Animal Attractions: Cinema, Exoticism, and German Modernity

Abstract

The paper analyzes the rich interconnections between the open zoos and early cinema. Between 1907 and 1913, these institutions engaged in a lively reciprocal exchange, supplying each other with attractions that mutually informed and expanded their different exhibition programs. At the same time, they commonly invoked cultural fantasies of exotic adventure, and transformed these fantasies into vicarious thrills. The entertainments of Carl Hagenbeck, Germany's most famous zookeeper, are a case in point. At his zoo in Hamburg, he 'modernized', popular exhibitions of the exotic and the primitive animals and foreign 'peoples', he also experimented with technological media (including cinema) and collaborated with early filmmakers.