Der Weg nach Rio in Brazil: Histoire Croisée, Public Diplomacy and Film-Historical Research

The article discusses the relevance of the histoire croisée approach that has been only marginally applied to film and cinema historical research. Histoire croisée is an approach to write history from a transnational perspective. It tries to overcome the conceptual shortcomings of comparative and transfer studies and integrates them into its theoretical framework. The case study of a cultural-diplomatic conflict between Brazil and Germany illustrates some of the methodological advantages of the histoire croisée approach. The paper argues that writing historiography from a transnational perspective opens not only new areas of film historical research, it also offers a better understanding of film historical events that otherwise might be overlooked by comparative or transfer studies.


TMG 23 (1/2) 2020
Wolfgang Fuhrmann 4 Critiques of comparative history have argued that one of its pitfalls is that a comparison has to construct its objects of research as entities first, and thereby promotes the establishment of dichotomies 9 : 'From an entangled-history point of view, comparison appears a bit too mechanistic, a bit too analytical in that it separates reality into different pieces in order to analyse, that is, to compare the pieces as units of comparison, whereas it would be necessary to see them as one, as one web of entanglements (…).' 10 Werner and Zimmermann's histoire croisée approach originated as a means for addressing the shortcomings in the comparative method and transfer studies, but it nonetheless draws heavily on the two approaches. 11 Histoire croisée is often translated as entangled history, but Werner and Zimmerman simply term it 'crossed history'. 12 Originally written in German in 2002, translations in French and English have ensured its wide reception in the social and human sciences. Werner and Zimmermann define it as belonging 'to the family of "relational" approaches that, in the manner of comparative approaches and studies of transfers (most recently of "connected" and "shared history") examines the links between various historically constituted formations.' 13 Although transnational film studies have recently been established as a sub-discipline in film studies, histoire croisée has been marginally applied to film historical or (new) cinema historical research as 'media dimensions have been strangely absent in the discussion on histoire croisée and global history.' 14 Applying the histoire croisée approach in historical research means adopting and crossing different perspectives and research cultures, which implies the mastery of the different languages involved in the research. What distinguishes histoire croisée from comparison and transfer is, therefore, the 'multiplicity of possible viewpoints and the divergences resulting from languages, terminologies, categorizations and conceptualizations, traditions, and disciplinary usages. (…) In contrast to the mere restitution of an "already there", histoire croisée places emphasis on what, in a self-reflexive process, can be generative of meaning.' 15 Werner and Zimmerman do not consider histoire croissée as a counterapproach to comparison and transfer but rather as a toolbox that integrates their methodological contributions. In contrast to comparison or transfer, which are ultimately static models and cannot overcome 'the tension between the method and the object,' histoire croisée proposes a pragmatic induction, which 'implies to start from the object of study and the situations in which it is embedded, according to one or more points of view-previously defined, it is true, but subject to continual readjustments in the course of empirical investigation.' 16 Crossing and intercrossing have effects and repercussions; they can cause transformations and are based on reciprocity and asymmetry. These aspects can be observed in history and need to be considered in historical research: 'To investigate relational configurations that are active and asymmetrical, as well as the labile and evolving nature of things and situations, to scrutinize not only novelty but also change is one of the aims of histoire croisée.' 17 Biltereyst and Meers' remark that 'cinema's complexity as an economic, societal and cultural institution might be seen to complicate and encumber comparison over time and place' 18 makes a perfect argument for a multidimensional approach, as is proposed by the histoire croisée method.
The case study on Der Weg nach Rio is part of a larger research project on German-Brazilian transnational relations in film and cinema history. It does not claim to present histoire croisée in all its complexity, but rather it shows how the combination of different perspectives produces a more comprehensive understanding of the film's history than a national distribution history of the film would be capable of.
Following the pragmatic and inductive approach that Werner and Zimmerman propose, the research into the film's history began with a research question that changed several times during the research process. The beginning of the project on German-Brazilian film relations was denoted by a compilation of a filmography that included films from both nations that dealt with the other country: How is the other country depicted in the film? A film title such as Der Weg nach Rio was obviously about the Brazilian city, then its capital. It produced a certain image of the country for the German film audience at a specific time in German film history. Until that point, the analysis of the film did not require a Brazilian perspective.
During a research stay at the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, records indicated that the film caused a diplomatic dispute between Germany and Brazil at the time of its release. 19 More interesting than the aesthetic and narrative aspects of the film became the question of why this specific film caused a diplomatic controversy. The whole dimension of this dispute took shape with a further research stay at the Archivo Histórico de Itamaraty in Río de Janeiro, the historical archive of the Brazilian Foreign Office, accompanied by the study of the Brazilian daily press of the film at that time. It turned out that the diplomatic dispute was closely related to the work of the journalist who triggered the public outrage in Brazil; but more than this it showed that this journalist was working as a Brazilian diplomat and following a cultural-political agenda that aimed to place Brazil in the pantheon of cultural nations as opposed to a shelter for international white slavers. Der Weg nach Rio, therefore, was not simply a film of the popular white slavery genre but also an early example of public diplomacy. The film's history began in Germany but ended in Brazil.

