This version of the film, with english subtitles, has not been previously available online. Please distribute.



H-NET FILM/DVD REVIEW

Published by H-German@h-net.msu.edu (June, 2010)



Rudiger Sunner, dir. "Black Sun: The Mythological Background of

National Socialism." Brooklyn, ICARUS Films, 2009 [1997]. DVD.Color.

90 minutes.



Reviewed by Mary Catherine Lawler, Rutgers University



Shedding Light on Nazi Myths



In RÃ¼ddiger SÃ¼nner's 1997 film _Black Sun: The Mythological Background

of National Socialism_, now available on DVD, SÃ¼nner's omnipresent

voice-over outlines National Socialists' fascination with myths,

legends, and symbols of the supposedly oldest, most superior of all

races--the Aryan clan. As SÃ¼nner clearly demonstrates, the Nazis

misconstrued, often consciously or without interest in facts, these

bases for their ideological claims to racial superiority. The Nazi

claim to these myths went beyond an appropriation of earlier people's

foundational tales. In the Nazi (re-)tellings, the original figures

and stories become unrecognizable. There was no attempt to research

either scientific or anthropological evidence that would prove an

unbroken ancestral chain from dominant, half-god forerunner--whose own

superiority would supposedly legitimate the Nazis' right to racial

hatred.



SÃ¼nner highlights the hypocrisy inherent in the development of the

Nazi Party, including a detailed explanation of how Nazis asserted the

existence of "half-races." As SÃ¼nner demonstrates, Nazis believed that

an Aryan race existed as half-gods. This status positioned them as

having unique power and knowledge inaccessible to other peoples or

races. Meanwhile, based on an ahistorical assumption from a medieval

belief, the Jewish people, also considered half-beings, were

criticized for supposedly being an "inferior race." The most subtle

and intelligent aspect of SÃ¼nner's film is his argument for a

subconscious, psychological target in the German people--a sort of

buried collective consciousness that longed for a return to such

mythological origins.



The pinnacle of the film lies in the sequences of modern Germans

gathering at the "Externsteinen." These five looming rock

structures--the largest over thirty-seven meters high--represent an

important part of myths of a clear German heritage. These myths

glorify their presence throughout multiple periods of German and

so-called Germanic history: their assumed use in pagan rituals; their

role as a fortress in the Middle Ages; Heinrich Himmler's

identification of them as a national site of German pride; and, more

recently, the multiple audiences who visit the site--from tourists to

neo-Nazis. Here SÃ¼nner remarks carefully that one might see a parallel

between the German state of mind shortly before the rise to power of

the SS, and contemporary ideologies. He renders almost tangible the

nostalgic desire for a history full of heroes fighting for good and

justice, and the need to create an imaginary enemy in order to do so.

This documentary thus juxtaposes the polarization in German national

history between an obsession with capturing light in all its symbolic

uses in order to battle the "darkness" of the Other. The final lesson

that _Dark Sun_ implies--and what makes it a provocative and

interesting film for a number of audiences, whether scholars and

students of history, film studies, or iconography--is the danger of

not knowing one's own history. In this sense, the title signals not

only the recurrent theme of evil throughout history, but also the need

to shed light upon all its manifestations.



Citation: Mary Catherine Lawler. Review of Sunner, Rudiger, dir.,

_Black Sun: The Mythological Background of National Socialism_.

H-German, H-Net Reviews. June, 2010. URL:

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30388

Addeddate 2012-03-28 03:05:51 Color color Ia_orig__runtime 89 minutes 59 seconds Identifier TheBlackSunDieSchwarzeSonne-DirRdigerSnner-EnglishSubtitles Run time 1:29:59 Sound sound