{"id":7627,"date":"2026-03-31T11:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:28:46","slug":"mdwp008-005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/","title":{"rendered":"Debarbarizing"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n        .tsquotation strong {<br \/>\n            font-weight: bold;<br \/>\n        }<br \/>\n        .tsquotation em {<br \/>\n            font-style: italic !important;<br \/>\n        }<br \/>\n        .bibliography {<br \/>\n            margin-top: -1em !important;<br \/>\n            padding-left: 22px;<br \/>\n            text-indent: -22px;<br \/>\n        }<br \/>\n        figure {<br \/>\n            margin: 0;<br \/>\n        }<br \/>\n.fig-row{\n    display:flex;\n    gap: 20px;\n    align-items:flex-start;\n    justify-content:center;\n    flex-wrap:wrap; \n  }\n  .fig{\n    margin:0;\n    width:30%;          \n    min-width:240px;    \n  }\n  .fig-img{\n    width:100%;\n    height:auto;\n    display:block;\n  }\n  .fig .caption-text{\n    display:block;\n    margin-top:6px;\n    font-size:0.9em;\n    line-height:1.25;\n  }\n    <\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"one_half\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-004\/\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">&#129028;<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"one_half last\">\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-006\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">&#129030;<\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"clear-fix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">How to cite<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">How to cite<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\n<div id=\"zotpress-02f637be4fbdf1942f69c9f1ad1ce81a\" class=\"zp-Zotpress zp-Zotpress-Bib wp-block-group\">\n\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_API_USER_ID ZP_ATTR\">4511395<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ITEM_KEY ZP_ATTR\">{4511395:75KZDHUJ}<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_COLLECTION_ID ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TAG_ID ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_AUTHOR ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_YEAR ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_ITEMTYPE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_INCLUSIVE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_STYLE ZP_ATTR\">chicago-author-date<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_LIMIT ZP_ATTR\">50<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SORTBY ZP_ATTR\">default<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ORDER ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TITLE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWIMAGE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWTAGS ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_DOWNLOADABLE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_NOTES ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ABSTRACT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_CITEABLE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TARGET ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_URLWRAP ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_FORCENUM ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_HIGHLIGHT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_POSTID ZP_ATTR\">7627<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZOTPRESS_PLUGIN_URL ZP_ATTR\">https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/plugins\/zotpress\/<\/span>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"zp-List loading\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"zp-SEO-Content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"ZP_JSON ZP_ATTR\">%7B%22status%22%3A%22success%22%2C%22updateneeded%22%3Afalse%2C%22instance%22%3Afalse%2C%22meta%22%3A%7B%22request_last%22%3A0%2C%22request_next%22%3A0%2C%22used_cache%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22data%22%3A%5B%7B%22key%22%3A%2275KZDHUJ%22%2C%22library%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A4511395%7D%2C%22meta%22%3A%7B%22creatorSummary%22%3A%22Annu%5Cu00df%22%2C%22parsedDate%22%3A%222025%22%2C%22numChildren%22%3A0%7D%2C%22bib%22%3A%22%26lt%3Bdiv%20class%3D%26quot%3Bcsl-bib-body%26quot%3B%20style%3D%26quot%3Bline-height%3A%201.35%3B%20padding-left%3A%201em%3B%20text-indent%3A-1em%3B%26quot%3B%26gt%3B%5Cn%20%20%26lt%3Bdiv%20class%3D%26quot%3Bcsl-entry%26quot%3B%26gt%3BAnnu%26%23xDF%3B%2C%20Evelyn.%202025.%20%26lt%3Bi%26gt%3BDirty%20Dragging.%20Performative%20Transpositions%26lt%3B%5C%2Fi%26gt%3B.%20mdwPress.%20%26lt%3Ba%20class%3D%26%23039%3Bzp-ItemURL%26%23039%3B%20href%3D%26%23039%3Bhttps%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fdoi.org%5C%2F10.14361%5C%2F9783839474754%26%23039%3B%26gt%3Bhttps%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fdoi.org%5C%2F10.14361%5C%2F9783839474754%26lt%3B%5C%2Fa%26gt%3B.%20%26lt%3Ba%20title%3D%26%23039%3BCite%20in%20RIS%20Format%26%23039%3B%20class%3D%26%23039%3Bzp-CiteRIS%26%23039%3B%20data-zp-cite%3D%26%23039%3Bapi_user_id%3D4511395%26amp%3Bitem_key%3D75KZDHUJ%26%23039%3B%20href%3D%26%23039%3Bjavascript%3Avoid%280%29%3B%26%23039%3B%26gt%3BCite%26lt%3B%5C%2Fa%26gt%3B%20%26lt%3B%5C%2Fdiv%26gt%3B%5Cn%26lt%3B%5C%2Fdiv%26gt%3B%22%2C%22data%22%3A%7B%22itemType%22%3A%22book%22%2C%22title%22%3A%22Dirty%20Dragging.%20Performative%20Transpositions%22%2C%22creators%22%3A%5B%7B%22creatorType%22%3A%22author%22%2C%22firstName%22%3A%22Evelyn%22%2C%22lastName%22%3A%22Annu%5Cu00df%22%7D%5D%2C%22abstractNote%22%3A%22Dirty%20Dragging%20contributes%20to%20queer%20retheorizations%20and%20explores%20the%20ambivalence%20of%20transgressive%20performances%20under%20apartheid%2C%20Nazism%2C%20and%20Jim%20Crow%20through%20a%20transoceanic%20lens.%20The%20book%20takes%20up%20the%20ambivalence%20of%20%5Cu201cdirty%5Cu201d%20performance%20modes%5Cu2014spanning%20drag%20and%20carnival%20to%20propaganda%5Cu2014and%20extends%20readings%20of%20gender%20bending%20by%20incorporating%20perspectives%20on%20blackface%20and%20%5Cu201cracialized%20drag.%5Cu201d%20It%20%20explores%20violent%2C%20locally%20specific%20mobilizations%20of%20the%20transgressive%20along%20with%20the%20ways%20in%20which%20queer%20and%20creolized%20forms%20of%20performance%20intertwine%20to%20oppose%20identitarian%20boundaries.%20Given%20the%20current%20slide%20into%20right-wing%20authoritarianism%2C%20the%20book%20thereby%20gestures%20toward%20the%20potential%20joy%20of%20collectively%20making%20societal%20conditions%20dance%22%2C%22date%22%3A%222025%22%2C%22originalDate%22%3A%22%22%2C%22originalPublisher%22%3A%22%22%2C%22originalPlace%22%3A%22%22%2C%22format%22%3A%22%22%2C%22ISBN%22%3A%22978-3-8376-7475-0%22%2C%22DOI%22%3A%22%22%2C%22citationKey%22%3A%22%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fdoi.org%5C%2F10.14361%5C%2F9783839474754%22%2C%22ISSN%22%3A%22%22%2C%22language%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22collections%22%3A%5B%22RJ2DWDIJ%22%5D%2C%22dateModified%22%3A%222026-03-11T09%3A28%3A12Z%22%7D%7D%5D%7D<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"zp-ID-7627-4511395-75KZDHUJ\" data-zp-author-date='Annu\u00df-2025' data-zp-date-author='2025-Annu\u00df' data-zp-date='2025' data-zp-year='2025' data-zp-itemtype='book' class=\"zp-Entry zpSearchResultsItem\">\n<div class=\"csl-bib-body\" style=\"line-height: 1.35; padding-left: 1em; text-indent:-1em;\">\n  <div class=\"csl-entry\">Annu\u00df, Evelyn. 2025. <i>Dirty Dragging. Performative Transpositions<\/i>. mdwPress. <a class='zp-ItemURL' href='https:\/\/doi.org\/10.14361\/9783839474754'>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.14361\/9783839474754<\/a>. <a title='Cite in RIS Format' class='zp-CiteRIS' data-zp-cite='api_user_id=4511395&item_key=75KZDHUJ' href='javascript:void(0);'>Cite<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-Entry .zpSearchResultsItem -->\n\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-zp-SEO-Content -->\n\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-List -->\n\t<\/div><!--.zp-Zotpress-->\n\n\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\n<a href=\"#1\">Braun (Brown)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#2\">Decreolizing (Baker, Krenek)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#3\">Oddkinships I (Benjamin, Kafka)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#4\">Exoticism (Revue)<\/a><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><!-- \n\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">[btn btnlink=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/10.1515_9783839425015-001.pdf\" btnsize=\"medium\" bgcolor=\"#b2b2b2\" txtcolor=\"#000000\" btnnewt=\"1\" nofollow=\"1\"]CHAPTER PDF <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\" style=\"vertical-align: middle\" alt=\"Download-Logo\" width=\"17\" height=\"17\">[\/btn]\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29.jpg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photo shows a laughing person in blackface wearing a dark suit, arms outstretched, posing in front of a white wall. Their shadow is visible on the wall.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"2095\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-684x1024.jpg 684w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-100x150.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-768x1149.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-1026x1536.jpg 1026w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-1369x2048.jpg 1369w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/14_Eva-Braun-vermutlich-im-Studio-Heinrich-Hoffmann-ca.-1928_29-850x1272.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 14:<\/strong> Eva Braun, presumably at Studio Heinrich Hoffmann, ca. 1928\/29. Photograph from Braun\u2019s private album, Heinrich Hoffmann Collection, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (hoff-333).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cich als Al Jolson\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>\u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>is the handwritten caption above a black-and-white album photo. The image shows a smiling white woman in drag, staging herself as someone else<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>in a man\u2019s suit, with a blackened face and a frizzy wig. Her \u201cme\u201d (\u201cich\u201d) in the title appears unequivocal, presented clearly in a mode of as-if, and thus set apart from the name of the \u201cother,\u201d Al Jolson.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn189\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref189\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>189<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> On the white wall in the background, her shadow double can be seen leaning slightly forward, as if dancing, while her upright, somewhat stiff body standing on nondescript wooden planks seems to have been still at the moment the shot was taken. Someone has been posing for the camera, arms outstretched, weight shifted onto the front foot. <\/p>\n<p>The gesture depicted here, the position of the arms, can be read as a restaging of <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em> (1927), with Al Jolson in the leading role. As emphasized in advertising posters for this first officially distributed sound film, which was also shown in Cape Town around that time, the photo appears to evoke Jolson\u2019s gestural repertoire. The backstage film being referenced here presented vaudeville music as a creolized melting pot, while visually excluding Black actors.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn190\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref190\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>190<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In the film, blackface was used to portray the son of a cantor from a religious family, who entered the Broadway scene from the bars of precarious Lower Manhattan<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an impoverished predominantly Eastern European Jewish neighborhood<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>by way of the vaudeville theater. Both the film\u2019s plot and Jolson\u2019s biography seem to figure in this photograph. In any case, the person depicted is imitating Jolson with a mixture of somewhat awkward and perhaps also resentful laughter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images.jpg\" alt=\"An advertising poster shows, against a black background, the white elements of a figure with emphasized eyes, mouth, and outstretched hands in gloves. Below it reads \u201cAL JOLSON\u201d in white capital letters and \u201cTHE JAZZ SINGER\u201d in red capitals.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1969\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7314\" style=\"width:65%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-728x1024.jpg 728w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-107x150.jpg 107w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-768x1080.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-1092x1536.jpg 1092w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/15_Werbeplakat-The-Jazz-Singer-1927.-Bridgeman-Images-850x1195.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 15:<\/strong> Advertising poster, <em>The Jazz Singer, <\/em>1927<em>.<\/em> William Auerbach-Levy, Bridgeman Images.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The Jazz Singer<\/em> introduces <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jackie Rabinowitz <\/span>as a creolized figure who grows up with ragtime in New York and eventually becomes a star against his father\u2019s wishes. Played by one of the most famous contemporary blackface actors, the persona is authenticated and marketed through Rabinowitz\u2019s biography. Born Asa Yoelsen in the then-Russian town of Srednik, Jolson himself rose from the son of a cantor to become a US entertainment icon. His cinematic alter ego allegorizes the historical entanglement of migrant Eastern European Jews and Black music within a new mass culture. On the eve of the Nazis\u2019 seizure of power, the photo echoes this entanglement.<\/p>\n<p>It serves as a counterpart to Kewpie\u2019s friendly, defiant drag scene and his seemingly conspiratorial laughter in a pose that visualizes creolization, as discussed in the previous chapter. When placed in context, by contrast, this studio shot exemplifies the potentially pejorative use of creolized forms of performance. Clearly staged, it can be read, together with the caption, as an equivalential chain of resentments<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn191\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref191\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>191<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>stereotypically staging all kinds of \u201cothers\u201d: as a <em>Widerspiel<\/em>,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn192\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref192\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>192<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> that is, a counterperformance, to minor mimesis; as a pejorative \u201cfalse projection,\u201d to borrow from Theodor W. Adorno\u2019s and Max Horkheimer\u2019s \u201cElements of Anti-Semitism\u201d in their <em>Dialektik der Aufkl\u00e4rung <\/em>(<em>Dialectic of Enlightenment<\/em>). At least retrospectively, this dragging ties itself to National Socialist propaganda<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that is to say, it schlepps a specific reference to antisemitism along.<\/p>\n<p>To open this chapter on Nazism, I read the short-circuiting of gender bending and blackfacing in this photograph as a reaction to creolization in the German interwar period, to then discuss related modes of \u201cdrag\u201d in entertainment culture, propaganda, and cultural studies of the time. The invention of a Nazi modernity of its own will prove to be the flipside of gender bending and color bending within a mass culture that had long since been globalized. While the first chapter explored queer-creolized forms of appearance in the context of apartheid as critical theory put into practice, this chapter traces the lines of flight of exclusionary devaluation, of exoticisms and <em>Eigentlichkeit, <\/em>which one might loosely translate as fictitious authenticity, within a complementary configuration of allegedly <em>dirty<\/em> dragging.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"1\">Braun (Brown)<\/h4>\n<p>In 2011, the photo caused a scandal in contemporary new media.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn193\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref193\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>193<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> As a suppo&#173;sedly sensational find, it has since circulated on the internet as an obscene illus&#173;tration of National Socialist racism; in this reception, blackface was perceived as an iconic, suprahistorical sign of an unchanging antiblack racism. In this sense, the image appears as appropriative, racialized dragging. Often dated to 1937, however, the photo also tells something about today\u2019s conditions of reception: the decontextualized availability of archival material and the back-projections of contemporary discourses, which tend to occlude questions of local and historiographical situatedness, as well as questions of aesthetic differences. And indeed, the image is more complex than its reception suggests. It refers to Weimar mass culture, while<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>through its caption<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>linking the visualization of blackface in drag to a Jewish figure.<\/p>\n<p>The copy photograph shows a young photo lab assistant, unknown at the time, who became a public persona only after 1945, and thus posthumously. Apparently shot in Munich, the original must have been taken shortly after the German film release of <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em> around 1928\/29<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>according to the catalog of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. The archive later added an additional caption: \u201cin Faschingskost\u00fcm\u201d (\u201cin carnival costume\u201d).<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn194\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref194\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>194<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> As a photograph retaken from an album, the picture with the caption above it can be found in the collection of Heinrich Hoffmann, who was already shaping Nazi visual politics<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>especially depictions of the F\u00fchrer<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>at the time<em>.<\/em><span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn195\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref195\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>195<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The photo was therefore apparently first shot in the studio that determined the graphic aesthetics of Nazi organs such as the <em>V\u00f6lkischer Beobachter<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and presumably by the same photographer who was already responsible for the antisemitic weekly <em>Auf gut deutsch<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>roughly: \u201cIn plain German\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and helped shape the Nazi image empire.<\/p>\n<p>The frontal, professional photograph, taken slightly from above, shows Eva Braun, who would later meet Adolf Hitler in Hoffmann\u2019s studio, but would remain absent from official Nazi imagery until 1945.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn196\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref196\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>196<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Read against this background, a specific relation comes into play: the relationship between the photograph<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>which seems to have been intended for private use only<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and later propaganda images, in which the minstrel mask and the staging of the colonized diverge. As will be shown in more detail later, the grotesque mask of blackface was not only specifically gendered but also charged with antisemitic resentments in the Nazi era, and was thus mobilized as the allegedly terrifying image of the creolization of Europe.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn197\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref197\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>197<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This photo comes from Braun\u2019s private album with caption. It can be found as image 27A in album 33 of the thirty-five albums confiscated from U.S. soldiers, which ended up in the U.S. National Archives (Washington, DC) after 1945.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn198\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref198\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>198<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The photograph itself is visibly staged. Carefully lit from the top right, it plays with Braun\u2019s oblique shadow. And it is this shadow which may evoke the Cake Walk, and possibly also posters from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau\u2019s <em>Nosferatu<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span><em>Eine Symphonie des Grauens<\/em> (<em>A Symphony of Horror<\/em>, 1922), or images from the <em>Schwarze Schmach<\/em> (black shame) campaign against French colonial soldiers during World War&#160;I<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that is, the visually staged hauntings of German femininity by dark creatures.