Kuhle Wampe is a classic German film. It was made in 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, and narrates an episode of the life in a workers family. The story was written by the famous German writer Bertold Brecht, who at the time was part of the European labor movement (since 1933 he temporarily move to the USA in order to escape from fascism). Therefore the film takes a critical perspective on the contemporary society. One of the main character is the well-known socialist singer Ernst Busch. The film even contains several of his songs, for instance the Solidatitaets Lied. So Kuhle Wampe may definitely be praised as a historical document. There are many shots of the mass activities by workers organizations, such as the contemporary sport associations, the theater societies and the political branches (newspapers etc.). Their aim was to provide the unemployed workers with useful activities, in order to prevent their moral decay. Personally I like the camera work, which uses an attitude of social realism. At first the film was banned by the German board of film censors. Later a shorter version was allowed to be released, but this decision was again reversed a few months later, when the fascists gained control. The DVD contains the shortened version, so apparently the original has been lost. Which is a shame. The actual story appears to be instrumental to the political message. Kuhle Wampe is a camping place for the expelled families. First we see the suicide of a young worker, being desperate because of a lasting unemployment and his lethargic parents. It portrays the waste of resources in capitalism. Then the family is expelled from their apartment. Subsequently the young working daughter gets involved in a failing relation with another worker. She resorts to abortion. Here the message is unclear. If one wishes to criticize the film, perhaps the abundance of artistic quality should be mentioned. Brecht wrote for intellectuals, and his stories are never easy. Actually he had his greatest successes and achievements in operas (for instance "The Three Penny Opera"! Also "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny" (located in the USA),"The Yes-sayer" etc.). This is mirrored in the film, where the dialogs are somewhat pompous, or at least make an artificial impression. This classifies the film as a cultural milestone, giving a profound insight into the life style within the labor movement of the thirties. This era has often been described as cultural socialism, using mass plays, chants etc. The greatest happiness was being a part of the harmonious crowd. This idea has become obsolete in our present culture, which gives room to personal happiness. The DVD of Suhrkamp Verlag also contains the Dudow documentary "Wie der Berliner Arbeiter wohnt" ("The lives of Berlin workers") and the play "Feigenblatt fuer Kuhle Wampe". Have a look to see my review. If you are interested in social films, you may want to look at all my reviews.

This is a great film, an early example of fiction film-making that is responsive to social and political circumstances, but that doesn't get bogged down in the naturalist pessimism of, say, Piel Jutzi's contemporary "Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück." The cinematography may not be the most compelling, but it is sensitive, considered, and bears the mark of Dudow's admiration for Eisenstein. Brecht was only one of the collaborators on the script -- together with the reportage-novelist Ernst Ottwalt, even if he was its most outspoken defender in the censorship proceedings; and the idea for the film was Dudow's, a Bulgarian-born theater and film director who had made one documentary prior to "Kuhle Wampe" and would go on to co-found the East German studio, DEFA.

"Kuhle Wampe" was shown in America under the title "Wither Germany?" and was one of the last German films which embraced a utilitarian viewpoint. It was a true free lance film with thousands of members of such leftist groups as Labor Sports Union, Worker's Theatre Unit and Worker's Chorus of Greater Berlin volunteering for the crowd scenes. Bertolt Brecht did the script, Hans Eisler composed the music but the filming (Slatan Dudow directed) was forever running into difficulties because of the overt Communistic grounds the film took. It was banned because of it's negative depiction of the law, religion and morals and was a very bleak film.

Unemployment is rife and Anni (Hertha Thiele) is the only person in her family who has a job. Father is embittered and, remembering a time when jobs were plentiful, clings to the belief that hard work and politeness are the things employers are looking for. Mother has only old fashioned proverbs which adorn her kitchen. The son commits suicide (taking care to remove his wristwatch which the family could probably sell) and an elderly neighbour comments "one unemployed less"!! - but the family are too despondent to care.

They are then evicted and move to "Kuhle Wampe", Germany's oldest weekend colony which as the title said, in 1931, had 100s of people living there in tents and shacks. Anni had been told of it by her lover Fritz but when she becomes pregnant and her family insist on an engagement - Fritz's selfish nature is revealed. He doesn't want to be tied down so Anni moves back into town with her friend Gerda. There are some symbolic scenes - Anni's parents are discussing Mata Hari in all her lurid detail, the high fees she commanded for her favours while in the background are pictures of bread, milk and meat, for sale at the same price as an evening with Mata Hari.

The last part of the film shows Gerda and Anni's involvement with the Red Games - this has a very hopeful look. It is the young and the strong who are going to bring about change "the people who will fix the world are those who don't like it". It doesn't have a lot of hope in workers as a whole - the older people are shown as set in their ways, clinging to old fashioned ideals. The engagement party (where did the money come from for all that food and beer) shows the drunken carousing of the older generation - when Anni asks her parents to go back with her to the city, they refuse and actually give solace to Fritz!! Later when Anni is reunited with Fritz during the games, she finds he has lost his job and the final sequence takes place on a train with an in-depth economic discussion between the youthful workers and the bourgeois. Whenever Anni's group try to talk up the revolution - "think hard, forward, never relax", their opponents turn nationalistic and talk generalities. There is a feeling that Anni and Fritz may be reconciled but Anni is determined not to be apart of the morass that engulfs society.

In real life Hertha Thiele was a radical who refused requests from Goebbels to direct National Socialist propaganda.

Highly Recommended.