History of Science Popularization – The 1922 Einstein film
Digging through Einstein opponent Ernst Gehrcke's newspaper clipping collection, I came across multiple newspaper articles debating the production and screening of an Einstein film in 1922. Who made this first movie about relativity theory, what was the content of the movie, and why was it so hotly debated in the Weimar Republic, where newspapers called it "the film of scientific nihilism" and film posters were pulled down by outraged citizens?
I started to do research on this movie that was all over the newspapers about 90 years ago, but virtually unknown today.
The Einstein film was produced by Hanns Walter Kornblum, the former director of the educational film department of the German Film Society (Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft, Deulig). In 1922, the film on Einstein’s theory of relativity was one of the longest educational films ever made; its screening lasted two to three hours. It had the longest trick sequences of any film in its genre at the time, some of which were produced using techniques that were developed especially for this purpose.
Unfortunately, the original movie of 1922 has been lost. Maybe it will turn up in some archive one day. However, a short version, produced by Max Fleischer in the US, has survived. You can watch it on Youtube or buy it on DVD. Want to know more about the Einstein film? Read my articles in Physics in Perspective and Spektrum der Wissenschaft!
I started to do research on this movie that was all over the newspapers about 90 years ago, but virtually unknown today.
The Einstein film was produced by Hanns Walter Kornblum, the former director of the educational film department of the German Film Society (Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft, Deulig). In 1922, the film on Einstein’s theory of relativity was one of the longest educational films ever made; its screening lasted two to three hours. It had the longest trick sequences of any film in its genre at the time, some of which were produced using techniques that were developed especially for this purpose.
Unfortunately, the original movie of 1922 has been lost. Maybe it will turn up in some archive one day. However, a short version, produced by Max Fleischer in the US, has survived. You can watch it on Youtube or buy it on DVD. Want to know more about the Einstein film? Read my articles in Physics in Perspective and Spektrum der Wissenschaft!
Watch the Einstein Film
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Related Publications
2010. The 1922 Einstein Film: Cinematic Innovation and Public Controversy
Full text: Physics in Perspective (2010), Volume 12, No. 2: 163–179
2005. Die verfilmte Relativität
Spektrum der Wissenschaft Spezial, No. 1: 24–27
Full text: Physics in Perspective (2010), Volume 12, No. 2: 163–179
2005. Die verfilmte Relativität
Spektrum der Wissenschaft Spezial, No. 1: 24–27
Links
The Film Museum Munich produced a DVD with restored versions of two of filmmaker Walter Kornblum's educational movies: The 1923 Einstein film, and a film on "Wunder der Schöpfung" (freely translated as Miracles of the Universe), a fascinating 1.5 hour German Kulturfilm (with English subtitles) that illustrates the state of knowledge about the world and the universe in the 1920s.
http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/language/en/info/p71_Wunder-der-Sch-pfung.html
http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/language/en/info/p71_Wunder-der-Sch-pfung.html
Image: Serviss: The Einstein Theory of Relativity (1923).