Научная статья на тему 'Hermeneutic analysis of German language audiovisual texts on the topic of school and university'

Hermeneutic analysis of German language audiovisual texts on the topic of school and university Текст научной статьи по специальности «СМИ (медиа) и массовые коммуникации»

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HERMENEUTICS / ANALYSIS / MEDIA TEXT / MEDIA CRITICISM / FILM / SCHOOL / STUDENTS / MEDIA LITERACY / MEDIA EDUCATION / GERMANY

Аннотация научной статьи по СМИ (медиа) и массовым коммуникациям, автор научной работы — Levitskaya A., Seliverstova L.

This paper seeks to contribute to the analysis of the German-language media texts on school and university theme that came out in Germany during the period of the sound film birth till the end of the World War II using the comparative hermeneutic analysis. Analysis of the data demonstrates that the film authors in the period of Weimar Republic denounced the Prussian system of education. In the films of the national-socialist period, the main goal of national political education was not to help students accumulate academic knowledge, but to shape a national-socialist worldview. Weimar Republic films accentuated rebellious mood of the youth, encouraged mutinous acts against rules set by the insensitive world of adults. The films of Hitler's Germany formed the comradeship image as a moral value, some important outlook elements also included collectivism, honesty, service, and obedience. In teacher-student relationship in German films of the considered period from 1929 to 1945, relations between the state and the citizen are clearly outlined. The teacher acts in the interests of the state, on behalf of the political leadership. School is not a space out of politics, on the contrary, it is a place where the socio-political views of the corresponding epoch are projected and crystallized. National-socialist cinema widely used the technique of transcoding elements, borrowed in the films of the Weimar Republic and were often based on historical falsifications. The films did not reflect the actual realities of the school life of the Third Reich, but rather the desired, most appropriate from the point of view of the national-socialist doctrine of education and training.

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Текст научной работы на тему «Hermeneutic analysis of German language audiovisual texts on the topic of school and university»

Hermeneutic analysis of German language audiovisual texts on the topic of school and

university *

Dr. Anastasia Levitskaya,

Taganrog Management and Economics Institute, Petrovskaya, 45, Taganrog, 347900, a. levitskaya@tmei. ru

Dr. Lyudmila Seliverstova,

Taganrog Management and Economics Institute, Petrovskaya, 45, Taganrog, 347900, [email protected]

Abstract. This paper seeks to contribute to the analysis of the German-language media texts on school and university theme that came out in Germany during the period of the sound film birth till the end of the World War II using the comparative hermeneutic analysis. Analysis of the data demonstrates that the film authors in the period of Weimar Republic denounced the Prussian system of education. In the films of the national-socialist period, the main goal of national political education was not to help students accumulate academic knowledge, but to shape a national-socialist worldview. Weimar Republic films accentuated rebellious mood of the youth, encouraged mutinous acts against rules set by the insensitive world of adults. The films of Hitler's Germany formed the comradeship image as a moral value, some important outlook elements also included collectivism, honesty, service, and obedience.

In teacher-student relationship in German films of the considered period from 1929 to 1945, relations between the state and the citizen are clearly outlined. The teacher acts in the interests of the state, on behalf of the political leadership. School is not a space out of politics, on the contrary, it is a place where the socio-political views of the corresponding epoch are projected and crystallized. National-socialist cinema widely used the technique of transcoding elements, borrowed in the films of the Weimar Republic and were often based on historical falsifications. The films did not reflect the actual realities of the school life of the Third Reich, but rather the desired, most appropriate from the point of view of the national-socialist doctrine of education and training.

Keywords: hermeneutics, analysis, media text, media criticism, film, school, students, media literacy, media education, Germany.

* This article is written within the framework of a study financially supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF). Project 17-18-01001 "School and university in the mirror of the Soviet, Russian and Western audiovisual media texts", performed at Rostov State University of Economics.

