The second and third parts of this dissertation will show that, like Wagner, Fritz Lang and J.R.R.
Tolkien in their recrafting of the Nibelung material combine a variety of techniques and art types with specific goals in mind and ultimately something new that, as Wagner did, has made a lasting impact in their respective spheres. These three fundamental principles of the
Gesamtkunstwerk concept hold true, for all three artists, as does the communal nature of the experience that their audiences inhabit. For Wagner and Lang, this is the straightforward communal nature of the theater, the collective experience of watching and experiencing in a group. For Tolkien, this played out in a wholly unexpected way – solitary readers became members of a collective of fans at a very early period. All three artists made deep and lasting impacts on their respective fields, and all three, starting with Wagner, pushed the boundaries of their chosen art forms to new and unexpected heights.
In redefining Gesamtkunstwerk in this way, there is no necessary subordination to Wagner, other than to say that he did it first, and perhaps most famously. It is certainly true that the term, or rather concept, of the Gesamtkunstwerk has had a long and often messy history, both as Wagner conceived it and in its multiplicity of forms that later came to be, and particularly so in its connections with National Socialism, so widely promulgated by prominent scholars such as Adorno. However, this dissertation argues that these dark connections, though possibly intrinsic to Wagner and his nationalistic views, are neither essential nor innate in the concept of
Gesamtkunstwerk as a concept. Koss reiterates that “aesthetic theories themselves have a history;
the meanings of concepts develop over time,” which is certainly the case here with the
Gesamtkunstwerk (Koss, xviii). Like Koss, Imhoof, Menninger, Steinhoff, and even Brown or Venning, this dissertation redefines Gesamtkunstwerk, based on its beginnings in Wagner’s work and yet divorcing its meaning from his persona and ideologies. Koss’ own book does something similar: “This book [Modernism after Wagner] by contrast, in attending to the history and theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk following the conceptual model provided by Wagner, argues that interdisciplinarity itself derives its strength from the achievements made within particular disciplines––and, in turn, it strengthens these disciplines” (Koss, xxii).
For the purposes of this dissertation, then, a Gesamtkunstwerk is an artwork created by combining either separate art forms or separate media,33 with some specific goal or aim that will be achieved through that artwork, and that, in being created, becomes something new,
innovative, and original. The innovative originality of a Gesamtkunstwerk ultimately pushes its field or medium to new limits, and provides some sort of a collective experience for those who experience it. Margaret Eleanor Menninger in the introduction to The Total Work of Art indicates that “the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk has always revolved more around a central idea of
promise rather than of delivery.”34 And this is its promise: to push art further than it has been before—a dangerous notion to be sure. Menninger’s book (together with Imhoof and Steinhoff) argues for a more diverse and open-ended interpretation of the Gesamtkunstwerk, noting that the Gesamktunstwerk is of an “aspirational nature” (Menninger, 6). Their book, whose trailblazing path (together with Koss) this dissertation follows, look at various more recent (post Wagner) works as Gesamtkunstwerke, (such as Brecht, for instance), as the term is constantly shifting and
33 Depending on one’s perception of the definition of media. This dissertation is not prepared to argue either for or against medium specificity in the space allotted.
34 Imhoof, David, Margaret Eleanor Menninger, and Anthony J. Steinhoff, eds. The Total Work of Art: Foundations, Articulations, Inspirations. Berghahn, 2016. pg. 1.
being redefined. This is what the next two chapters will do for Lang and for Tolkien. In closing, Menninger’s words provide a fitting conclusion to a chapter on Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk:
The idea of Gesamtkunstwerk continues to inspire and vex us. Humans still thrill to the promise of experiencing a moment of transcendent unity through art, despite all the evidence for the potential for misuse and the passionate arguments against the dangers of totality. (Menninger, 12-3)
Chapter Two: In the Face of the Inexorable:
Die Nibelungen and Fritz Lang
I. Introduction
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, familiarly known as Fritz, was born December 5th in 1890 in Vienna, Austria. Indisputably one of the greatest German-speaking filmmakers of all time, Lang’s storied life lead him from Vienna, to Germany, to France, and finally, to the United States, where he had a profound impact on Hollywood film. Similar to Wagner’s operatic Ring Cycle, Lang was inspired by the medieval legend of Siegfried and the Dragon to create a four- hour long film, in two installments, known collectively as Die Nibelungen. Lang’s version, however, follows the Middle High German poem much more closely than does Wagner’s. The first part, Die Nibelungen 1. Teil: Siegfrieds Tod, picks up Siegfried’s story rather later than does Wagner, introducing Siegfried as a young man, and follows him through his adventures,
marriage, and eventual death at the hands of Hagen. The film ends with Brunhild’s suicide, and Kriemhild’s oath of vengeance. Die Nieblungen 2. Teil: Kriemhilds Rache continues with Kriemhild’s quest for revenge on Hagen and his family, her marriage to Etzel, king of the Huns, and the last hour of film is a series of battles as the Burgundians and the Huns kill each other off, with Kriemhild killing Gunter and Hagen before being killed herself.