Soft power and film
Research into the historical archives of the two Foreign Offices has highlighted the relevance of diplomatic correspondence. Research on the relationship between public diplomacy, also known as soft power, and film is still limited, but since the end of World War II, cultural products such as literature, photography or audio-visual media have become alternatives to hard power, an example of which is military threat. Joseph Nye, who coined the term in the late 1980s, defines soft power as 'the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies' 20 and 'rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others.' 21 Soft power usually is associated with Hollywood and its global reach, but studies on Indian or Chinese cinema have also shown the significance of film as a political tool. 22 The strong opposition of the Brazilian government to Der Weg nach Rio is an example of how the modern medium of film was a centre of diplomatic debates prior to World War II and the Cold War.
Although Brazil did not release Brazilian films to the German public to counter German or European white slavery films, Brazil's diplomatic pressure made the German distributor of Der Weg nach Rio release German films about Brazil in the German cinemas. Much more in the sense of soft power was Brazil's readjustment of its cultural-political discourse. Beginning with the era of Getulio Vargas in the 1930s, Brazil aimed to establish the country as a global cultural nation and supported the publicising of Brazilian culture abroad, such as Brazilian music. 23 To be known in the world for organised white slavery was not something Brazil would tolerate.
Brazil and Germany traditionally enjoyed solid economic and diplomatic relations. Between 1818 and the late 1920s, almost two hundred thousand German immigrants came to Brazil. 24 The increase of Brazilians of German origin in the country, the so-called Teuto-Brasileiros, went hand-in-hand with growing German investment in Brazil. 25 Interrupted only by World War I, Germany was continuously one of the most important trading partners in the Brazilian economy, and neither Brazil nor Germany had any interest in downgrading their relations through any diplomatic disputes.
In contrast to Brazilian products such as coffee, sugar, tobacco or leather, only a very small Janeiro. While Inge follows Gabiano to Brazil, the landlady betrays Karl to the police for the reward. In Rio de Janeiro, Inge realises that she has been the victim of a girl trafficker ring managed by the chief of a casino, Barera (Kurt Gerron). Her ordeal leads her into drug addiction and prostitution. After Karl has served his sentence, he travels to Brazil and, together with the help of the local police, he saves Inge.
Der Weg nach Rio was the last film by Manfred Noa. In terms of its content, the film is an example of the popular white slavery genre. The name of Rio -Rio de Janeiro -in the title refers to Brazil, which was an emerging economic power in Latin America and an important market for the German film industry in the 1920s and 30s. 32

Wolfgang Fuhrmann
8 For its premiere in January 1931, Der Weg nach Rio was advertised as 'the first sound film that deals with the dangers of the international trafficking in girls'. 33 However, the abduction of young white women to brothels in 'exotic' areas was already a popular storyline in the silent film era.
The Danish production Den hvide slavinde/The White Slave by Viggo Larsen from 1906 was the first film in the genre and caused an international sensation, paving the way for the genre's worldwide success. 34 In the following years, a whole series of films with the same or slightly altered titled were produced in Denmark. White slavery was also a popular topic in US productions, such as David W.
Griffith's The Fatal Hour (1908) and Traffic in Souls (1913). 35 In the 1920s, films that dealt with white slavery were considered offensive in the US and a reason for censorship or prohibition. 36 After World War I, white slavery also became popular in various German film productions. The recent wave of immigration from Eastern Europe and the strong focus on sensational and sexually charged stories -following the lifting of the censorship by the Weimar constitution for a short period Londres' report about the international trafficking in girls was published only a year later in a German version, Der Weg nach Buenos Aires, subtitled Die Geheimnisse des Mädchenhandels (The road to Buenos Aires. The Secrets of the trafficking in girls). In his memoirs, Sergei Eisenstein mentions the idea of adapting Londres' reporting to film, as it was one of his favorite books at that time. 39 The

