“Hotel Auschwitz:” Film Screening and Conversation

NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a screening of the film Hotel Auschwitz (2018). The screening will be followed by a conversation about the many questions this thought-provoking film raises. The participants will be the film’s director, Cornelius Schwalm; the film’s co-producer Katharina Bellena; the actor Patrick von Blume; and Christian Martin, the current Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at NYU, who will moderate the conversation.

About the film:

Hotel Auschwitz. Germany. 2018. Directed by Cornelius Schwalm. Produced by Katharina Bellena and Cornelius Schwalm. Screenplay by Cornelius Schwalm and Christiane Lilge. With Cornelius Schwalm (Martin), Franziska Petri (Sabine), Patrick von Blume (Holger), and Katharina Bellena (Goska). In German, Polish, and Romanian with English subtitles. 75 min.

Hotel Auschwitz picks apart a theater troupe, which fails a test of character when faced with what had once been the largest extermination camp in the world. It is a biting comedy about careerism, desire, dependency, and the role of the political – or the lack thereof – in private life. With dark humor and stifling intimacy, the film tells a mercilessly revealing story about the mechanisms of power in the culture industry and the impossibility of dealing appropriately with the German role in the Holocaust. The idea, concept, and screenplay are all by Cornelius Schwalm, who also acts in the film. Assistance in writing the screenplay was provided by Christiane Lilge. The fictional story was enriched by the actual experiences of the cast, who also developed large sections of the dialogue. People and events in Auschwitz were also integrated in documentary fashion into the work. The film was produced without institutional support by Katharina Bellena (CollaboratorsFilms) and Cornelius Schwalm (MariaKron).

About the speakers:

Katharina Bellena has acted on various German-language stages, including the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Volksbühne Berlin, the Schauspiel Köln, and the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen. She has also performed at HAU, Sophiensaele, and FFT Düsseldorf. She has appeared in various television productions, including Polizeiruf 110Die ProtokollantinHerzensbrecherUm Himmels Willen, and Waldo, as well as in the award-winning feature films Supervising the Meaning of Dreams, Eine flexible Frau, and Top Girl. She produces shorts and feature films with her film label CollaboratorsFilms.

Cornelius Schwalm acts in numerous German-language theaters, including the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Schauspiel Frankfurt, and the Staatstheater Stuttgart. He has also appeared in over 50 films, working with directors like Tom Tykwer, Christoph Hochhäusler, Chris Kraus, and Jessica Hausner; he and Rudolf Thome have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration. He has directed plays for many years, especially with the theater and performance platform MariaKron. His productions have received numerous awards. Hotel Auschwitz is his film directorial debut.

Trained as a piano builder, Patrick von Blume’s first major roles in features films were in the graffiti drama WholetrainFutschicato, and Beautiful Bitch. His subsequent films include the Oscarnominated Baader Meinhoff Komplex and Hotel Auschwitz. He has appeared in numerous Tatort episodes and was part of the cast of Bis in die Spitzen (Sat1), About Kate (arte), and Binny and the Ghost (Disney). He has been a returning character on numerous television series, including Hannah Mangold & Lucy Palm. For the title role as the Swabian private detective in the ARD series Huck, he recorded his first album, Mit Herz und Fauscht, and went on tour.

Christian Martin (moderator) is a professor of political science at the University of Kiel, Germany. He currently holds the Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at New York University. Christian Martin has studied political science at the University of Konstanz and holds a doctorate from there (2002). He was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and at the Max-Planck-Institute in Jena (2003–2004). He was an assistant professor at the University of Hamburg (2004–2008) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University (2008–2011). Christian Martin’s research interests focus on the political conditions and consequences of globalization and regional integration. He has published, inter alia, on the effects of globalization for electoral participation and on the incentive to adopt more proportional voting systems in a highly globalized environment. His current research project is on backlashes against globalization and EU integration, including the electoral success of the far right AfD and the demise of social democracy.











