Fritz Lang Le maudit page

Fritz Lang Le maudit page 58. Made in pen and ink, watercolor and acrylic.

Above: Adolf Hitler, imprisoned in Landsberg prison after his failed coup d´ état in November 1923, is discussing a publisher for his ideological manuscript Mein Kampf with his secretary Rudolf Hess.

Below: The movie director Fritz Lang and his wife and scriptwriter Thea von Harbou are discussing their next movie project after their great success with Dr. Mabuse. The discussion takes place in the shadow of a gigantic Dr. Mabuse movie poster. They opt to go for a germanic mythic story: Die Nibelungen.

The connections? Die Nibelungen became one of Hitler´ s favorite movies. The diabolic Dr. Mabuse has been interpreted as a forewarning of Hitler and the Nazis. The movie sequel Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse was promptly banned by the new Nazi regime in 1933. Lang was staunchly anti-nazi and went into exile in 1933. von Harbou became a Hitler supporter and stayed behind in Nazi Germany.