Animation Under the Swastika: A History of Trickfilm in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

by Rolf Giesen, J.P. Storm

Overview

Among their many idiosyncrasies, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, remained serious cartoon aficionados throughout their lives. They adored animation and their influence on German animation after World War II continues to this day. This study explores Hitler and Goebbels' efforts to establish a German cartoon industry to rival Walt Disney's and their love-hate relationship with American producers, whose films they studied behind locked doors. Despite their ambitious dream, all that remains of their efforts are a few cartoon shorts--advertising and puppet films starring dogs, cats, birds, hedgehogs, insects, Teutonic dwarves, and other fairy-tale ensemble. While these pieces do not hold much propaganda value, they perfectly illustrate Hannah Arendt's controversial description of those who perpetrated the Holocaust: the banality of evil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786489695
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	08/02/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	245
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rolf Giesen, a former visiting professor of animation at the Communication University of China and president of an animation museum in Changchun, China, has compiled a special effects collection for Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin and has co-written several animation features. He is an expert on early fantasy and science fiction films.
Rolf Giesen, a former visiting professor at the Animation School of the Communication University of China in Beijing, has compiled a special effects collection for Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin and has co-written several animation features. He is president of the Jilin Animation, Comics and Games Museum in Changchun, China.
J.P. Storm, a collector of animation art and documents, has devoted 25 years of his life to research the history of German cartoons between 1933 and 1945.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
 1. Optical Lyric and Shadow Plays: The Early History of German Animation
 2. The March of the Cigarettes
 3. Tilo Voss and the Development of German Sound Cartoons
 4. How Walt Disney Became Walter Distler: Snow White for Greater Germany
 5. Global Power for German Trickfilm
 6. Puppet Films: Starevich, Mecki the Hedgehog, the Diehl Brothers and Jürgen Clausen, the German “Pal”
 7. An Animation Pioneer with a ­Non-­Aryan Background: Wolfgang Kaskeline
 8. The Phenomenology and Psychology of Cartoons
 9. Hans Held, Troublemaker
10. Kurt Stordel and Purzel: A ­Self-­Proclaimed German Walt Disney and His Dwarf
Between pages 64 and 65 are 8 color plates containing 15 photographs.
11. Towards a German Disney Empire
12. The Futile Dream of a German Cartoon Factory: Rise and Fall of Deutsche Zeichenfilm G.m.b.H.
13. Snow Man and ­Weather-­Beaten Melody: Hans Fischerkoesen and Horst Von Möllendorff
14. A Surprising Underwater Cartoon from Prague: Wedding at Coral Sea
15. Deutsche Wochenshau and the “Collaborators” of the Europäischer Zeichenfilm Ring
16. Bavaria, Munchausen and the Town Musicians of Bremen
17. Animated Maps to Hail German Victories: Svend Noldan
18. Classified Animation: Training the Military
19. The Aftermath: The Postwar Era of German Animation
20. The Filmmakers: Biographies
21. Select Filmography
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index