Elsaesser and Wedel, who proposed the notion of National Foundation films also suggested the western as a genre to investigate the national identity of the GDR. They propose that Wolf had been influenced by the western noting that he had, “ a keen appreciation of the classical western, in the manner of John Ford, Robert Aldrich or even Sam Fuller!” (Elsaesser, Wedel, 2001, 21). Wolf himself admitted to the influence o f Italian films and Directors, (Herlinghaus,1982, 64,) and it was Italian film making that had influenced and indeed reinvigorated the western genre in the 1960’s through the Spaghetti Westerns and the introduction of Clint Eastward as the “Silent Man”. Not only were Hollywood westerns and Spaghetti Westerns an influence on East German film makers, but also home grown literature such as the stories of German author Karl May writing in German at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Centuries. He wrote about his experiences in the Prairies of North America and this influenced DEFA filmmakers in the 1960’s to produce their own take on the Western for East German audiences.
Origins and features
At the centre of the foundational myth are two protagonists, the frontier and the solitary hero. The frontier is Janus faced giving and taking away, “ if the West was seen as a potential Eden, the garden of the world, it was also seen as a wilderness, the Great American desert. The life on the frontier was both ennobling because it was close to nature and primitive, at the furthest remove from civilisation” (Pye, 1977, 201). The frontier permeates the whole genre, it affects acceptable actions and how justice is interpreted. It permits actions and behaviour that would not be acceptable in the civilised homelands but are vital for survival on the frontier. The frontier is flexible and changing. This constant movement becomes the “crucible” of the nation, (Langford, 2005, 63).
The hero of a Western is a solitary romantic one (Pye, 1977, 201), he is the one who forms the narrative, by recognising the conflict in a community, deciding to engage in that conflict, participating in a life or death struggle and finally prevailing (Schatz, 1988, 27). Having prevailed he moves on to the next challenge rather than settling for the emasculating life of civilisation (Schatz, 1988, 30). The conflict in a movie reflects the conflicts of society but the hero’s engagement in that conflict alienates him from his society, he is “an ambivalent figure who embodies the savage and civilised[…]” (Schatz, 1988, 30), his alienation can only be redeemed through the final battle.
This discussion of the genre has concentrated on the settler and western experience, the experience of the native people and wilderness are seen, in the Hollywood genre, as a place where, “ In the end […] the land is exploited for the White Man’s dollars” (Lischke, McNab, 2005,283). The native people are forces of resistance who are pushing back against the White expansion. Here we see a divergence in the genre between the Hollywood and the East German western genre.
Indianer Filmen
Produced by DEFA in reaction to the West German production of Karl May’s stories in the early 1960’s, which East German citizens could see when they travelled to Czechoslovakia on holiday until 1968 (Gemünden, 2001, 26). DEFA produced its own version of the western genre, known as Indianer Filmen, which consciously decided to look at the Western from the point of view of the Indian rather than that of the conquering White settler. Produced by the Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt’s production team, Roter Kreis, Native Americans were cast as the heroes of the films and the American, English or French settlers as the villains, (Lischke, McNab, 2005,283). “The Indians, struggling to survive imperialist and capitalist forces, would reflect the proletarian ideal of hard work and co-operation” (Lischke, McNab, 2005,286) and while the films tried to be historically accurate, they, like their American genre cousins, also reflected “war not peace” (Lischke, McNab, 2005,287). In portraying war the Indianer Filmen wanted to portray the capitalists as they really were and reflect the East German world view where, “peace is illusory and war becomes an end in itself” (Lischke, McNab, 2005,298).
Thus, we see 2 streams of influence on Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt and Ich war neunzehn. The Hollywood Western genre, with its emphasis on the lone hero struggling to bring order to (a) an, wide, unruly frontier and the Indianer Filmen with its sympathy for the Native peoples who are oppressed and exploited by the “foreign” invaders and who have to resist as Partisans in their own land.
Elsaesser and Wedel see a strong western motive with Hecker, in Ich war neunzehn, acting as an Indian supporting the civilising forces, they say; “ Gregor[…] is perhaps best understood as the typical western figure of the Indian scout[…]” (Elsaesser, Wedel, 2001, 21). There appears to be little literature reviewing Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt the through western genre, however Kunert’s film is linked to DEFA’s Indianer Filmen through its production group, Rote Kreis. It seems not impossible to apply an Indianer Film and Western reading to Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt and Ich war neunzehn.