As has been shown, Richard Wagner’s threads of inspiration from the Nibelungen tale, the specific social goals he had in mind for his Ring Cycle, the way he pushed his medium to its limits, and the manner in which he gave birth to a new form or era in his medium set his work on this tale apart. This chapter explores the same ideas or themes in Lang’s Die Nibelungen work.
Where Wagner was loosely inspired by the medieval poem, varying in both in broad terms and in details, Lang follows the medieval text fairly closely. For instance, in Lang, as in the medieval
text (and other versions, such as Hebbel’s) Siegfried is given a vulnerable place on his back, notably absent in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.35
This chapter seeks first to situate Lang’s engagement with the Nibelungenlied in his context of Weimar Cinema. In looking at his work on his two-part Die Nibelungen series, it is important to note that these films are firmly seated in the context of Lang’s other Weimar films, during which time German-made silent films were among the leaders in the world film industry in terms of their artistic value. His most famous film of this period is doubtless Metropolis, which can be seen as a different sort of engagement with myth. Moreover, unlike opera in the late 1800s, film in 1924 was more accessible to all classes of people, and indeed, it was through the taking on of highly cultured topics such as the story of Siegfried, that helped film become an entertainment acceptable to the bourgeoisie and the well-to-do. To this end, this chapter will review Lang’s life and work in the context of Weimar Cinema (section II), and engage in a close reading of some selected aspects of the Nibelungen film (section III).
Second, this chapter will explore Lang’s aims in creating a Nibelungen story for his time and socio-political context. Where Wagner was motivated by the unification of Germany and his nationalistic goals, Lang is working in the post-Great War Germany of the early 20s. Die
Nibelungen, in many respects, represents Lang’s attempt to lay out or discover a new version of the foundational truths of his community. In the wake of World War I, this sense of community, German-ness, and even the German past lay under threat, and Lang places the fate and future of Germany firmly in the hands of the German people, making it their story, and distancing viewers from the fallen empire, and the Hohenzollerns. This chapter looks specifically at Lang’s aims in
35 This is noted by David J. Levin in Richard Wagner, Fritz Lang and the Nibelungen: The Dramaturgy of Disavowal.
making the film, and successes and failures he met with in his attempt, including his reception and legacy (section IV).
Third, this chapter will examine Die Nibelungen itself as a sort of Gesamtkunstwerk in its own right. Wagner’s attempt to create a new art form, a total artwork, a new kind of dramatic work, although not successful in spawning a new medium of art, nevertheless remains a
monument to the huge scope and blending of types of art unique in opera. The practice of pulling together multiple media can be seen as a red thread connecting later adaptations of the same Nibelung myth. Fritz Lang does something similar in 1924, likewise drawing heavily on the Middle-High-German tale and pushing his medium to its limits in an attempt to create something new. Like Wagner, Lang pulled together old myth and new innovation to craft a masterpiece on an epic scale, utilizing all of the cutting-edge technology at his disposal, and creating the richest visual world for his mythic heroes that he could. Lang brought intense creativity to his medium, pushing it to new heights. Where Wagner intentionally sought to create a new art form, Lang embraces the human innovation and experimentation inherent in the new medium of film, bursting with hitherto unimaginable technological potential, and uses it to tell his own story for his own time, thereby furthering the scope of what was possible in film. This chapter looks specifically at Lang’s use of mise-en-scène, special effects, and world building to these ends (section V).