When: Mon., Sep. 23, 2019 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Deutsches Haus at NYU
42 Washington Mews
212-998-8660
Price: Free
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NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a screening of the film Hotel Auschwitz (2018). The screening will be followed by a conversation about the many questions this thought-provoking film raises. The participants will be the film’s director, Cornelius Schwalm; the film’s co-producer Katharina Bellena; the actor Patrick von Blume; and Christian Martin, the current Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at NYU, who will moderate the conversation.

About the film:

Hotel Auschwitz. Germany. 2018. Directed by Cornelius Schwalm. Produced by Katharina Bellena and Cornelius Schwalm. Screenplay by Cornelius Schwalm and Christiane Lilge. With Cornelius Schwalm (Martin), Franziska Petri (Sabine), Patrick von Blume (Holger), and Katharina Bellena (Goska). In German, Polish, and Romanian with English subtitles. 75 min.

Hotel Auschwitz picks apart a theater troupe, which fails a test of character when faced with what had once been the largest extermination camp in the world. It is a biting comedy about careerism, desire, dependency, and the role of the political – or the lack thereof – in private life. With dark humor and stifling intimacy, the film tells a mercilessly revealing story about the mechanisms of power in the culture industry and the impossibility of dealing appropriately with the German role in the Holocaust. The idea, concept, and screenplay are all by Cornelius Schwalm, who also acts in the film. Assistance in writing the screenplay was provided by Christiane Lilge. The fictional story was enriched by the actual experiences of the cast, who also developed large sections of the dialogue. People and events in Auschwitz were also integrated in documentary fashion into the work. The film was produced without institutional support by Katharina Bellena (CollaboratorsFilms) and Cornelius Schwalm (MariaKron).

About the speakers:

Katharina Bellena has acted on various German-language stages, including the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Volksbühne Berlin, the Schauspiel Köln, and the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen. She has also performed at HAU, Sophiensaele, and FFT Düsseldorf. She has appeared in various television productions, including Polizeiruf 110Die ProtokollantinHerzensbrecherUm Himmels Willen, and Waldo, as well as in the award-winning feature films Supervising the Meaning of Dreams, Eine flexible Frau, and Top Girl. She produces shorts and feature films with her film label CollaboratorsFilms.

Cornelius Schwalm acts in numerous German-language theaters, including the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Schauspiel Frankfurt, and the Staatstheater Stuttgart. He has also appeared in over 50 films, working with directors like Tom Tykwer, Christoph Hochhäusler, Chris Kraus, and Jessica Hausner; he and Rudolf Thome have enjoyed a longstanding collaboration. He has directed plays for many years, especially with the theater and performance platform MariaKron. His productions have received numerous awards. Hotel Auschwitz is his film directorial debut.

Trained as a piano builder, Patrick von Blume’s first major roles in features films were in the graffiti drama WholetrainFutschicato, and Beautiful Bitch. His subsequent films include the Oscarnominated Baader Meinhoff Komplex and Hotel Auschwitz. He has appeared in numerous Tatort episodes and was part of the cast of Bis in die Spitzen (Sat1), About Kate (arte), and Binny and the Ghost (Disney). He has been a returning character on numerous television series, including Hannah Mangold & Lucy Palm. For the title role as the Swabian private detective in the ARD series Huck, he recorded his first album, Mit Herz und Fauscht, and went on tour.

Christian Martin (moderator) is a professor of political science at the University of Kiel, Germany. He currently holds the Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at New York University. Christian Martin has studied political science at the University of Konstanz and holds a doctorate from there (2002). He was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz and at the Max-Planck-Institute in Jena (2003–2004). He was an assistant professor at the University of Hamburg (2004–2008) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University (2008–2011). Christian Martin’s research interests focus on the political conditions and consequences of globalization and regional integration. He has published, inter alia, on the effects of globalization for electoral participation and on the incentive to adopt more proportional voting systems in a highly globalized environment. His current research project is on backlashes against globalization and EU integration, including the electoral success of the far right AfD and the demise of social democracy.

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