Liesl Frank, Charlotte Dieterle and the European Film Fund

Methodology: Archival Research

My examination of the EFF relies primarily on archival data, with secondary sources used to develop an interdisciplinary methodology that draws on film studies, social and political history, and critical biography.

While the opening of the Paul Kohner Archive at Berlin’s

Deutsche Kinemathek

 has considerably facilitated access to empirical data about the European Film Fund,

30

 the emerging picture is by no means coherent. A fraction of the EFF archive is irretrievably lost, destroyed by a fire in the 1970s in the Kohner household.

31

 The Paul Kohner Archive remains the most comprehensive collection of documents relating to the EFF. Yet I was aware from the outset of my research that this emphasises Paul Kohner’s own involvement in this organisation while eclipsing the input of its chief operatives, Liesl Frank and Charlotte Dieterle. To give the reader a picture of the issues involved in putting together an accurate picture of the EFF, it is worth tracing in some detail the history of my own research. The fact that so little had been written about the organisation made it impossible to conduct initial research in a selective way. Instead, I started by conducting a random search to see what my findings would unravel. As the majority of EFF papers are located at the Paul Kohner Archive it was there that I began. Sifting through the documents, letters, telegrams and audits, it became evident that the two main EFF contributors were neither Paul Kohner, who is credited with founding the organisation, nor Ernst Lubitsch, who was its president, but Charlotte Dieterle - wife of the director William Dieterle -and Liesl Frank, the wife of the writer Bruno Frank. While their role in the EFF has been mentioned in a number of publications, the extent of their contribution has never been acknowledged. Visits to other archives eventually confirmed my increasing suspicion that both women were at the centre of the EFF. Moreover, the fact that the names mentioned in the EFF files read like a who’s who of Hollywood’s émigré community, made me realise what a key role the organisation played in the life - and often the survival - of the exiles

The

Kinemathek

 having supplied me with the names of EFF members, donors and beneficiaries, I had a lead enabling me to conduct a more thorough and focused investigation. However, I was daunted by the number of individuals involved in the EFF. As examining the papers of well over two hundred people was not physically possible, I had to devise a method by which to continue my investigation until a clearer picture of the organisation emerged. Assuming that limiting my research to the top donors and beneficiaries would facilitate gathering EFF-related information, I continued by running online searches regarding access to their papers. Lubitsch having been one of the EFF’s biggest donors as well as its president, access to his papers would have been crucial. However, the refusal of his daughter, Nicola, to grant access made this impossible. The Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles holds an - albeit small - Paul Kohner Collection and is also home to the John Huston and the William Wyler Collections, Huston having been a friend and client of Kohner’s and Wyler one of the EFF’s biggest donors as well as Kohner‘s friend and erstwhile colleague when both were still working at Universal. However, neither collection contained any significant references to the EFF. Lion Feuchtwanger, although not a major EFF donor, nevertheless granted financial support via the EFF to a number of refugees, Heinrich Mann and Bertolt Brecht among them, as I had found out during my research at the

Kinemathek.

 This, then, necessitated a visit to the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which proved extremely useful, as the Feuchtwanger papers not only contained ample references to the EFF itself, but also further highlighted the contribution of Frank and Dieterle. The same was true of the Fritz Lang Papers at the Louis B. Mayer Library at the American Film Institute. The increasing presence of both women in all existing EFF files convinced me of the crucial role both appear to have played in the EFF. More importantly, however, Frank’s and Dieterle’s significance raises questions regarding the relative absence of women from literature on exile while at the same time confronting me with their omnipresence in a refugee organisation. The evidently central role of Frank and Dieterle within the EFF I now took as a cue to focus my research on their contribution. Thus, during all my subsequent archival visits I was particularly interested in all documents relating to their input. These archives included the German Literature Archive in Marbach, the M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections at the University of Albany, as well as the Exile Archive at Frankfurt’s German National Library and the Center for Jewish History in New York, all of which are home to a wide range of émigré collections from erstwhile EFF beneficiaries. Additionally, while in Albany, I had the privilege to be granted access to Professor John Spalek’s private collection of émigré papers. As an exile researcher of the first generation, Spalek knew many refugees personally, visited them in their homes while they were still alive, conducted oral histories, and accumulated his own personal exile archive. For instance, in the early 1970s, Spalek corresponded regularly with Liesl Frank and her third husband, Jan Lustig, also an émigré. Spalek let me have access to their correspondence, which was an invaluable contribution to my research, as Frank’s letters to Spalek contain important information regarding Hollywood’s émigré community she and her first husband, Bruno Frank, were part of and, more crucially, intelligence about the EFF which would otherwise have been difficult for me to obtain.

The Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Archives in Ludwigshafen a. Rhein I visited, primarily, to glean material on Charlotte Dieterle. However, The Academy of Arts also houses the papers of Walter Wicclair and his companion, Marta Mierendorff, a sociologist-turned-exile-researcher. Her papers were also of inestimable help to me, not so much for the documents and letters they comprise, but more for Mierendorffs notes, which are filled with her observations and deductions regarding the EFF, a topic, it seems, she at one point intended to investigate, though, sadly she died before she could do so. Lastly, the purpose of my visit to the National Archives in Washington DC was to secure material regarding the US visa policy in the 1930s, as it is my premise that it was the strict US visa restrictions and the ensuing refugee crisis following

Kristallnacht,

 which abetted the foundation of the EFF.

Biography and Exile History

Since contemporary politics and history played a major role in the founding of the EFF, and given the fact that the EFF was, after all, founded by film artists and aimed primarily but exclusively as we will see, at refugee film artists in dire straits, mine has become an interdisciplinary study that draws on German and US history and political science as well as film studies. Influenced and inspired by Horak and Asper, my approach is also chronological and biographical. It is, after all, our biographies - our background, education and upbringing - that determine our lives and future actions. More than this, however, looking at biographies can be compared to stitching together a vast social canvas which sheds light on historical interconnections by focusing on social networks such as the EFF. To quote Ray Monk:

We should, I maintain, look to biography to provide a crucially important example and model of what Ludwig Wittgenstein called ‘the kind of understanding that consists in seeing connections.’ This kind of understanding stands in sharp contrast to the theoretical understanding provided by science and is, Wittgenstein maintained, what we or should be, striving for (Monk 2007: 528).

As a study of a refugee organisation founded as a result of Nazism, my examination of the EFF, furthermore, not only fills an existing gap in film history as far as the EFF itself is concerned. As we have seen above, refugee organisations in general have received scant attention by exile scholars. Equally neglected by researchers is the presence of women in the broader topic of exile. Hence by homing in on the impact on the EFF of two women - Liesl Frank and Charlotte Dieterle - this thesis fulfils several purposes: While the EFF is at the centre of my examination, this thesis also draws attention to the crucial role aid organisations in general played in supporting refugees from Nazi Germany. Moreover, pointing to the input of Frank and Dieterle, whose contribution to the EFF has thus far been obscured by the spotlight turned on Ernst Lubitsch, the organisation’s president, and Paul Kohner, its founder - my study puts Frank and Dieterle where they belong: at the centre of the EFF. For as we will see in the chapters that follow, the EFF such we know it, would not have existed had it not been for their input. The EFF’s founding was of course, as my thesis will elucidate, a direct result of the apathy of the world at large to the political situation in Nazi Germany and the reluctance of foreign governments to take on refugees. But we still know little of the social history of refugees in exile and this thesis fills that gap by painting a broad social picture of the Los Angeles émigré community, focusing on people who had bit parts in film history and whose lives have never before been illuminated.

