{{short description|1935 Nazi propaganda film}} {{For|the silent film|The Inheritance (1922 film)}} {{Infobox film | name = Das Erbe | image = | alt = | caption = | director = Carl Hartmann | producer = Harold Mayer | writer = Walter Lüddeke | narrator = | starring = | music = | cinematography = | editing = | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|1935}} | runtime = 12 minutes | country = [[Nazi Germany]] | language = German | budget = | gross = }} '''''Das Erbe''''' ("The Inheritance")<ref name=Poore110>Poore (1997), p. 110</ref> was a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] [[propaganda]] movie released in 1935.<ref name=Zimmermann214>Zimmermann (2005), p. 214</ref> Produced by Harold Mayer<ref>Barsam (1992), p. 126</ref> under the aegis of the [[Nazi party]]'s [[Office of Racial Policy]]<ref name=Poore110/> and directed by [[Carl C. Hartmann]], it aimed at legitimizing the [[Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring]] ("''Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses''"),<ref name=Zimmermann214/> which allowed for [[Sterilisation (medicine)|sterilization]].<ref name=Poore110/> The movie is 12 minutes long,<ref>Delage (1989), p. 233</ref> and was shown as part of several trailers in contemporary German movie theaters.<ref name=augenblick80/>
==Plot and message==
The plot was written by [[Walter Lüddeke]].<ref name=augenblick80>Augen-Blick 22.1995, p. 80</ref> The basic message, that only the strong and healthy are victorious, is demonstrated by fighting [[stag beetle]]s commented on by a "professor",<ref name=Zimmermann95>Zimmermann (2005), p. 95</ref> These clips are watched by the character Fräulein Volkmann, a [[Aryan race|blonde young woman]], who is therewith introduced to the "struggle for existence"(''Daseinskampf'').<ref name=Zimmermann214/> After watching the clips, Volkmann is astonished and says to the friendly, elderly professor: "So animals actually pursue a racial policy!"<ref name=Zimmermannmedia>Zimmermann (2005), as cited at mediaculture-online.de</ref> In the second part, the movie discusses the sorrow of the disabled and posits a relation between choice of the right partner and hereditary diseases of the offspring.<ref name=Zimmermannmedia/> The message is carried by shock clips of asylum patients and presentation of the high care cost.<ref name=Zimmermannmedia/>
Peter Zimmermann of the House of Documentary Film in [[Stuttgart]] evaluates the movie as follows:<blockquote>The [[short movie]] ''Das Erbe'' (1935), which leads over from the animals' struggle for survival and [[natural selection]] to a plea for forced sterilization of the mentally ill, marks exactly the point where [[Social Darwinism|Social Darwinist]] [[Biological determinism|biologism]] turns into [[Fascism|Fascist]] racial policy providing the reasoning for the necessity of [[euthanasia]].<ref group=nb>Zimmermann (2003), quote: "Der Kurzfilm Das Erbe (1935), der vom Existenzkampf in der Tierwelt und der Auslese der Arten zum Plädoyer für die Zwangssterilisierung [[Mental disorder|Geisteskranker]] überleitet, bezeichnet genau den Punkt, an dem ein sozialdarwinistischer Biologismus in eine faschistische Rassenpolitik umschlägt, die die Notwendigkeit der Euthanasie argumentatorisch vorbereitet."</ref></blockquote>