Introduction

The twentieth century is characterized by a number of outstanding discoveries, of which one of the most remarkable is undeniably considered the birth of the sound cinema. It marked a qualitative change in the forms of communication - the transition from visual to audiovisual information. Film and television reflect the reality as a mirror. This metaphor is often used by Russian and international researchers [Zhabsky, 2010; Mai, Winter, 2006]. It should be noted that the language of the cinema not only "reflects the reality, but also creates its own picture of the world, specific and unique for every ... nation" [Ter-Minasova, 2000]. Above we have paraphrased Ter-Minasova's metaphor about the language as the means of communication and

thoughts expression: "language is the mirror of the environment, it reflects the reality and creates its own world outlook, specific and unique for every language, and therefore, the nation, ethnic group, discourse group, using this language as means of communication" [Ter-Minasova, 2000, p. 36] because we consider it to be valid about film language as well. Films reflect social and cultural stereotypes and mirror the mood of the masses, bear the imprint of social conflicts and contradictions [Mai, Winter, 2006, p.7]. At the same time the language of the cinema is unique, because it unites three narrative dimensions: visual, sound and literary. Some experts state "the transition of modern cinema from the principle of representation to general simulation", the principle of modeling reality [Khudyakova, 2000]. However, all researchers agree that owing to the cinema, scientists can learn a lot about the social and cultural life of society, a large part of which is allocated to education. In this regard, it seems important to consider the topic of the school and university in German-language feature films, since German cinema is considered one of the most significant cinematographies of the world [Kracauer, 1984].

Materials and methods

The basic research method used is a hermeneutic comparative analysis of the German-speaking audiovisual media texts (1929-1945) concerning the theme (including: stereotypes analysis, ideology analysis, identification analysis, analysis of iconography, etc.). In the process of analysis, we relied on the methodology of the Russian researcher and media education theorist A.V. Fedorov [Fedorov, 2007, 2013], and such key concepts of media education as media agencies, media / media text categories, media technologies, media languages, media representations and media audiences, since all of these concepts are directly related to the hermeneutical analysis skills.

Research material is comprised of audiovisual media texts as evidence of events, social phenomena, facts, namely, the German feature films on school and university theme from the first sound film in Germany in 1929 to the end of the World War II. The attempt is far from the first. Thus, Friedrich Koch studied the German films about school using qualitative analysis, his focus was on the way they reflected the problems of power and subordination in the process of education and training [Koch, 1987]. A historian and a theorist of cinema Siegfried Kracauer in his monograph drew attention to the social functions of a film, including school theme, films' impact on society, he analyzed the ideological essence of German films of the early 20th century, including social, ideological and aesthetic views of cinematographers, social atmosphere, which produced a film and reacted to it [Kracauer, 1984].

Discussion

In the modern global media space cinema occupies a special place. In Germany, the history of cinema began in 1895 with the public display of moving pictures, which was organized by the inventor Max Skladanowski and his brother Emil in Berlin's Wintergarten Music Hall with own invention, the so-called "Bioscope" [Brockmann, 2010, p.13]. Since then and up to this day the cinema reflects the realities and shapes them in a certain way. We have divided feature films from the birth of the German cinema to the end of World War II into three groups:

• films of the period of the German Empire (1895-1918);

• films of the period of the Weimar Republic (1919-1932);

• films of the period of national-socialism (Nazi) (1933-1945).

Films of the late 19th - early 20th centuries of the period of the reign of William II belong to the era of silent cinema and are excluded from the analysis as they only present a visual dimension. However, the very theme of the school, education and upbringing of this historical period was reflected in the films of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Thus, Z. Kracauer compared the films of the period of the Weimar Republic, having conditionally divided them into films

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with anti-authoritarian and authoritarian moods. Films of the first group, according to the researcher, "are distinguished by a high artistic level and ... they attack the tyranny of the authoritarian regime. But these pictures did not create a powerful ideological chain on the screen and ... their psychological model of behavior was asserted sluggishly and unconvincingly" [Kracauer, 1984]. As an example of such a film, let's take a film of Leontine Sagan Girls in uniform (Mädchen in Uniform, 1931), which was a great commercial success and in 1932 was awarded a prize for a high level of technical performance at the Venice Film Festival.