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn199\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref199\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>199<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Braun\u2019s shadow in the background thus still recalls visual tropes from the Weimar period that can be associated with antisemitism and racism. In contrast, however, Braun\u2019s bodily appearance does not directly cite these stereotypes, but rather, in the name of Al Jolson, the mask popularized in Cape Town as a counterimage to prevailing social conditions. <\/p>\n<p>And in Braun\u2019s photo, as well, blackface remains legible as <em>the<\/em> sign of transoceanic mass culture.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn200\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref200\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>200<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> However, her image in drag also gestures toward the formation of a specific visual politics in the wake of Nazism and can be read as a particular form of right-wing carnivalization. Her cross-dressing in blackface, taken in Hoffmann\u2019s studio, was apparently rephotographed along with the caption during the Nazi era<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>from the backstage of power, so to speak. Returned to Hoffmann\u2019s studio as a private souvenir of earlier times, \u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d does not function as a simple racist depiction or a straightforward denigration of dark skin. Rather, Braun in drag seems to project onto the visual history of European urban Jewishness<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>marked by forced migrations and creolization<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an artificially blackened face, via the explicitly evoked name of \u201cthe Other.\u201d The image can be read as transposing the label of creolized entertainment from the United States into a sign of nongenealogical appearance. In drag, in a man\u2019s suit, Braun invokes the exemplary figure of \u201cthe Jew\u201d as someone \u201cwithout a tribe.\u201d Seen in this light, it concerns perhaps less the dynamic of \u201clove and theft,\u201d as Eric Lott describes the affectively charged use of African American music and carnivalesque performance traditions by white minstrels in the United States.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn201\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref201\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>201<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> This \u201clove\u201d notwithstanding, the image also drags antisemitic projections into transoceanic modern mass culture in its citation of cross-dressing and blackface referencing Jolson.<\/p>\n<p>Signifying the color brown, Braun\u2019s surname can in this context be associated with a kind of mock-<em>browning<\/em>. Her cross-dressing can be read within the specific visual context of the shoot<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>\u201cbrown,\u201d that is, Nazi visual politics<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as a play with referential ambivalence and, simultaneously, as a gesture of empowerment. This staging in front of the camera thus potentially also functions as a mockery of equivalential figurations of Blackness, of queerness, of Jewishness.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn202\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref202\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>202<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The image, however, does not so much invert the hegemonic white position into what Ernesto Laclau\u2019s <em>On Populist Reason<\/em> describes as the constitutively unrepresentable<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>\u201ca void <em>within<\/em> signification\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>in order to evoke \u201cthe people\u201d as an empty signifier.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn203\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref203\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>203<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Instead, blackface here may have become an empty signifier of resentment, conflating arbitrary forms of Othering with notions of sexual deviance and with modern mass culture as miscegenation. Accordingly, the representational registers of anti-Judaism and colonialism have become obsolete. Neither hooked-nose nor jungle stereotypes appear in the picture; the memory of them lingers at most in Braun\u2019s shadow. Rather, the image invokes a vision of modern, transgressive dirtiness, in which women and men appear just as indistinguishable as \u201cnon-Aryans\u201d and \u201cGermans.\u201d In this context, blackface can be read through Braun\u2019s <em>inscriptio<\/em> as a modernized sign of supposed Jewish mimicry. Linked to Hoffmann\u2019s studio, Jolson\u2019s name in Braun\u2019s title becomes the \u201cground of the thing\u201d:<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn204\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref204\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>204<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> <em>On Populist Reason<\/em> brushed against the grain<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the empty signifier not of \u201cthe people,\u201d but of its precondition: the invented alien who is presumed to be perpetually disguised and thus to be banished beyond the carnival.<\/p>\n<p>Shot in the photo studio of an <em>alter K\u00e4mpfer<\/em>, an early member of the Nazi movement, and photographed again with a reference to Jolson, the image inverts US racial dynamics<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the separation of black and white<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em> is often seen to epitomize. According to Michael Rogin\u2019s influential reading, the film portrays Jewish upward mobility while simultaneously erasing the presence of the Black US population. It thereby testifies to how becoming white entails exclusion via disfiguration of an invented Other, specifically via blackface. In his book <em>Blackface, White Noise<\/em>, perhaps the most well-known interpretation of <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>, Rogin ultimately sees the film as a continuation of racist minstrel shows and a mass cultural depoliticization of creolized mimetic practices. He argues that the narrative portrays the complicity of Jewish immigrants by integrating into the white majority, achieved through the appropriation of early US mass culture, the performance of masculinity, and the overcoming of their own exclusion: \u201cBlackface \u2026 allows the protagonist to exchange selves \u2026. Blackface is the instrument that transfers identities from immigrant Jew to American. By putting on blackface, the Jewish jazz singer acquires \u2026 first his own voice, then assimilation through upward mobility, finally women.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn205\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref205\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>205<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The blackface in drag, taken at the Hoffmann photo studio and presumably sent back from Obersalzberg, Hitler\u2019s private mountain retreat, makes Braun appear as the personification of \u201cthe Other\u201d in its multiple figurations<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as Black, Jewish, queer. Braun\u2019s blackface seems to cast Jolson as the allegorization of \u201cthe Jew,\u201d effeminized in drag, in keeping with common antisemitic stereotypes. In my reading, the antisemitic operation staged by the photo and its caption inverts Rogin\u2019s interpretation. It instead presents a fundamentally different conception of whiteness<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a Nazi-specific vision of supremacy.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn206\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref206\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>206<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Braun in drag is not about the integration of a Jewish immigrant into white American show business through the visual exclusion of Black performers. Rather, the caption equates the blackened face with the invisible Jewish face, portraying it as fake and making it visible as <em>dirty<\/em>. Situated within the Nazi context, \u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d allegorizes a different kind of resentment. The Othering inscribed in Jolson\u2019s blackface, as Rogin interprets it, is here performatively reversed and charged with antisemitism, redirecting its force back onto Jolson whose gesture is cited.<\/p>\n<p>Referentiality shifts here from skin color to dirtiness<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>also as an aesthetic form, as minor mimesis. Braun\u2019s conspicuously blackened hands in the photograph makes this clear. In addition to white gloves<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the usual minstrel sign featured in <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>\u2019s promotional poster<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the image evokes Jolson\u2019s self-referential song \u201cDirty Hands, Dirty Face.\u201d It marks the film\u2019s transformation of <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jackie Rabinowitz <\/span>into the celebrated American entertainer Jack Robin after growing up in a working-class slum, or rather in a neighborhood of the lumpen, the ragtag proletariat, that is, within earshot of the Black community and their creolized music. Braun\u2019s drag transposes the gestural repertoire of the singing figure in the so-called Coffee Dan scene, which is also featured in the poster, into a blackface performance. The lyrics of \u201cDirty Hands, Dirty Face,\u201d however, are ostensibly not about black skin or minstrel masks;<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn207\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref207\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>207<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> instead, a father sings about his child getting dirty while playing. Whereas Rogin critiques the theft of Black music, the song itself suggests an alternative logic: it reframes the white entertainment industry\u2019s obscene love for creolized music<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as outlined by Lott<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>into a sanitized version suitable for underage viewers. The music in this first officially distributed sound film is stripped of almost all syncopation and anything reminiscent of jazz, blues, swing, or ragtime. In this sense, blackface in the film visually represents the domestication of a specific \u201cdirtiness,\u201d which is then commented on in the song \u201cDirty Hands, Dirty Face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Braun\u2019s captioned photograph and Jolson\u2019s backstage film scenes are shaped by modes of framing designed to keep mask play from being perceived as<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>to use Walter Lhamon\u2019s words<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>\u201ctoo slippery and multisignificant to police.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn208\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref208\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>208<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Their aesthetics are akin and linked to a specific episteme. Both photo and film seem governed by the belief that one can clearly distinguish between one\u2019s own face and the mask of another. And this fantasy of a singular, authentic face is tied to a specific sense of temporality allowing for controlled interruption. The caption above the Hoffmann studio image reflects the promise that Braun\u2019s \u201cfilthy,\u201d transgressive play will end by Ash Wednesday at the latest. This stands in contrast to the rebellious <em>Jazz Singer <\/em>quotation in the streets of Cape Town during carnival or Kewpie\u2019s photo in front of the District Six ruins, where drag is a queer-creolized everyday practice resisting apartheid and makes no claim to a real face, a real identity, behind what is performed. Braun\u2019s drag scene, by contrast, is designed to dissociate her face<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>her bodily image outside the photo<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>from the \u201cother\u201d evoked by Jolson\u2019s name. Through rhetorical containment, Braun\u2019s blackface drag aligns aesthetically with the backstage film genre. In turn, dramatic representation in backstage film serves to stabilize the relationship between mask and person. The blackface scenes in <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>\u2019s white cast are thus narratively contained<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>confined to the stage or the changing room.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn209\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref209\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>209<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The film itself signals a shift in the use of blackface, one that began, at the latest, with the official abolition of slavery in the United States, and continued in the increasingly codified form of minstrel shows. <\/p>\n<p><em>The Jazz Singer<\/em> belongs to a genre that makes it suitable for ironic quotation in the Nazi context. It differs significantly from the rough, folk-theatrical performances of early blackface acts like those of T.&#160;D. Rice akin to <em>commedia dell\u2019arte<\/em>. His performances exemplify the overt transgression of the boundaries between onstage and offstage, and between black and white, yet without regard for the political necessity of abolition.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn210\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref210\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>210<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In contrast to figures like <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jim Crow <\/span>and other tramp or trickster characters, <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>\u2019s use of blackface aligns more closely with what appears in early nineteenth-century sheet music covers and, even more so, in the widely circulated advertising posters of minstrel shows around 1900: the framing and taming of the relationship between mask and face.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of the sheet music Songs of the Virginia Serenaders shows, in black-and-white, five seated musicians in blackface; below them they appear without make-up, standing upright in suits.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1828\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7315\" style=\"width:65%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-784x1024.jpg 784w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-115x150.jpg 115w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-768x1003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-1176x1536.jpg 1176w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/16_-Virginia-Serenaders-Sheet-Music-Cover-1844.-Harvard-Theatre-Collection-on-Blackface-Minstrelsy-1833\u20131906-850x1110.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 16:<\/strong> Virginia Serenaders, Sheet Music Cover, 1844. Harvard Theatre Collection on Blackface Minstrelsy, 1833<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>1906 (Houghton Library).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In <em>Love and Theft<\/em>, Lott refers to a cover by the Virginia Serenaders from 1844: at the top, it depicts the five musicians in blackface, costumed and performing exaggerated gestures. Below, the performers are shown with upright posture, without makeup, as respectable citizens. Mask and face, entertainment and bourgeois self-representation beyond the stage, are clearly separated.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn211\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref211\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>211<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> This, however, is not a reflection on practices of figuration. Instead, the carnivalesque is domesticated. Stabilizing references became a prerequisite for using blackface as a racist representation after abolition. The Janus faces on modern minstrel advertising posters<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and thus in an early form of visual mass culture<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>make this clear. In the Library of Congress, for example, one finds a frequently cited poster of Billy Van as <em>The Monologue Comedian<\/em> in the context of \u201cWm. H. West\u2019s Big Minstrel Jubilee.\u201d Dating from the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the poster plays with multiple framings. Van\u2019s portraits<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>his bourgeois face on the left, his blackface with wig, wide eyes, and red-painted mouth on the right<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>are framed in ornate gold, thus at least superficially separated yet connected by interlocking rings, that is, an infinity sign.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful advertising poster shows two framed portraits of the same figure: the left a regular portrait, the right showing the man in blackface with bulging eyes and painted mouth. Above: \"Wm. West's Big Minstrel Jubilee\"; below, the figure is identified as Billy Van.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1061\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900-1024x776.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900-150x114.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900-768x582.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/17_Billy-Van-Wm.-H.-Wests-Big-Minstrel-Jubilee.-Werbeplakat-1900-850x644.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 17:<\/strong> Billy Van, &#8222;Wm. H. West\u2019s Big Minstrel Jubilee.&#8220; Advertising poster, 1900. Library of &#173;Congress, Washington, D.C. (2014637077).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>, the separation of mask and face is even more explicit. Blackface is transposed into a film drama that clearly distinguishes between stage and backstage. In stark contrast to early cinematic experiments linked to the fairground and popular theater<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>with their play on endless metamorphoses<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the sequences of images here are subordinated to narrative and &#173;governed by central perspective.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn212\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref212\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>212<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Although sound has not yet assumed the role it would in later talkies<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>reinforcing illusionistic representation<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and although the music possesses its own acoustic dimension, while speech is largely confined to inserted intertitles, blackfacing emerges as a narratively contained play within the play. <\/p>\n<p>It is \u201cfaceism,\u201d in this context, that is emphasized.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn213\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref213\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>213<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Retrospective interpretations often project this representational understanding of the mask onto all forms of blackface, viewing it as a constant vehicle of racist misrepresentation, thereby overlooking its shifting forms and functions. The problematic nature of this concept of representation becomes evident in the counterpart to grotesque defacements: the staging of an actual white face. The close-up of such a face was established by a popular film that, roughly a decade before <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>, played a key role in the second founding of the Ku Klux Klan: D. W. Griffith\u2019s <em>The Birth of a Nation<\/em> (1915). A milestone in film history, it introduced previously unseen special effects and camera techniques. Griffith deployed these innovations in service of a racist narrative that sought to relegitimize the plantation system and authenticate the myths of the South.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn214\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref214\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>214<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915.jpg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photo, a film still, shows the figure of a white woman with mouth agape in fear, looking through a broken windowpane; directly behind her stands a figure in blackface.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1035\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915-1024x757.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915-150x111.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915-768x568.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/18_-Lilian-Gish-als-Elsie-Stoneman-in-D.-W.-Griffiths-Birth-of-a-Nation-1915-850x628.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 18:<\/strong> Lilian Gish as<span class=\"Kapitaelchen\">Elsie Stoneman<\/span> in D. W. Griffith\u2019s <em>The Birth of a Nation<\/em>, 1915 (Screenshot).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s awkward juxtaposition of different modes of staging blackness<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the depiction of a black rapist by a white actor in black makeup, alongside the casting of subaltern roles with actual Black supporting actors<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>undermines the illusion, at least from the perspective of contemporary viewing habits. Yet it functions effectively in positioning another face at the center of the drama: a representation of white femininity in need of protection. The close-up of lead actress Lillian Gish contorted in fear<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an affection-image in Deleuze\u2019s terms<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>helped to launch the cult of stardom accompanying the film.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn215\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref215\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>215<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Unlike the grotesque distortions used for ridicule, this image served to legitimize the racist violence that had been perpetrated in the Klan\u2019s name since the late 1860s. The film\u2019s cinematically rendered retrotopian pullback<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the legitimation of the Southern slavery regime<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>had terrifying consequences.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn216\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref216\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>216<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> <em>The Birth of a Nation<\/em> helped establish the second Ku Klux Klan as a mass movement and triggered a new wave of lynchings in the 1910s. Gish\u2019s distorted face signals how the Klan\u2019s resurgence after its decline during the Jim Crow era was evoked. The gendered staging of victimhood in this propagandistic film drama highlights the affective pliability of hegemonic representation: the call to restore the disfigured white face through violence.<\/p>\n<p>Braun\u2019s blackface in drag is quite extraordinary compared to Gish\u2019s defacement. The image does not depict Braun as a woman in need of protection. Taken in the laboratory of Nazi visual politics on the eve of the seizure of power and later captioned from the backstage realm of the Nazi state apparatus, this shot of cross-dressing may be interpreted as a gesture of feminine empowerment. Set against the backdrop of the antisemitic visual machinery in which it was apparently produced, Braun\u2019s photo in blackface appears to cast Jolson as a representative of an \u201cun-German,\u201d creolized US culture<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a \u201cfilthy other\u201d artificially blackened without a face of his own. In this reading, Braun marks Jolson as exemplary dirt, while her cross-dressing feminizes Jewish masculinity. The photo thus does more than simply intertwine various forms of drag (cross-dressing, playing Jewish, and blackface); it inflects the masquerade in the film it quotes with unpredictable twists, potentially shifting the association of dirtiness onto the figure of \u201cthe effeminate Jew\u201d allegorized in the caption. From this perspective, the image does not just counter the narrative of Jewish whitening. Braun\u2019s blackface in drag appears to assert control over the carnivalesque, marking those who visually elude identification as \u201cothers.\u201d In doing so, it cites a cinematic format already designed to regulate meaning.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, Braun\u2019s caption can be read as a pun linking her own name with the \u201cbrown movement\u201d of the Nazis. In this reading, the \u201cich\u201c plays not only on Braun\u2019s surname<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as a paraphrase of the dark makeup and thus a nod to the creolized US mass culture associated with Jolson and to blackface as rather \u201cdirt\u201d of those labeled as without a tribe,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn217\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref217\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>217<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> but also evokes the political, that is, brown-shirted, context in which the studio photograph was taken. This layered pun connects references to creolized appearance and party affiliation through the personal pronoun and the foreign proper name<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>Jolson instead of Braun. Reflecting on the image, in any case, reveals semantic shifts, while the image itself mobilizes gender and color bending as constitutive visual markers of alterity. If deconstructive and queer-theoretical readings of drag highlight the performative contingency of gender,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn218\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref218\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>218<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Braun\u2019s image seems to suggest equivalences among what is deemed minor, setting them in contrast to Nazism. Seen in this light, the photograph\u2019s gesture may also be read as a move toward \u201cdecreolization.\u201d It appears to speculate on shared ridicule, as its <em>inscriptio<\/em> merges \u201cbrown\u201d as a label for the tribeless with \u201cbrown\u201d as the color of Nazism. The image thus playfully claims control over the conflation of references. Reading the image as a response to the contemporary globalization of entertainment culture and its Nazi-coded link to Jewishness also means that Braun\u2019s caption asserts carnivalesque laughter as something that can be controlled.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"2\">Decreolizing (Baker, Krenek)<\/h4>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 who walks with bended knees \u2026 and looks like a boxing kangaroo \u2026 Is this a man? Is this a woman? Her lips are painted black, her skin is the color of a banana, her hair, already short, is stuck to her head as if made of caviar, her voice is high-pitched, she shakes continually, and her body slithers like a snake.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn219\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref219\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>219<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> To observers in Europe in the 1920s, Josephine Baker<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>born in the South in 1906 and thus six years older than Braun<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>appeared as an illegible figure. Her <em>Danse Sauvage<\/em> in the <em>Revue n\u00e8gre<\/em> became a scandal<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>translating female nudity, previously depicted statically in the visual arts of Old Europe, into the kinaesthetic realm. Yet beyond that, contemporary critics saw in her dancing an unrestrained, excessive physicality: they credited her with transfigurative abilities that challenged the essentialization not only of gender and skin color, but of the human figure itself. The review cited above draws on zoomorphic, racist clich\u00e9s. But these were precisely the tropes embedded in a reception that also celebrated mimetic virtuosity<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>aesthetic skills.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn220\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref220\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>220<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Amalgamating gender bending and color bending, Baker\u2019s performances came across as more-than-human dragging.<\/p>\n<p>According to Anne Anlin Cheng, Baker\u2019s stage appearances can neither be essentialized nor dismissed as mere masking; by transforming \u201cskin into cloth,\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn221\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref221\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>221<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> they instead bear witness to a specific contemporary form of precarious subjectivity. Through dance, Baker allegorized the cult of surfaces and ornamentation of the time, which, in post-World War&#160;I Europe<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>after the senseless destruction wrought by industrialized militarism<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>responded to a longing for a new beginning.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn222\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref222\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>222<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In this sense, Cheng argues, Baker enacted the contemporary crisis of selfhood within a specific context: \u201cOne of Baker\u2019s lived contradictions was that she was recreating her own imaginary \u2018Africa\u2019 out of her African American heritage for Europeans who were telling her what African American dance should and should not look like.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn223\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref223\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>223<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Baker\u2019s creolized appearance in 1920s Europe<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>both in revue theater and in film dance scenes, such as those from <em>La Sir\u00e8ne des tropiques <\/em>(1927)<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>embodied the promise of a transatlantic mass culture that appeared to break with entrenched European structures of violence, gender hierarchies, and nationalisms. This promise continued to resonate in Baker\u2019s own politics, from her later work in the R\u00e9sistance to her Rainbow Family.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn224\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref224\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>224<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In the 1920s, forty years after the partition of the African continent by European colonial powers and in the lingering shadow of the shell shock caused by World War I, Europe celebrated a new culture of amalgamation, exemplified by Baker.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn225\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref225\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>225<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Therefore, Baker may also be read as the latent negative reference in Braun\u2019s use of blackface in drag. Yet by citing Jolson instead of Baker as <em>the<\/em> contemporary icon of gender and racial transgression, of subverting anthropocentric representational registers, blackface in drag may have appeared more easily to control.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery.jpg\" alt=\"A sepia-toned photo shows a young female figure in a dance pose with raised hand and bent leg before a light background.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"2329\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7331\" style=\"width:65%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-180x300.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-616x1024.jpg 616w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-90x150.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-768x1278.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-923x1536.jpg 923w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-1231x2048.jpg 1231w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/19_Josephine-Baker-Portrait-spaete-1920er-Jahre.-Foto-Lucien-Walery-850x1414.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure19:<\/strong> Josephine Baker, portrait, Paris, 1927. Photo: Lucien Wal\u00e9ry.<\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Baker\u2019s creolized language took the form of syncopated dance, distantly related to the jumping<span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\"> harlequin<\/span>.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn226\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref226\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>226<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Despite referencing fabricated African colonial or minstrel-like plantation clich\u00e9s, her bodily performance undermined racist, biologistic projections; Baker staged her sexualized \u201cnature\u201d as something skillfully constructed, as artistically crafted, and was thus perceived as offering a new transcontinental movement culture. It was precisely in this context that Baker drew on elements of blackface<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>echoing the emergence of Black US performers within a new mass culture that resisted easy containment. Photographs from the early 1920s show Baker with a bobbed haircut, oversized shoes, a plaid dress, and twisted eyes<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>invoking the clownish mask tradition of minstrel shows and thereby Black blackface comedians such as Bert Williams.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn227\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref227\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>227<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Baker\u2019s use of blackface allusions thus reflected the entanglement of the comic figure with creolized US mass culture and its nonidentitarian potential<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>emphasizing movement as mimetic excess and thus privileging an environmental, allegorical conception of mimesis over representational imitation.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex; gap:20px; justify-content:center; align-items:flex-start; flex-wrap:nowrap; margin-bottom:20px;\">\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/20_Revue-negre-Josephine-Baker-Lithografie-Paul-Colin-1925.-National-Portrait-Gallery-Smithsonian-Institution.jpg\"\n         alt=\"A poster shows three heavily stereotyped figures: in front two figures in men\u2019s suits with faces resembling blackface depictions; behind them, a dancing figure in a short white dress.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 20:<\/strong> Paul Colin, <em>La revue n\u00e8gre au Music-hall des Champs Elysees<\/em>, 1925. Josephine Baker lithograph, Stefano Bianchetti\/Bridgeman Images. \u00a9 Bildrecht, Vienna 2025.<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/21_Le-Tumulte-noir-Josephine-Baker-Lithografie-Paul-Colin-1927.-National-Portrait-Gallery-Smithsonian-Institution.jpg\"\n         alt=\"A lithograph shows a nearly nude female figure, wearing only a banana skirt, seen from behind at an angle, dancing on tiptoe with raised arms and bent leg.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 21:<\/strong> Paul Colin, <em>Le Tumulte noir<\/em>, 1927. Josephine Baker lithograph, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (NPG.91.199.20A).<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Baker thus indicates a pact between creolized movement art and forms of popular theater, along with modes of perception tied to the new media of the time, which contradicted bourgeois, individualized notions of dramatic, that is, symbolic representation. Her performances in the <em>Revue n\u00e8gre<\/em> of 1925 and other shows became mass attractions from Paris to Berlin. Her phallic banana skirt and the exotic staging of her revues aggressively exaggerated sexist and colonial racist stereotypes. As such, Baker embodied anything but the forms of authentication that characterized nineteenth-century folk shows.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn228\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref228\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>228<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Her minstrel quotation can be read as a kind of \u201cbrowning\u201d that rejected the phantasm of old lineages and the ideology of blood and soil. <\/p>\n<p>Instead, Baker\u2019s movement repertoire referenced an interweaving of performative cultural techniques, highlighted the affinities among popular dance forms from the Charleston to the Schuhplattler, and showcased related kinaesthetic skills.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn229\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref229\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>229<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Baker thus became a pop icon of a globalized mass culture that celebrated mimetic excess<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an excess perceived as threatening by the identitarian right of the time. In this sense, Baker can be read as a dancing counterfigure to Braun\u2019s pejorative freeze of blackface in drag. While invoking various forms of Othering, yet without essentializing them, Baker allegorized a creolizing world that was also changing Old Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, in the German-speaking context of the 1920s in particular, blackface became a focal point in the cultural struggle against the so-called Jazz Republic,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn230\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref230\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>230<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> to which Braun\u2019s drag scene can be linked. A \u201cbrown,\u201d National Socialist campaign aimed to expel mimetic performances like Baker\u2019s from what Christopher Balme has called the theatrical public sphere.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn231\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref231\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>231<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> On February&#160;14, 1929<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>one day after Ash Wednesday<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>Baker was scheduled to perform at the Deutsches Theater in Munich. Her performance was preemptively banned, apparently in anticipatory obedience, and against the backdrop of earlier Nazi disruptions.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn232\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref232\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>232<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In 1928, the Austrian composer Ernst Krenek\u2019s scandalous 1927 opera <em>Jonny spielt auf<\/em> (Jonny strikes up) had already been targeted by Nazis, who attacked performances with stink bombs.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn233\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref233\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>233<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The opera portrayed a Black US musician<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a petty criminal and tramp figure, contrasted with the persona of an effeminate white artistic genius from Old Europe. It played with blackface iconography and the sexualized, exoticized visual tropes of minstrelsy associated with the Jazz Age, that is, with the globalized mass culture of the Weimar Republic.<\/p>\n<p>Especially in Munich, the Nazis\u2019 stronghold and self-declared \u201ccapital of the movement\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>where Hoffmann\u2019s studio was located<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the SA (storm troopers) had already been aggressively disrupting public events.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn234\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref234\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>234<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Alfred Jerger, the white actor who played <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jonny<\/span>, later claimed that he was nearly lynched until the enraged crowd realized he was merely wearing black makeup. In reality, however, National Socialist propaganda was primarily directed against blackface itself, because in contemporary reception<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as in the cases of <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jonny <\/span>and Josephine<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>it signaled the creolization of Europe. In any case, in <em>Jonny spielt auf<\/em>, jazz was presented as the sound of a new mass age, although Krenek\u2019s composition had even less to do with Black music than <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn235\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref235\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>235<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As everyone danced in circles around a globe-like clock, the choir sang in a manner reminiscent of Baker in the final scene: \u201cDie \u00dcberfahrt beginnt! So spielt uns Jonny auf zum Tanz. Es kommt die neue Welt \u00fcbers Meer gefahren mit Glanz und erbt das alte Europa durch den Tanz!\u201d \/ \u201cThe crossing begins! And so Jonny plays for us to dance. The new world comes sailing across the sea in splendor and inherits Old Europe through dance!\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn236\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref236\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>236<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Krenek\u2019s <em>Weltreigen<\/em>, or \u201cdance round the world,\u201d as the subtitle proclaimed, interweaves allusions to Baker, minstrel borrowings, and blackface with the European medieval motif of the dance of death, associated with carnival and clown masks.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn237\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref237\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>237<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In this context, the Black musician figure in the opera was seen as burying \u201cOld Europe.