ParaPower Mapping
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ALTERED STATE FASH ACTORS (Pt. IV): Babylon Berlin, Mad Doktors Schmidt, Black Reichswehr, & Hypno National Social Darwinists
🕑 Added 2023-08-14 22:41:26 +0000 UTCWelcome back to ParaPower Mapping. We're finally touching down in the Weimar Republic, beginning our incisive cross-section of the hypnotic influence on the rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic. GOOD NEWS: altho this EP ended up taking me a little longer to produce than initially forecasted as I kept finding pertinent info & further connections that I had to pack in, this investigation continues to shoot up like a podcast w/ gigantism, so there's actually going to be a surprise, 3rd EP releasing this week—likely yet tonight! ASFA (Pt. V) is on the way.
Anyways, in this EP, we hop on the Hindenburg & pop over to Babylon Berlin, where we use the BB character Dr. Anno Schmidt as a prism thru which we can examine a handful of historical & hypnotherapeutic valences...
We do some necessary exposition-ing, introducing our protagonists the Vice & later Homicide Detective Gereon Rath (which I accidentally keep mispronouncing in this EP, later rectifying in Pt. V) & the assistant gumshoe moonlighting as a prostitute at night to contend w/ the crazy-inflated times of post-WWI Berlin named Charlotte; we break down Dr. Schmidt's inhumane experiments w/ the methamphetamine Pervitin on weasels, wolves, & even humans as foreshadowing of the Nazi weaponization of psychoactive drugs (particularly uppers) to program their shock troops into fearless Übermensch-berserkers; Dr. Schmidt's Institute for Suggestive Therapy (hypno-suggestive title there), where he uses hypnosis to treat WWI vets, morphine addicts, & the homeless; we reference a couple of the major points of reference for Dr. Schmidt's character that we'll cover in more detail in Pt. V: Erik Jan Hanussen, Dr. Max Nonne, & Dr. Mabuse from Fritz Lang films; we briefly touch on some of the antecedents of the rise of Nazism—economic imperialism, residual wartime mass trauma, cultural hegemony, mass manipulation, etc.; there's the night club Moka Efti, which actually existed; we introduce the themes of automatism, transhumanism, & Social Darwinism; Gereon's fraught relationship w/ his brother Dr. Schmidt; their wartime service together; Gereon sleeping w/ Dr. Schmidt's wife; we cover how S1 & S2 are literally bookended w/ scenes of Gereon being hypnotized by Schmidt, illustrating the show's emphasis on the role hypnosis played in the rise of Nazism; we contemplate whether Dr. Schmidt's name might be a reference to the real life Dr. Heinrich Schmidt, a wretched SS member & "First Camp Physician" at numerous concentration camps such as Buchenwald, Dachau, etc.; the real life Schmidt's prosecution during numerous post WWII trials & various accusations against him, including that he murdered at least 8 individuals thru withholding care & the selection of gas chambers; the fact that real Dr. Schmidt may have been acquitted, in part, because of his repeated collaboration w/ the Allies immediately following the war—including acting as a witness in the Bergen-Belsen Trials & the fact that he worked as "Senior Doctor" at the Allied-run Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp immediately following the Nazi surrender; so, obviously hues of Paperclip;...
Alternatively, we consider whether the character Dr. Anno Schmidt might be an allusion to Ernst Schmidt, a fellow messenger that was present on a dangerous courier mission when a Brit grenade exploded & shot shrapnel into Lance Corporal Hitler's leg; we compare this incident to the crucial moment of Gereon's abandonment of his brother Dr. Schmidt in no man's land; Schmidt brings us to Hitler's near-death in the Maximillian II barracks after the war, when he Freikorps executed 1 out of 10 soldiers stationed there under suspicions of being sympathetic to or a part of the Bavarian Red Army; was Hitler at Maximillian II as a spy, similarly to his infiltration of the Thule Society a little later on?; a Palm Sunday Putsch reference; we talk further similarities between Dr. Anno Schmidt & Hitler, including their respective gas attacks & interest in the occult; speaking of which, Dr. Schmidt is a member of the Fraternitas Saturni; the nightmarish mustard gas lung "sloughing" effect; White Star; we explore the Black Reichswehr; their connection to other paramilitaries like the Freikorps; we juxtapose the Black Reichswehr & Freikorps w/ the American Legion; we compare the dinner that Gereon attends at his fascist Polizei partner Bruno's house & the "stab-in-the-back" myths promulgated during it to W.D. Pelley's antisemitism; direct connections b/w Black Reichswehr & Nazis; the Küstrin Putsch & attempt to overthrow Gustav Stresemann's administration; Gereon's partner Bruno's name probably being a reference to Black Reichswehr commando Bruno Buchrucker; a possible connection b/w paramilitaries & hypnotherapy in the show... via the Black Reichswehr's primary funder, the German industrialist fail-son Alfred Nyssen (who is definitely a composite of Thyssen & Krupp); Nyssen is a manic depressive & his doktor is, you guessed it, Anno Schmidt, hinting at a Dr. Schmidt pulling the strings of a veritable marionette of a conspiracy a la Dr. Mabuse the Gambler; Dr. Schmidt's treatment of the Ringverein gangster Edgar Kasabian, aka the Armenian, another one of his pawns who also is helping him run a sexual blackmailing scheme (which we use to reference Erik Jan Hanussen in this EP, a reflection we'll flesh out significantly in Pt. V); organized crime using the Babelsberg film industry as money laundry; Fritz Lang; the serial killings in S3 that are causing a Fritz Lang/ Metropolis-esque film production to stall; galvanic shock; the Berlin tabloid Tempo; the Charité Hospital (which we'll spend a ton more time at in Pt. V); etc.
Songs & Clips:
| Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer - "Babylon Berlin" (OST) |
| Meret Becker & Meute - "Ein Tag wie Gold" (Babylon Berlin OST) |
"Military Reunion & Gereon's Flashbacks" - Scene from S1, EP 7
A Clip from the Youtube Documentary "Birth of a Führer: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler"
