), this warning seems more relevant. The AfD is now one of the largest parties in the Bundestag and is represented in nearly every state across Germany. Apparently, screenings of Goebbels and the Führer in Germany have been met with stunned silence as cinema audiences take in the message that is hammered at them.
The movie was written and directed by Joachim Lang, who is perhaps best known for his 2018 film Mack the Knife, centred around Berthold Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. However, it is two of Lang’s other past productions that particularly inspired his new film. One was a documentary-drama he wrote about the anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film Jud Süss. The second was a documentary he produced about the German actor Heinrich George, who appeared in the vast, delusional epic Kolberg, which Goebbels had made at the end of the war, depicting the heroic defence of German forces against Napoleon’s troops. Huge resources of men and materials went into the production of Kolberg, just as the Reich was crumbling. Both films are referenced in this new project, which was released in UK and US cinemas earlier this year.
V. G. Childe’s archaeological theory