\u201d Blackface was thus recontextualized and redefined in connection with the personification of death. This syncretic use resonated with the times<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>drawing on US minstrelsy<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>while also contributing to the renewed exoticization of the existing Afro-German population.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn238\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref238\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>238<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> After the loss of the colonies and amid racially motivated nationalist policies, this blackface motif became a tool for \u201cOthering\u201d Black bodies and faces. Yet within Krenek\u2019s work<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as in Baker\u2019s<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the appropriation of blackface may also have obscured the everyday realities of creolization already present in Weimar Germany and the presence of Black Germans who had migrated from the former colonies.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, <em>Jonny <\/em>became a hit.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn239\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref239\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>239<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Even years after the Nazi seizure of power, the minstrel-related portrayal of the protagonist<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>carrying a saxophone and wearing a \u201cfunny stiff hat on his head\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn240\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref240\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>240<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>continued to be attacked by Nazi propaganda as an indicator of a modernity deemed rootless and \u201cdegenerate.\u201d Hans Severus Ziegler, a local politician from the Rhineland who had allegedly made a name for himself in 1930 as the NSDAP\u2019s theater officer in Thuringia with his decree \u201cWider die Negerkultur, F\u00fcr deutsches Volkstum\u201d (\u201cAgainst Negro Culture, For Germandom\u201d), issued in response to the Krenek scandal, organized the <em>Entartete Musik<\/em>, or \u201cDegenerate Music\u201d exhibition in D\u00fcsseldorf in 1938<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the same city where Baker would celebrate her spectacular comeback in 1953, adorned with feathers.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn241\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref241\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>241<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Confronted with accusations of having violated \u00a7175, the ban on homosexuality, Ziegler redirected attention toward other resentments by attacking modern artists instead. Apparently acting on his own initiative, he curated the exhibition, which featured librettos, scores, stage designs, photographs, caricatures, and selected recordings, for the Reich Music Days.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn242\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref242\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>242<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who had initiated the <em>Entartete Kunst, <\/em>or \u201cDegenerate Art\u201d exhibition in 1937<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>which toured until 1941 and was conceived in Munich as a counterpoint to the <em>Erste Gro\u00dfe Deutsche Kunstausstellung <\/em>(\u201cFirst Great German Art Exhibition\u201d)<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>had allegedly tried to block Ziegler\u2019s crude project. Ultimately, though, he had to concede to the antimodernist faction within the party. <em>Entartete Musik<\/em> attested to an identitarianism that had taken on a life of its own. Ziegler\u2019s accompanying brochure framed the exhibition as a National Socialist <em>Abrechnung <\/em>(reckoning), as the title of his accompanying text declaimed, aiming to expose a contemporary \u201cmental enslavement and spiritual poisoning.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn243\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref243\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>243<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Jewishness was branded as a \u201cferment of decomposition\u201d and equated with cultural Bolshevism.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn244\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref244\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>244<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> And although Krenek came from a Catholic Austrian family, <em>Jonny spielt auf<\/em> was ultimately invoked to raise what Ziegler called the \u201cnational question of honor\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Ein Volk, das dem <em>\u00bbJonny\u00ab<\/em>, der ihm schon lange aufspielte, nahezu hysterisch zujubelt, mindestens aber instinktlos zuschaut, ist seelisch und geistig so krank geworden und innerlich so wirr und unsauber, da\u00df es f\u00fcr die unendliche und uns immer wieder ersch\u00fctternde Reinheit und Schlichtheit und Gem\u00fctstiefe der ersten Takte der <em>\u00bbFreisch\u00fctz\u00ab<\/em>-Ouvert\u00fcre gar nichts mehr \u00fcbrig haben <em>kann<\/em>. (\u2026) da beginnt eine <em>v\u00f6lkische Ehrenfrage <\/em>(\u2026).<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn242\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref242\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>242<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">A nation that wildly cheers on this <em>Jonny<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>who has been performing for them for quite some time<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>or at the very least watches on without any instinct, has become so spiritually and mentally diseased, so inwardly chaotic and impure, that it is no longer capable of feeling anything for the boundless, ever-moving purity, simplicity, and emotional depth of the opening notes of the <em>Freisch\u00fctz<\/em> overture. \u2026 what is at stake here is a matter of <em>national honor<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ziegler\u2019s \u201creckoning\u201d did not target Baker but attacked Krenek, composers such as Arnold Sch\u00f6nberg, Hanns Eisler, and Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, the librettists Ernst Toller and Bert Brecht, and<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>apparently the only woman mentioned<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the dancer Valeska Gert. Jewish and communist German-speaking artists, in particular, were targeted. After the Nazi state apparatus had consolidated its power, this strand of propaganda no longer focused on the transatlantic flavor of Weimar pop culture. Instead, the music of local classical modernism was especially portrayed as an internationalist, communist-driven decomposition of Germanness.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn246\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref246\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>246<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Whatever Ziegler<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a self-proclaimed \u201ceducator of the Volk\u201d who, after the war, became a schoolteacher in West Germany and later retired to write apologetic books about Hitler<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"> <span><a href=\"#fn247\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref247\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>247<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>imagined jazz to be, Black music examples did not appear in his 1938 \u201creckoning.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex; gap:20px; justify-content:center; align-items:flex-start; flex-wrap:nowrap; margin-bottom:20px;\">\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/22_-Ernst-Krenek.-Jonny-spielt-auf-Partitur-Titel-1927.-Universal-Edition.jpg\"\n         alt=\"The title page of Ernst Krenek\u2019s Jonny spielt auf shows an illustration of a saxophonist wearing checkered pants.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 22:<\/strong> Ernst Krenek. <em>Jonny spielt auf <\/em>(score, title), 1927. Universal-Edition.<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/23_Hans-Severus-Ziegler-Entartete-Musik.-Eine-Abrechnung-Titel-1939.-Deutsches-Historisches-Museum-Berlin.jpg\"\n         alt=\"A booklet cover titled Entartete Musik. Eine Abrechnung vom Staatsrat H. S. Ziegler (\u201cDegenerate Music. A Reckoning by State Councillor H. S. Ziegler\u201d) shows, against a red background, a stereotyped drawing of a saxophonist with top hat whose face is distorted to look animal-like. A Star of David is pinned to his suit.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 23:<\/strong> Hans Severus Ziegler: <em>Entartete Musik. Eine Abrechnung<\/em> (title), 1939. bpk-Bildagentur.<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The cover of his pamphlet, however, responded to the Weimar reception of the minstrel mask. Ziegler himself later claimed that the graphic<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>designed by Ludwig Lucky Tersch for the V\u00f6lkischer Verlag D\u00fcsseldorf<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>ran counter to his \u201c<em>sense of style and \u2026 taste<\/em>.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn248\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref248\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>248<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The cover echoed the graphic reception of blackface in Europe, prefigured by Paul Colin\u2019s illustrations for the Baker revues, and specifically referenced the title page of Krenek\u2019s score.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn249\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref249\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>249<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> While Colin had increasingly emphasized the transfigurative dimension of Baker\u2019s movements in his drawings, Krenek\u2019s cover was concerned with static illustration.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn250\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref250\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>250<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> As a visual link between the Jazz Age and modern opera, it depicted a saxophonist in checked trousers and a slanted hat<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a minstrel allusion<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>while the Universal edition featured a photograph of Alfred Jerger, also holding a saxophone and wearing an oversized flower in his buttonhole.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn251\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref251\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>251<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\"> Jonny <\/span>was thus being marketed during the Weimar era as a figuration of new music in the broadest sense<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a representation of a modern world. The equivalence between European classical-modern music and creolized mass culture from the United States was already being foreshadowed. Tersch\u2019s <em>Entartete Musik<\/em> cover mirrored Krenek\u2019s but replaced <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jonny\u2019s<\/span> flower with a Star of David and distorted his face into something zoomorphic. The exaggerated blackface reference was thus given an antisemitic charge, visualizing the supposed connection between so-called cultural Bolshevik modernism and Jewish conspiracy. Aimed at the German-speaking educated middle class, this Nazi \u201creckoning\u201d and its accompanying visual politics built on earlier efforts at decreolization<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>echoing the Jolson caption on Braun\u2019s blackface photo in drag.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"3\">Oddkinships I (Benjamin, Kafka)<\/h4>\n<p>On the eve of the National Socialist regime, in 1933, Walter Benjamin\u2019s \u201cErfahrung und Armut (\u201cExperience and Poverty\u201d) called for a new barbarism in response to the devastation of World War&#160;I and the threat of German nationalism hardening into state fascism. This call for a positive notion of barbarism<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a new language marked by \u201cits arbitrary, constructed nature\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn252\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref252\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>252<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> and a rejection of anthropomorphism as a principle of humanist, i. e. anthropocentric <em>imitatio<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>signified a turn toward contemporary minor aesthetics, related to mass culture, as a way to confront the present. Benjamin portrayed this present as a ghostly, seemingly endless mummers\u2019 dance: \u201cphilistines in carnival disguises roll endlessly down the streets, wearing distorted masks covered in flour and cardboard crowns on their heads\u201d; \u201cwe need to remind ourselves of Ensor\u2019s magnificent paintings, in which the streets of great cities are filled with ghost.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn253\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref253\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>253<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Benjamin described a cultural climate energized by \u201castrology and the wisdom of yoga, Christian Science and chiromancy, vegetarianism and gnosis, scholasticism and spiritualism,\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn254\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref254\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>254<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> in which he saw the flipside of a destructive \u201cdevelopment of technology\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn255\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref255\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>255<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> as badly in need of a different, \u201cbarbarized,\u201d and disruptive countercarnival. In \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d he outlined a break with the Old World faintly prefiguring Glissant\u2019s notion of creolization, though otherwise disengaged from colonial history and respective everyday &#173;amalgamations:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">was ist das ganze Bildungsgut wert, wenn uns nicht eben Erfahrung mit ihm verbindet? \u2026 Diese Erfahrungsarmut ist Armut nicht nur an privaten sondern an Menschheitserfahrungen \u00fcberhaupt. Und damit eine Art von neuem Barbarentum.<br \/>Barbarentum? <br \/>In der Tat. Wir sagen es, um einen neuen, positiven Begriff des Barbarentums einzuf\u00fchren. Denn wohin bringt die Armut an Erfahrung den Barbaren? Sie bringt ihn dahin, von vorn zu beginnen; von Neuem anzufangen; mit Wenigem auszukommen&#160;\u2026<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn256\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref256\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>256<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">For what is the value of all our culture if it is divorced from experience? \u2026 Indeed (let\u2019s admit it), our poverty of experience is not merely poverty on the personal level, but poverty of human experience in general. Hence, a new kind of barbarism. <br \/>Barbarism? <br \/>Yes, indeed. We say this, in order to introduce a new, positive concept of barbarism. For what does poverty of experience do for the barbarian? It forces them to start from scratch; to make a new start; to make a little go a long way; to begin with little and build up further, looking neither left nor right.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For Benjamin, the break with the past was necessary because a language once considered as shared had been lost. In a frequently quoted passage, he attributed this loss to the shell shock of World War&#160;I:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">nie sind Erfahrungen gr\u00fcndlicher L\u00fcgen gestraft worden als die strategischen durch den Stellungskrieg, die wirtschaftlichen durch die Inflation, die k\u00f6rperlichen durch den Hunger, die sittlichen durch die Machthaber. Eine Generation, die noch mit der Pferdebahn zur Schule gefahren war, stand unter freiem Himmel in einer Landschaft, in der nichts unver\u00e4ndert geblieben war als die Wolken, und in der Mitte, in einem Kraftfeld zerst\u00f6render Str\u00f6me und Explosionen, der winzige gebrechliche Menschenk\u00f6rper.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"> <span><a href=\"#fn257\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref257\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>257<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">For never has experience been contradicted more thoroughly: strategic experience has been contravened by positional warfare; economic experience, by the inflation; physical experience, by hunger; moral experiences, by the ruling powers. A generation that had gone to school in horse-drawn streetcars now stood in the open air, amid a landscape in which no&#173;&#173;thing was the same except the clouds and, at its center, in a force field of destructive torrents and explosions, the tiny, fragile human body.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cErfahrung und Armut\u201devoked the trauma of vulnerable bodies amidst their destroyed surroundings<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>of being confronted with an environment that no longer seemed to be a given.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn258\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref258\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>258<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> It countered the defeat of the German army and the militaristic, expansionist justifications for war with a nonnostalgic engagement with cultural remains. Against the backdrop of the traumas of World War&#160;I, Benjamin did not invoke the decline of the West but instead conjured Walt Disney\u2019s <span class=\"Kapitaelchen\">Mickey Mouse<\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a figure not just animated by technical marvels, but also making fun of them. He used a popular cartoon to highlight the potential of a globalized, US-style mass culture to conceive of mimesis as beyond anthropocentric imitation. In opposition to the destructive, nationalist use of technology, Benjamin proposed a playful, \u201cenvironmental\u201d way of relating to the world through constantly shifting figurations:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Denn das Merkw\u00fcrdigste an ihnen ist ja, da\u00df sie allesamt ohne Maschinerie, &#173;improvisiert, aus dem K\u00f6rper der Micky-&#173;&#173;Maus, ihrer Partisanen und ihrer Verfolger, aus den allt\u00e4glichsten M\u00f6beln genau so wie aus Baum, Wolken oder See hervorgehen. <br \/>Natur und Technik, Primitivit\u00e4t und Kom&#173;fort sind hier vollkommen eins &#173;geworden und vor den Augen der Leute, die an den endlosen Komplikationen des Alltags m\u00fcde geworden sind und denen der Zweck des Lebens nur als fernster Fluchtpunkt in ei&#173;ner unendlichen Perspektive von Mitteln auf&#173;&#173;&#173;taucht, erscheint erl\u00f6send ein Dasein, das in jeder Wendung auf die einfachste und zugleich komforta&#173;belste Art sich selbst gen\u00fcgt, in dem ein Auto nicht schwerer wiegt als ein Strohhut und die Frucht am Baum so schnell sich rundet wie die Gondel eines Luftballons.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"> <span><a href=\"#fn259\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref259\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>259<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">For the most extraordinary thing about them, is that they all appear, quite without any machinery, to have been improvised out of the body of Mickey Mouse, out of his supporters and persecutors, and out of the most ordinary pieces of furniture, as well as from trees, clouds, and the sea.<br \/>Nature and technology, primitiveness and comfort, have completely merged. <br \/>And to people who have grown weary of the endless complications of everyday &#173;living and to whom the purpose of existence seems to have been reduced to the most distant vanishing point on an endless horizon, it must come as a tremendous relief to find a way of life in which everything is solved in the simplest and most comfortable way, in which a car is no heavier than a straw hat and the fruit on the tree becomes round as quickly as a hot-air balloon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Benjamin described these transfigurations as improvised<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>emerging from the surroundings, from furniture or trees, before people\u2019s eyes. To advocate for a positive notion of new barbarism, and thus for a contemporary, transformed aesthetic attuned to the affordances of new media, however, it was a specific kind of figuration<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a now largely forgotten blackface reference transposed into animated film<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>that he brought into play.<\/p>\n<p>In 1928, Walt Disney\u2019s <span class=\"Kapitaelchen\">Mickey Mouse <\/span>in the animated cartoon <em>Steamboat Willie<\/em>, drew on minstrel and vaudeville masks by depicting a white-gloved, black-faced mouse with huge eyes.