Girls in uniform, 1931

The main character of the film Fräulein von Bernburg, a teacher at the Potsdam boarding school for girls from titled families, never managed to crush the educational drill of her boss who supported the army order in the name of the "Prussian idea". In one scene, the school principal is signing the bills grumbling about the expenses. In response to the remark of the teacher that children complain about hunger, the director is indignant: "Hunger? We in Prussia knew what hunger was. They are the children of soldiers and by God's will become the mothers of soldiers. They need discipline, not luxury ... Poverty is not a vice, it ennobles. This is the Prussian idea, as it was before... Only discipline and hunger will make us great again ... ". In the conditions of iron-fisted discipline, the strictest economy and total control, when books, personal belongings and money are banned, five reprimands were punished by depriving of the trip home, complaining about the conditions of detention is strictly prohibited, a riot was getting ripe in the orphanage. Rebellious moods succumbed not only pupils, but also their class teacher, sincerely believed that in adolescence "girls need someone who will support them". In this film, humane pedagogy, embodied by the class tutor and the authoritarian pedagogy, represented by the principal of the boarding school, "crossed swords".

Films about school in a certain sense are "war films" ("Kriegsfilme"), says F. Koch, as they show a struggle in which either a teacher or a pupil is often defeated in the battlefield (auf dem Schlachtfeld) [Koch, 1987, p.11]. One can not fail to agree with the researcher regarding the films of the Weimar Republic period, since most of the films dealing with school and student themes are produced in the genre of a drama (Prague student/Der Student von Prag 1926, Blue Angel/ Der blaue Engel 1930, Girls in uniform/ Mädchen in Uniform 1931 and others). In the film by Josef von Sternberg, The Blue Angel (1930) with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich starring, the Professor Immanuel Rath (noticeable echo to the German word Rat meaning "advice"), the guardian of the order and morality in dormitories, he "perishes" not only physically, but, more importantly, morally, from the point of view of public morality.

In the historical period under consideration, teachers normally lived in the workplace. Being a teacher meant being an example, a role model. The status of the teacher was supported not only on the school grounds, but also outside. However, the status in society does not guarantee respect by the students. The pupils nickname their teacher of English, Unrat (Unrat-garbage (German). Going to the cabaret "Blue Angel" to prevent the moral fall of his students, the professor falls in love with a singer Lola, marries her, for the sake of his passion he loses his profession and becomes a clown in the touring troupe. The awfulness of the teacher's fall, and as represented by him, of the duplicitous system of education in Prussia, is demonstrated in the brutal scene of the humiliation of the professor. A former respected professor, now a clown, who entertains the crowd by letting them break eggs on his head, and cock-a-doodle-doo. Unable to withstand humiliation, the professor rushes away from his wife, however, he barely has the strength to get to his home gymnasium, and dies clutching his former class desk.

Blue Angel, 1930

After the national-socialists came to power in Germany, both of the above films were banned from screening, and Henry Mann, the author of the novel Professor Unrat oder das Ende eines Tyrannen, which the film Blue Angel was based on, lost his German citizenship. Not only outstanding writers were forced to leave the territory of Nazi Germany. German cinema has lost such directors as Ernst Lubitsch, Friedrig Lang, Ludwig Berger, Eric Charell, actors Marlene Dietrich and Conrad Veidt, Hertha Thiele, Elisabeth Bergner, and camera men including Karl Freund. Some were disliked by the new regime and expelled, others made their choice to leave.

