Schubert f.

1919 · 55122 — Frankfurt: Film am Main G.m.b.H. 1919. First edition. Softcover. Good- to very good condition. Large Quarto. 32 plates all in decorative framing. Original brown stiff wraps with dark brown lettering and decorative framing on cover protected by modern mylar. Brown endpapers. Title page with brown lettering and decorative framing in blue brown and yellow. Dramatic adaptation of the utopian idea of socializing love and marriage in five acts. With thirty full page illustrations by W. Dietrich depicting scenes of the movie rendered lithographically with captions. All pages with decorative framing in blue printed to heavy paper. Rare companion of the 1919 silent movie starring Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur Max Kronert Ethel Orff Grete Diercks Hugo Falke and Helmut Krauss.<br /> <br /> 'Goethe's words in his Faust drama "the way once fathering was fashionable we declare as vain farce" are the guiding theme for the seditious thoughts of the political visionary Dr. Ehrhardt Kraft the émigré who was allowed to return to his homeland wanting to clean up the Vormärz view Epoch of German history between July Revolution 1830 and March Revolution in 1848 about love and marriage. He gains support for his plan to socialize women and establish "forced love" as a law in a new colony called "Free State." Healthy men and women volunteer in flocks to make the "Free State" successful to improve race conditions health of people and lifting moral. There is no marriage anymore. Love for sale illegitimate children the bondage of two people for life infidelity unhappy love. all these byproducts of today's society will disappear at once.'<br /> <br /> A stark and unsettling vision of social engineering the work echoes themes found in early 20th-century debates over eugenics utopian socialism and gender roles. Its richly decorated illustrations and dramatic narrative make it a unique rendering of political literature and visual propaganda. Text in German. Light wear along edges of wraps lightly rubbed and light cracks on back cover near spine. Title plate and plate two lose but present. Page four with some staining in margins. Some light chipping of edges and occasional light smudging in margins. Film am Main G.m.b.H. unknown