White slavery: An international political task and urban myth
White slavery was a popular topic due to it being a political issue for every nation. The combat against trafficking in girls was understood as an international task and is documented and illustrated by several reports in the contemporary press and the activities of associations, authorities and institutions. 40  Although stories are well documented of young, often Eastern European Jewish women who hoped to find a better life overseas but ended in prostitution, for example in South American brothels, there is no indication of the existence of internationally organised crime gangs that were kidnapping young women from Europe. This part of the story was simply an urban myth. As sociologist Dietmar Jazbinsek remarks, in the early 20th century 'forced prostitution as a form of organized crime never existed. ' 41 Journalists and lobbyists, however, did everything they could do to ensure that it existed in the public's mind and claimed that organized trafficking in girls was an international problem. Moreover, white slavery intersected with gender, racist and anti-Semitic discourses. The existence of, amongst others, a Jewish organized crime group, that operated numerous brothels in Argentina and Brazil were eagerly taken up by writers such as Londres and bolstered anti-Semitism in Latin American countries and the rest of the world. 42 Different to the neutral German term Mädchenhandel (trafficking in girls), the Anglo American term 'white slavery' made it clear that the international fight against trafficking in girls was first of all about the protection of white girls and thus about racial purity.
For authorities and the public it was important, Jazbinsek notes, to believe in its existence for political reasons because 'the horror story about foreign trafficker of girls mobilized resentments and was aimed at against the recognition of prostitution as a profession. 43 The In addition, stories about trafficking in girls could be used as disciplinary measures against young girls' emancipation and curiosity about the wider world.
Mass media such as film took up the myth of internationally organised white slavery organisations; they kept it alive and refreshed it. Every congress or campaign of the lobby associations resulted in a new boom in the production of white slavery films. 44 After the premiere of Der Weg nach Rio, the Berliner Volks-Zeitung lamented that the film, unfortunately, again had a special topicality, which was obviously an allusion to the ongoing public discussion on this topic. 45 Reviews of the film were ambivalent; should the film be taken seriously or viewed with a sense of humour? The Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger commented: There is supposedly no trafficking in girls, but 'artist agencies', that are looking for dancers for

12
Considering the production and the reception context of the film, Der Weg nach Rio is a classic example of popular Weimar cinema. It is a genre film that combines crime with a love story. The film did well at the box office and satisfied the audience's demand for such films. For Brazilian viewers, however, the film was more than disturbing and had little to do with Brazilian reality. Moreover, white slavery never was a popular genre in Brazil. 49 As the correspondence between German and Brazilian diplomats shows, the film caused a very different reaction on the Brazilian side.
A few days after the premiere, the Brazilian envoy Adalberto Guerra Duval protested at the Foreign Office in Berlin against the defamatory portrayal of Brazil in the film as a refuge for the international trafficking in girls. 50 Duval reported that he had been invited by a Brazilian journalist to watch the film and that he had a hard time preventing other journalists and Brazilian students, who were living in Berlin, from halting the screening. Duval indicated that further screenings of the film would harm the distribution of German films in Brazil.
Duval was not unaware of the social problem of prostitution in Brazil. In 1913 he represented his country at an international conference against trafficking in girls in London, and he knew about his country's image in the world. 51 In his eyes, however, a film such as Der Weg nach Rio was not a film that did justice to his country's commitment in this matter, as he explained in a letter of protest to the distributor Südfilm. Guerra Duval expected a statement from the German Foreign Office within a few days that could be sent to Brazil and help respond to potentially negative articles written about the film by Brazilian journalists in Berlin. Guerra Duval could not know that Südfilm already had submitted a request at the Film Review Office to add to Der Weg nach Rio the additional title 'The girl trafficker from Rio'. In a foresighted move, the Film Review Office rejected the request, as it assumed that Brazil could protest the defamatory title. 52 The German Foreign Office was surprised and concerned about the reaction of the Brazilian envoy and tried to appease the situation. It pointed out to Guerra Duval that it already rejected the additional title but that it also had to follow the jurisdiction of the German Film Act, Lichtspielgesetz. Censorship and the prohibition of a film were in the hands of an independent commission. The Foreign Office could only be an authorised expert to the commission, which did not have to follow the expert's advice. Moreover, the Foreign Office ministry considered the presentation of the Brazilian authorities in the film impeccable, as 'questionable characters among civilians' were shown 'explicitly as foreigners' in the film (so ‚"Italian", "Rumanian").' 53 Apart from that, the Foreign Office could make no more concessions to the Brazilian envoy and his request.

