Screening: Die Entdeckung Deutschlands durch die Marsbewohner (1916)

silent green presents

The festive finale of this year's Winter Festival is the screening of the early science fiction film Die Entdeckung Deutschlands durch die Marsbewohner (1916).

 

Die Entdeckung Deutschlands durch die Marsbewohner
Silent movie from 1916
Screenplay: Richard O. Frankfurter

15min

During the First World War, the German Empire was visited by three Martians. This is shown in a film from 1916: ‘The Discovery of Germany by the Inhabitants of Mars’. It was not only the first official propaganda film for Germany and ‘neutral foreign countries’. It is also an early and previously uncanonised science fiction film: with news interception on Mars, voice recorder and space flight, but also with particles from fairy tales and love stories. The commentary traces the tangle of stories that unfold in the screenplay by Jewish lawyer Richard Otto Frankfurter. Fragments from the archives are woven into a journey of discovery today, more than a hundred years later.

 

With commentary and moderation by cultural scientist Britta Lange, whose book Die Entdeckung Deutschlands (The Discovery of Germany ), published in 2014, traces the tangle of stories that unfolded in the film script by Jewish lawyer Richard Otto Frankfurter. Fragments from the archives complement the volume and today, almost one hundred years later, offer an insight into the connection between film and propaganda.

 

Sunday, December 1
Kuppelhalle
Start: 18 Uhr

Admission free