In summary, the purpose of this thesis is as follows: first, to draw attention to the many exile and refugee organisations by examining one of them, the EFF. In doing so, I also highlight the presence of women in the broader topic of exile as it was two women who were at the centre of the EFF. My investigation of this organisation demonstrates that women played a much larger role in exile and exile communities than history and literature have thus far accorded them. Additionally, I show how the history of the EFF may be used to highlight the apathy of the international community in the face of the political situation after 1933. Lastly, by shifting the focus away from figureheads of the émigré community to below-the-line film artists, technicians, theatre artists and so on, I foreground those refugees whose lives have hitherto been obscured by their more famous fellow-émigrés. After the conclusion of this present chapter, this thesis is structured as follows:

Chapter Two examines the founding of the EFF, looking at the political situation in Nazi Germany and the US, and showing how due to wide spread anti-Semitism, all doors closed on the Jews, making aid organisations such as the EFF the only way out. Furthermore, I show how the name - EFF - may have been the result of a climate of anti-Semitism in the US. Outlining the aims, purpose, and structure of the EFF, Chapter Two also introduces the two women who are at the centre of my thesis - Liesl Frank and Charlotte Dieterle - and demonstrates how their involvement in the EFF was the defining experience of their working lives.

Chapter Three homes in on donations and donors, focussing on Frank’s and Dieterle’s input into fundraising and fund allocation. Using tabulated data from EFF files, I show how the profession of an émigré in the film industry predetermined whether they would become EFF donors or beneficiaries. Four case studies further examine the motivation and background of EFF donors in the context of their relationship to the EFF and the exile community.

Chapter Four examines EFF beneficiaries by again looking at Frank’s and Dieterle’s role in aiding them. Analysis of EFF files shows how certain professions in the film industry were more likely to be affected by the hardship of exile than others. I use tabular data on beneficiaries to underscore how the reputation of certain émigrés prior to their emigration reflected on the often preferential treatment they received from the EFF. Four case studies of beneficiaries further illuminate the plight of individual émigrés and the role of the EFF in helping them.

Chapter Five investigates non-financial aid granted by the EFF to its beneficiaries. Here, the focus lies on the EFF’s collaboration with the ERC, zooming in on Frank’s and Dieterle’s input in particular. A substantial part of non-financial aid which the EFF - in collaboration with the ERC - concerned itself with on behalf of the émigrés, involved the issuing of affidavits enabling the refugees to apply for a US visa. Chapter Five also examines US visa regulations as well as the attitude of host countries, notably France, towards the émigrés, and suggests, echoing Chapter Two, that the volume of red tape that surrounded emigration to the US was a significant impediment to refugees’ survival.

Chapter Six traces the demise of the EFF. Focusing once more on Frank and Dieterle, I show how the EFF disintegrated as a result of the withdrawal of these two central figures and, additionally, for political reasons triggered by the post-1945 Communist witch-hunt in the US. Chapter Six also demonstrates how the ‘hierarchy of privilege’ illustrated in Chapters Three and Four continued until the EFF’s transformation into the European Relief Fund, until which point a small number of illustrious émigrés - Alfred Doblin and Heinrich Mann, for instance - continued to receive financial support from the EFF.

Footnotes

1

 Rashomon: A film by Akira Kurosawa (Japan 1951).

2

 Lawrence Weschler is the grandson of exiled composer Ernst Toch.

3

 Oral history Marta Feuchtwanger: Volume 3, tape 23, August 1975, Marta Feuchtwanger Collection, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

4

 Key works on American film history I drew on include: Alper, Benjamin Leontief. Dictators, Democracy, and American Public Culture. Chapel Hill/ NC: 2003; Birdwell, Michael E. Celluloid Soldiers - Warner Bros.'s Campaign Against Nazism. New York/ NY: New York University Press, 1999; Gabler, Neal. An Empire Of Their Own - How The Jews Invented Hollywood. New York/ NY: Anchor Books, 1988; Giovacchini, Saverio. Hollywood Modernism - Film and Politics in the Age of the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001; Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System - Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York/ NY: Pantheon Books, 1988; Shaw, Tony. Hollywood's Cold War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007; Books and studies on contemporary politics of the 1930s and 40s I consulted include: Dell, Robert Edward. After Evian (In: Manchester Guardian, July 16, 1938, page 12; Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany And The Jews. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997. Kaplan, Marion A. Between Dignity and Despair - Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York/ NY: Oxford University Press, 1999; King, Desmond. Making Americans. London: Harvard University Press, 2000; Marrus, Michael & Paxton, Robert O. Vichy France and the Jews. Stanford/ CA: Stanford University Press, 1995; Morse, Arthur. While Six Million Died - A Chronicle of American Apathy. New York/ NY: Random House, 1968; Zucker, Bat-Ami. In Search Of Refuge - Jews and US Consuls in Nazi Germany 1933 - 1941. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2001.