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn260\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref260\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>260<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In these early portrayals, the memory of blackface was still clearly legible<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>at least within the US context.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn261\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref261\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>261<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The unruly figure evoked the \u201coddkin\u201d of <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jim Crow<\/span>. Benjamin\u2019s reading, however, did not address US segregation. Instead, <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Mickey Mouse<\/span> offered him a vision of how shared significations could be discarded elsewhere in order to laughingly \u201cmake a new start; to make a little go a long way.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn262\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref262\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>262<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Against the backdrop of World War I, Benjamin described a specific disposition for the reception of creolized mass culture. From this perspective, the political stakes of the resentful struggle against an emerging transatlantic mass culture<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>intensifying in the Weimar Republic<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>become more legible. Braun posing in blackface and Baker dancing \u201cgrotesquely,\u201d as so many contemporary observers claimed, emerge as paradigmatic antipodes of dragging within this context. Complementary to the Cape Town Carnival and its reception of US mass culture, in the German context blackface was recontextualized as a contested sign of the nomadic.<\/p>\n<p>Later, in a note from his so-called <em>Passagen-Werk <\/em>(<em>The Arcades Project<\/em>), probably written in 1937 in exile in Paris, Benjamin outlined the deterritorializing, nongenealogical gathering of found objects as a kind of dirty dragging: as collecting rags (<em>Lumpen<\/em>). In this, he reflected on his own style of writing: performative transpositions, modified quotations without quotation marks. In a note on literary montage, he wrote: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Aber die Lumpen, den Abfall: die will ich nicht inventarisieren sondern sie auf die einzig m\u00f6gliche Weise zu ihrem Rechte kommen lassen: sie verwenden.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn263\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref263\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>263<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">But the rags, the refuse<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>these I will not inventory but allow, in the only way possible, to come into their own: by making use of them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Countering the territorial violence of the Nazis, Benjamin\u2019s note described dragging as a kind of nomadic schlepping, indifferent to the origins of found objects.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn264\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref264\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>264<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Against the backdrop of forced flight, Benjamin\u2019s understanding of quotation as performative transposition was decidedly political. It also resonated with a conception of language that recalled the history of earlier forced migrations in Europe. In ancient Greece, incomprehensible, foreign stammering was described as barbaric. Benjamin\u2019s advocacy for a new, barbaric attitude and his later reflections on ragpicking as dragging aimed toward understanding language as constitutively foreign. It exposed the difference between ahistorical quoting that serves confirmation bias and a deterritorializing, creolized use of signs.<\/p>\n<p>This deterritorializing practice also aligns with Franz Kafka\u2019s understanding of language. Benjamin\u2019s view is thus not singular, yet specifically situated, resonating<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>like Kafka\u2019s<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>with the echo of forced migration in specific cultural techniques. Within Europe, they may reflect the impact of the history of anti-Judaism, which later developed an afterlife as colonial terror. In 1912, shortly before World War&#160;I, Kafka delivered what would become known as his<em> Rede \u00fcber die jiddische Sprache<\/em>, which has been translated as \u201cAn Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn265\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref265\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>265<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Kafka\u2019s perspective was tied to his encounter with Eastern European exile theater and its performative approach to language. As a confused jargon, he argued, Yiddish disrupted the orderly structures of understanding typical of Western Europe. Highlighting the exemplary nature of Yiddish theater, Kafka described it as a form of what I am elucidating here as dragging: without understanding a single word, a listener would still grasp more than expected. As the youngest European language, Kafka continued, Yiddish lacked a formal grammar, consisting instead of foreign words and dialects, and retaining the haste and liveliness with which it had stolen from other idioms. As a hustler slang (<em>Gaunersprache<\/em>) that dragged foreign terms along with it, Yiddish for Kafka revealed both the arbitrariness and the potential of referentiality. He thus portrayed Yiddish as a form of reflexive dragging<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>of deliberately collecting all kinds of expressions like rags, indifferent to their former signification, and instead offering multidirectional translations. This nonproprietary understanding of language has found a contemporary anti-identitarian afterlife, as in Saul Zaritt\u2019s <em>Taytsh Manifesto<\/em>: \u201cTaytsh is an untranslatable vernacular of translation \u2026 not entirely one\u2019s own.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn266\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref266\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>266<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Kafka did not invoke Yiddish to assert the linguistic territoriality of Jews or to lay claim to the language of a religious community. Rather, his reference to a small, exiled popular theater served as a reflection on language as a nomadic deterritorialization of German. Bettine Menke reads Kafka\u2019s <em>Rede \u00fcber die jiddische Sprache<\/em> as a rejection of the national language model.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn267\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref267\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>267<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In this view, language does not assimilate what it has stolen into settled possession, but instead prevents it from coming to rest.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn268\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref268\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>268<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> By exposing the groundlessness of linguistic concatenations, she argues, Kafka thus illuminated a defining feature of language as such.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn269\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref269\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>269<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Like creolized language use, this deterritorializing conception of language, which he shared with Benjamin, is shaped by forced migration. It is specifically tied to the history of political violence and the cultural techniques of modern mass culture. Both Benjamin and Kafka linked their vision of a language without grounding to the media assemblages of their time, thereby highlighting a particular diasporic disposition for engaging with mass culture. This can be seen in Kafka\u2019s short text <em>Wunsch, Indianer zu werden<\/em> (1913), published around the same time as his <em>Rede \u00fcber die jiddische Sprache <\/em>and inadequately translated as <em>The Wish to Be a Red Indian <\/em>instead of <em>Wish to Become (an) Indian<\/em>. Cast in the <em>irrealis<\/em>, the text<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>at first glance an instance of \u201cethnic drag\u201d romantically playing \u201cAmerindian\u201d<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>invokes the prominent figuration of indigeneity in contemporary cinema, as well as within the German literary canon.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn270\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref270\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>270<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Kafka, however, does so in order to deterritorialize imagined indigeneity:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Wenn man doch ein Indianer w\u00e4re, gleich bereit, und auf dem rennenden Pferde, schief in der Luft, immer wieder kurz erzitterte \u00fcber dem zitternden Boden, bis man die Sporen lie\u00df, denn es gab keine Sporen, bis man die Z\u00fcgel wegwarf, denn es gab keine Z\u00fcgel, und kaum das Land vor sich als glatt gem\u00e4hte Heide sah, schon ohne Pferdehals und Pferdekopf.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn271\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref271\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>271<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">If one were only an Indian, instantly alert, and on a racing horse, leaning against the wind, kept on quivering jerkily over the quivering ground, until one shed one\u2019s spurs, for there needed no spurs, threw away the reins, for there needed no reins, and hardly saw that the land before one was smoothly shorn heath when horse\u2019s neck and head would be already gone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Omitting personal pronouns and quoting cinematic stagings of \u201cthe Indian,\u201d the text explores the relationship between figure and surrounding. Kafka thus reflects on the act of projection, just as his text can be read as a rhetorical mimesis of a tracking shot. By shattering the visual frame of contemporary westerns and liquidating the figure of the native, the text abandons control of the reins. As it transforms trembling ground into a smoothly mown heath<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>a homely landscape<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>it stages a kind of becoming environmental that resists the romanticization of \u201cwild\u201d life. In relation to Kafka\u2019s portrayal of Yiddish as jar&#173;gon, the form of his <em>Indian<\/em> text performs the very deterritorializing movement of language it describes. Kafka\u2019s becoming-Indian thus defigures imagined indigeneity.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn272\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref272\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>272<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> By letting referentiality go astray, his text challenges self-&#173;assuring projections onto rootedness in one\u2019s environment and simultaneously highlights the particular situatedness of the imagined elsewhere it evokes.<\/p>\n<p>Citing him without quotation marks, that is, without indicating, Deleuze translated Kafka\u2019s engagement with language into the notion of a nomadic becoming-minoritarian.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn273\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref273\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>273<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In a short 1973 text, <em>Pens\u00e9e nomade<\/em> (\u201cNomad Thought\u201d), Deleuze evokes modes of writing that aim less at signification than at deterritorializing affects.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn274\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref274\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>274<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Such modes of writing, he suggests<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>implicitly drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin\u2019s notion of the carnival<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>are linked to a Dionysian, contagious, transgressive culture of laughter.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn275\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref275\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>275<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In <em>A Thousand Plateaus<\/em> (1980), Deleuze and Guattari describe nomadic thinking as a practice of thinking in flight lines of becoming, a thinking in transversal deterritorializations, a rhizomatic thinking that not only gestures beyond points of origin, but also beyond their deconstructions.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn276\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref276\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>276<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Glissant in turn quotes these reflections on the rhizomatic and the nomadic<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>again without explicit references<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>in his readings of Caribbean literature. He transposes them into a reflection on cultural techniques indebted to concrete processes of creolization and located in the Black Atlantic. Provincializing Deleuze and Guattari, he thus gives their thinking a correspondingly materialist twist<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn277\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref277\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>277<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>foregrounding, against the backdrop of a world long since creolized, the aftereffects of colonial violence. Anti-identitarian transfigurative cultural techniques, then, are not confined to twentieth-century artistic or mass cultural developments. For Glissant, a writer committed to thinking through transversal relations rather than clearly definable notions of rootedness haunted by fantasies of purity, they are prefigured in the cultural techniques of the enslaved<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>those forced during the Middle Passage to forge a creolized language from dislocated and untraceable fragments, from rags so to speak, in order to communicate despite of mutual incomprehension.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn278\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref278\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>278<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Benjamin\u2019s and Kafka\u2019s understandings of language can be linked to questions of political history and to the emergence of transoceanic modes of relation due to forced migration. Kafka\u2019s nomadic, deterritorializing writing and Benjamin\u2019s call for a new barbarism transpose mass cultural forms<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>forms that themselves negotiate processes of creolization through the quotation of blackface or reflexive figurations of indigeneity<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>into texts that reject territorial terror. Their work evokes the destructive violence of World War&#160;I (Benjamin) and movements of flight from antisemitic violence sedimented in language (Kafka). These texts are thus not merely concerned with a particular theory of language, but with mobilizing its political potential against the afterlives of political violence and the identitarian epistemes that sustain it. They demonstrate that modern mass culture cannot be reduced to either the containment and commodification of the represented<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as in <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>or to racist caricature, as in minstrel shows. Even when evoking stereotypes, these texts do justice to transfigurative, deterritorializing, nomadic forms of relating.<\/p>\n<p>Read alongside Glissant, the potential for alliance among such related yet specifically situated intellectual movements and cultural techniques becomes evident: they show how to do without phantasms of rootedness and linear genealogies, and to assert instead the right to assemble <em>tout-monde<\/em>. Here, the <em>oddkinship<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>borrowing Donna Haraway\u2019s term<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>between creolized performative practices in the South African Cape and deterritorializing modes of writing in Central Europe comes into view.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn279\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref279\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>279<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Glissant explores the history of creolization under colonial conditions in the Black Atlantic; in Benjamin\u2019s notion of the new barbarism, similar figures of thought arise in response to the trauma of industrialized, mass-destructive war; in Kafka\u2019s writing, they recall the history of antisemitism and forced migration within Europe. Beyond their specific local and historical contexts, the nonidentitarian, nomadic epistemes emerging from these perspectives evoke an unforeseeable potential for transoceanic solidarity<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an alternative to the violence of divide and rule.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn280\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref280\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>280<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"4\">Exoticisms (Revue)<\/h4>\n<p>Around the time the Nazis exploited the quotation of blackface in Krenek\u2019s <em>Jonny spielt auf<\/em> as a sign of the supposed world conspiracy of cultural Bolshevism and Judaism during the summer of 1938, and orchestrated the November Pogrom as an escalation of antisemitic boycotts into open violence, a comic revue took place in Berlin from February&#160;19 to March&#160;6. It was a modern entertainment spectacle attuned to its time and a countermodel to the minstrel show<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an updated form of colonial racism. Directed by Wolf V\u00f6lker with musical arrangements by Joe Rixner, and performed by the Deutschlandhalle orchestra under Karl St\u00e4cker, the revue accompanied the Internationale Automobilausstellung (International Motor Show) as a demonstration of German technical prowess. Traces of it remain today in the collection of stage designer Traugott M\u00fcller in the archive of the Institute of Theater Studies at the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn281\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref281\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>281<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Reportedly, 10,000 spectators filled the Deutschlandhalle\u2019s arena to see <em>Ki sua heli: mit 300 km\/h durch die Tropen<\/em> (Ki sua heli: through the tropics at 300 km\/h) on a 500-square-meter stage.<\/p>\n<p>The title played on the exoticism of early film and operetta. But this revue<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>centered on a fictional film expedition into the East African jungle<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>not only continued the popular pact of nineteenth-century operettas and chorus girl formations of contemporary mass spectacles and films<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the <em>M\u00e4dchenkomplexe<\/em><span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as described by Siegfried Kracauer.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn282\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref282\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>282<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> It also recalled the deep entanglement between industrial exhibitions and ethnological shows<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>the staging of hegemonic and colonized cultures.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn283\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref283\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>283<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> On the eve of World War&#160;II, and in the shadow of Germany\u2019s loss of its \u201cplace in the sun\u201d after World War&#160;I, the expedition narrative served as a kind of surrogate colonialism. As Susann Lewerenz has shown, it responded to fantasies of global mobility and exotic consumption.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn284\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref284\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>284<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In doing so, the revue referenced cinema, which by the early twentieth century had displaced the <em>V\u00f6lkerschauen<\/em> (human zoos) as the medium for presenting imagined foreign worlds to German audiences. These fictive geographies stood in marked contrast to the pejorative portrayals of globalized, nomadic modernity associated with blackface.<\/p>\n<p>The revue\u2019s program made no explicit mention of contemporary colonial discourse, though it did present Kiswahili as the \u201clingua franca of the whole of equatorial Africa.