Despite the outflow of specialists, film industry in Germany was booming. In total, from the period from 1933 to 1945, more than 1200 feature films were produced in the Third Reich, of which only 150-180 were open propaganda texts. The propaganda minister of the Third Reich, Goebbels, preferred methods of indirect propaganda. Most of the Nazi films were entertaining -operetta, musical comedy, melodrama and adventure. Among them, however, there were "ideological films" in the genre of drama, the main characters were often teachers and schoolchildren.

Thus, the action of the film Ripening Youth (Reifende Jugend, 1933), directed by Carl Frölich, is located at male gymnasium. Contrary to the established in the early 20th century tradition of the girls' upbringing (future mothers do not need education), three schoolgirls from a small German town, dreaming of higher education, enter gymnasium, designed to teach only boys, in order to be able to pass the final exams for a matriculation certificate and a chance to enter the university. The fate of the girls is decided by the principal of the Gymnasium

Brodersen, who, despite the objections of his colleagues, allows them to stay. The film shows the image of a school principal capable of demonstrating ordinary human feelings and emotions, understanding pupils, a wise teacher, and not a dogmatist who is detached from real life (compared to Professor Rath in Blue Angel, 1931). He is loved and respected by his students.

This film is only at first glance a picture of the youth. In addition to the universal values of mutual assistance, decency, etc., the theme of the leader and authority can be distinctly traced in it: the current leader as represented by the principal Brodersen and the future one as a student Knud, a young man with the potential of a leader who is respected by his classmates, and is able to sacrifice his interests for the sake of other person and even take on someone else's guilt. This film was noted by the censorship department as representing "a special artistic value" [Koch, 1987, p. 103]. Oscar Kalbus wrote: "The film depicts ... real German thinking, it's about free people endowed with self-respect and inner dignity, overcoming formalism and dogmatism and about the promising happy future of the new Germany" [Kalbus, 1935, p. 107].

Reifende Jugend presents the virtues in the spirit of national-socialism in a veiled way, in accordance with the idea of Goebbels' on the ideological treatment of youth through entertaining genres. Films of an obviously propagandistic nature were rather an exception to the rules. In them, young heroes were even sacrificed in the name of the national socialist idea. "For the cinema, the mythology of a young victim was one of the most plot-filling, emotional, impressive, and cinema, in turn, - one of the most suitable "medium" for it " [Turovskaya, 2015, p. 185]. In Hans Steinhoffs film Hitler Youth Quex (Hitlerjunge Quex,1933), a boy from a working family dies, but thereby raises new members of national-socialism. The scene of the death of the protagonist "actually equates the death in the name of the Fuhrer with death in the name of Germany. A boy from the Hitler Youth is killed by Communists ... And in the last words of a dying Quex, there is a phrase resembling the first lines of the party anthem of the NSDAP: "The flags high! The ranks tightly closed!" [Vasilchenko, 2010]. The first premiere of the film took place in Munich and was attended by the leaders of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Joseph Goebbels. The director of the film was awarded a gold medal from the Hitler Youth organization, and Goebbels wrote an enthusiastic letter to the management of the film studio, which was published in the anti-Semitic and anti-communist newspaper Der Angriff (Schmid, 2010). "

Since 1934, the theme of the party and its units had been banned in the cinema. However, this prohibition did not apply to the organization of the Hitler Youth, a powerful youth movement (established in 1926, and obligatory for teenagers from 1936 to 1945) engulfing millions of teenagers in Germany. In order to attract young people to the ranks of this organization, the party's functionaries actively used cinematography. In 1934, at the initiative of the Ministry of Propaganda (Reichspropagandaministerium) together with the Bureau of Education and Advocacy of the Reich Youth Administration (Presse- und Propagandaburo der Reichsjugendleitung), new curricula were introduced in schools that provided Saturday classes for junior schoolchildren (up to the age of 10) taught by school teachers together with representatives of the Hitler Youth [Koch, 1987, p.100]. The teachers were frequently repressed: in-service teachers had to recognize and be guided in their education and upbringing principles by national-socialist ideas, and teachers of "non-Aryan" origin had no right to work in non-Jewish schools [Shagalova, 2005, p. 20].