5

 It is worth pointing out at this stage that due to the fact that the EFF was based in Hollywood, the literature I consulted pertains primarily to exile in the United States. There exists, however, a number of studies which examine exile in other countries such as the UK. See, for instance: Bergfelder, Tim & Cargnelli, Christian (eds.). Destination London - German-Speaking Émigrés and British Cinema 1925 -1950. New York/ NY: Berghahn, 2008; Bergfelder, Tim, Harris, Sue, Street, Sarah. Cinema and the Transnational Imagination - Set-Design in 1930s European Cinema. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.

6

 In German: ' das den Umkreis der Verbrannten und Verbotenen absteckt', an allusion to the book's title.

7

 Paul Andor's real name was Wolfgang Zilzer, but he also went by the name of John Voight. Carl Esmond's birth name was Willi Eichberger.

8

 One inaccuracy, for instance, concerns Horak's claim that Lion Feuchtwanger and Franz Werfel had received a writers' contract from the studios, which is incorrect as according to a letter by Liesl Frank to John Spalek, 'Lion Feuchtwanger Franz Werfel were offered contracts, chose not to accept them' (see: Letter by Liesl Frank-Mittler-Lustig to John Spalek, 18

th

 July, 1971, Private Collection, John Spalek, Albany, NY). The reason for that was that both Feuchtwanger and Werfel had a wide readership in the US and thus did not have to rely on the German market for the sale of their books.

9

 Since 1984,

Cinegraph

 has also published the

Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film

, which is regularly updated.

10

 Email from Jan-Christopher Horak to the author, 18

th

 June 2007.

11

 Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock. New York/ NY: Pantheon Books, 1981; Preston Sturges. London: Secker and Warburg, 1967; Ingrid Bergman. London: St. Martin's Press, 1983.  

12

 For instance, the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections at the University of Albany was inaugurated in 1996; The Kinemathek in Berlin acquired the Paul Kohner Archive in 1989, the year after Kohner's death. Similarly, it was a year before her death in 1988, that Marta Feuchtwanger bequeathed her husband's papers and documents to the University of Southern California which has subsequently turned it into the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. Access to these sources later facilitated exile research, however, at the time Horak embarked on his pioneering study, these sources were not yet available.

13

 For instance: Ernst Jünger. Paris: Hachette, 1996; Piscator et le théatre politique. Paris: Payot, 1983.

14

 Paul Schrader's Notes on Film Noir (In: Belton, John (ed.). Movies and Mass Culture. London: The Athlone Press, 1999) were first published in 1971.

15

 Aufbau was one of the main émigré publications. Founded in 1934, it was based in New York. Many émigrés including Hannah Arendt, Hans Sahl, and Carl Zuckmayer contributed articles.

16

 One example is Mayerling, Anatole Litvak, France 1935, written by Irmgard von Cube, and produced by Seymour Nebenzal.

17

 In 1931, Kurt Gerron directed 6 cabaret films, Kabarett-Programm 1 - 6.

18

 Siegfried Kracauer, Von Caligari zu Hitler, Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp, 1984 (translation by Ruth Baumgarten and Karsten Witte).

19

 Zuckmayer, Carl, Der Hauptmann von Koepenick. Berlin: Propylaen Verlag, 1931; The Captain from Köpenick, Richard Oswald, Germany 1931

Example: Horak, Jan-Christopher. Anti-Nazi Filme der deutschsprachigen Emigration 1939 - 1945. Muenster: MAKS, 1984.

21

 Ernst Lubitsch, for example, worked for Warner Bros. as early as 1924; thirty years later, émigré director Andre de Toth also still made films for Warner Bros.

22

 Univ