In addition to ''Das Erbe'', two [[silent movies]] were produced in 1935 to propagate [[euthanasia]] in the German population, ''[[Sünden der Väter]]'' and ''[[Abseits vom Wege]]'' ("Sins of the Fathers" and "Off track").<ref name=Matzek277>Matzek (2002), p. 277</ref> In the subsequent years, the media campaign was completed by another [[sound movie]], "''[[Victims of the Past|Opfer der Vergangenheit]]''" ("Sacrifice of the Past", 1937) and three more silent movies, "''[[Erbkrank]]''" ("Inherited Malady", 1936), "''[[Alles Leben ist Kampf]]''" ("All Life is Struggle", 1937) and "''[[Was du ererbst]]''" ("What You Inherit", 1939).<ref name=Matzek277/> All these movies were produced by the Office of Racial Policy, shot in the Berlin area, and shown nationwide in movie theaters, factories and at Nazi party events,<ref name=Poore110/> and together reached an audience of twenty million per year.<ref name=Poore111>Poore (1997), p. 111</ref> Together with ''Erbkrank'' and ''Alles Leben ist Kampf'', ''Das Erbe'' reflects the spirit of the [[Nuremberg Laws]] by subordinating the people to the authority of a superior "breeder's" cost-benefit analysis.<ref>Reichert (2006), p. 53</ref>
==See also== *[[List of German films 1933–1945]] *[[Nazism and cinema]] *[[Aktion T4]] * ''[[Opfer der Vergangenheit]]'' * [[Life unworthy of life]] * [[Euthanasia]] * [[List of German films 1933–1945]] * [[Nazism and cinema]] * Erbkrank
==Notes== <references group=nb/>
==Sources== ===References=== {{reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== *{{cite book|last=Barsam|first=Richard Meran|title=Nonfiction film. A critical history|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1992|series=A Midland book|volume=706|isbn=0-253-20706-1}} *{{cite book|last=Delage|first=Christian|title=La vision nazie de l'histoire. Le cinéma documentaire du Troisième Reich|publisher=L'AGE D'HOMME|year=1989|series=Histoire et théorie du cinéma|isbn=2-8251-3348-5|language=French}} *{{cite book|last=Matzek|first=Tom|title=Das Mordschloss. Auf den Spuren von NS-Verbrechen in Schloss Hartheim|publisher=Kremayr & Scheriau|year=2002|isbn=3-218-00710-0|language=German}} *{{cite book|last=Poore|first=Carol|title=Disability in twentieth-century German culture Corporealities. Discourses of Disability|year=2007|isbn=978-0-472-11595-2}} *{{cite book|last=Reichert|first=Ramón|title=Kulturfilm im "Dritten Reich"|publisher=Synema|year=2006|isbn=3-901644-14-8|language=German}} *{{cite book|last=Zimmermann|first=Peter|chapter=Zwischen Sachlichkeit, Idylle und Propaganda. Der Kulturfilm im Dritten Reich|editor1-first=Peter|editor1-last=Zimmermann|editor2-first=Kay|editor2-last=Hoffmann|title=Triumph der Bilder. Kultur- und Dokumentarfilme vor 1945 im internationalen Vergleich|series=Close Up. Schriften aus dem Haus des Dokumentarfilms|volume=16|location=Konstanz|publisher=UVK Medien 2003|pages=59–73|language=German}}, **cited in https://web.archive.org/web/20100131063204/http://www.mediaculture-online.de/fileadmin/bibliothek/zimmermann_propaganda/zimmermann_propaganda.html, retrieved 2010-02-21 *{{cite book|last=Zimmermann|first=Peter|title=Geschichte des dokumentarischen Films in Deutschland|publisher=P. Reclam jun.|year=2005|volume=3|isbn=3-15-010586-2|language=German}} **hardback, [https://books.google.com/books?id=It1kAAAAMAAJ&q=volkmann Google books preview] **pp. 505–529, 554–567 as cited by https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012529/http://www.mediaculture-online.de/fileadmin/bibliothek/zimmermann_propagandafilm/zimmermann_propagandafilm.html#sdfootnote22anc, retrieved: 2010-02-21 *{{cite journal|year=1995|title=Das kalte Bild. Das Erbe (1935)|journal=Augen-Blick|publisher=Philipps-Universität Marburg. Institut für Neuere Deutsche Literatur|issue=22|language=German}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0247318|Das Erbe}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erbe, Das}} [[Category:1935 short documentary films]] [[Category:1935 films]] [[Category:German short documentary films]] [[Category:Films of Nazi Germany]] [[Category:Nazi propaganda films]] [[Category:Films about euthanasia]] [[Category:German black-and-white films]] [[Category:1935 German films]]