Fragment. DE 1932/33, D, SC, C, E Ella Bergmann-Michel, P Ella Bergmann-Michel, Paul Seligmann, Print b/w, 35mm, silent, 13 min, DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum

“The last film remained a fragment. There were shots of campaign posters, of lively street discussions, of typical followers of the various parties. Frankfurt’s streets and alleyways – already decorated with Nazi flags, hammers and sickles, and the familiar flag with the three arrows – were captured in the documentary. Then I had to break off filming for political reasons. That was in January 1933.” (Ella Bergmann-Michel, Meine Dokumentarfilme., Sprengel Museum Hannover, Inv. No. A 40. 04 – c – 01) After the police seizure and confiscation of the recently filmed footage, Ella Bergmann-Michel and Paul Seligmann decided to take the raw film material into exile in England to keep it from the Nazis

The camera’s searching look along the streetscape takes on an additional political edge. It lingers at advertising columns and studies their torn paper as visible signs of protest; it seeks out the exits of workplaces to observe employees. Puzzled, it registers ordinary gestures in threatening uniforms; it follows the gathering electorate, then remains standing behind a flagpole. The flâneur becomes a witness to the increasing crisis, to the evident grip of the future regime on daily life. She observes the perceptible acquiescence and self-fashioning of the majority of the population as well as the disappearing remnants of palpable resistance. She gathers evidence.