Edited by prominent intellectual and journalist Leopold Schwarzschild, "Das Neue Tagebuch" featured some of the most hard-hitting reporting on political repression and the economics of dictatorship in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
My undergraduate thesis at Princeton University analyzed the history of anti-fascism and anti-totalitarianism through the history of "Das Neue Tagebuch," a German-language exile newspaper published in Paris from 1933 to 1940. This tone also inserted a destabilizing bit of laughter into the otherwise serious face of social realism which enabled the PKF’s versatility and success. The joking colloquialism of the narrator allowed the viewer the ironic distance needed to continue watching even when the film contradicted his political beliefs and his perception of reality. Documentary montage met drama-like story development to create a representation of the world “prettier than life” yet doctrinally sound which pleased both the viewers and the authorities. How was this possible? In order to ingratiate itself with the viewers, the PKF developed a trademark ‘light’ aesthetic to balance out its repetition of socialist slogans and praises of Stalin. Indeed, the PKF became a beloved institution which would last 5 years after communism’s collapse and enjoy immense popularity even today in DVD re-releases and television programs. Yet unlike other cultural forms of “social realist” propaganda, the PKF did not become noted for its bombastic pomposity and sterile repetitiveness – but rather for its “light” tone and lively presentation. Film, after the Soviet model, formed a backbone of this propaganda, and thus the government produced the Polska Kronika Filmowa, a bi-weekly newsreel seen by over 5 million viewers a week in agit-prop trains, cinema busses, and traditional theaters across the country. As Stalinism solidified itself this culture created an Orwellian state of endless buzzwords of success and triumph against a background of terror and repression. With the establishment of communist rule in Poland after 1945 came the establishment of a new official culture, ‘socialist realism.’ This culture was maintained through an all-out culture war that was waged on every front, from art and architecture to the institutions of daily life. My sources include the Polish Film Studio Archives, governmental documents, interview transcripts, contemporary newspaper articles, and secondary writings in both English and Polish. It examines how the PKF oriented itself vis-à-vis the conflicting demands of its viewers and its governmental sponsors, illuminating the workings of Polish culture during Stalinism and the complex relation between entertainment and propaganda. This thesis traces the history of the Polska Newsreel (Polska Kronika Filmowa, or PKF) between 19.
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