Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The City Without Jews

 The City Without Jews
type
TVTItem
 The City Without Jews
label
The City Without Jews
 The City Without Jews
page
TheCityWithoutJews
 The City Without Jews
comment
The City Without Jews (German title: Die Stadt ohne Juden) is a 1924 expressionist Austrian silent film directed by Hans Karl Breslauer. It was based on the novel of the same name by Hugo Bettauer, released two years earlier.The movie takes place in a Fictional Country called the Republic of Utopia, which bears a suspicious resemblance to Austria in the early 1920s. Contray to its name, Utopia is not a utopia. In fact, it's in the midst of an economic crisis, with hyperinflation spiraling out of control.note Although it's the Weimar Republic that's infamous for hyperinflation, it also occured in Austria during the same period. Anti-Semitic rabble-rousers insist that those dastardly Jews are obviously to blame for this, and the government decides to expel the Jews. That's bad news for Lotte Linder and her Jewish boyfriend Leo Strakosch, who will now have to be separated. The Jews are sent away to live in "Zion," apparently present-day Israel, but Leo sneaks back into Utopia, disguised as a French Catholic, so that he and Lotte can continue to be together. Meanwhile, without the Jews, Utopia's economy craters. Eventually, the government realizes its mistake, votes to let the Jews come back, and everyone lives happily ever after.The City Without Jews wasn't really warning about the rise of Nazi Germany in particular (Nazis were politically irrelevant in 1924), but was rather about antisemitism in general, which always seems to be politically relevant. The film was a commercial success at the time, although it's often been criticized for soft-pedaling the novel's anti-racism message, and Hugo Bettauer disowned the film (probably out of this). Still, the movie was anti-racist enough to piss off the nascent Nazi movement, who frequently protested it, often violently. Bettauer himself was murdered by a young Austrian Nazi party member in 1925.Once considered a lost film, a surviving copy was found in 1991 and a better copy was found in 2015.
 The City Without Jews
fetched
2024-01-16T14:25:10Z
 The City Without Jews
parsed
2024-01-16T14:25:10Z
 The City Without Jews
isPartOf
DBTropes
 The City Without Jews / int_1282bf4f
type
No Celebrities Were Harmed
 The City Without Jews / int_1282bf4f
comment
No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Chancellor is based on Ignaz Seipel, who really was the Chancellor of Austria at the time. Jonathan Huxtable is most likely based on Henry Ford.
 The City Without Jews / int_1282bf4f
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_1282bf4f
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_1282bf4f
 The City Without Jews / int_12dc4d97
type
Greedy Jew
 The City Without Jews / int_12dc4d97
comment
Greedy Jew: Of course, this trope is cited as a reason why the Jews should be expelled. The movie doesn't exactly repudiate the stereotype. Instead, its message is more, "The Jews may be a bit greedy, but you need those greedy Jews for the good of the economy."
 The City Without Jews / int_12dc4d97
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_12dc4d97
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_12dc4d97
 The City Without Jews / int_1ba17583
type
The Ghost
 The City Without Jews / int_1ba17583
comment
The Ghost: For a while, Utopia is bankrolled by Jonathan Huxtable, an anti-Semitic American millionaire who never appears onscreen. Towards the end, he gets engaged to a Jewish woman and withdraws his support.
 The City Without Jews / int_1ba17583
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_1ba17583
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_1ba17583
 The City Without Jews / int_401d4116
type
Broken Aesop
 The City Without Jews / int_401d4116
comment
Broken Aesop: Despite its ostensibly pro-Jewish message, the film contains some antisemitic stereotypes, notably when Leo uses trickery to secure the vote that will let the Jews back into the city. While the movie is obviously siding with him, his actions there don't exactly undermine the stereotype about Jews being sneaky and underhanded.
 The City Without Jews / int_401d4116
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_401d4116
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_401d4116
 The City Without Jews / int_4f995f60
type
Train-Station Goodbye
 The City Without Jews / int_4f995f60
comment
Train-Station Goodbye: In a retroactively disturbing scene, the Jews are sent off in trains after being expelled from Utopia. Many part at the train station, including Lotte and Leo.
