Minutes of the Meeting of Friday, March 11, 2005

Lija Amolins

1. Students from Burlington High School in an advanced German class joined the class to view a movie on Nazi propaganda regarding its former colonies in Africa.

2. Professor Mahoney discussed the notion of finding some European Union after the destruction of World War I, leading to the idea of a Pan-Europe. The map on p. 100 in The History of the Idea of Europe was used as an illustration of the expansion of Pan-Europe into large stretches of Africa; Great Britain was not considered a part of Europe because it was still a worldwide imperial power in the 1920s. Professor Mahoney commented on the fact that this map says a lot about how Europeans looked at the world as something “belonging” to them.

3. Professor Mahoney discussed how, in the aftermath of World War I, German colonies had been considered “unfit” by the League of Nations and had thus been transferred to allegedly “beneficent colonizers” like Great Britain and France.

4. The point of this Nazi film was that the Germans had ‘cultivated’ Africa. It had been named Deutsches Land in Afrika (1939), which directly translates to German Land in Africa. This might have evoked particular emotional reactions because, according to German nationalistic calls for more Lebensraum, there was a need for more territories so there would be more room for living. This European colonialism is a Nazi variant. This form of propaganda was effective because of its spread in many different settings, repeated over and over again. This film was not only nostalgic, but it depicted Germans still living there in Africa and working there and being born there. The film sequence that we saw also showed a statue which was a monument to German colonial-warfare successes. The statue was a “German cowboy” as Professor Mahoney called it. There was also a building with a stork, which symbolized a Maternity Ward, which again stressed the fact that this former colony had a past and is building a future. The film also showed how nice everything was and how happy everyone was and stressed the fact that it was a German cultural area. This was proved by the fact that everyone was speaking German, children were learning in German, and the signs were all written in German.

5. Cherise asked where this type of a film might have been shown. Professor Mahoney responded that it would have been shown as a sort of preview before a movie in the theaters, and also as an educational film in schools.

6. Rose mentioned as a side note that in 1935 biological laws were passed (the Nuremberg Laws) which prevented marriages between “German” and “non-Aryans.”
7. A song featured in the film was a 19^th century folk song which expressed affection for the area in which you grow up and that there is no country more beautiful than your own (Professor Mahoney remembered that this song, “Kein schooner Land,” was a favorite of his colleague, Professor Mieder, when Mrs. Timpson, the Burlington High School teacher, had been the student director of the German House program in the Living/Learning Center). Immediately following this sequence was a depiction of technical training at the “German” high school for farmers’ sons. This idea of Kultur and civilization in “German” Africa was that Germany was being seen as the most cultured part of the world and the most civilized, scientific, and technically advanced. Each little sequence in the film was significant in its own little way. They each stressed how wonderful a place this was and how happy everyone was. Angi (a former student of Mrs. Timpson at Burlington High School) mentioned that Triumph of the Will, another Nazi propaganda film, was almost a clone of this film; it also showed youths in order and putting up the Hitler salute as a sign of patriotism. The students of Burlington High School mentioned having learned about Nazi Youth popular songs in their unit on Propaganda in the Third Reich with Mrs. Timpson.

8. One of the Burlington High School students mentioned that the film showed that it was time for the farmers’ sons to go “home” for the summer, “home” meaning Germany in a metaphorical sense. Also that the music was happy and joyous. The scenes shown remind the viewer of wide-open spaces and “cowboys,” because this kind of space doesn’t exist in Germany. It portrays an image that says that if you are a German, then anything is possible. People were shown riding horses which would normally only be allowed if you were a noble, but here even farmers were members of the “Master Race.”

9. The Hitler Youth were prohibited in South-West Africa because of the problem of Nazism, but youths were allowed to join the German version of the Boy Scouts; this group got away with utilizing Nazi symbols which almost suggested that it was good to be a Nazi: to be part of this group implies trust and freedom by giving up your individuality for the greater good. These “Boys Scouts” marched to the sounds of German military march music. They even celebrated Hitler’s birthday, although they were so far away from Germany itself.

10. Karl Mohri was the director of this film, and he himself had actually been a boy scout in the area in the 1920s. He returned from Germany after the success of his film but because of the outbreak of World War II, he was unable to finish his planned sequel to this film.