The Representation of the Prostitute in Weimar Cinema during the Post-Inflationary Period

Indianapolis, IN

The post-inflationary period of the German Weimar government, from approximately 1924 to 1929, created a culture that simultaneously dismantled previously held conservative cultural standards and engendered a critically important artistic movement while giving rise to a collective feeling of hysteria born out of a fragile political system and changing social norms. This presentation examines the cinematic trope of the prostitute in the internationally acclaimed Weimar film movement as a metaphor for the anxieties of the German people with a specific focus on the post-1970's feminist analysis of the films that removes the character of the 'public woman' exclusively from the sexual sphere. The prostitute emerges through this work as a symbol for the growing fear of modernization and, thus, commodification and urbanization that was growing rampantly in the republic.