\u201d Yet from the very first scene<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span><em>Der unber\u00fchrte Urwald<\/em> (The untouched jungle)<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>colonial implications were unmistakable. This scene, staged through the \u201cstamping dance of the natives\u201d and the \u201cmask dance of the medicine men,\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn285\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref285\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>285<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> portrayed the jungle as territory awaiting colonization. According to one of the many newspaper reviews, white female dancers later appeared in a \u201cparade of tropical products,\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn286\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref286\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>286<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> presented like trophies. In response to the loss of the so-called \u201cGerman territories\u201d after World War&#160;I, the revue avoided naming any specific colony, yet ultimately laid claim to the entire continent through the white female allegorization of African resources.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn287\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref287\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>287<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> If creolized mass culture of the time was given a grotesque, zoomorphic face in the illustration for Ziegler\u2019s <em>Entartete Musik<\/em> exhibition, then the exoticism of this Africa revue served as a surrogate for both the \u201cJazz Republic\u201d (Wipplinger)<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn288\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref288\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>288<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> and the lost colonies. To that end, the revue staged a stark contrast between Black bodies<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>figured as natives<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>and the modern marvels of German technology.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn289\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref289\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>289<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The space for this celebrated \u201ccolonial revue\u201d had been designed by former \u201cshock troop leader\u201d and stage designer Traugott M\u00fcller,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn290\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref290\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>290<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> whose papers include numerous rehearsal photographs. Hans Hessling and Jupp Hussels took on the roles of adventurers and were initially positioned above the audience\u2019s heads, overlooking the stage and cracking jokes. The bird\u2019s-eye view, typical of colonial visual regimes, framed the scene from a position of dominance. The spectacle later culminated in a sensational scene in which the pilot Hanna Reitsch flew through the Deutschlandhalle in a Focke helicopter. Celebrating modern technology, <em>Ki sua heli<\/em> offered the illusion of national superiority and foreshadowed what entertainment cinema would fully realize by World War&#160;II<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>particularly in aviation films<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as a complement to Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s beginning of <em>Triumph of the Will<\/em>, her film on the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg: the ideologically charged perspective of the F\u00fchrer persona.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn291\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref291\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>291<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photo shows a Focke helicopter flying through a dark, illuminated hall. Below are an elephant and several costumed revue girls.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1775\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7366\" style=\"width:65%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-237x300.jpg 237w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-808x1024.jpg 808w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-118x150.jpg 118w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-768x974.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-1211x1536.jpg 1211w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/24_Hanna-Reitsch-durch-die-Deutschlandhalle-fliegend-copy-850x1078.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 24:<\/strong> Hanna Reitsch, flying through the Deutschlandhalle, <em>Ki sua heli, <\/em>Berlin, 1938. Traugott M\u00fcller Collection, Theaterhistorische Sammlungen of the Theater Studies Institute at the FU Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While Reitsch addressed an audience that explicitly included female <em>Volks&#173;genossen<\/em>, or \u201c<em>Volk<\/em>-comrades,\u201d at a time when the country was preparing for war,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn292\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref292\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>292<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Black German performers were cast as an exoticized backdrop. The staging of technology and colonialism were thus mutually dependent. Only Louis Brody, the best-known Black actor in Weimar film, was explicitly named in the program. Whereas the Black extras remained anonymous, he portrayed the role of Chief <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Bosambo<\/span>.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn293\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref293\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>293<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Before the Nazi seizure of power, Brody had publicly spoken out against the racist \u201cblack shame\u201d campaign, was involved in the founding of the Liga f\u00fcr Menschenrechte (League for Human Rights) and was considered a communist. During World War<em>&#160;<\/em>II, he appeared in anti-British colonial propaganda films such as <em>Ohm Kr\u00fcger<\/em> (1941), set during the South African Boer War, as well as in <em>Carl Peters<\/em> (1941) and <em>Germanin<\/em> (1943). And in the antisemitic Nazi counterpart to <em>The Birth of a Nation<\/em>, Veit Harlan\u2019s <em>Jud S\u00fc\u00df<\/em> (1940), Brody played the role of the Black subaltern. During the Weimar period, he had called himself Alcolson<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>presumably referencing both his alcohol consumption and the blackface actor Jolson. In <em>Ki sua heli<\/em>, he was marketed as a doppelg\u00e4nger of the American film star Paul Robeson, who had played another <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Bosambo <\/span>in Zoltan Korda\u2019s film <em>Sanders of the River<\/em> (1935).<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn294\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref294\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>294<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Brody\u2019s <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Bosambo<\/span>, however, remained a supporting character, and was listed solely as a singer in the program booklet, and was thus separated from the main protagonists of the plot.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display:flex; gap:20px; justify-content:center; align-items:flex-start; flex-wrap:nowrap; margin-bottom:20px;\">\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/25_Afrika-Darstellende-Probenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938.jpg\"\n         alt=\"A black-and-white photo shows six people in men\u2019s suits standing beside a totem pole in a hall.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 25:<\/strong> Rehearsal photo, <em>Ki sua heli, <\/em>Deutschlandhalle Berlin, 1938. Traugott M\u00fcller Collection, Theaterhistorische Sammlungen of the Theater Studies Institute at the FU Berlin.<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"display:table; margin:0; flex:0 0 auto;\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/26_Revue-Girls-Probenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938.jpg\"\n         alt=\"A black-and-white photo shows revue girls in feather costumes dancing around two totem poles in a hall.\"\n         style=\"height:420px; width:auto; display:block;\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption-text\" style=\"display:table-caption; caption-side:bottom; margin-top:6px;\">\n      <strong>Figure 26:<\/strong> Rehearsal photo, <em>Ki sua heli, <\/em>Deutschlandhalle Berlin, 1938. Traugott M\u00fcller Collection, Theaterhistorische Sammlungen of the Theater Studies Institute at the FU Berlin.<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The reviews and the program booklet remained largely silent about who appeared in <em>Ki sua heli<\/em> as \u201cnatives\u201d performing so-called African war, mask, and sword dances.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn295\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref295\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>295<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> One article claimed that, for the first time, \u201cV\u00f6lkerkunde,\u201d that is, ethnology, had assisted in a revue; totem poles, palm trees, and chattering Hagenbeck flamingos surrounded the stage, serving to place \u201cus in a \u201cjungle mood.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn296\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref296\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>296<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The totems<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>resembling torture poles and supposedly referencing East African carving art<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>more likely evoked the expressionist-inflected reception of \u201cprimitivism\u201d from the period before the Nazi seizure of power. The headdresses of the African figures, meanwhile, apparently wrapped in brightly colored cloths, seemed to recall the feathered ornaments of stereotypical \u201cIndians\u201d in nineteenth-century Wild West shows or contemporary western films. Appearing half-naked, they visually echoed the 120 equally nameless, feathered white revue girls of the ballet company. As choral figures on the periphery, they exposed the superimposition of gender and colonial political hierarchies.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn297\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref297\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>297<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The staging of African indigeneity came across as rather ambivalent, as suggested between the lines of the feature pages. J.&#160;M\u00fcller-Marein, for example, describes \u201cnegro groups\u201d that, as he writes, \u201chave been living in Germany for a long time but have lost nothing of the exoticism of their tropical homeland.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn298\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref298\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>298<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The article implies that those representing Africa were part of the German population. Another piece claims there were fifty-six people from Berlin, Hamburg, and other German cities who would present \u201cthe wild dances of their homeland.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn299\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref299\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>299<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> Yet rehearsal photographs from Traugott M\u00fcller\u2019s papers show them in street clothes, clearly identifying them as urban German residents.<\/p>\n<p>By 1938, Jews had long been excluded from the stage. \u201cEach group that the Nazis subjected to their peculiar \u2018racial\u2019 gaze,\u201d as Robbie Aitken and Eve Rosenhaft write regarding the paradoxical situation of the Black German population under Nazi rule, \u201chad its own history of social negotiations around \u2018otherness\u2019 and of cultural racialization, and those histories informed the way that they were treated in practice.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn300\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref300\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>300<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The contradictions between racist segregationist agendas on the one hand and colonial revisionist interests within parts of the Nazi apparatus on the other resulted in an arbitrary, flexible treatment of the Black population by the authorities. Policy fluctuated between deportation plans and restrictions on emigration, yet over the course of World War&#160;II, it became increasingly radicalized.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn301\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref301\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>301<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 deepened the precarious position of Black Germans, pushing them further into roles as African extras. As people were declared stateless and excluded from the legal system, prevailing gender policies<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>tied to miscegenation discourses about so-called racial shame<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>increasingly led to forced sterilizations in the second half of the 1930s.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn302\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref302\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>302<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> In the 1940s, some Black Germans were deported to concentration camps or confined in psychiatric institutions. As Aitken and Rosenhaft note: \u201cin official thinking and practice there was a progressive assimilation of Blacks to a global category of \u2018racial aliens\u2019 subject to removal without any separate rationale and without regard to historical, sentimental or foreign-policy considerations.\u201d<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn303\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref303\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>303<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nazi entertainment and propaganda thus inverted what Rogin outlines in <em>The Jazz Singer<\/em>. Jews were not gradually whitened and integrated into dominant society; rather, exclusionary policies that had once been unimaginable were tested on fellow citizens<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>from the performance bans and exclusion from public service in 1933, to the loss of citizenship rights in 1935, to expropriation and exclusion from public life in 1938, and finally, from 1941 onward, to deportation and industrial extermination. Ostracism was gradually extended to further categories of othered groups, including the Black German population. Work opportunities for them were increasingly restricted to colonially coded jobs such as selling tropical fruit, caring for animals at the zoo, or other precarious but exoticizing labor,<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn304\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref304\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>304<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> while the supposed African performers in <em>Ki sua heli<\/em> were assigned an intermediate status as minor choral figures, closer to stage decoration<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>somewhere between the revue girls and the animals from the Hagenbeck Zoo. These extras were thus rendered zoomorphic<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>not, however, to expose the supposedly degenerate face of a culture dominated by Jewish-Bolshevik world conspiracy, as indicated on the cover of Ziegler\u2019s <em>Abrechnung,<\/em> with its blackface figure as a signifier of \u201cdegenerate\u201d music. Rather, they were staged to stand in for an African premodernity<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as a counterimage to German technological mastery. In <em>Ki sua heli<\/em>, this counterimage was foundational to the fiction of the <em>Volksgemeinschaft<\/em>, the ethnonational community.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938.jpg\" alt=\"A black-and-white photo shows a group of five people sitting in a small round hut with a thatched roof. A hall is visible in the background.\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1023\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7369\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938-1024x748.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938-150x110.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938-768x561.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/27_Pausenfoto-Ki-sua-heli-Deutschlandhalle-Berlin-1938-850x621.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Abbildung 27:<\/strong> Intermission photo, <em>Ki sua heli, <\/em>Deutschlandhalle Berlin, 1938. Traugott M\u00fcller Collection, Theaterhistorische Sammlungen of the Theater Studies Institute at the FU Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The rehearsal photos found in the Traugott M\u00fcller collection are a reminder of what the propagandistic stage spectacle had to conceal. Curious and perhaps slightly surprised at being photographed, three children, along with an older and a younger woman<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>each dressed in everyday local street clothes<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>look up toward the camera, which captures them from a diagonal angle. They are positioned inside a painted hut, part of M\u00fcller\u2019s jungle stage design. Their names may no longer be traceable, but their image speaks to what the spectacle itself left out. They likely did not appear in <em>Ki sua heli<\/em> at all and at most worked backstage, since their very presence contradicted the neat division between Blacks performing Africans and a white, modern \u201cmaster race.\u201d Perhaps the people depicted in the photograph were relatives of the male extras.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn305\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref305\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>305<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> The photo bears witness to the existence of a part of the German population that the revue\u2019s visual politics worked to erase<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>gradually rendering the grotesque hypervisibility of blackface in Nazi propaganda obsolete. Probably taken during a rehearsal break, the image brings into view something other than personifications of a continent supposedly without any history.<span class=\"Hochgestellt\"><span><a href=\"#fn306\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref306\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>306<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span> It reveals that Nazi Germany had long since been creolized<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>to paraphrase Glissant, that colonization had led to reverse migration and, especially in urban centers, had produced everyday relational modes of amalgamation that developed independently of imported US popular culture. The exoticization of the supposed \u201cother\u201d in a jungle setting was itself precarious, as the photo makes clear. While contrasting the Weimar era creolization of mass culture, the staging of <em>Ki sua heli <\/em>was nonetheless shaped by the nomadic dynamics the Nazis sought to deny.<\/p>\n<p>In this respect, Braun\u2019s blackface in drag, the promotion of the <em>Entartete Musik<\/em> exhibition, and the photograph of anonymous people described here form a constellation that challenges us to explore the complexity of political histories of violence and their resulting visual politics. In the case of the revue, Nazi depictions of Africa were determined by the ideological charge of native blood and soil that accompanied the invention of an Aryan, Germanic modernity. The theatricalization of African natives and the performative production of the national community were thus complementary forms of Nazi propaganda, intended to banish the nomadic, creolized signature of the present.<\/p>\n<h4>Endnotes<\/h4>\n<hr>\n<ol start=\"189\">\n<li id=\"fn189\">\n<p>The caption plays with the rhetorical figure of giving a face; on rhetorical face-giving, see Menke, <em>Prosopopoiia, <\/em>2000; see also Chase, <em>Giving a Face to a Name<\/em>, 1986: 82<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>112 (in <em>Decomposing Figures<\/em>); de Man, <em>Autobiography<\/em>, 1979; Hamacher, <em>Unlesbarkeit<\/em>, 1988, as well as Annu\u00df, <em>Elfriede Jelinek, <\/em>2005.<a href=\"#fnref189\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn190\">\n<p>For prominent criticism of the film, see Rogin, <em>Blackface, White Noise, <\/em>1996; in contrast, see the readings by Chude-Sokei, <em>The Last \u201cDarky,\u201d <\/em>2006: 97<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>104; Kelman, \u201cAcoustic Culture,\u201d 2006; Lhamon, <em>Raising Cain, <\/em>1998: 102<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>115.<a href=\"#fnref190\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn191\">\n<p>See, with a focus on instituting the figure of the people, Laclau, <em>On Populist Reason<\/em>, 2005. On the current right-wing construction of equivalential chains, see, for the German-speaking context, Wielowiejski, \u201cIdentitarian Gays,\u201d 2020; see also the other articles in Dietze and Roth, <em>Right-Wing Populism and Gender<\/em>, 2020; Dietze, <em>Sexueller Exzeptionalismus<\/em>, 2019.