Media and Minorities

100
Daniel Wildmann
and sidelocks, wear hats and black caftans,”24 their portrayal thus orients itself
on supposedly shared conceptions of observant Jews.
Does the complex visual and acoustic narrative about Jews and Judaism in
these two episodes also suggest correspondingly conflicting moral feelings? If
one follows the television reviews of the large German daily newspapers, then
the ambiguities and contradictions discussed here can be linked without conflict.
Bringing together these ambiguities is not perceived as a problem; it even
seems to have a liberating effect. The Süddeutsche Zeitung called the Constance
Tatort “poetic.” The Berliner Zeitung wrote about the Schi manski episode
that this is “how one can produce a crime show dealing with Jews and
money in a casual and relaxed way.”25
Why is a crime film with a fanatical antisemite, a pale, financially welloff
Jew, and a German female detective chief inspector who likes to eat gefilte
fish “poetic”? Perhaps the following explanation helps: Blum and Schi manski
are not only a detective chief inspector and a private investigator, respectively,
who solve crimes; they are also good Germans: they help two pale observant
Jews in possession of fortunes — despite all prejudices, be it their own or those
of others.
But would it not also be possible to interpret the figure of the good German
entirely differently? One might also say, after all, that this figure enables the
viewer to see antisemitic imaginations in these two films without bad feelings:
supporting rich, pale observant Jews with hunched bodies is morally good.
Or, to put it another way: the figure of the good German enables us to enjoy
antisemitic imaginations with a good conscience — “Take care — Shalom.”
Filmography
Tatort – “Der Schächter” (The Slaughterer)
Director: Jobst Oetzmann; Teleplay: Fred Breinersdorfer; Camera: Immo Rentz; Editing:
Roswitha Gnädig; with: Eva Mattes (Klara Blum), Nikolaus Paryla (Jakob Leeb), Hannes
Hellmann (Christian Bux), Ulrich Bähnk (Edgar Rodammer), Felix von Manteuffel
(Wolfgang Rodammer), et al. Premiere: Sunday, 7 December 2003, 8:15 PM, ARD.
Schimanski – “Das Geheimnis des Golem” (The Secret of the Golem)
Director: Andreas Kleinert; Teleplay: Mario Giordano; Camera: Johann Feindt; Editing:
Gisela Zinck; with: Götz George (Schimanski), Nikolaus Paryla (David Rosenfeldt), Otto
Tausig (Rabbi Ginsburg), Martin Feifel (König), et al. Premiere: Sunday, 11 January 2004,
8:15 PM, ARD.
24 WDR Köln Pressestelle, ed., Schimanski – Das Geheimnis des Golem (Köln, 2003), 21.
25 Eva Marz, “Mord im Paradies,” Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6 December 2013, 18; Björn Wirth,
“Die Vorzüge der Beschneidung,” Berliner Zeitung, 10 and 11 January 2014, 16.
© 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525300886 — ISBN E-Book: 9783666300882