The Emergence of Proletarian Cinema in the Weimar Republic

Abstract

Seldom does an epoch produce as dynamic a progressive presence as did the Weimar Republic in Germany (1919-1933). This included two substantial party presences; the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as the Communist Party (KPD), as well as other offshoots engaged vibrantly in journalistic, social and cultural activities. Within these activities across the various groups, discussions on the proletariat tended to be holistic including, but not limited to, economic, social and educational matters of the working class but also including thoughts on what a “proletariat culture” is, a concept that remains ambiguous to this day. In this paper I examine this era and the ideas of a proletarian culture and how it would be manifest in proletariat-inspired art. I would like to do this specifically by looking at the development of Prometheus Film (Prometheus Film-Verleih und Vertriebs GmbH), a German subsidiary of the Soviet company Meschrabpom-Film, which produced films for the left, and specifically the Comunnist Party. I would then like to support my assertions by using as an example one of the most famous of the proletariat film projects, Piel Jutzi’s 1929 film Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück (Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness).