“Das ist die Broadway Melodie”: American cultural motifs in German music film 1929 – 1945

From its very beginning, German music film was not only perceived in many respects as a reaction to its American counterpart, but continued for several decades to be measured against productions from Hollywood studios. By the time the Nazi regime came into government, musical and visual motifs, as well as themes and dramaturgical concepts associated with American culture and film had been firmly established in German music film.

A comparative analysis of German films of both the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era, and American productions of the same periods, explores the multifaceted ways in which the American influence continued to flourish in popular German cinema against the backdrop of heightened political tensions and the conflicted cultural politics of the Nazi regime.