Nathan der Weise
About Nathan der Weise
A prologue shows Saladin's brother Assad die fighting as a Templar. His daughter is saved from a pogrom and raised by the Jewish merchant Nathan as Recha. Years later, in Jerusalem, Saladin spares the young Templar Curd von Stauffen because he looks like Assad. Curd saves Recha from a fire. Saladin, wanting money, demands that Nathan name the true religion. Nathan answers with the parable of the three rings. He then tells Saladin that Recha and Curd are Assad's children. The Patriarch orders Nathan killed and Recha shut in a cloister. Saladin stops the sentence, names them, and opens the holy places to Christians.
Cast & crew
More about Nathan der Weise
Manfred Noa directed. Hans Kyser adapted Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1779 play. Erich Wagowski produced for Bavaria Film at the Emelka studios in Munich. Gustave Preiss and Hans Karl Gottschalk photographed it. The Berlin premiere was on December 29, 1922. The film is in six acts. Willy Schmidt-Gentner wrote the original music, without a credit on screen.
Themes
Background
The film opened in Berlin at the end of 1922, four years after the war and in a city where street politics already included attacks on Jewish public figures.
Making
Noa filmed Lessing's Enlightenment play at Emelka in Munich. The Munich protests treated the Jewish hero as a political offense.
Look
Gustave Preiss and Hans Karl Gottschalk photographed the Jerusalem sets at Emelka.
Music
Willy Schmidt-Gentner wrote the original score and was not credited. Aljoscha Zimmermann scored the 2006 Edition Filmmuseum DVD. Rabih Abou-Khalil's Trouble in Jerusalem was written for the 2009 restoration and used on the 2010 arte broadcast.
Preservation
Long treated as lost. A complete copy was found in 1996 at Gosfilmofond, retitled in 1997, and released on DVD by Edition Filmmuseum in 2006.
Notes
- Werner Krauss plays Nathan. Fritz Greiner plays Saladin. Carl de Vogt plays the Templar. Lia Eibenschütz plays Sittah. Bella Muzsnay plays Recha. Max Schreck plays the Grand Master of the Templars.
- Far-right groups in Munich protested the film as too friendly to Jews.
- It is the only cinema version of Lessing's play.
- Edition Filmmuseum issued a tinted DVD in 2006. The restored print premiered on October 24, 2009, at the Philharmonie im Gasteig in Munich.
Scenes
- Curd carries Recha out of the fire.
- Nathan tells Saladin the story of the three identical rings.
- Saladin stops the Patriarch's sentence and says who Recha and Curd really are.
Influenced by
- Nathan the Wise (play, 1779)
Also available
- Edition Filmmuseum DVD (2006)
- Wikimedia Commons (Nathan the Wise (1922).webm)
- Internet Archive (ptp_nathan-der-weise_manfred-noa_dvd_xvid_avi_688x528_206801)
