Die Nibelungen
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Features
• Black & White
• DVD-Video
• Full Screen
• Silent
• NTSC
In Theaters : 2002
DVD Release : 19 November, 2002 |
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Die Nibelungen Customer Reviews
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A fantastic fantasy; Propaganda or Art?
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This essay is a comparison of the 12th century epic poem, The Nibelungenlied, and the Fritz Lang movie, Die Nibelungen. It examines the message(s) the story might have been intended to convey to its original German audiences. I doubt it reveals much of the conclusion you can't have guessed on your own, and I've taken out the parts that tell you how it ends, but you still might want to watch the movie first.
Film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak, in his essay included on this 2 DVD set, states flatly that Die Nibelungen is "pure propaganda." We must assume he means German Nationalist propaganda, as the movie came out in 1924 and the National Socialist Party was still newly instigated, and not yet risen to power. In fact, at the time the film was in production, Hitler was in jail for his part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, writing Mein Kampf, and still virtually unknown to the nation at large. But even then, Germany's Nationalist movement was intent on overturning the Versailles Treaty, imposed after World War One, which installed the Weimar government, limited Germany's productivity, as well as her military, and left her population to starve paying reparations.
My first viewing of Fritz Lang's masterpiece came immediately after reading an English translation of the Twelfth Century epic poem, The Nibelungenlied (or: The Lay of the Nibelung) upon which this movie is based in fairly precise detail. Both share the same characters and plot line, with the only significant differences being the addition of the dragon slaying scene, only referred to in the book; using Hunnish king Etzel's more recognizable name (to most American audiences, at least) Attila the Hun; and the final scene, which I'll omit.
The story is loosely based on real life characters. The presence of Attila places the story firmly in the fifth century. Both the kingdoms of Burgundy and the Huns did exist at that time. The movie adds Attila's departing to sack Rome, and other details of lesser significance, though numerous, not unlike Jackson's treatment of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, only less so.
It may be difficult to imagine The Burgundians accepting an invitation to visit her after she was married to Attila, who was a figure of fear to the Goths, and named by them, "The Scourge of God," but honor dictated they do so, and so they did.
part I: Kriemhild
So in what sense is Die Nibelungen "propaganda"? Assuming it is - and I'm not denying - it must be that Germans were meant to identify with the central figures in it, primarily their traditional national hero, Siegfried, and his abused widow, Kriemhild, and Hagen. The "stab in the back," later referred to by Hitler in reference to the 1918 Versailles Treaty, was intended to conjure up visions of Siegfried being run through by King Gunther's henchman, Hagen. And perhaps the German people, to whom this pair of films were dedicated, could see themselves in Siegfried and Kriemhild. But it is Kriemhild who has to carry on after Siegfried is murdered and make the best of, not only being bereft of a husband, but also her inheritance, again at the hand of Hagen, who had it thrown into the Rhine lest she use it to buy loyalty and have her revenge. These events compelled her to submit to the marrying a man not of her faith, itself a violation of her Christianity, in order to obtain means of retribution. The parallels are plain: Siegfried and Kriemhild are Germany; the stab in the back was the Versailles Treaty imposed at the end of the first world war; Gunther and Hagen are the Weimar Republic and the League of Nations respectively, and the Huns are the foreign powers from which Germany must enlist aid (Russia, Hungary, et al) to obtain revenge.
If these symbols are intentional, and Die Nibelungen is to be taken as a metaphor for Germany, her allies and enemies, then what's truly amazing is that no one learned the lesson the tale bears with it. Suffice it to say, the Burgundian rulers and their followers are destroyed.
If the movie was meant to be taken as a metaphor for Germany's plight, did Germans think they would somehow escape the fate of those depicted therein, if Germans followed in their footsteps? Which brings up the question; Knowing the predicament Germany was in after World War One, and knowing Germans would see their nation in the story, might not Fritz Lang have intended Die Nibelungen, not as a propagandist effort to inspire Germans to rise up and cast off the chains of their oppressors, bur rather as a warning? i.e.: "This do at your own peril"? Frankly I find the coincidences between the fantasy and the ensuing reality more than a little striking. Needless to say, if Die Nibelungen was a warning; it was not heeded . . . with catastrophic results.
Part II: Hagen
It is also possible that Lang and Harbou, the writer(s) of the screenplay, intended the audience to identify with the Hagen character. No doubt those who did, in many cases, were Hitler's followers. The reason, obviously enough, for such extreme loyalty in this crowd is that it was held up as such a high virtue by the dictatorship. Hagen is depicted in both the book and movie as acting strictly out of loyalty to king and country, with no regard to himself, or even morality. He kills Siegfried because he understands Gunther desires it, because Siegfried has offended Brunhild, because such obedience is in accordance with the knightly code of honor which demandes he obey Gunther's wishes and commands to the letter in all things first, and on matters of personal discretion, for the good of Burgundy after, as the two are one. He is a model of loyalty up to and including his death.
Hagen's character was not unlike those who, after World War II, refused the ignoble claim that "I was only following orders" to distance themselves from their FA hrer. The story's original medieval audience considered utter loyalty a virtue, and by a vassal no consideration was to be given to whether a lord was right or wrong. The lord's word was treated as the word of God, who they believed put him in his place to begin with. Hagen knew his duty and unswervingly adhered to it. In fact, in the book, Hagen is treated both as a villain and a hero: A villain for murdering Siegfried, and a hero for his loyalty, and prowess as a warrior. However, the honor accorded Hagen may, in most respects, be due to his prowess as a warrior, but given the medieval mind set, the subtext of this honor must also include his loyalty, in spite of Gunther's errors, as such was a knight's bond of honor. This sense of duty might be somewhat lost on modern audiences, but certainly was not, either to a medieval, or German Nationalist audience.
It's hard to tell if this dueling antagonist/protagonist role was intentionally left in the movie to the end of driving its German audience to such extremity. If it is propaganda, then it must be for this take on loyalty. But even if one accepts Hagen as a somewhat sympathetic figure, loyal to his king and unflinching in the face of death, the lesson remains nearly identical. i.e. To join forces with the king is to lose one's identity in his, and should he fall, your blood will be forfeit along with his. In this light, Hagen was not so much bloodthirsty, as angry at the inevitability of having to die due to an irredeemable set of circumstances.
The story, then, has two opposing, but ultimately equally disastrously fated central characters; interchangeably protagonist and antagonist: Kreimhild, who could no more refrain from seeking revenge for the murder of her husband, Siegfried than she could cease being a queen, and Hagen, who likewise, could no more be disloyal to his liege lord and fail to fight fulfilling his will than he could cease being a knight. This is the principle conflict in The Nibelungenlied and Die Nibelungen, and I suppose what gives the story its enduring appeal. It's high tragedy, and if the German people failed to see their fate closely tied to that of either or both of its central pro/antagonists, the only explanation is that either they were not looking, or like anyone maddened by desire for vengeance, they simply didn't care. |
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