The Christ Connection - Adolf Hitler nand Mary Wigman

In June of 1930 Mary Wigman presented Totenmal, her collaboration with poet Albert Talhoff that comprised of both speaking and movement choirs. In September of the same year, the National Socialist party had their first big win at the polls. Although prior to the National Socialists assuming power, Totenmal shows a dramatic shift in Wigman’s choreographic and thematic concerns, which began to parallel the Nazi ideologies. Women were no longer strong and independent but had identities only in relation to men as the wives, mothers and sisters of the dead soldiers, conforming to the anti-feminist stance of the Nazi party. The influence of Japanese and Javanese art and culture was absent from the work, masks were now made by German mask maker Bruno Goldschmit rather than the Noh mask maker Victor Magito. To National Socialists, anything of non-German origin was considered degenerate. But conversion to values was not the only change that occurred in Wigman’s choreography. Apart from being considered by some critics as a realization of famous anti-Semitist and Nazi inspiration Richard Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) (Manning, 1993a: 148), in Totenmal Wigman associated herself with superhuman and even Christ-like status, as did Adolf Hitler.
In Totenmal, Wigman alone was unmasked and moved between the choirs of the living and the dead, therefore associating her with superhuman status. In her position between the living and the dead, Wigman embodies the intention of Holy Communion, to connect the living and the dead through the receiving of Christ’s body and blood (whether metaphorically in Protestantism or literally in Catholicism). Christ is this connection, as is indeed the connection between mankind and God and Heaven, as He is considered God incarnate, as is Wigman similarly the connection between the living and the dead in Totenmal.
Wigman’s superiority can also be seen in her movement vocabulary and quality, which is far broader than either the male or female chorus – she is thus beyond them. (Manning, 1993a: 154) Further to this, Wigman alone does not flee from the dead soldiers and takes on the Demon, the personification of war, and thus can be said to present herself as a Messianic saviour. Messianic status was also evident in the section of the piece entitled the Hall of Echoes (Raum der Gegenruff), in which Wigman sets the sprits of the dead in motion and retreats into the shadows, her life-force drained. She is subsequently revived again, and then weakened once more. As Wigman rises to dance her sorrow, devoid of energy, she emulates the shape of a cross, associating the sacrifice she has made, in giving her life-force to revive the dead, with the sacrifice of Christ.

It is widely established that Hitler believed strongly in his infallibility, even to the extent that, emerging unharmed from a serious car accident in the twenties Hitler informed his aides they had no need to worry about his safety as ‘it was impossible for anything to happen to him until his mission had been completed.’ (Lewis, 2004: 11) This extraordinary belief in the impossibility of harm coming to him and a divine mission to make Germany victorious stemmed from a divine revelation Hitler claims to have received during his treatment for blindness at the military hospital at Pasewalk. (Lewis, 2004: 12) Claims of divine revelation aside, the source of Hitler’s association with himself as a Messiah was during his treatment at Pasewalk, in the controversial therapies of ex-military doctor and specialist in hysterically or brain induced injuries – Dr Edmund Forester.
Hitler was blinded by poison gas (asserted by Hitler as mustard gas, but concluded by Lewis as most likely White Star) on the Morning of Tuesday 15th October 1918, and transferred to Pasewalk military hospital after his injuries were diagnosed as hysterical rather than physical, which meant that under the Prussian War Ministry decree he was not to be treated alongside physically injured soldiers. (Lewis, 2004: 15) This diagnosis was further confirmed by Jewish neurologist Dr Karl Kroner and Forester. Hitler maintained throughout his life that his blindness was due to burns inflicted on his eyes by mustard gas; however his accounts of the attack are contradictory.[1] However, the medical diagnosis was of hysterical blindness, and Forester attempted to treat Hitler with the same bullying techniques he used of other hysterically ill patients. Forester’s bullying techniques were ‘…based on his conviction that irrespective of how the hysterical condition was manifested, the underlying cause was always a lack of will-power on the part of the sufferer.’ (Lewis, 2004: 20) When it became apparent that such techniques would not produce results, Forster concluded that “Hitler…refused to see because he could not bear to witness the defeat of Germany’ (Lewis, 2004: 22) and attempted to change his perception of events. To do this, Forester chose to lie to Hitler by playing on his ‘drive to be like God’. (Lewis, 2004: 23) The lie consisted of reassuring Hitler that his blindness was indeed caused my mustard gas and, as is compatible with the long term effects of mustard gas, no ordinary man would ever see again. But an extraordinary man might. Forester assured Hitler that ‘If he was really a reincarnation of the Trommler,[2] then God would send Hitler a sign by restoring his sight.’ (Lewis, 2004: 238) Forester further asserted that; ‘‘…maybe you yourself have the rare power that only occurs once every thousand years to perform a miracle. Jesus did this, Mohammed, the Saints.’’ (Lewis, 2004: 239) When Hitler regained his sight, he was utterly convinced of his divine purpose and status as a Messiah alongside Jesus, that Forester had associated with the regaining of his sight.[3]
It was not just Hitler who associated himself with Christ. In Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of Will (1935) Hitler is likened to the resurrected Christ, ‘…descending from the heavens and beginning not merely military and political glory but redemption from past sins to those who were followers less of a political creed than of a new religion order.’ (Lewis, 2004: 8) At a Nüremburg rally in 1934, American journalist William Shirer observed thousands of ‘hysterics’ outside Hitler’s hotel ‘shouting: ‘We want our Führer’…They looked at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman.’ (Lewis, 2004: 7-8) This faith in Hitler as their Messiah and ‘inhuman’ adoration is perhaps more terrifying and of more consequence than Hitler’s insane belief that he was Germany’s saviour.

