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1. German Expressionist
Poster Usage
in the Late Silent Era
Rev. Merle K. Peirce
December 6, 2004

2. Expressionism was an especially German artistic movement which
became the hallmark of the Weimar Republic. It depended on
radical distortions to invoke emotional effects and engender moods
and ideas. Expressionism had profound influence upon
contemporary theatre, literature,painting and architecture. It
found its most congenial home in German films and the advertising
posters for those films.
Early Film Posters
Posters prior to the Great War had usually been carry-overs from
the late Victorian style of theatre poster, made famous by Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and Jules Cheret (1836-1932). Post-
war cinema was publicised through the use of film posters (plakate)
many of which were executed in the Expressionist style, which had
also been see on many of the wartime posters supporting the
military services.
The Film Poster and Expressionist Style
The use of the Expressionist style, soon manifested itself in a

3. definite and identifiable manner. Not every film plakat was done in
this style, as melodramatic and mainstream films would tend to use
more realistic and romanticised posters sometimes characterised by
the use of script type faces, especially after 1930.
`The expressionist style became linked to certain specific types of
releases, films where this style enhanced the aura of mystery and
charm, or occasionally, even eroticism as with Alraune (Galeen,
1928) or Die Buchse der Pandora (Pabst, 1929). Films which took
good advantage of Expressionist technique and style were almost
exclusively those which dealt with themes of the fantastic, the
horrible, or futurity, often a horrid future. In some way or manner,
they all dealt with a terrible alienism, whether Lang's M about Peter
Kurten the Dusseldorf killer, or Murnau's Nosferatu about the charm
of the undead.
German cinema generally has had a fascination with themes of
the fantastic, whether something relatively benign such as Frau im
Mond (Lang, 1929) or something as terrifying as Nosferatu (Murnau,
1922) or even the loss of one's soul Der Student von Prag (Rye, 1913

4. and Wegener, 1926). Following the Great War, the cinema of the
fantastic became strongly linked with the Expressionist movement
resulting in wonderful and extreme stylisations of set, of costume,
and of acting style which was best typified in the work of Emile
Jannings (1884-1950). These films would then came to the notice of
the viewing public through highly individualised Expressionist
plakate. These stylisations came together to make great successes
of Weine’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Murnau’s Nosferatu.
Caligari and Nosferatu
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Weine, 1919) and Nosferatu (Murnau,
1922) both illustrate the use of grotesque figures and unusual type
faces. Caligari's wide-eyed representation of Cesare has the look
both of madness, and the pain and horror that infused Edvard
Munch's “The Scream” (1893). Nosferatu's rat-toothed corpse and
esoteric type figures suggestive of mysterious kabalistic or
alchemical symbols, place the film squarely in the realm of the
mysterious, the unknown, the fantastical and fearful. Count Orlok's

5. rats became a theme used heavily by the Nosferatu poster artist
Albin Grau., who portrayed him with rodent's teeth and surrounded
by a wild pack of leaping rodents.
These pieces are in sharp contract to the posters for Ernst
Lubitsch's Carmen (1918) and Madame DuBarry (1919). These are
remarkably conventional illustrations, for conventional historical
dramas. The eyes are emphasised for Carmen, but there are no
eccentric type styles used, nor are there scenic elements of the
bizarre or horrifying. The reality is that these more typical films are
simply unsuited for the extreme treatment of the Expressionist
poster. The Expressionist posters seem to have worked best with
thrillers and adventure films.
Die Nibelungen and Spione
Lang's 1924 Die Nibelungen is a study of bloodlust and revenge
based on the Siegfried legend. Accordingly, this poster uses a heavy
black-letter typeface to emphasise German culture and tradition,
and a stylised funeral procession carrying Siegfried's bier. One