 The City Without Jews / int_4f995f60
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_4f995f60
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_4f995f60
 The City Without Jews / int_5ca80293
type
Pragmatic Villainy
 The City Without Jews / int_5ca80293
comment
Pragmatic Villainy: The Chancellor backtracks on the expulsion of the Jews when it becomes clear that it made things worse.
 The City Without Jews / int_5ca80293
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_5ca80293
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_5ca80293
 The City Without Jews / int_87629455
type
No Communities Were Harmed
 The City Without Jews / int_87629455
comment
No Communities Were Harmed: The Republic of Utopia is an obvious stand-in for Austria, with no effort made to disguise the obviously Viennese shooting locations. In the original novel, the setting actually is Austria.
 The City Without Jews / int_87629455
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_87629455
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_87629455
 The City Without Jews / int_b06bbf4b
type
Be Careful What You Wish For
 The City Without Jews / int_b06bbf4b
comment
Be Careful What You Wish For: Getting rid of the Jews doesn't work out quite the way its proponents expected.
 The City Without Jews / int_b06bbf4b
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_b06bbf4b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_b06bbf4b
 The City Without Jews / int_b7c45771
type
Single Malt Vision
 The City Without Jews / int_b7c45771
comment
Single Malt Vision: While drunk, Bernart sees a car as two cars.
 The City Without Jews / int_b7c45771
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_b7c45771
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_b7c45771
 The City Without Jews / int_c2288824
type
A Nazi by Any Other Name
 The City Without Jews / int_c2288824
comment
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Well, sort of. Obviously, this movie predates the Nazis coming to power, although the failed Beer Hall Putsch did happen the previous year. And if this was supposed to be based on what the Nazis would do if they came to power, the filmmakers severely underestimated just how far they would go. But really, it's meant as a satire of Austria's own Christian Social Party.
 The City Without Jews / int_c2288824
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_c2288824
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_c2288824
 The City Without Jews / int_cbe32f62
type
Decided by One Vote
 The City Without Jews / int_cbe32f62
comment
Decided by One Vote: At the end, the vote over whether to let the Jews come back is decided by one vote.
 The City Without Jews / int_cbe32f62
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_cbe32f62
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_cbe32f62
 The City Without Jews / int_d7b34c31
type
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 The City Without Jews / int_d7b34c31
comment
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Chancellor is only ever referred to by that title. In the novel, he's named Dr. Karl Schwertfeger.
 The City Without Jews / int_d7b34c31
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_d7b34c31
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_d7b34c31
 The City Without Jews / int_dc8ba6d5
type
The Scapegoat
 The City Without Jews / int_dc8ba6d5
comment
The Scapegoat: Would you believe that the Jews get blamed for stuff going wrong?
 The City Without Jews / int_dc8ba6d5
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_dc8ba6d5
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_dc8ba6d5
 The City Without Jews / int_ea85d6ea
type
All Just a Dream
 The City Without Jews / int_ea85d6ea
comment
All Just a Dream: It turns out the whole movie was a dream of the anti-Semitic Councillor Bernart, who wakes up now having a new appreciation for the Jews.
 The City Without Jews / int_ea85d6ea
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_ea85d6ea
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_ea85d6ea
 The City Without Jews / int_f64b5d46
type
Forbidden Love
 The City Without Jews / int_f64b5d46
comment
Forbidden Love: Lotte's romance with Jewish artist Leo Strakosch becomes forbidden after the Jews are expelled.
 The City Without Jews / int_f64b5d46
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_f64b5d46
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_f64b5d46
 The City Without Jews / int_name
type
ItemName
 The City Without Jews / int_name
comment
 The City Without Jews / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 The City Without Jews / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
The City Without Jews / int_name
 The City Without Jews / int_name
itemName
The City Without Jews

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
Decided by One Vote / int_adf3b01d
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
Greedy Jew / int_adf3b01d
 The City Without Jews
hasFeature
Judaism and Jewish Culture in Media / int_adf3b01d