Weimar Cinema and Its Influence on Goth Rock
by Zoey KnipsteinIn 2005, Bauhaus performed for the first time in seven years at Coachella. They opened with their nearly ten minute goth classic,
“Bela Lugosi is Dead,” and singer Peter Murphy was escorted onto the stage while suspended in the air upside down like a sleeping
bat. Murphy stayed upside down for the entirety of the song's duration, and somehow did not miss a beat. This performance choice
encapsulates the gothic style Bauhaus embraces: the theatrical, phantasmic, and macabre. Bauhaus is one of many bands from 70’s
and 80’s Britain that is associated with Goth subculture. The late 1970s to 1980s in England marked the beginning for Goth rock, but
Goth as an art movement spans back decades. German films from the Weimar period (1917-1933) serve as a core inspiration for Britain's
Goth Subculture. Weimar cinema developed the horror genre by pushing the boundaries of creative performance through experimentation
in character design and plot devices. Weimar filmmakers, influenced by the German expressionist movement, sought to capture the feeling
of postwar Germany through sharp and distorted set pieces and psychological torment. Discontent towards the Thatcher administration in
Britain acted as a catalyst to the genesis of goth music, as musicians used the genre to express dread and fear during a time of extreme
poverty. These musicians would look to the films of the Weimar period as a source of guidance through its creation.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) were particularly influential for English goth musicians. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
is a film from 1920 written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The story unfolds through the altered memory of a man named Francis.
We learn about Dr. Caligari, a doctor who has taken control over a somnambulist known as Cesare. Dr. Caligari has Cesare murder several
people, including Francis' close friend, Alan. Cesare's actions are later led by desire instead of Caligari when he is ordered to murder Francis’s
wife Jane, only to eventually surrender her when he realizes he is at risk of being caught by authorities. We are not clear about what comes of
Dr. Caligari and Cesare, until the film ultimately reveals the story Francis told was merely a delusion, as Cesare and Jane are fellow patients,
and Dr. Caligari was the director of the asylum. The plots of both films are influenced by the film makers’ experiences in post war Germany.
The writers of Caligari, Janowitz and Mayer began their partnership by bonding over shared revolutionary views which stemmed from their
own respective experiences. Carl Mayer struggled with mental health and grew up in extreme poverty. Janowitz was an officer in an infantry
regiment during World War One, and was enraged by the German government's decision to send millions of German soldiers to their deaths.
When Jannowitz met Mayer in Berlin, they cultivated a desire to express these experiences on the screen.
Nosferatu is a film from 1922 written by F.W. Murnau. The film is a reinterpretation of Brahms Stoker’s novel Dracula, following a similar plot with
minor changes. The story begins in the fictional German town of Wisburg, where the character Thomas Hutter works as an estate agent. His
employer, Herr Knock, appoints him a job to visit their new client Count Orlock in Transylvania to discuss his plans to buy property in Wisburg.
Hutter travels to Transylvania despite being discouraged by his wife Ellen and being warned of danger by locals, and meets Count Orlock in
his home, a remote castle. Hutter grows suspicious of the Count when he comments on a photo of his wife Ellen, stating she has “a lovely neck.”
The Count now wants the blood of his wife. Count Orlock makes his way to Wisburg by boat, and many townspeople begin to perish once he arrives.
Ellen learns that The Count has taken control over her mind and is causing supernatural death in Wisburg, and sacrifices herself in order to stop
him. The Count sucks Ellen’s blood, and she dies in the arms of her husband Hutter. As the sun rises, The Count vanishes into smoke.