Similar to the pre-emption on the Nazi mentality in the Movement Choirs of German Modern dancers, Wigman pre-empted not only the themes of Nazi theatre (in her use of the cult of the fallen soldier, movement and speaking choirs and being not overtly political), but the association of leadership with a Messianic figure. Susan Manning frequently refers to Wigman’s character in Totenmal as the choirs Führer (Manning, 1993), the same character who has superhuman status in the dance and provides Christ imagery. This rather than mass movement is the most terrifying and revealing element of fascism in Wigman’s work. Hedwig Müller states that; ‘Hitler as a man did impress her [Wigman]’. (Müller, 1996: 18) which when considered in conjunction with her connection between leadership and Messianic status in Totenmal suggests that she was one of the terrifying mass that believed Hitler was Germany’s Messiah, the effective ‘Hitler Myth’ (Kershaw, 1990) propaganda that brought a nation to worship a man in spite of his dreadful ideologies. As Lewis contends; ‘…it was Hitler’s absolute certainty, rather than what he said, that was mesmeric.’ (Lewis, 2004: 191)
[1] In some texts (including Mein Kampf) Hitler claimed that the attack occurred in the morning, in others the evening, and the injuries he sustained were not compatible with the medical effects of mustard gas (which would have caused a thick white layer of tissue around the eyes, which Hitler did not have (Lewis, 2004: 174) From early 1933 it was branded an offence that carried a sentence of imprisonment to question the cause of Hitler’s blindness. This sensitivity arose from the association between hysterically ill and a weak and feeble mind.
[2] A German folk story in which a shepherd lad, Trommler, with a remarkable gift for oratory claimed to have been sent by God as a guide, and was widely worshipped. He claimed another would succeed him when the nation’s despair was greatest to give glory to the nation.
[3] It is important to note that in The Man Who Invented Hitler Lewis is asserting that the techniques Forester used to cure Hitler’s hysterical blindness were the cause not only in his belief in himself as a Messiah, but of a dramatic change in personality. From being a soldier not considered for promotion in the First World War (Lewis, 2004: 4), Hitler became a skilled orator and enigmatic Messiah. (Lewis, 2004: 4) Lewis cites numerous sources that maintain Hitler ‘lacked the necessary qualities required to become a leader’ (Lewis, 2004: 4) before his treatment at Pasewalk.