WHEN ERNST LUBITSCH LEFT GERMANY at the end of 1922, the German film industry expected him to return to Germany after one film; after it became clear that he was staying in America longer, the trade press kept reporting rumors that he would be coming back to work on film projects in Germany right up until 1933. In 1927 Film-Kurier even reported that there were negotiations to hire Lubitsch to replace the producer Erich Pommer, who had left Ufa as the commercial disaster of Metropolis was unfolding. When Lubitsch visited Germany in May 1927 and November 1932, he was celebrated by the industry. Over the course of the 1920s, he brought over film artists to Hollywood from Germany, and he followed the German cinema closely, imitating technical innovations pioneered in Germany and copying popular genres—operetta films, Heidelberg romances, and even the Bergfilm (mountain film). He published articles in the German film press up until 1933. Throughout most of his career it was the European box office that usually made the difference when his films made money.

In this essay I will discuss another type of film Lubitsch made that clearly responded to what was happening in Germany: an antiwar film. His 1932 film The Man I Killed demonstrates that his interest in Germany up until 1933 was not based just on professional connections to the film industry but was indeed shaped by much deeper concerns about German politics and the situation of German Jews there. The film clearly critiques German nationalism and militarism, and it can be read as a response to the political crisis of late Weimar. Beneath the surface one can find evidence of concerns particular to the position of German Jews in Germany.

Lubitsch was famous above all for his comedies, but he attempted to tackle “serious” political issues three times in his career, and each time the topic was war. His final German comedy and first box office failure, Die Bergkatze (The Wildcat, 1921), satirized war and the military as well as Expressionism. The second such film was The Man I Killed (USA 1932), another box office failure. The third film was To Be or Not to Be (USA 1942), his dark anti-Nazi comedy, which did not lose money but was not a big commercial success.