<a href=\"#fnref191\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn192\">\n<p>Adorno and Horkheimer, <em>Dialektik der Aufkl\u00e4rung, <\/em>1969: 196\/<em>Dialectic of Enlightenment, <\/em>2002: 137.<a href=\"#fnref192\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn193\">\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestranger.com\/slog\/archives\/2011\/03\/09\/eva-braun-in-blackface\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/www.thestranger.com\/slog\/archives\/2011\/03\/09\/eva-braun-in-blackface<\/span><\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/blogpost\/post\/eva-braun-in-\u00adnever-before-seen-images-creepily-even-intimately-familiar\/2011\/03\/14\/ABBHLiU_blog.html\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/blogpost\/post\/eva-braun-in-&#173;never-before-seen-images-creepily-even-intimately-familiar\/2011\/03\/14\/ABBHLiU_blog.html<\/span><\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/eva-braun-in-blackface\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/news\/articles\/eva-braun-in-blackface<\/span><\/a>, accessed September 5, 2024.<a href=\"#fnref193\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn194\">\n<p>See photo archive Heinrich Hoffmann, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: <a href=\"https:\/\/bildarchiv.bsb-muenchen.de\/metaopac\/search?id=bildarchiv13167&amp;View=bildarchiv\">https:\/\/bildarchiv.bsb-muenchen.de\/metaopac\/search?id=bildarchiv13167&amp;View=bildarchiv<\/a>, accessed September 5, 2024.<a href=\"#fnref194\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn195\">\n<p>See Hoffmann\u2019s complementary series of postcards taken around the same time, which show the future F\u00fchrer rehearsing his gestures like in a silent movie (Herz, <em>Hoffmann und Hitler, <\/em>1994: 92<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>137) and illustrate what Bertolt Brecht called <em>the theatricality of fascism <\/em>(Brecht, GBA 22.1: 561<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>569).<a href=\"#fnref195\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn196\">\n<p>For the biography of Eva Braun, who became a photo lab assistant at the Heinrich Hoffmann Studio at the age of 17, see G\u00f6rtemaker, <em>Eva Braun, <\/em>2010.<a href=\"#fnref196\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn197\">\n<p>On European creolization, see Guti\u00e9rrez Rodr\u00edguez and Tate, <em>Creolizing Europe, <\/em>2015; Guti\u00e9rrez Rodr\u00edguez, \u201cArchipelago,\u201d 2015.<a href=\"#fnref197\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn198\">\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.archives.gov\/id\/124034694\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/catalog.archives.gov\/id\/124034694<\/span><\/a>, accessed September 5, 2024. The picture is placed after photographs of a New Year\u2019s Eve party in 1931\/32, in which Hitler can also be seen, and before Braun\u2019s earliest vacation pictures from the 1920s. The photos are thus not organized chronologically. Moreover, unlike the other photos, the shot \u201cas Al Jolson\u201d is not a snapshot and is apparently the only one that shows Braun \u201cin carnival costume.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref198\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn199\">\n<p>See, for example, the cover of Guido Kreutzer\u2019s 1921 <em>Die schwarze Schmach: Roman f\u00fcr das gef\u00e4hrdete Deutschland<\/em>. Available at <a href=\"https:\/\/img.ricardostatic.ch\/images\/8fe14269-ebb8-4344-becb-9ec37aea5b0f\/t_1000x750\/die-schwarze-schmach-g-kreutzer-1921\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/img.ricardostatic.ch\/images\/8fe14269-ebb8-4344-becb-9ec37aea5b0f\/t_1000x750\/die-schwarze-schmach-g-kreutzer-1921<\/span><\/a>, accessed September&#160;11, 2024. <a href=\"#fnref199\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn200\">\n<p>On the history of Jewish migration and blackface in the context of a new US mass culture, see Slobin, \u201cPutting Blackface in Its Place,\u201d 2003.<a href=\"#fnref200\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn201\">\n<p>See Lott, <em>Love and Theft, <\/em>1993; see also the shift in emphasis from his critique of appropriation to the thesis of the \u201ctheatricalization of race\u201d in <em>Black Mirror, <\/em>2017: 7.<a href=\"#fnref201\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn202\">\n<p>On the analogization of Slavic and Black populations in Nazi colonial discourse and its prefiguration in European Orientalism, see Snyder, <em>Black Earth, <\/em>2016.<a href=\"#fnref202\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn203\">\n<p>Laclau, <em>On Populist Reason, <\/em>2005: 105.<a href=\"#fnref203\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn204\">\n<p>Laclau, <em>On Populist Reason, <\/em>2005: 101.<a href=\"#fnref204\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn205\">\n<p>Rogin, <em>Blackface, White Noise, <\/em>1996: 95. Lhamon questions this appropriation as replacement discourse and instead outlines the accumulation of doubles in the film; <em>Raising Cain, <\/em>1998: 102<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>115.<a href=\"#fnref205\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn206\">\n<p>On the historicization of German-occidental whiteness, see Hund, <em>Wie die Deutschen wei\u00df wurden, <\/em>2017; Benthien, <em>Haut, <\/em>2001:172<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>194. See also the critique of critical whiteness discourse from the German-speaking left-wing, postmigrant Kanak Attak: Ibrahim et al., \u201cDecolorise It!,\u201d 2012; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.akweb.de\/bewegung\/diskussion-um-critical-whiteness-und-antirassismus-decolorise-it\/\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/www.akweb.de\/bewegung\/diskussion-um-critical-whiteness-und-antirassismus-decolorise-it\/<\/span><\/a>, accessed September&#160;11, 2024.<a href=\"#fnref206\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn207\">\n<p>See Lhamon, <em>Raising Cain, <\/em>1998: 105<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>106. The song lyrics contrast the plot in which <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jackie Rabinowitz <\/span>is disowned by his father because of his love for what is sold in the movie as ragtime. <a href=\"#fnref207\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn208\">\n<p>Lhamon on T. D. Rice, <em>Jump Jim Crow, <\/em>2003: 3.<a href=\"#fnref208\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn209\">\n<p>Senelick, <em>Changing Room, <\/em>2000.<a href=\"#fnref209\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn210\">\n<p>On Rice, see Annu\u00df, \u201cBlackface,\u201d 2014. On the <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">harlequin<\/span>\u2019s erratic form of performance in opposition to new modes of discipline, see M\u00fcnz, <em>Theater und Theatralit\u00e4t, <\/em>1998: 62.<a href=\"#fnref210\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn211\">\n<p>See Lott, <em>Love and Theft, <\/em>1993: 20<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>21; however, the complementary representation of the Virginia Serenaders does not operate in a proto-Brechtian, reflexively alienating sense<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>as Lott suggests<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>but rather functions as a mode of evidence production. On the metaphor of theft and metalepsy, see Nyong\u2019o: \u201cminstrelsy \u2026 heisted an image of blackness that did not exist prior to its theft but that was constituted through this theft.\u201d See <em>Amalgamation Waltz, <\/em>2009: 112.<a href=\"#fnref211\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn212\">\n<p>On the visuality of dramatic representations, see Heeg, \u201cSzenen,\u201d 1999; see also <em>Das Phantasma, <\/em>2000. <a href=\"#fnref212\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn213\">\n<p>Weigel, \u201cDas Gesicht als Artefakt,\u201d 2013: 11.<a href=\"#fnref213\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn214\">\n<p>For criticism of <em>The Birth of a Nation<\/em>, see Dyer, \u201cInto the Light,\u201d 1996; Gubar, <em>Racechanges, <\/em>1997: 57<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>66; Gunning, <em>D.<\/em>&#160;<em>W. Griffith<\/em>, 1994. <a href=\"#fnref214\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn215\">\n<p>On the <em>affection-image<\/em> as close-up, see Deleuze, <em>Cinema 1: The Movement-&#173;Image<\/em>, 1997: 87<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>101. See also Deleuze and Guattari, <em>A Thousand Plateaus <\/em>(1987): \u201cThe inhuman in human beings: that is what the face is from the start. It is by nature a close-up\u201d (170<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>171); on the face of the star as close-up (241); on the white horror face<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>in a subliminal reference to blackface as its flipside (190). The gendering of face and blackface, however, is left out here.<a href=\"#fnref215\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn216\">\n<p>See Bauman, <em>Retrotopia, <\/em>2017. On pullback and temporal drag, see again Freeman, <em>Time Binds, <\/em>2010: 62; in \u201cBlackface from Time to Time,\u201d 2025, Lott inverts Freeman\u2019s reading with reference to the use of blackface pervaded with nostalgia for the plantation.<a href=\"#fnref216\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn217\">\n<p>For T. D. Rice\u2019s <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Jim Crow<\/span>, see Lhamon, <em>Raising Cain, <\/em>1998: 106.<a href=\"#fnref217\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn218\">\n<p>See Butler, <em>Gender Trouble<\/em>, 1990: 146. Lott refers to the contradictory readings of gender and color bending in <em>Black Mirror, <\/em>2017: 9. <a href=\"#fnref218\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn219\">\n<p>This is taken from Pierre de R\u00e9gnier\u2019s newspaper review \u201cAux Champs-Elys\u00e9e, La Revue N\u00e8gre,\u201d published on November&#160;12, 1925 on page 6 of <em>Candide: Grand Hebdomadaire Parisien et Litt\u00e9raire <\/em>2:87; cited here from Dayal, \u201cBlackness as Symptom,\u201d 2012: 35, see also Baker and Chase, <em>Josephine, <\/em>2001: 5, as well as the memoirs of her illustrator Paul Colin, who describes Baker as \u201cpart boxer kangoroo [<em>sic<\/em>], part rubber woman, part female Tarzan\u201d (cited in the introduction to Dalton and Gates, <em>Josephine Baker, <\/em>1998: 9; for the French original, see Colin, <em>La Cro\u00fbte, <\/em>1957: 74). On the dual character of projection and self-staging, see Cheng, <em>Second Skin, <\/em>2013; Hanstein, \u201cRevue und Recherche,\u201d 2021; Jules-Rosette, <em>Josephine Baker, <\/em>2007. On Baker and drag, see Garber, <em>Vested Interests, <\/em>1992: 279<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>281.<a href=\"#fnref219\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn220\">\n<p>On the mimetic capacity of resembling, see Benjamin arguing that a child does not just pretend to be a merchant or a teacher, but also a windmill or a railroad; \u201cOn the Mimetic Faculty,\u201d 2007: 333<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>336, on 333\/\u201c\u00dcber das mimetische Verm\u00f6gen,\u201d II.1, 1991: 210<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>213, on 210; see also \u201cDoctrine of the Similar (1933),\u201d 1979: 65<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>69\/\u201cLehre vom \u00c4hnlichen,\u201d II.1, 1991: 204<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>210. For a differing view embedded in critical race studies, i. e., on racist animalizations as \u201cdisavowed recognition,\u201d see Jackson, <em>Becoming Human, <\/em>2020: viii<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>xi, 681; \u201cAnimal,\u201d 2013: 681.<a href=\"#fnref220\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn221\">\n<p>Cheng, <em>Second Skin, <\/em>2013: 172. On Baker, see also the third chapter, \u201cSavage Dancer,\u201d in Burt, <em>Alien Bodies, <\/em>1998: 57<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>83; and on the quotation of African American minstrel tropes: 66. <a href=\"#fnref221\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn222\">\n<p>See Kaes, <em>Shell Shock Cinema<\/em>, 2009; see also Annu\u00df, \u201cIn the Air,\u201d 2024<em>.<\/em><a href=\"#fnref222\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn223\">\n<p>Cheng, <em>Second Skin, <\/em>2013: 70. See also Dayal: \u201cBaker embodied blackness as a symptom of the modern European subject\u201d; \u201cBlackness as Symptom,\u201d 2012: 36.<a href=\"#fnref223\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn224\">\n<p>On Baker\u2019s decidedly antiessentialist Rainbow Tribe, her children adopted from all over the world, and the emotional costs for those involved, see Pratt Guterl, <em>Josephine Baker, <\/em>2014; on her biography, see also Horncastle, <em>Baker, <\/em>2020.<a href=\"#fnref224\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn225\">\n<p>On amalgamation as mixing, extracting, and transforming, from a perspective that counters simple notions of hybridity, see Nyong\u2019o, <em>Amalgamation Waltz, <\/em>2009: 74, 83; see also Cockrell, \u201cJim Crow,\u201d 1996: 178.<a href=\"#fnref225\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn226\">\n<p>\u201cThe \u201cmessage\u201d of the figurations of the \u201charlequin principle\u201d consisted solely in their appearance<em>, <\/em>according to M\u00fcnz, <em>Theater und Theatralit\u00e4t, <\/em>1998: 62; their typical move was the jump<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>an indication of insubordination. On Baker\u2019s creolized dancing, see preliminary considerations in Annu\u00df, \u201cRacisms and Representation,\u201d 2024.<a href=\"#fnref226\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn227\">\n<p>See the illustrations in Cheng, <em>Second Skin, <\/em>2013: 40<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>41. On Bert Williams\u2019s blackface, see Chude-Sokei, <em>The Last \u201cDarky,\u201d <\/em>2006. See also Frederick Douglass\u2019s ambi&#173;valent description of a minstrel show in which Black performers appear in burnt cork; \u201cGavitt\u2019s Original Ethiopian Serenaders,\u201d <em>North Star<\/em>, June&#160;29, 1849. See also Lott, <em>Love and Theft, <\/em>1993: 36<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>37.<a href=\"#fnref227\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn228\">\n<p>On the history of the <em>V\u00f6lkerschauen<\/em>, see Lewerenz, <em>Die Deutsche Afrika-Schau, <\/em>2006: 65<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>86; Andreassen, <em>Human Exhibitions, <\/em>2015.<a href=\"#fnref228\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn229\">\n<p>On creolized dance forms using the example of the Cake Walk, see Kusser, <em>K\u00f6rper in Schieflage<\/em>, 2013: 437.<a href=\"#fnref229\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn230\">\n<p>Wipplinger, <em>Jazz Republic, <\/em>2017.<a href=\"#fnref230\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn231\">\n<p>Balme, <em>Theatrical Public Sphere<\/em>, 2014. On Baker\u2019s reception in the context of National Socialism, see Alonzo and Martin, <em>Stechschritt, <\/em>2004: 274<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>291, especially Dorgerloh, \u201cZwischen Bananenr\u00f6ckchen.\u201d<a href=\"#fnref231\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn232\">\n<p>\u201cJosephine verboten,\u201d <em>Die Stunde, <\/em>February&#160;19, 1929: 7.<a href=\"#fnref232\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn233\">\n<p>See on <em>Jonny spielt auf, <\/em>Rogge, <em>Ernst Kreneks Opern, <\/em>1970, on the Munich scandal: 65<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>66; Wipplinger, \u201cPerforming Race,\u201d 2012; on the reception in Nazi Germany Alonzo and Martin, <em>Stechschritt, <\/em>2004: 292<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>315, esp. D\u00fcmling, \u201cErnst Kreneks Oper\u201d: 314. On the similar Viennese reception by the composer Julius Korngold, who migrated to the United States in 1934, see his article \u201cOperntheater\u201d in <em>Neue Freie Presse<\/em>, January&#160;1, 1928: 1<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>3. <a href=\"#fnref233\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn234\">\n<p>For the specific role of Munich, see Bauer et al., <em>M\u00fcnchen, <\/em>2002.<a href=\"#fnref234\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn235\">\n<p>On music and the use of shimmy figures, see Wipplinger, \u201cPerforming Race,\u201d 2012.<a href=\"#fnref235\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn236\">\n<p><em>Jonny spielt auf, <\/em>1926: 51.<a href=\"#fnref236\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn237\">\n<p>On the proximity of the medieval jester figure and the dance of death, see also Mezger, <em>Hofnarren im Mittelalter, <\/em>1981.<a href=\"#fnref237\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn238\">\n<p>On the prehistory of blackface in the German context, see Bowersox, \u201cBlackface and Black Faces,\u201d 2024; Gerstner, <em>Inszenierte Inbesitznahme, <\/em>2017.<a href=\"#fnref238\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn239\">\n<p>On the more than 500 performances, see Wipplinger, \u201cPerforming Race,\u201d 2012: on 236. He attributes the prominent reception of<em> Jonny <\/em>to Krenek\u2019s play with the ambivalence between blackface and blackness.<a href=\"#fnref239\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn240\">\n<p>In German: \u201ckomischen steifen Hut auf dem Kopf.\u201d Krenek, <em>Jonny spielt auf, <\/em>1926: 10.<a href=\"#fnref240\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn241\">\n<p>On Ziegler, see D\u00fcmling, \u201cHexensabbat,\u201d 2011: esp. 192, 194<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>195; D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik, <\/em>1988: 144<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>145<em>. <\/em>See also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ziegler.rosa-winkel.de\/\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">http:\/\/www.ziegler.rosa-winkel.de\/<\/span><\/a>, accessed September&#160;11, 2024. For the decree, see the official gazette of the Th\u00fcringisches &#173;Ministerium f\u00fcr Volksbildung (Thuringian Ministry of National Education), April&#160;22, 1930, reprinted in D\u00fcmling, \u201cHexensabbat,\u201d 2011: 193.<a href=\"#fnref241\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn242\">\n<p>The Propaganda Ministry used <em>Entartete Musik<\/em> to dissolve the previous professional association, the <em>Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein<\/em>, replacing the <em>Tonk\u00fcnstlerfeste<\/em> it had organized with the <em>Reichsmusiktage<\/em>, thereby asserting itself against the interests of Alfred Rosenberg and Hermann G\u00f6ring in the internal competition over music policy within the Nazi regime; see D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik<\/em>, 1988, 118. See also Prieberg, <em>Musik im NS-Staat<\/em>, 1989. On the general chaos of competition within Nazism, see Bollmus, <em>Das Amt Rosenberg<\/em>, 1970. On the <em>Entartete Kunst<\/em> exhibition, see Hecker, \u201cKunststadt,\u201d in Bauer et al., <em>M\u00fcnchen<\/em>, 2002, 310<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>316, on 314<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>316.<a href=\"#fnref242\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn243\">\n<p>In German: \u201cseelischen Versklavung und einer geistigen Vergiftung.\u201d Ziegler, <em>Abrechnung, <\/em>1938; published in D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik, <\/em>1988: 127<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>143, on 129.<a href=\"#fnref243\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn244\">\n<p>In German: \u201cFerment der Dekomposition.\u201d Ziegler, <em>Abrechnung, <\/em>1938; in D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik, <\/em>1988: 129.<a href=\"#fnref244\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn245\">\n<p>Ziegler, <em>Abrechnung, <\/em>1938; in D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik, <\/em>1988: 133.<a href=\"#fnref245\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn246\">\n<p>On the relevance of sound for early Nazi propaganda, see Annu\u00df, <em>Volksschule, <\/em>2019: 73<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>126; \u201cGemeinschaftssound,\u201d 2015.<a href=\"#fnref246\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn247\">\n<p>See Ziegler, <em>Wer war Hitler?, <\/em>1970.<a href=\"#fnref247\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn248\">\n<p>In German: \u201c<em>Stilgef\u00fchl und<\/em> \u2026 <em>Geschmack<\/em>.\u201d Ziegler quoted in D\u00fcmling and Girth, <em>Entartete Musik, <\/em>1988: 145.<a href=\"#fnref248\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn249\">\n<p>On the significance of the saxophone on the advertising poster, see Wipplinger, <em>Jazz Republic, <\/em>2017: 127<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>128. The reproduction of Colin\u2019s lithographs can be found in Lahs-Gonzales, <em>Josephine Baker, <\/em>2006: 13.<a href=\"#fnref249\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn250\">\n<p>See the introduction by Dalton and Gates, \u201cJosephine Baker,\u201d 1998: 4<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>12.<a href=\"#fnref250\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn251\">\n<p>See D\u00fcmling, \u201cJonny,\u201d 2004: 191.<a href=\"#fnref251\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn252\">\n<p>Benjamin, with reference to Scheerbart, \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 733. In German: \u201cZug zum willk\u00fcrlichen Konstruktiven.