Universal Language with a German Accent: Conrad Veidt in Silent Hollywood

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This paper examines a German-American encounter in silent cinema, when nationalities were both irrelevant to the cosmopolitan medium and of utmost importance to the industries producing it. The main source is an unpublished and untranslated diary that actor Conrad Veidt kept of his time in transit from Berlin to Hollywood in September 1926. Veidt's trip played into nationalist, internationalist, and universalist paradigms while creating its own narrative independent of greater meanings. This German-American encounter seems to dismiss with nation-based paradigms altogether, offering a unique window into a transient moment, and bridging contradictions of an art and industry both universal and nationalist.