100 Years Ago, Queer Cinema Thrived in Weimar Germany

A noteworthy stop along the path of queer cinema history is the surprisingly progressive Weimar Republic. Officially known as the German Reich, the era of the Weimar Republic stretched from the end of WWI to 1933 and encompassed a cultural renaissance in Germany. Even those not familiar with film history or queer cinema can appreciate the glimpses of a genre’s origin story. Also, not for nothing, these films are good and not merely a history lesson.

Mädchen in Uniform

If you watch enough older films with lesbian storylines you get used to meager scraps of implied attraction and tragic endings, or at least unsatisfactory ones. I will keep the long list of these films unnamed but one can watch them on mute and you get the idea.

Mädchen in Uniform (1931) however is entirely surprising - the queerness is not subtle. Set at a strict and austere all-girls boarding school before WWI, Miss von Bernburg is a teacher who has turned the heads of an entire gaggle of schoolgirls. The young boarders have a giddy excitement in telling new student Manuela about how much they all swoon for Miss von Bernburg. Naturally Manuela also falls in love with the beautiful and kind teacher. 

Victor and Victoria

The iconic musical made famous by Julie Andrews had many predecessors, but the first was Victor and Victoria made all the way back in 1933. It shares the flamboyance and slapstick mistaken gender identity antics of the better-known Julie Andrews classic, plus eagle-eyed aficionados will spot some matching outfits between the two versions.