When a Nazi-era actor returned to the stage, Berlin erupted in violent protest.
In short: In December 1950, the return of Werner Krauss to a West Berlin stage triggered chaotic riots. As a star of the infamous antisemitic film Jud Süß, Krauss became a lightning rod for post-war Germany’s struggle to reconcile its democratic future with the haunting, unaddressed complicity of its cultural icons.
Werner Krauss was a titan of early 20th-century German theatre and cinema, famously starring in the 1920 expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. However, his career took a dark turn during the Third Reich. He remained in Germany while others fled, eventually playing four distinct characters in the 1940 propaganda film Jud Süß, a project commissioned by Joseph Goebbels to justify the exclusion of Jews from society. By the time the film was released, it had been viewed by 20 million Germans.
Following the war, Krauss underwent denazification trials. Although he claimed coercion, a 1948 verdict labeled him a 'follower' (Mitläufer), allowing him to resume his career. By 1950, he was touring with the Vienna Burgtheater in Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. While the play toured other cities without incident, West Berlin—a transit hub for Jewish refugees—was different. On December 8, 1950, over five thousand protesters, including students and refugees, gathered outside the Theater am Kurfürstendamm to demand his removal.
The ensuing clashes were violent; police used batons and water cannons against the crowd, while demonstrators hurled stones. Inside, ticket-holding protesters disrupted the performance, leading to its temporary cancellation. The incident sparked a fierce national debate. Supporters of Krauss argued that they were exercising their democratic right to forgive, while critics, including Jewish student Gerhard Löwenthal, insisted that a public apology for his Nazi-era propaganda work was a necessary precondition for his return to public life.
The protests eventually forced the cancellation of the Berlin run, though Krauss continued his career, receiving West Germany’s Order of Merit in 1954 before his death in 1959. Historians often cite his rehabilitation as a symptom of a broader post-war failure to address the Nazi period, suggesting that a desire for stability and a continuation of authoritarian values led to a widespread indifference toward true democratization until the 1960s.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: History Matters - Defending Democracy? The Protests Against Werner Krauss In West Berlin
- Also: Werner Krauss
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