Hitler in view? "The Testament of Dr. Ing. Mabuse "| Movies | '
At first glance, the events speak for themselves. The already famous German film director Fritz Lang ("Metropolis", "Nibelungen", "M – a city is looking for a murderer") made a film in 1932 about an insane criminal aiming at world domination, exploiting and terrorizing people. He calls his film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse", referring to his two-part feature film "Dr. Mabuse the Player", which was released in 1922.
The Nazis banned "Dr. Mabuse" before the premiere
The film is completed in the weeks during the seizure of power by the National Socialists in Germany and immediately banned by them, even before the planned premiere. Although Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels is an admirer of Fritz Lang's earlier films, his verdict is unmistakable: "Dr. Mabuse film seen by Fritz Lang Practical Guide to Crime.
Here the crime meets in the film: For the Nazis "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" was not acceptable
Since several copies had crossed borders, "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" first premieres in Budapest, then it can be seen in France and other European countries. In the US, the film is only ten years later to the performance, Lang now works in Hollywood. The Germans have to wait even longer. Only six years after the end of the war, they see the film of their most famous director in their own country, of course, in a slightly abridged version and provided with a new soundtrack that makes "Dr. Mabuse" something "pleasing".
"The will of Dr. Mabuse" was far from being seen in the original version
Like so many well-known and lesser-known movies of cinema history from the early days of the medium, "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" has gone through an exciting period of reconstruction. The German version of 1951 was supplemented again only in the 1990s by missing material, in addition to copies from Germany and abroad were compared. The viewers of the great Fritz Lang retrospective of the Berlin Film Festival 2001 were the first to see this restored version.
Also from the stored corpse of Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) is still out of danger
Years later, in 2014, the film was re-edited with the help of digital possibilities and carefully restored, so that it now comes close to the originally conceived by Fritz Lang film. This version is recently available on DVD and Blu-ray, equipped with a lot of background material and texts from the time of creation: An exemplary edition that allows today's cinema viewers to look at one of the great masterpieces of German film history. The film has weathered the decades well and is today more up to date than other famous works by the director.
Fritz Lang took up the character from his silent movie classics
"Dr. Mabuse's Testament" shows the criminal, driven by delusions, from the silent movies (Dr. Mabuse, the player) of 1922. Mabuse in a psychiatric hospital, where he seems to be mentally confused and confused, sitting on his asylum bed, constantly writing letters and mysterious signs on paper.
Detective Inspector Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) is on the trail Mabuse
A second level of action is introduced by Detective Inspector Lohmann, who is on the trail of mysterious crime – and this includes not only everyday crime such as murder, theft and robbery. Lohmann hears plans that describe devastating attacks on chemical works and that would apparently result in the death of many thousands of people. What does one have to do with the other? Is there a connection between Mabuse and the criminal gangs, does he possibly direct them out of the asylum?
The figure of Mabuse was interpreted as Hitler's deputy
"The will of Dr. Mabuse" is, after the film was to be seen in Germany after the Second World War, discussed and interpreted many times. Some saw him as an attempt by Fritz Lang to cinematically anticipate what was to follow in National Socialism in Germany: Mabuse was interpreted as the incarnation of the ruler without conscience, as that of the ruthless criminal and politician.
Pictures of insanity – the scenes from the psychiatric institution are still scary today
Fritz Lang himself fueled this interpretation in American exile. The director had meanwhile shot the anti-Nazi film "Man Hunt", which is about an assassination attempt on Hitler, and together with Bertold Brecht the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich in "Hangman So Die!" processed cinematically.
"This film was intended – as in a parable – to point out Hitler's terrorist methods, and the slogans and articles of beliefs of the Third Reich were put into the mouth of criminals," Lang wrote on the occasion of the US premiere of "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse."
The director described the dark sides of the human psyche
Thus, he had hoped, Fritz Lang, "the teachings, behind which the will to destroy all that was hidden, what a people worth and expensive, to tear down the mask … But when everything collapsed, one sought in the last despair of his salvation to find in the 'New Order'. "
What is certain is that the director used films such as "Dr. Mabuse" to advance his preoccupation with the dark side of the human psyche at the beginning of the 1930s and probably also tracked down some of the historical processes and used them in his films. However, it seems obvious that Lang made the connection of "Mabuse" to Hitler in hindsight closer than it was at the time of its creation.
Testament surrender: In the end, the power of Mabuse's crime (r.) Passes to the director of the asylum
The film critic Norbert Grob, one of the best connoisseurs of the work of the director, who presented a comprehensive Fritz Lang biography several years ago, already wrote in 1981 in "Die Zeit": "In retrospect, 1943, in another country, where he then Lang claimed that the 'Testament' was meant as an 'allegory' to show Hitler's terrorist actions (…) Occasionally, which is nice, the films speak a different language than the intentions and explanations of their authors. "
Roughly, the film is about "the fascination of the absolute will to power, the fascination of the one who declares that he is the state, so he rejects any recognition of state violence – and tackles the difficulties . "
That's exactly what makes the movie worth seeing today. Not only because it is formally brilliant, but above all because it shows universal human power structures that will be visible everywhere in 2019: very concrete and real in many social and political countries of the world. In addition, Lang's enormous influence on today's filmmaking becomes visible. Whether successful series such as "Babylon Berlin" or blockbuster cinema series such as "James Bond" and "Mission Impossible" – all of them would have been taught by Fritz Lang.
Fritz Lang's film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" is in the provider "Atlas" in an edition with info material on DVD and Blu-rayvorvor.
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