Speaker 1: Hello for Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 1: is Womanica. This month we're talking about women of science fiction.
Speaker 1: These women inspire us to imagine impossible worlds, alien creatures,
Speaker 1: and fantastical inventions, revealing our deepest fears and hopes for
Speaker 1: the future. Today, we're talking about an author and screenwriter
Speaker 1: who became essential to the German expressionist movement. Her works
Speaker 1: voiced fears of the era about mechanization and technological progress.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Thea von Harbow. Thea von Harbo was born
Speaker 1: in Bavaria, Germany, on December twenty seventh, eighteen eighty eight,
Speaker 1: the same year Kaiser Wilhelm I came to power. Thea's
Speaker 1: family was of minor nobility and she grew up comfortably.
Speaker 1: After finishing her secondary education, Thea moved to Dusseldorf with
Speaker 1: the hope of becoming an actress. She didn't achieve much
Speaker 1: success on this front and soon turned to writing. She
Speaker 1: began sending manuscripts to publishers, and by nineteen ten one
Speaker 1: of her books appeared in print. In nineteen fourteen, Thea
Speaker 1: married a German actor, but divorced him after meeting a
Speaker 1: rising filmmaker Fritz Lang. Fritz and THEA married, and though
Speaker 1: their romance fizzled out, they remained married while working on
Speaker 1: films together. What they lacked in romance, they made up
Speaker 1: for an artistic compatibility. They were constantly writing. THEO once said,
Speaker 1: we were married for eleven years because for ten years
Speaker 1: we didn't have time to divorce. Many of their projects
Speaker 1: began as books THEA had written. Then THEO would adapt
Speaker 1: them as screenplays and Fritz would direct the films. Many
Speaker 1: of Thea's works had strong nationalistic and conservative undertones, and
Speaker 1: after the monarchy collapsed in nineteen eighteen, those themes became
Speaker 1: even stronger. In her work. She depicted Germany as a
Speaker 1: helpless victim wronged by evil international adversaries. Audiences seemed to
Speaker 1: have an appetite for those stories. By the mid nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: THEA was considered one of the leading writers in German cinema.
Speaker 1: Maybe the most famous film Fa and Fritz created was
Speaker 1: Metropolis in nineteen twenty seven. It was based on Thea's
Speaker 1: novel of the same name. It takes place in the
Speaker 1: year twenty twenty six in a gloomy, urbanized world. The
Speaker 1: proletariat lead bleak lives underground, working day in and day out,
Speaker 1: while the elite live in luxury and pleasure above ground.
Speaker 1: The workers attempt in uprising and must fight against an
Speaker 1: evil robot that attempts to overrun metropolis entirely. Today, the
Speaker 1: film is cemented in the Cannon as an impressive example
Speaker 1: of German expressionist filmmaking, but at the time it received
Speaker 1: mixed reviews. Some found the film technically impressive and related
Speaker 1: to the film's themes of fear of urbanization and industrialization.
Speaker 1: Others dismissed the film as trashy. Some leftist intellectuals found
Speaker 1: the film's political undertones troubling. In the end, the bourgeoisie
Speaker 1: hero reconciles the capitalists with the workers, its harmony between
Speaker 1: the classes, rather than revolution that saves the day. This
Speaker 1: message boded well for one growing political group in particular.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty two, THEA joined the Nazi Party. Fritz,
Speaker 1: whose mother was Jewish, vehemently opposed his wife's new political alignments.
Speaker 1: The pair separated immediately, and their divorce was finalized shortly after.
Speaker 1: Fritz left Germany, while THEO remained in the country and
Speaker 1: continued to write screenplays. She worked as a script doctor
Speaker 1: for Nazi propaganda films. After the war, Theo was banned
Speaker 1: from working in film for many years due to her
Speaker 1: affiliation with the Nazi Party. She was held in a
Speaker 1: British internment camp and then went to prison. After that,
Speaker 1: she spent some time surprisingly working for the Indian independence movement.
Speaker 1: By the late nineteen forties, she'd made her way back
Speaker 1: into the film industry. She wrote dubbing scripts, screenplays, and
Speaker 1: gave lectures. In nineteen fifty three, she wrote her last
Speaker 1: screenplay for Your Heart is My Homeland. Thea passed away
Speaker 1: on July first, nineteen fifty four. Her films, particularly during
Speaker 1: the Weimar period, are still studied in film classes to
Speaker 1: this day. All month, We're talking about women in science fiction.
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Speaker 1: Wamanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister
Speaker 1: and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.