My Four Years in Germany

A more barbaric portrayal of the German soldiers and Germany as a whole on the screen could not be imagined as March 1918's "My Four Years In Germany." Based on the reminisces of the U. S. ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, from 1913 until 1917, the movie paints a brutal picture of the German aggressors, including rounding up and massacring scores of civilians.

"My Four Years In Germany" was one in a number of propaganda movies produced by the American film industry geared towards justifying the sacrifice in terms of lives and economic well-being for the country's involvement in a faraway continent. Although the government's Committee on Public Information (CPI), a U. S. propaganda branch within the Wilson Administration, wasn't directly involved in producing Hollywood films (it did release three documentary feature-length films in 1918), it did encourage making movies with a very pro-American/anti-German slant.

"My Four Years In Germany," was the first movie the four Warner brothers had ever produced. Previously, the brothers' enterprise was strictly a film distribution company, which allowed the four to make a lucrative career out of disbursing other studios' movies to theaters nationwide. Investing $50,000 in their debut film, the Warners discovered "My Four Years In Germany" to be a financial sensation, raking in well over one million dollars. Realizing the movie production business was potentially far more profitable than mere distribution of other people's motion pictures, the Warner brothers embarked on building their own film studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and to concentrate on filmmaking.

This film, made during World War 1, is a fascinating look at the mind-set of war-time America. Based on the book by the American ambassador to Germany from 1913 to 1917, James W. Gerard, we see the road to war through his eyes.

This is a propaganda piece, with the German leaders portrayed as a bunch of evil lunatics, and German war atrocities toward women and children in Belgium greatly exaggerated. It is also a cry against autocracy and for democracy, with some insights into the way autocrats can manipulate the minds of reasonable patriots into war. Amazing to see how the only German portrayed sympathetically in the film is a socialist, a man who fights for the rights of the people but who is duped into joining the army. His later rebellion against the atrocities he witnesses is both powerful and moving. Of course a few years later no American film-maker would dare to portray a socialist so positively.

In the end the most fascinating thing about this film is the way it combines convincing re-enactments with actuality footage. Was it the first film to do so? The actuality footage is remarkable - I suspect that much of this material now only exists within this film, and that makes this film all the more valuable. It is also a rare insight into the way Americans saw the causes of World War 1, and their own entry into the war, at the time the war was happening. A valuable historical document and an entertaining, if highly biased, look at World War 1. The video from Grapevine is of pretty high quality, if a bit dark at times.

Herr James Gerard was the US ambassador in Berlin during the first world and "My Four Years In Germany" (1918), relates Herr Gerard's impressions and experiences during that troublesome time in Deutschland . The film was directed by Herr William Nigh, an anodyne silent director; when his "Desert Nights" (1929) was screened in the Schloss, this German count noted that Herr Nigh "likes especially exotic film productions in which he uses many clichés". This aristocratic silent quotation is equally valid for "My Four Years In Germany".

This German count has been living in Deutschland during the last century, not a very long time, certainly, but very much longer than Herr Gerard, who, in his boldness, seems to believe that to spend only four years in Germany is enough time to show the world how Germans are in private life; their habits, customs and how all these were transformed by the Great War.

For example, in the film there are many illustrations of Teutonic dogs with Prussian helmets or vultures in uniform ( an absolute outrage because the latter could easily be confused with genuine Prussian military men… ) but that temporary fashion was due to the spirit of war that affected everyone in Deutschland during that time, be they animals, military men or even human beings. Even this Herr Graf forced the servants to wear those Prussian helmets during the meals in order to support such patriotic sentiment.

Obviously during that terrible time, strict German behaviour was accentuated and that was the reason why, as can be seen in the film, the Teutonic soldiers act so badly towards the enemy, but… what do you expect??.. to invite French to dinner when they didn't allow us to pay a visit to Paris??.

On the other hand, Herr Nigh depicts accurately the Kaiser's uniform as well as the greed of the high rank military men around his Excellency and the uselessness of the diplomats and politicians in the film, continually proposing mixed up nonsense involving futile agreements and impossible strategies, quite unlike the military men who preferred action instead of boring talk and a complicated process of intense and long negotiations that in the end still didn't keep America from entering the war.

Using Herr Gerard's memories and misunderstandings, Herr Nigh made a well done propaganda film that makes witty use of real images from newsreels together with dramatization scenes of real facts. Like any propaganda film is supposed to be, the oeuvre is tendentious, Manichean, simplistic and in this case, long but it accomplishes very well its patriotic proposals which is all that counts in this film genre. The film must be seen as a product of its time where artistic values are left behind and the goal is to stoke the heat of war in the hearts of the audience.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must spend four days in Baden-Baden.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/