Kuhle Wampe

Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt?
Directed by	Slatan Dudow
Produced by	George Hoellering
Written by	Bertolt Brecht Ernst Ottwalt
Starring	See below
Music by	Hanns Eisler
Cinematography	Günther Krampf
Production company	Prometheus Film
Release date	14 May 1932 (1932-05-14)
Running time	USA:71 minutes
Country	Weimar Republic
Language	German

Kuhle Wampe (full title: Kuhle Wampe, oder: Wem gehört die Welt?, released in English as Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?) is a 1932 German feature film about unemployment and left wing politics in the Weimar Republic. The script was conceived and written by Bertolt Brecht. He also directed the concluding scene: a political debate between strangers on a train about the world coffee market. The rest of the film was directed by Slatan Dudow. The film music was composed by Hanns Eisler.^[1]

Kuhle Wampe itself was a tent camp on the Müggelsee in Berlin. Wampe is Berlin dialect for "stomach", so the title could be rendered "Empty Stomach".

The film was banned in 1932 under the accusation that it depicted the president, the legal system, and religion in a poor way, but due to protests the ban was lifted on a recut version. The film remained unseen for many years after the Second World War. However, a restored print is now available and a video was released by the British Film Institute in 1999, along with a documentary video essay on the original film by Andrew Hoellering, son of the film's producer George Hoellering.

Synopsis

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”

Anni, the family’s daughter and the only family member who still has a job, becomes pregnant and engaged to her boyfriend, Fritz, who that very evening describes that their marriage was demanded of him because of her pregnancy. Anni leaves Fritz and moves to her friend Gerda’s apartment. She later finds herself in a worker’s sporting event where she meets Fritz again, who has recently lost his work, and they reunite.

The climax of the film depicts their return home by train (a scene that Brecht wrote personally). Anni and Fritz as well as a handful of workers argue with middle-class and wealthy men and women over the situation of the worldwide financial crisis. One of the workers notes that the well-off will not change the world in any case, to which one of the wealthy asks quizzically, “Who else, then, can change the world?” Gerda replies, “Those who don’t like it.”

The film ends with the singing of the Solidarity Song, with lyrics by Brecht and music from Hanns Eisler.

Cast

Video release

• Kuhle Wampe, BFIV053, subtitled, black and white, 68 minutes running time, with a 48-minute documentary
• Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World? DEFA Film Library DVD, restored, subtitled, black & white, 69 minutes running time
• Kuhle Wampe — Censored! reconstruction of the censorship case against the original film, DEFA Film Library DVD, subtitled, black & white, 63 minutes running time

References

External links

• Kuhle Wampe oder: Wem gehört die Welt? on IMDb