Berlinale suspends award over first director’s Nazi past

The Berlin International Film Festival announced that it would no longer award its Alfred Bauer Silver Bear prize after details emerged earlier this week that the festival’s first director, whom the award is named after, had a deep Nazi past.

Hamburg-based Die Zeit newspaper broke the news on Wednesday that Bauer was a “high-ranking functionary in Nazi film bureaucracy.” Nazi-era documentation showed that he belonged to the National Socialist party and was a major supporter of its Sturmabteilung paramilitary wing.

“In today’s article in Die Zeit, sources are cited which cast new light on the role of Alfred Bauer,” said the film festival. “Interpretation of these sources suggests that he had held significant positions during the Nazi era.

“We will suspend the ‘Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize’ with immediate effect,” the festival’s organizers said.

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Alfred Bauer had repeatedly tried to cover his connections with the Nazi party, according to the invesitgation

‘Prominent role’

Bauer directed the Berlinale from its inception in 1951 until 1976. When he died in 1986, a Silver Bear prize was awarded in his name and focused on innovation in filmography.

Throughout his life, Bauer had repeatedly distanced himself from the Nazi party, at times suggesting that he even openly resisted Nazi dictatorship.

The report, however, said Bauer had played a pivotal role in spying on members of the film industry including actors and producers. Other documents said Bauer’s political leanings were “impeccable” and in line with Nazi ideology. Die Zeit reported it had found documents regarding Bauer in the National Archives and the city of Berlin’s archives. 

The 2020 Berlin International Film Festival is set to open February 2 and runs until March 1.

“The festival was not previously aware that Alfred Bauer had a prominent role in National Socialism,” said a Berlinale spokeswoman, referring to the official name of the Nazi movement.

“We welcome the research and publication in Die Zeit and are using this information to examine the history of the festival together with external academic researchers,” the spokeswoman added.

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• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Aesthetics for the masses

  At the 1938 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg, thousands of members of the League of German Girls (BDM) stood in an impressive formation. Uniform, obedient, functioning: The message was clear. It was a political demonstration staged by Adolf Hitler’s command staff.

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Fit for the Führer

  Director Leni Riefenstahl documented the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as an epic “Festival of Peoples” and “Festival of Beauty.” More than 40 cameramen were in action. Riefenstahl’s films were designed to be an ode to the body, a celebration of the Nazis’ ideal of beauty. Hitler was enthusiastic fan of his “favorite director.”

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Olympic Games opening ceremony 1936

  In the above scene from the Olympics film, Riefenstahl captures the lighting of the Olympic flame while thousands of people stretch their arms in salutation to their leader. Using the masses as ornamentation is undoubtedly what makes the opening ceremony so impressive.

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Manifest power

  Leni Riefenstahl called her propaganda film about the Nazi party’s sixth rally in Nuremberg in 1934 “Triumph of the Will.” Today, it is regarded as one of the director’s most influential works. The German Wehrmacht is strong, devoted and determined; that was the political message.

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Megalomania cast in stone

  Built in stone, Nazi architecture stood for their claim to power. Gigantic, with a hint of megalomania: That was the blueprint for the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Impressive mass marches took place here, setting the visual stage for the spread of Nazi ideology.

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Bric-a-brac from Dachau

  This, too, was Nazi-style design: a porcelain German Shepherd dog, manufactured by Munich-Allach. The company was a purveyor to the SS and their unscrupulous boss, Heinrich Himmler. Himmler presented such figurines to his comrades at “Das Schawrze Korps” (The Black Corps), the SS official newspaper. They were produced by prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp.

• Propaganda of dark forces: ‘Design of the Third Reich’

  Minute design even at the camps

  The Nazis also designed symbols of identification to be worn by concentration camp prisoners, a uniform aesthetic for their extermination process. Examples are on display at the exhibition “Design of the Third Reich,” on show at the Design Museum Den Bosch in the Netherlands until January 19, 2020.

ls/sms (dpa, AFP)

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