\u201d Benjamin \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991, 216. In contrast, see the Nazi discourse on the Jewish \u201cmixed race\u201d and the ethnologically justified notion of the rootless bastard; see the corresponding propaganda material in Alonzo and Martin, <em>Stechschritt<\/em>, 2004, esp. 376<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>377.<a href=\"#fnref252\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn253\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 732. In German: \u201ckarnevalistisch vermummte Spie\u00dfb\u00fcrger, mehlbest\u00e4ubte verzerrte Masken, Flitterkronen \u00fcber der Stirne, w\u00e4lzen sich unabsehbar die Gassen entlang\u201d; man m\u00fcsse \u201can die gro\u00dfartigen Gem\u00e4lde von Ensor denken, auf denen ein Spuk die Stra\u00dfen gro\u00dfer St\u00e4dte\u201d erf\u00fclle. Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 215. On James Ensor\u2019s paintings, see Becks-&#173;Malorny, <em>James Ensor<\/em>, 2016.<a href=\"#fnref253\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn254\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 732. In German: \u201cAstrologie und Yogaweisheit, Christian Science und Chiromantie, Vegetarianismus und Gnosis, Scholastik und Spiritismus.\u201d Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 214. What Benjamin barely hinted at were the gender and colonial dimensions of the general lack of experience he described.<a href=\"#fnref254\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn255\">\n<p>Benjamin, Experience and Poverty, 2005, 732. In German: der Kehrseite einer zerst\u00f6rerischen \u201cEntfaltung der Technik.\u201d Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 215. <a href=\"#fnref255\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn256\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 215; \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 732.<a href=\"#fnref256\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn257\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 214; Benjamin, \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 732.<a href=\"#fnref257\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn258\">\n<p>See Annu\u00df, \u201cIn the Air,\u201d 2024; with regard to Brecht, see Kirsch, \u201cFatzers Aggregate,\u201d 2016; with reference to Sloterdijk\u2019s discussion of \u201cAtmoterror,\u201d <em>Luftbeben, <\/em>2002.<a href=\"#fnref258\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn259\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 218<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>219; \u201cExperience and Poverty,\u201d 2005, 735.<a href=\"#fnref259\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn260\">\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/steamboat-willie-mickey\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/steamboat-willie-mickey<\/span><\/a>, accessed September&#160;11, 2024.<a href=\"#fnref260\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn261\">\n<p>On the connection between blackface and comics, with recourse to Art Spiegelman\u2019s <span class=\"Kapitaelchen_Englisch\">Mickey Mouse <\/span>adaptation, see Frahm, <em>Sprache des Comics, <\/em>2010: 309<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>314; Ditschke et al., \u201cBirth of a Nation,\u201d 2009: 15<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>21.<a href=\"#fnref261\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn262\">\n<p>Benjamin, Experience and Poverty, 2005, 732. In German: \u201cvon Neuem anzufangen; \u2026 mit Wenigem auszukommen.\u201d Benjamin, \u201cErfahrung und Armut,\u201d II.1, 1991: 215.<a href=\"#fnref262\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn263\">\n<p>Benjamin, <em>Das Passagen-Werk<\/em>, V.1, 1991, 574; N 1a, 8; <em>The Arcades Project<\/em>, 1999, 460, N1a, 8. See Annu\u00df, \u201cDirty Dragging,\u201d 2022. On Benjamin\u2019s praxeological understanding of quoting, see Menke, \u201cNach-Leben im Zitat,\u201d 1991; <em>Sprachfiguren<\/em>, 1991. Benjamin inverts Marx\u2019s devaluation of ragpickers, vagabonds, and of \u201cthe whole indefinite mass,\u201d i. e., \u201cder ganzen unbestimmten Masse,\u201d in <em>The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte<\/em> (Marx, 1972, MEW 8, 63).<a href=\"#fnref263\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn264\">\n<p>On the nomadic as opposed to the genealogical, see Deleuze and Guattari, <em>A Thousand Plateaus<\/em>, 1987; Deleuze, \u201cPens\u00e9e nomade,\u201d 1963\/\u201cNomad Thought,\u201d 1992; Braidotti, <em>Nomadic Theory, <\/em>2011.<a href=\"#fnref264\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn265\">\n<p>See Kafka, \u201cJargon,\u201d 1993; for the English version: Kafka, \u201cAn Introductory Talk on the Yiddish Language,\u201d 1990, 263<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>266; see also Menke, \u201cZerstreuungsbewegungen,\u201d 2019, esp.: 243<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>250. <a href=\"#fnref265\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn266\">\n<p>Zaritt, <em>Taytsh Manifesto<\/em>, 2021: 213. On the connection between Yiddish and creolization, see also Isabel Frey\u2019s dissertation <em>Voicing Yiddishland: Diasporic Afterlives of Yiddish Folksongs <\/em>(mdw, 2024).<a href=\"#fnref266\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn267\">\n<p>See Menke, \u201cZerstreuungsbewegungen,\u201d 2019: 243; with reference to Kilcher, <em>Sprachendiskurse<\/em>, 2007: 69.<a href=\"#fnref267\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn268\">\n<p>See Menke, \u201cZerstreuungsbewegungen,\u201d 2019: 249.<a href=\"#fnref268\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn269\">\n<p>Scafidi, <em>Who Owns Culture?, <\/em>2005, by contrast, is paradigmatic for the widespread discourse on cultural appropriation as theft during the last decades<em>.<\/em><a href=\"#fnref269\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn270\">\n<p>See Sieg, <em>Ethnic Drag, <\/em>2009. For a rereading of the German cultural infatuation with North American \u201cIndians,\u201d see also Balzer, <em>Ethik der Appropriation, <\/em>2022.<a href=\"#fnref270\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn271\">\n<p>Kafka, \u201cIndian,\u201d 1996 (originally published in 1913); \u201cThe Wish to Be a Red Indian,\u201d 1971, 421. <a href=\"#fnref271\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn272\">\n<p>Established in the 1980s as a legal category, \u201cindigeneity,\u201d by now serves as a globalized marker of identity; see Niezen, <em>The Origins of Indigenism<\/em>, 2003. The starting point of today\u2019s use of the term is less the necessary securing of the right to local subsistence labor than the genealogical connection to the land; for a critique of respective figures of thought, see Erasmus, \u201cWho Was Here First?,\u201d 2020.<a href=\"#fnref272\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn273\">\n<p>On Kafka\u2019s understanding of language as nomadic deterritorialization, see Deleuze and Guattari, <em>A Thousand Plateaus, <\/em>1987: 88; Deleuze\/Guattari, <em>Kafka, <\/em>1986.<a href=\"#fnref273\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn274\">\n<p>See Deleuze, <em>Pens\u00e9e nomade, <\/em>1973; \u201cNomad Thought,\u201d 1992.<a href=\"#fnref274\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn275\">\n<p>See Bakhtin, <em>Rabelais, <\/em>1984. With Warstat, the carnival could be read as \u201csocial theatricality\u201d(2018).<a href=\"#fnref275\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn276\">\n<p>On the rhizome as antigenealogy, see Deleuze and Guattari, <em>A Thousand Plateaus, <\/em>1987: 3<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>25.<a href=\"#fnref276\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn277\">\n<p>On the postcolonial critique of Deleuze and Guattari, see Bay, \u201cTranskulturelle Stockungen,\u201d 2010.<a href=\"#fnref277\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn278\">\n<p>See Glissant, <em>Poetics of Relation, <\/em>1997.<a href=\"#fnref278\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn279\">\n<p>See Haraway, <em>Staying with the Trouble<\/em>, 2016; for a critique of her abstract \u201cnon-natalism,\u201d which ignores racist biopolitics, see Dow and Lamoreaux, \u201cSituated Kinmaking,\u201d 2020. <a href=\"#fnref279\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn280\">\n<p>On the more recent debate regarding the potential for solidarity, see Kastner and Susemichel, <em>Unbedingte Solidarit\u00e4t<\/em>, 2021; referring to Elam\u2019s concept of groundless solidarityin <em>Feminism and Deconstruction<\/em>, 1994: 69; Mokre, \u201cSolidarit\u00e4t,\u201d 2021; \u201cLeere Signifikanten,\u201d 2024; Rothberg, <em>Multidirectional Memory, <\/em>2009: 115. On the political difference between assemblies and assemblages of identities, see also Butler, <em>Notes, <\/em>2016. <a href=\"#fnref280\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn281\">\n<p>Traugott M\u00fcller\u2019s papers include the program booklet of the revue <em>Ki sua heli<\/em>, an album with numerous rehearsal photos and a collection of mostly undated excerpts from newspaper reviews; Theaterhistorische Sammlungen, Theater Studies Institute at the FU Berlin. On <em>Ki sua heli<\/em>, see also Lewerenz, <em>Geteilte Welten, <\/em>2017: 259<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>263.<a href=\"#fnref281\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn282\">\n<p>On the chorus girl formations, see Kracauer, <em>The Mass Ornament<\/em>, 1995: 75<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>76. See also Matala de Mazza\u2019s study <em>Der popul\u00e4re Pakt, <\/em>2018, on modern European entertainment culture\u2019s reclaiming of the freedom to wear masks and its subsequent development into an instrument of governing.<a href=\"#fnref282\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn283\">\n<p>See Annu\u00df, \u201cAstramentum,\u201d 2022.<a href=\"#fnref283\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn284\">\n<p>See Lewerenz, <em>Divided Worlds, <\/em>2017: 261.<a href=\"#fnref284\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn285\">\n<p>In German: \u201cStampftanz der Eingeborenen\u201d and&#160;\u201dMaskentanz der Medizinm\u00e4nner.\u201d <em>Ki sua heli <\/em>(program booklet), 1938: 5 and 7. <a href=\"#fnref285\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn286\">\n<p>J. M\u00fcller-Marein, \u201cDas Schiff der T\u00e4nzerinnen,\u201d February&#160;19, 1938; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref286\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn287\">\n<p>For indirect colonial revisionist propaganda in contemporary popular culture, including operettas such as Heinz Henschke\u2019s <em>Die oder keine: Gro\u00dfe Ausstattungs-Operette in 10 Bildern<\/em>, which was first performed in the Berlin Metropol Theater and later, in the following two years, in the Admiralspalast, see Lewerenz, <em>Geteilte Welten, <\/em>2017: 263. <a href=\"#fnref287\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn288\">\n<p>Wipplinger, <em>Jazz Republic, <\/em>2017; on \u201cjazz\u201d in the Weimar Republic and its Nazi reception, see also Alonzo and Martin, <em>Stechschritt, <\/em>2004: 240<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>273, on the jazz ban of 1935: 269.<a href=\"#fnref288\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn289\">\n<p>On \u201cthe logic of the \u2018indigenization\u2019 of colonists,\u201d see in a different context Mbembe, <em>Critique of Black Reason<\/em>, 2017, 57.<a href=\"#fnref289\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn290\">\n<p>On the \u201ccolonial revue,\u201d see \u201cHanna Reitsch fliegt durch die Deutschlandhalle,\u201d February&#160;21, 1938; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d. The term \u201cSto\u00dftruppf\u00fchrer\u201d (shock troop leader) comes from the program booklet on M\u00fcller\u2019s participation in World War&#160;I; see Felix L\u00fctzkendorf, \u201cSto\u00dftruppf\u00fchrer<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>B\u00fchnenarchitekt: Traugott M\u00fcller erz\u00e4hlt von seinem Leben und Wollen,\u201d 1938: 14<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>16, on 14.<a href=\"#fnref290\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn291\">\n<p>On the significance of the gaze for theatrical propaganda, see Annu\u00df, <em>Volksschule, <\/em>2019: 405<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>437. On the connection between aviation and fascism, see also Esposito, <em>Mythische Moderne, <\/em>2011. The F\u00fchrer\u2019s perspective as a bird\u2019s eye view has been set as a means and trope of propaganda since the opening scene of Riefenstahl\u2019s <em>Triumph des Willens <\/em>(1935), at the latest. <a href=\"#fnref291\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn292\">\n<p>See also the propaganda for women aviators, as in in Helmut Wei\u00df\u2019s exoticist film <em>Quax in Afrika<\/em>, shot in 1943\/44 and starring Heinz R\u00fchmann<em>.<\/em><a href=\"#fnref292\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn293\">\n<p>On the biography of Louis Brody, see Nagl, \u201cSieh mal \u2026,\u201d 2004: 83<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>87; Louis Brody, 2005. In the program booklet he is announced as \u201cNegers\u00e4nger\u201d Brody-Mpessa.<a href=\"#fnref293\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn294\">\n<p>On the Nazi reception of Robeson, see Alonzo and Martin, <em>Zwischen Stechschritt und Charleston, <\/em>2004: 316<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>324, esp. Naumann, \u201cEuphorie,\u201d 2004.<a href=\"#fnref294\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn295\">\n<p>On \u201cKriegs-, Masken- und Schwertt\u00e4nze,\u201d see \u201cWassergraben mit 200 Flamingos\u201d; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref295\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn296\">\n<p>Clippings, M\u00fcller papers, collection of criticism, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref296\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn297\">\n<p>On the emphasis on nudity, see \u201cHanna Reitsch fliegt durch die Deutschlandhalle,\u201d February&#160;21, 1938; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref297\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn298\">\n<p>The German is \u201cNegergruppen.\u201d \u201cDas Schiff der T\u00e4nzerinnen\u201d from February&#160;18, 1938; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref298\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn299\">\n<p>\u201cDer Ozean liegt am Funkturm. 56 Neger sprechen \u2018Ki sua heli\u2019 in der Deutschlandhalle\u201d; M\u00fcller papers, clippings, n. d.<a href=\"#fnref299\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn300\">\n<p>Aitken and Rosenhaft, <em>Black Germany, <\/em>2013: 232; on the contradictory Nazi policies, see Chapter 7: 231<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>278. On the differentiation of Black victims of the Nazis, see Lusane, <em>Hitler\u2019s Black Victims, <\/em>2003: 87. See also Campt, <em>Other Germans, <\/em>2004: 21.<a href=\"#fnref300\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn301\">\n<p>On the exemplary treatment of the Deutsche Afrika-Schau, an initially self-organized, primarily Afro-German travelling circus that toured National Socialist Germany and Austria until 1940, see Aitken and Rosenhaft, <em>Black Germany, <\/em>2013: 250<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>259; Joeden-Forgey, \u201cDeutsche Afrika-Schau,\u201d 2004; Lewerenz, <em>Die Deutsche Afrika-Schau, <\/em>2006; on the gradual displacement of women, the former main attraction of V\u00f6lkerschauen: 110<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>115; <em>Geteilte Welten, <\/em>2017: 225<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>230.<a href=\"#fnref301\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn302\">\n<p>On the denial of citizenship rights at the time and its consequences, see the chapter on the end of human rights in Arendt, <em>The Origins of Totalitarianism, <\/em>2017 (originally published in 1951): 349<span class=\"EM-Dash\">\u2014<\/span>396; German version: <em>Elemente und Urspr\u00fcnge, <\/em>1986 (*1955): 422-470. On the history of racist forced sterilizations under National Socialism, see Lewerenz, <em>Die Deutsche Afrika-Schau, <\/em>2006: 53; Pommerin, \u201cSterilisierung,\u201d 2004.<a href=\"#fnref302\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn303\">\n<p>Aitken and Rosenhaft, <em>Black Germany, <\/em>2013: 274.<a href=\"#fnref303\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn304\">\n<p>See Aitken and Rosenhaft, <em>Black Germany, <\/em>2013: 250.<a href=\"#fnref304\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn305\">\n<p>On children of Black extras in <em>V\u00f6lkerschauen<\/em> and in the circus during Nazism, see Theodor Michael\u2019s autobiography <em>Deutsch sein und schwarz dazu, <\/em>2013.<a href=\"#fnref305\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn306\">\n<p>On Africa as a \u201cKindernation\u201d (child nation), see the posthumously published transcripts of Hegel\u2019s lectures on the philosophy of history(1986, 12: 120).<a href=\"#fnref306\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Figure 14: Eva Braun, presumably at Studio Heinrich Hoffmann, ca. 1928\/29. Photograph from Braun\u2019s private album, Heinrich Hoffmann Collection, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (hoff-333). \u201cich als Al Jolson\u201d\u2014\u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d\u2014is the handwritten caption above a black-and-white album photo. The image shows a smiling white woman in drag, staging herself as someone else\u2014in a man\u2019s &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annuss-dirty-dragging-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Figure 14: Eva Braun, presumably at Studio Heinrich Hoffmann, ca. 1928\/29. Photograph from Braun\u2019s private album, Heinrich Hoffmann Collection, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (hoff-333). \u201cich als Al Jolson\u201d\u2014\u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d\u2014is the handwritten caption above a black-and-white album photo. The image shows a smiling white woman in drag, staging herself as someone else\u2014in a man\u2019s &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mdwPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Diewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jana Diewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"15\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jana Diewald\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba\"},\"headline\":\"Debarbarizing\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\"},\"wordCount\":3093,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Annu\u00df: Dirty Dragging (en)\"],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\",\"name\":\"Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Debarbarizing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\",\"name\":\"mdwPress\",\"description\":\"Der Open-Access-Universit\u00e4tsverlag der mdw\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"mdwPress\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg\",\"width\":\"1024\",\"height\":\"1024\",\"caption\":\"mdwPress\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba\",\"name\":\"Jana Diewald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jana Diewald\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/author\/diewald\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress","og_description":"&nbsp; Figure 14: Eva Braun, presumably at Studio Heinrich Hoffmann, ca. 1928\/29. Photograph from Braun\u2019s private album, Heinrich Hoffmann Collection, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (hoff-333). \u201cich als Al Jolson\u201d\u2014\u201cme as Al Jolson\u201d\u2014is the handwritten caption above a black-and-white album photo. The image shows a smiling white woman in drag, staging herself as someone else\u2014in a man\u2019s &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/","og_site_name":"mdwPress","article_published_time":"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jana Diewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Jana Diewald","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"15\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/"},"author":{"name":"Jana Diewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba"},"headline":"Debarbarizing","datePublished":"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/"},"wordCount":3093,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png","articleSection":["Annu\u00df: Dirty Dragging (en)"],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/","name":"Debarbarizing &#8211; mdwPress","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png","datePublished":"2026-03-31T09:09:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:28:46+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png","width":1280,"height":1280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp008-005\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Debarbarizing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/","name":"mdwPress","description":"Der Open-Access-Universit\u00e4tsverlag der mdw","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization","name":"mdwPress","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg","width":"1024","height":"1024","caption":"mdwPress"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba","name":"Jana Diewald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jana Diewald"},"url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/author\/diewald\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7627"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7651,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions\/7651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}