Theodor Kotulla's Excerpts from a German Life (Aus einem deutschen Leben, 1977): or The Inability to Speak: Cinematic Holocaust Representation in Germany

Haase | Theodor Kotulla's Excerpts from a German Life (Aus einem deutschen Leben, 1977) Theodor Kotulla's Excerpts from a German Life (Aus einem deutschen Leben, 1977) or The Inability to Speak: Cinematic Holocaust Representation in Germany by Dr. Christine Haase The University of Georgia The 1977 film Aus einem deutschen Leben (English title: Death is my Trade)1 by writer/ directorTheodor Kotulla2 recounts the life ofAuschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss from age 16 until shortly before his execution in Poland in 1947. A co-production between the German public television channel WDR and the movie production company Iduna,3 it was one of the first West German feature films, aimed at a broad public audience, to deal with the National Socialist regime and the Germany that brought about its existence. In accordance with the film's co-financing model, Aus einem deutschen Leben was slated for both a theatrical release and television broadcasting. A big budget-production, it starred popular German actors (not connected with the German auteur movement, most notably Götz George in the male lead4) and is commonly acknowledged as belonging to the New German Cinema . Yet, in spite of its pioneering representation of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust , its prestigious affiliation with the New German Cinema, and its reaching out to mainstream viewers, Aus einem deutschen Leben remains largely unknown and ignored by audi- Franz Lang (Göetz George) meets th. enees and scholars alike. The Korte). work's obscurity is disconcerting in light ofthe film's artistic merit, but even more so in view of commonly accepted critical analyses of post-war German cinema's unwillingness and/or inability to deal with the Nazi past in general and the systematic persecution and murder of Jews in particular. As this article will show, Aus einem deutschen Leben is the exception to the rule and a motion picture whose singularity in terms of film history and aesthetics deserves and demands critical consideration. Upon the film's release, one of Germany's leading magazines , Der Spiegel, called Aus einem deutschen Leben "the most interesting attempt so farto capture the Nazi worldcinematically."5 One of Germany's most respected weekly newspapers, Die Zeit, credited the film with delivering "a phenomenology of ordinary fascism."6 In 1978, Leben won the Filmband in Silber ("Film Ribbon in Silver) and DM 300,000 in prize money for "Outstanding Feature Film" at the annual Bundesfilmpreis ceremony ("Federal Film Prize"), Germany's most prestigious national film awards.7 In Hans Günther Pflaum's and Hans Helmut Prinzler's account of Cinema in the Federal Republic of Germany, Kotulla's film is treated briefly but respectfully: "Kotulla is probably still the only director in the Federal Republic of Germany who has succeeded in carrying out genuine reappraisal of the past in a film that reached a public of ordinary cinema-goers."8 Claudia Lenssen reiterates in Geschichte des deutschen Films how during the seventies "amazingly few films...were willing to engage with the time ofNational Socialism by way ofnarrative cinema," before acknowledging Aus einem deutschen Leben as one Reichsfüehrer SS Heinrich Himmler (Hans of the two most important exceptions .9 Clearly, at the time of its release the film had a positive reception and was heralded as important if not pivotal among German cinematic representations of the Nazi regime. Furthermore , as mentioned above, Kotulla is considered a member ofthe influential and for the most part extensively researched group of New German Cinema directors that includes the likes of Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, and Werner Herzog. Nevertheless, Aus einem deutschen Leben and its creator remain overlooked. To my knowledge there are no critical 48 I Film & History Dr. Christine Haase | Special In-Depth Section and scholarly studies that analyze this film, and while some standard works on post-war German cinema mention the title, it receives minimal attention.10 This is even more regrettable in view ofthe aforementioned challengeLeben poses to the common critical assessment ofpost-war German films' "inability to mourn."11 The following quote is representative of a general evaluation of West-German film and its depictions ofthe Nazi regime. A study on Nazi-retro Film How...