6. poster for this film was censored because it showed Siegfried
impaled on a spear, which was considered unseemly. Thus, here
again the Expressionist poster appears linked with an image of
blood and horror. These themes which Lang often considered in his
work, indeed, which pervaded a great many of his films, taking a
part in both M and Metropolis, were the focus of Die Nibelungen,
which is considered one of Lang's bloodiest films. Lang's 1928
Spione harkens back to the world criminal conspiracy of Die Spinnen
serial of 1919 (Der Goldene See and Die Brilliantschiff). Spione
illustrates the thesis that information is control, a theory that
became a foundation of the National Socialist hegemony. It is a
wonderful, tightly filmed thriller that anticipates the horrors of the
1930's and clearly demonstrates why Lang chose to flee Germany
rather than become a part of its cinematic control structure. It is
his next to last silent film, and possibly his best, eclipsing or at
least equalling even Metropolis. The poster for Ruttmann’s film of
Berlin is interesting as it privileges an austere and blocky building
of essentially the same design used for the workers quarters in

7. Metropolis.
Metropolis is, perhaps, the greatest of the German Expressionist
films. It is undoubtedly the most expensive, one which effectively
bankrupted UFA, eventually driving it into the hands of the Nazi
Party organisation. It is filled with allusions to the fantastic and the
political, reflecting the political ferment of the Weimar Republic,
which experienced four putsches between 1919 and 1923, and a
horrific inflation which destroyed all savings and even scared
Germany's former enemies.
Metropolis appears to have generated more posters than any
other film, perhaps because at 5,300,000 Reichsmarks, it had
absorbed nearly all of UFA's operating capital and UFA was keen to
made it a success, stressing foreignness and alien content. These
posters are not nearly as extreme, but seem centred on
architectural monuments and stylised portraiture.
as many others and represents two tendencies at work: a reaction
to the extremes of Expressionism itself, and the more restrained
use of imagery and typography suggestive of an intermediate

8. position between the conventional film and Expressionist film,
where the Orient is the alien realm. Wong starred in several
German films set in the Orient between 1927 and 1930, all directed
by Eichberg, as well as several other films made in France and
Great Britain.
Final Thoughts
In the end, we have looked at over two dozen films, either
directly or through allusion, and seen that those films which deal
largely with historical or romantic themes, have utilised concrete
thematic material, illustrations of a scene or actor and common
typographic styles.
Films which dealt with alien creatures or situations used
thematic materials which derived from the mythic or technological
and displayed type faces which were entirely new, individualistic
and outside of mainstream use, at least when they were
formulated. Expressionist posters popularised German films in a
way which helped them seize public and critical acceptance and

9. garner respect and admiration for the fatherland.
From 1930 on, the Expressionist poster was less and less
frequently seen and sometimes used for sound films. Der Vampyr,
1932, maintains the use of striking imagery, but uses a simple,
almost conventional poster type face to display simply the film
name. Scarcely a year later, the National Socialist ascendancy
would force a institutional conformity unsympathetic to
Expressionist values.
Madchen in Uniform, voted Germany's best film of 1931,
deliberately avoids using an Expressionist poster, and uses very
staid, even unimaginative illustrations and typography, evocative of
the Madame DuBarry poster, because its thematic content of
lesbianism and abusive authority was revolutionary and
controversial in its own right.
During the decade of the 1920's, the influence of Expressionism
spread throughout the German film industry, influencing
performance technique, set design, screenwriting, directorial an
film techniques and film promotion. Expressionist blood and was

10. revealed wherever the visual came into play.

11. A Gallery of German Expressionist Film Posters
Henri de la Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), 1893
Jules Cheret 1836-1932), 1897

12. Edvard Műnch (1863-1944) “the Scream.” 1893
..
Unknown, 1917

13. Carmen directed by Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947), 1918
Madame DuBarry directed by Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947), 1919

14. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Weine (1873-1938),
1919
Nosferatu directed by F. W. Murnau (1888-1931), 1922

15. Die Niebelungen directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), 1926
Der golem directed by Paul Wegener (1874-1948), 1926

16. Spione directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), 1926
Berlin, der sinfonie der grosstadt directed by Walther Ruttmann
(1887-1941), 1926

17. Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), 1927
Alraune directed by Henrik Galeen (1881-1949), 1928

18. Frau im Mond directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), 1929

19. Der Buchse der Pandora directed by G. W. Pabst (1885-1967), 1929
M directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), 1931

20. Hai Tang directed by Richard Eichberg (1889-1952), 1930
Maedchen in Uniform directed by Leontine Sagan (1889-1974), 1931

21. Der Vampyr directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968), 1932
Hitlerjunge Quex directed by Haas Steinhoff (1882-1945), 1933