Murnau used Nosferatu as a way to represent his experiences from World War One. Anton Kaes writes, “At the close of the film, Hutter is
stricken with symptoms of shell shock and impotence; his wife is dead, as is most of the town's population. What started out as a wild and
exhilarating adventure ends in catastrophe”(Kaes, 93). Hutter is a character that parallels many of the German soldiers that went to fight
in World War One with enthusiasm, only to discover they were misguided by their country, and millions are forever damaged from the experience
or dead. Hutter arrived in Transylvania with false hope and doubted any warnings of danger, only to learn quickly how death can be caused
by an authoritative power like Count Orlock. Caligari similarly depicts roles of authority as agents of death, as Dr. Caligari uses Cesare to
murder the German townsfolk. Horror in a narrative has the ability to convey oppressive realities through fantastical representation. The sets
are surrealist, and distort common things such as houses, furniture, and streets. The characters are immersed in the distorted world created by
the set, and move in an unnatural dance-like fashion. Altered realities created by the set design and character performance are paired with the
characters portraying roles in the story that emulate real people. The characters in Caligari invoke horror through their ability to reflect dread
stemming the traumas of war by using symbolic allegory. Film critic Siegfried Kracauer writes, “They had created Cesare with the dim design
of portraying the common man who, under the pressure of the compulsory military service, is drilled to kill and to be killed. The revolutionary
meaning of the story reveals itself unmistakable at the end, with the disclosure of the psychiatrist as Caligari: reason overpowers unreasonable
power, insane authority is symbolically abolished” (Kracauer, 65).
These stories attempt to disburden the creators of the traumas shared by the experience of war. What makes the stories so remarkable is their
ability to stay pertinent across generations. Viewers can confide in these films regardless of their personal connection to war, it translates due
its connection to pain and the attempt to make sense of it.
Lol Tolhurst is one of the founders of the English Goth band The Cure. In his memoir, Goth- A History, he quotes author Tracey Fahey: "Historically,
re-formulations of the Gothic are associated with crises and periods of uncertainty in history” (Tolhurst, 22). The Cure was founded in the late 1970s
under the Thatcher administration. Thatcher imposed economic policies that intended to promote neoliberal capitalism and supported solely the
wealthy. These policies lead to extreme inflation and unemployment, causing a great wealth gap in the country. The future was shrouded in uncertainty
and fear as Britain remained in an economic crisis. Killing Joke, a band from England, wrote “Eighties” in response to the social-political landscape
of Britain, shrouded in superficiality and aggressive individualism. In “Eightites”, Killing Joke writes:Eighties
I'm living in the eighties, I push
Eighties
I'm living in, oh!
Eighties
I'm living in the eighties, I struggle
Eighties
I'm living in, oh, oh!
The music created in this subculture evoked a spirit of melancholy. Tolhurst along with many other British youth used music as a way to make sense
of the everchanging world around them, “Goth and Post-Punk allowed us as teenage boys and girls to reveal dreads and desires under the intense
surface” (Tolhurst, 6). Goth music explores an idea consisting of themes derived from horror, literature, and film, which introduced a new attitude one
could use to approach the world, “Goth searched for meaning”(Tolhurst, 22).
Goth can be simplified as a collection of repeating aesthetics, and while these aesthetics are something that is often incorporated, what makes
something true to the nature of Goth is what feelings, events, and history deem to provoke it. The films of the Weimar period are grounded in the state
of melancholy Germany was in during the time, which was then explored through a Gothic semblance of experimentation and world building. Goth Rock
of 1970s and 1980s England share this same sentiment of melancholy, a melancholy invoked by trauma and uncertainty. Tolhurst writes, “There’s a
duality at the heart of Goth that’s beautiful and human and unearthly all at the same time, which assured its continued relevance today.” Goth will
continue to build upon itself, gathering from other forms of art that connect to it. Goth's timeless nature indicates humanity's need to explore the
macabre as a way to reach understanding. Macabre is universal, pain is something necessary to address yet gruesome to display directly. Goth is
able to address pain through a reconstructed lens, providing a comfort in a shared melancholy. It is peculiar how the desire for a genre that touches
on themes of death will not seem to die.
Citations
Kaes A. , (2009). Shell shock Cinema. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Revised and expanded ed., Princeton University Press, 2004.
Tolhurst, Lol. Goth: A History. Hachette Books, 2023.
Killing Joke. "Eighties" Night Time, Virgin Records, 1985.