American fashion in the 30s and 40s was influenced by the cinema but what about German fashion in the 30s and 40s? Were German women equally influenced by the sirens of the silver screen? What famous actresses contributed to the fashion scene in Nazi Germany?
Cinema in Nazi Germany was used heavily as a form of both entertainment and propaganda to support their politics and ideals. For women living within the regime, film was used to sculpt their lives and perspectives as well but, they were faced with a great deal of conflicting information. The ideal German woman was not always promoted on the Nazi screen. In fact, many popular actresses did not adhere to the ideal image German women were supposed to live up to. It should be mentioned too that many popular actresses that appeared on the German screen were not even German such as Zarah Leander who was Swedish!
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| Zarah Leander |
The actresses that graced the silver screen of the Nazi cinema were thin, wore make op, dressed in glamorous clothes, and basically flouted the Nazi’s ideal woman . . .or did she? Antje Ascheid’s work Hitler’s Heroines suggests that these glamorous women were used to support the German economy and suggest that German cinema was just as good as Hollywood. In terms of ideology, I would argue that these glamorous German film stars were used to compete with equally glamorous American film stars. This competition was used to show that German women, particullarly, Aryan women, were just as fashionable, if not more so. These film stars also helped to support the idea that with good exercise, diet, grooming, and dress, any woman or girl could be a film star such as Olga Tschechowa, Lil Dagover, Lida Baarova, or Lilian Harvey. Good exercise a key component in many Nazi policies and practices.
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| Adolf Hitler with Olga Tschechowa |
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| Lillian Harvey |
Of the many stars, Lillian Harvey had an impact on the German fashion scene because she wore modern, masculine, chic fashion that certainly must have inspired the many woman who saw her on the silver screen. Although Harvey bucked the ideal image Nazi women were to adhere to, the German film organization Ufa allowed her to dress and behave as she did as long as Ufa was profitable according to scholar Thomas Elsaesser. Not only was Harvey featured in film, but she graced the pages of many a magazine that promoted modern fashions that had little to do with Nazi ideology or the ideal women’s fashion as prescribed under the regime. Marlene Dietrich was another famous German actress that had a huge impact on the silver screen with her masculine fashions. Were masculine fashions mainstream in the streets of Nazi Germany though? Yes they were as many women wore suits, waistcoats, and other masculine inspired pieces which can be seen in the pages of Der Golden Schnitt and even some photographs. Although by the 40s she was no longer living in Germany and wanted very little to do with the Nazi Regime, she still maintained a certain level of influence. . . .especially when she feminized masculine wear in the American film Morocco.
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| Marlene Dietrich - top in a full length evening gown and bottom, a feminized tuxedo (see the film Morocco) which she is more famously known in. |
As a whole, the silver screen in Nazi Germany, like the silver screen in the U.S., had a role in fashion and how women wanted to be dressed. Although the cinema in Nazi Germany was used as a tool of propaganda, the fashions worn by the actresses bucked the ideal image that the Nazi's wanted to uphold. Ironically, the modern and chic fashions were not removed or necessarily viewed as negative. Instead, the fashions were used to promote their economy and goal of becoming a racially superior regime in all aspects including film. Below, some stock images from a small selection of German films made under the Nazi regime featuring as small sample of the fashions that were seen.
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| stock image: Geliebte Welt or Beloved World from 1942 |
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| Stock image: Die Sache mit Styx or The Thing About Styx from 1942 |
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| Stock image: Wir machen Musik or We Make Music from 1942 |
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| Poster for Immensee from 1943 |
Sources
Antje Ascheid, Hitler’s Heroines: Stardom & Womanhood in Nazi Cinema (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003) false