The school curricular introduced the "Youth Cinema" lessons in 1934, featuring films that promoted education in the spirit of national-socialist ideology. In 1944, the list of such films numbered 12 titles including Ripening Youth (1933), Hitler Youth Quex (1933), Hans Westmar (1933), Jakko (1941), Kopf hoch, Johannes!(1941), Boys (1941), Young Eagles (1944), and others.

Kopf hoch, Johannes!1941

The film Kopf hoch, Johannes! (Head Up, Johan!) directed by Viktor de Kowa tells the story of a boy who was growing up in Argentina but was forced to return to Germany to his father after his mother's death. The teenager has distinct problems with finding mutual understanding with peers and with his father. The parent sends Johannes to a special boarding school in Oranienstein. It should be noted that in the education reform of the Third Reich, an important place was occupied by the network of elite educational institutions, where the state sought to create a generation of the ruling elite. These included the "Adolf Hitler Schule", which were originally planned as party schools subordinated to the national-socialist government and national-political educational institutions ("Napolas") [Shagalova, 2005, p. 21]. In Napolas, the educational and upbringing process was modeled on the old cadet corps. Here, kids born to workers' families and military personnel were trained. Collective sports were encouraged: football, volleyball, etc. Students were evaluated for sport events as the whole team. Basically, the training was similar to traditional gymnasiums. Napola was overseen by the SS special service, which appointed principals and teachers.

The protagonist of the picture finds himself in Oranienstein - the first school of Napola, which has significant financial resources and is equipped with the latest technology of the time. In addition to bedrooms, bathrooms, demonstration classes, a concert hall, natural science laboratories, there is a gym, a swimming pool, a boat station, playgrounds, stables and garages with cars, motorcycles and gliders [Ueberhorst, 1969, p.64]. The teacher Angerman sees the promising future in a reserved boy and helps him integrate with the peers, express himself and gain respect. This film was produced under the direct control of Goebbels, however, the latter was dissatisfied with the result. The press on the contrary published positive reviews.

If in 1941 Napola was presented in film as an exclusive elite school for young men of spirit, devoted to the Nazi party, as an educational institution that guaranteed great prospects for young people, the contemporary German cinema regards the educational activity of these institutions from a completely different perspective. Thus, in Dennis Gansel's drama Before the Fall (NaPolA - Elite für den Führer, 2004) Nazi's Napola is an institution that deliberately destroys the individuality of its students. Teachers in the school are cruel, and they teach cruelty using extremely violent methods. The protagonist of the film, a 17-year-old Friedrich Weimer, a promising boxer from the working quarter of Berlin, finds himself in an elite Nazi school and makes a transition from euphoria of belonging to something exceptional to the bitter disillusionment. The academy claims to prepare "the future elite of the millennium Reich, leaders for Washington, Moscow, and London". Students of the Academy study Nibelungs, write compositions, run crosses, peep at the girls' windows and hunt Russian prisoners of war. "Temper the body and spirit, be faithful and reliable comrades," with such words the academy's principal greets the students. Researchers of the educational system in Hitler's Germany unanimously come to the conclusion that the national-socialist worldview was oriented not on

knowledge, but on faith, and was aimed at the formation of spirit [Vasilchenko, 2001]. The basic values system was comprised of racist and militaristic ideas, honor equaled to absolute devotion to Hitler. Belonging to the elite meant to be "part of that group of subjects who were distinguished by special veneration, devotion and willingness to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the "fuehrer"[Shagalova, 2005, p. 26-27]. And in Gansel's film, the cadets sacrificed their lives not for the sake of the "Fuhrer", but for the sake of their friends (one of them throws himself on a grenade to save a group of boys) and for one's own humanistic beliefs (Albrecht Stein consciously vanishes under the ice during training looking up into his friend's eyes). Having lost faith in Nazi ideals, Friedrich refuses to fight for his Fuhrer, his academy and its principal, and starts the battle for himself. He is kicked out of the academy, but leaves it with a smile. Sixty years after Napolas' dismission, the film is an outcry against Nazism.

Back to propaganda films of the 1940s, Boys (Jungens by Robert Stammle, 1941), compared the national socialist idea of an ideal teacher to the similar one during the reign of Friedrich the Great, who had argued that the best teacher was an ex-soldier. The protagonist of the film Hellmut Grundel, a young teacher and a unit commander of Hitler Youth, is a new type of educator, combining traits of a teacher and a chief, a leader. According to the researchers, such a teacher's image was desirable, however, non-existing in reality [Koch, 1987, p.125].

The "revolution of upbringing" of the Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach [Schirach, 1942] led to the fact that the authority of the school as a whole, and of a classical teacher in particular, fell. By 1939, the Hitler Youth began to impose its demands on schools more severely, as a result the amount of homework decreased whilst the amount of free time and the volume of political and sports activities increased, which contributed to the national socialist ideological indoctrination of young people against the background of the collapse of the school system. By the beginning of the war, the prestige of the teaching profession in Germany was so little that in ordinary secondary schools, there arose problems with teaching staff. And in order to teach in special educational institutions in Hitler's Germany (Napolas), a teacher had to be ideologically savvy and athletic.

Analysis of German feature films on school theme of the period of the Weimar Republic and National Socialism made it possible to draw some conclusions.

Results

Historical context (dominant concepts: media agencies, media categories, media representations and media audiences).

a) features of the historical period of media texts' production, market conditions that contributed to the idea, the process of creating media texts, the degree of influence of political and social events on media texts.

After World War I, Germany was weakened and humiliated: it was deprived of its army, banned from uniting with Austria, the amount of reparations amounted to 132 billion gold marks, etc. All this led to a serious economic crisis and political instability in the country. The French February revolution and the October revolution in Russia contributed to the spread of revolutionary ideas in Germany, which gave birth to the Weimar Republic. However, the republican idea was alien to German population, because in Germany in the 1920s there were no such social layers that a republic could rely on. According to historians, the Weimar Republic appeared accidentally and fell fast. Its failure in the conditions of an economic, social and political crisis led to the successful Hitler's rise to power in 1933. There were no forces in the country that could or would like to resist the Hitler's regime [Zhenin, 2013].

b) the way the knowledge of real historical events of a particular period enhances the understanding of the given media texts, examples of historical references in these media texts.

Awareness of the historical events of the period under consideration certainly helps to understand the film author's reference to historical and cultural realities.

Thus, in the early 1930s there was drastic unemployment and inflation, companies went bankrupt one after another. This situation triggered nostalgic mood of the population about the firm hand of the "Iron Chancellor". In the remake of Girls in uniform in 1954 on the wall in the girls' bedroom, there is the quote of Otto von Bismarck: "We are not on earth to be happy, but to fulfill our destiny". A pupil's mother and the school principal are talking about the woman's mission:

- I care for my daughter the same way my mother used to care for me: first a monastery, then a marriage and nothing else.

- All in accordance with our principles - children, church, kitchen.

Socio-cultural, ideological, religious context (dominant concepts: media agencies, media categories, media representations and media audience).

a) ideology, directions, goals, objectives, world outlook, the concepts of the authors of these media texts in the socio-cultural context; ideology, culture of the world, depicted in media texts.

The films of the period of the Weimar Republic denounced, above all, the Prussian system of education.

The films of the national-socialist period demonstrate the main focus of Nazi political education, which was not aimed at developing the students' academic knowledge, but prioritized a Nazi worldview. The school was perceived by the leaders of the Third Reich not as a general education institution, but as a reform institution. Its main function was to develop certain political, moral and aesthetic ideals.

b) the world outlook of the characters of the "school and student world", depicted in media texts

In the films of the Weimar Republic, rebellious moods among the youth were emphasized, mutinous youth was encouraged to rebel against the rules established by the cold world of adults.

In the films of the period of national-socialism there is an exalted notion of comradeship as a moral value, an important philosophical element is also belonging to the collective, obedience, honesty, and service to Hitler.

3. Structure and methods of narration in these media texts (dominant concepts: media categories, media technologies, media languages, media representations)

During the period under consideration, the cinematography stepped from the black-and-white mute to the sound cinema. Schematically, the structure, plot, representativeness, ethics, peculiarities of genre modification, iconography, characters of media texts on school and university theme in the cinema of the Weimar Republic and national-socialism can be presented as follows:

a) location and action time of a media text

In the period of the Weimar Republic the common location are boarding schools for girls, and men's gymnasiums; in the Nazi period - national-political educational institutions ("Napolas"), located in ancient castles, "Adolf Hitler Schools" ("Adolf Hitler Schule"), which were originally planned as party schools that were subordinate to the national-socialist government control.

b) the environment typical for these media texts, everyday items:

During the period of the Weimar Republic the classrooms are furnished ascetically, there's nothing in excess: school benches, a teacher's table, a blackboard, the attributes of the educational process: the globe, maps, etc.

During the Nazi period: Sparta-type conditions, barrack-type bedrooms for students, spacious assembly halls with Nazi symbols used for meetings of students with school boards, and gyms.

c) Genre modifications of school and university subjects:

The theme of school and university in the German cinema in the period from 1929 to 1945 is represented mainly with drama films, the exception is Helmut Weiss' comedy Fire Ticks (Feuerzangenbowle, 1944).

d) (stereotypical) methods of depicting reality, typology of characters (character traits, clothing, physique, vocabulary, facial expressions, gestures, the presence or absence of a stereotypical manner of characters in these media texts).

We can distinguish several typical images of the teacher in the films of the period of the Weimar Republic. The teacher through the eyes of society is an indisputable authority, through the eyes of students he is the tyrant and dictator, for instance the principal of the boarding school in Girls in uniform, 1931, Professor Rath in The Blue Angel,1930. Next to the dictator there is always a place for the character, servile, ingratiating, fanatical devotee - the first student in school in The Blue Angel. The teacher-icon as the object of adoration - Fraulein von Bernburg in Girls in uniform. The teacher-mentor, respected by students, understanding, wise, visionary -principal of the Gymnasium Brodersen in Ripening Youth, 1933.

In the national-socialist period, the films were to demonstrate the image of the ideal teacher - a former or in-service military man, as the teacher Gruendel in The Boys, 1941. f) a significant change in the life of characters and the arising challenge (a violation of the usual

life): • • • •

The starting point of the plot in the films is often the change from the habitual way of life with the family to moving to an educational institution. The main characters of the film are schoolchildren, high school students who are enrolled into special boarding schools by decision of their parents or close relatives (Manuela in Girls in uniform, Elfriede in Ripening Youth, etc.).

In the films of Hitler's Germany, joining a special school had always been positioned as a change for the better. By abandoning "family" methods of education and by opting to the Hitler Youth institutions, or Napola schools, young people on the cinema screen thereby opened up great prospects for themselves, found friends, were infected with a spirit of superiority over others that was supposed to promote the upbringing and formation of The Übermensch according to the principles of national-socialism.

Conclusions

The teacher-student relations in German films of the considered period from 1929 to 1945 shadow the relations between the state and the citizen. The teacher acts in the interests of the state, on behalf of the political leadership. School is not an out-of-politics space, on the contrary, it is a place where the socio-political views of the corresponding epoch are projected and crystallized.

Nazi cinema widely used the technique of transcoding elements borrowed from the films of the Weimar Republic, moreover, it was often based on historical falsifications. The films did not reflect the actual realities of the school life of the Third Reich, but rather the desired, most appropriate from the point of view of the national-socialist doctrine of education and upbringing.

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