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NicholasKaufmann

Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit [Ways to Strength and Beauty] (Wilhelm Prager + Nicholas Kaufmann, 1925)

Apr

18

National Exercise Day

Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur (1925)

A young woman with a pageboy cut and a black bathing suit is suspended from a tree with the back of her neck. An instructor, a bald man with a moustache and tan jodhpurs, pushes her as if she's on a swing set. DPs: Eugen Herich, Friedrich Paulmann & Friedrich Weinmann.

Europeans are not too worried about certain things. Having a body for instance is something good. Instead of shame, you take care for it with regular exercise and plenty of fresh air. Preferably both. In Germany this is called #Freikörperkultur, sometimes confused with nudism.

 

Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit is a display of the human in various stages of exercise and undress. We see sportspeople – including future-Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller and then-movie mountaineer Leni Riefenstahl – world leaders (Rockefeller and Mussolini, though the latter was cut from re-releases) and dancers such as Josephine Baker, Baku Ishii, and the scandalous Anita Berber. The film was mostly aimed at women, who by then were part of the workforce, sitting at desks in modern Metropolises. So modern it was that people were encouraged to complete their Wege-collection of trading cards, which came with their cigarettes. Good thing they're all #outdoors.