The City Without Jews (1924)

Original title

Die Stadt ohne Juden

Directed by

Hans Karl Breslauer

Genre

drama film, silent film, science fiction film

Country

Austria

Runtime

1h 20m

Rated

0

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 28 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In a near-future Austria, the government expels all Jewish citizens from Vienna. The film follows the social and economic collapse that follows their removal.

satiricalabsurdistmelancholicdarkly comicpropheticunsettlingstylized

What happens

The City Without Jews (German: Die Stadt ohne Juden) is a 1924 Austrian Expressionist film by Hans Karl Breslauer, based on the novel of the same title by Hugo Bettauer. The film is one of the few surviving Expressionist films from Austria and has therefore been well researched. The film was first shown on 25 July 1924 in Vienna. In his novel, published in 1922, Hugo Bettauer succeeded in creating a relatively accurate allegorical vision of the near future. Although the book was intended for entertainment and as a satirical response to the primitive antisemitism of the 1920s, it immediately became Bettauer's most popular work. It was translated into several languages, and sold over a quarter of a million copies. Shortly after the premiere of the film Hugo Bettauer was murdered by Otto Rothstock, a former member of the Nazi Party, who was lionized by the antisemitic Austrian masses and was released less than two years after having been committed to a psychiatric institution. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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