THE CINEMATIC MELODRAMA of the Third Reich engaged the popular imagination with penetrating images of strong, tormented women and discontented family life. Boasting some of the most successful films produced in Nazi Germany, the melodrama was an immensely popular genre, especially in the waning years of the Second World War. The portrayal of unhappy, dysfunctional families exerted a fascination on audiences altogether incongruous with Nazi ideology concerning the Aryan home as the bastion of social harmony. This disparity between the rosy picture painted in propaganda posters and the pessimistic narratives of popular entertainment has yet to be scrutinized with sufficient vigor.

The melodrama emphasizes family conflict, especially women’s trials and tribulations, as well as the traditional sphere of the feminine (feelings, domesticity, personal relationships) and is, therefore, uniquely suited to an inquiry into the symbolic encoding of gender difference. In this chapter I will explore the ways in which the melodrama treats sexuality and gender roles within the context of the fascist state. The Nazi-controlled media did not engender a single universal image of woman, rather they presented an entertaining model of social justice whereby the “abnormal woman” is contained and eliminated while the “normal woman” is reintegrated into a joyless marriage. My interest in the fascist melodrama is grounded in the historical nexus of woman, pain, sacrifice, and self-negation coupled with man, taming, domestication, and self-identity as a means to validate the prevailing order. Two films exemplify complementary discursive strategies in Nazi cinema to neutralize subversive energy. Opfergang (Rite of Sacrifice, 1944) directed by Veit Harlan and Damals (Back Then, 1943) directed by Rolf Hansen employ the two most common and diametrically opposed narrative solutions to the disintegration of the family: the death of the erotic woman and her reintegration into the nuclear family respectively.

At the core of Nazi social policy lies the notion of a “natural” distinction between the sexes that requires the separation of male and female domains into clearly demarcated spheres of influence. Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the Reich Leader of the National Socialist Womanhood organization, summarizes the official outlook: