Race under Reconstruction in German Cinema: Robert Stemmle's Toxi

294 Pages·2011·3.98 MB·English

by  Angelica Fenner

RACE UNDER RECONSTRUCTION
IN GERMAN CINEMA
Robert Stemmle’s Toxi
GERMAN AND EUROPEAN STUDIES
General Editor: Jennifer Jenkins
Race under Reconstruction
in German Cinema
Robert Stemmle’s Toxi
ANGELICA FENNER
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2011
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4426-4008-5

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-
based inks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Fenner, Angelica
Race under reconstruction in German cinema : Robert Stemmle’s Toxi /
Angelica Fenner.
(German and European studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4008-5
1. Toxi (Motion picture : 1952). 2. Stemmle, R. A. (Robert Adolf),
1903–1973 – Criticism and interpretation. 3. Motion pictures –
Germany. 4. Race in motion pictures. 5. Germany – Race relations.
6. Blacks – Germany – Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series: German
and European studies
PN1997.T68F45 2011 791.43(cid:2)72 C2011-900411-9
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
For a certain angel, a little spark of life
that inspired and guided me through sorrow and joy.
We await your rebirth.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 A Changing Postwar Landscape 23
2 Toxi’s Allegorical Narrative: Adjoining Reality and Fantasy 51
3 Genealogy, Geography, and the Search for Origins 86
4 ‘Black’ Market Goods, White Consumer Culture 113
5 The Reterritorialization of Enjoyment in the Adenauer Era 149
6 Intertextual Echoes 169
Conclusion 207
Notes 227
Bibliography 239
Index 255
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Acknowledgments
Throughout the research, writing, and revision of this manuscript, for-
tuitous encounters and redolent dialogues with friends, colleagues, and
intellectual mentors have continued to shape my thinking. To identify
in chronological order important guideposts along the way, I would
like to first thank my thesis supervisors at the University of Minne-
sota, Rick McCormick and Arlene Teraoka, who were highly support-
ive of my interdisciplinary endeavours, and who mentored me through
early stages of professionalization. I am also indebted to Ruth-Ellen
Joeres, who demonstrated that personal reflexivity, social activism,
and intellectual rigour could enthusiastically cohabit within academia,
and to John Mowitt’s astute thinking and random genius, which have
immeasurably shaped my approach to textual analysis. A dissertation
grant from the Deutscher Akademische Austausch Dienst enabled me
to pursue research in Berlin developing critical frameworks that found
application in this book as well as in other essays I have published.
There I also encountered the film Toxi, thanks to a screening at the Arse-
nal Kino curated by Madeleine Bernstorff. Also helpful were meetings
with a writing group that included Cathy Gelbin and Eva Lezzi, and
that brought me into conversation with Katharina Oguntoye.
After joining the faculty at the University of Toronto, I undertook
another summer visit to Berlin, with a grant from the Joint Initiative
in German and European Studies, to review Robert Stemmle’s estate
at the Berliner Filmmuseum – Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek with cor-
dial assistance from archival staff Peter Latta and Gerrit Thies. I remain
grateful to Berliner friends Annette Deist, Dr Susanne Heinze, Brigitte
Maier, and Ulrike Schätte, who extended hospitality and companion-
ship to me on this and later occasions. As I reworked individual chap-