#arthur maria rabenalt

[weirdlookindog]

Alraune (1952)

AKA Unnatural; Unnatural... The Fruit of Evil; Vengeance; Mandragore

[gatutor]

Carlos Thompson-Lilli Palmer "Entre hoy y la eternidad" (Zwischen zeit und ewigkeit) 1956, de Arthur Maria Rabenalt, José Antonio Nieves Conde.

[rwpohl]

alraune, arthur maria rabenalt 1952

[davidhudson]

Hildegard Knef, December 28, 1925 – February 1, 2002.

During the making of Arthur Maria Rabenalt’s Alraune (1952). Photo by F. C. Gundlach.

[la-cocotte-de-paris]

Lilli Palmer for A Woman Who Knows What She Wants (1958)

[movieposters]

Alraune (1952), Arthur Maria Rabenalt

[unateoriadegliautori]

alraune (1952)

[historicalramblingsandtrivia]

The Donor Insemination Debate: Transnational Concerns and West German Peculiarities, 1945-1965

Working on a new essay addressing the immediate postwar debate in West Germany on donor insemination that demonstrates how this debate is connected to a larger transnational debate on changing gender norms, science's seeming triumph over religion, and nuclear angst in the early Cold War. Here is the introduction of that article still in progress:

The Donor Insemination Debate: Transnational Concerns and West German Peculiarities, 1945-1965

On March 8, 1959, the Grand Commission on Penal Law – created by the West German Federal Ministry of Justice in 1954 and charged with the task of drafting a new, more modern criminal code – voted overwhelmingly in favor of criminalizing AID (artificial insemination with donor sperm).(1) At that time, experts estimated that fewer than 1000 children in Germany had been conceived using artificial insemination (using donor sperm or the husband’s sperm). (2) Moreover, the German Medical Association had rejected AID on “moral grounds” in 1955 and again in 1959. (3) Yet, West German lawmakers and other cultural elites employed hyperbolic language as part of their campaign against this seldom-used practice in Germany. Speaking to the Grand Commission, Attorney General Dr. Hanns Dünnebier (Bremen) described AID as the “specter at the gate” and declared that West Germany must “at least try to erect a bulwark against it.”(4) Liberal media outlets such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit described AID as “adultery in a test-tube” and “icebox-fornication.” (5) Well-known authors, such as Ernst Jünger, depicted AID as emblematic of an emerging mechanized and dehumanized world.(6) Film portrayals of AID, such as Alraune (1952 remake) and Frucht ohne Liebe (1956) associated AID with changing gender norms and science’s triumph over nature and religion.(7) So why did this fertility procedure, seldom used in Germany, spark cultural panic and calls for legal regulation in the immediate postwar era? Given this outcry, why did West German lawmakers abandon efforts to criminalize AID by the mid-1960s? The answers to these questions only become apparent if we view the West German debate as part of a broader transnational debate on AID in the immediate postwar era.

AID first emerged as a hot topic in the immediate postwar era in the United States and Great Britain. But by the mid-1950s, the AID debate had spread to other European countries and beyond. Within the framework of this transnational debate, Americans and Europeans voiced concerns about changing gender norms, science’s seeming triumph over religion, and Cold War competition and the dawning nuclear age. Yet, national, regional, and local concerns also shaped how the debate was articulated, and consequently how it was resolved in each nation. In the case of West Germany, its recent National Socialist past, its defeat and postwar occupation by the Western Allies, and its location on the front lines of the Cold War all factored into how West German elites responded to AID.

  (1) Ute Helling, Zu den Problemen der künstlichen Insemination unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des § 203 E1962 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970), 110-11.   (2) Helling, 4-6.   (3) Ernst Fromm, “Artifizielle Insemination,” in Die künstliche Befruchtung beim Menschen: Diskussionsbeiträge aus medizinischer, juristischer und theologischer Sicht (Cologne: Dr. Otto Schmidt KG, 1960), 31. (4)  H. Dünnebier quoted in Maria Ries, “Über das Problem künstlicher Insemination,” Bayerisches Ärzteblatt no. 14 (April 1959), 75-78, here 78.   (5) See “Reagenzglas-Babys: Ehebruch in der Retort,” Der Spiegel, November 8, 1950; “Der anonyme Ehebruch,” Der Spiegel, February 5, 1958; V.G., “Kinder aus dem Katalog: Elitezüchtung durch künstliche Befruchtung?” Die Zeit, October 13, 1961.   (6) Ernst Jünger, An der Zeitmauer (originally published in 1959) (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981).   (7) Alraune, directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt (1952; Munich: Deutsche Styria Film) and Frucht ohne Liebe, directed by Ulrich Erfurth (1956; West Berlin: CCC Filmkunst).

[weirdlookindog]

Alraune (1952)

[gatutor]

Cartel película "Entre hoy y la eternidad" (Zwischen zeit und ewigkeit) 1956, de Arthur Maria Rabenalt, José Antonio Nieves Conde.

[rwpohl]

chemie und liebe, arthur maria rabenalt 1948

*

minnie and moskowitz, john cassavetes 1971

[movieposteroftheday]

French grande for MANDRAGORE [aka THE UNNATURAL] (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, West Germany, 1952)

Artist: “after” Robert Leveque

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

“Also known as Alraune and Mandrake, The Unnatural is a kinky science fiction film, elevated by the bravura performance of Erich Von Stroheim. Playing a mad scientist (again?), Von Stroheim artificially inseminates an addled prostitute with the sperm of a vicious murderer. The result of this unholy union grows up to be Hildegarde Neff, who is none too stable herself. Combining the worst traits of both her parents, Neff lures unsuspecting males to premature deaths...” –Hal Erickson, AllMovie

[kitsunenewsun]

[rwpohl]

chemie und liebe, arthur maria rabenalt 1948