Humour versus insult
How far the opinions about the film diverged is shown by a scene in the film in which Ricardo Gabiano and his lover (Hertha von Walther) have lunch, and the Brazilian housekeeper turns the record of a gramophone with her finger. In contrast to the German Film-Kurier, which called the '"manual operation" of the gramophone' an 'optical joke', the Brazilian press understood the scene as an insult: 'As evidence of our backwardness it is shown how a primitive gramophone is operated through the hand of an old ragged women, she's toothless and leprous.' 54 It was not only the Foreign Office in Berlin that was pressured by Duval's protests. He also sent his complaint to the distributor of the film, the Südfilm A.G. in Berlin, and the producer, the Lothar Stark GmbH. 55 With an almost threatening undertone Duval finished his letter to the Südfilm by advising them that it was in the company's own interests to immediately stop the film's distribution.
Both companies expressed their regret for Duval's impression of the film but rejected his accusation that it disparaged Brazil. 56  Brazil's memorandum. He reiterated that Brazil was ready to immediately ban all German films in Brazil. 57 Duval was concerned about an imminent diplomatic conflict between Brazil and Germany due to the upcoming release of two films whose titles suggested that they were further white slavery stories:

Das gelbe Haus von Rio [The yellow house from Rio] (Karl Grune, DE 1931) as well as Jaap Speyer's
Tänzerinnen für Süd-Amerika gesucht. As Speyer's film took place in Argentina, Duval anticipated a similar conflict between the Berlin Foreign Office and the Argentine embassy.
His concern was partly justified. The Foreign Office assured him that the film plot of Das gelbe Haus von Rio had no relationship whatsoever to Brazil but played in France and meanwhile had been

More than just a film
In retrospect one may be surprised at the reaction of the Brazilian government. Was the reaction to the film's story of the Brazilian envoy Guerra Duval exaggerated? Why did the press, both right and left-wing, react so harshly to a simple genre film that was neither shot nor even shown in Brazil? About his work as consul in Cologne, it is reported that Falcão was obsessed with the idea that when the Germans heard about Brazil, they imagined a country of 'Indios' and not a country where European culture thrived. 73 For him, Brazil was 'the great unknown in the modern world'. 74 He wanted it to be recognised for its cultural achievements in the world, and films about white slavery stood in the way of its ascension to the pantheon of cultural nations. Therefore, it was 'time for those outside to know us through our achievements so that they will stop seeing us as a vast taba [small village of indiginous people] of savage Indians and illiterate half-breeds.' 75 Falcão was not a critic of Germany. On the contrary, he was a fervent admirer of German culture. During his time in Germany, he regularly wrote about German culture, actors, films, cities and music, and regularly published in the Brazilian intellectual journal Careta. However, Falcaõ's accusation of Germany and the Western World's degrading, racist view on Brazil as a mere location for simplistic cinematographic fantasies is a double-edged sword. 76 In his articles he emphasised Brazilian national pride but neither explained for what this pride was standing for nor did he defend Brazil's ethnic and cultural diversity. Considering his bourgeois education, his diplomatic career and the reiteration of Western prejudices when describing Brazil, one can ask, if the image of Brazil that Falcão was thinking of was that of a white Brazil. That Falcão stumbled over his own prejuduces shows his convoluted discourse and anti-Semitic remarks in his commitment for German Jewish refugees that were applying for visa to Brazil during his time as a consul in Germany. To Brazilian authorities he argued that the Jewish immigrants that applied for visa did not display the 'reprochable features of the [Semitic] race', but they personified 'the Aryan mentality and work ethic at its best' and therefore would strengthen According to Falcão, the service 'meant to present Brazil in all its cultural aspects. This service will publicize every Brazilian cultural achievement and will thus foster intellectual cooperation with the modern world educated community'. 80 Der Weg nach Rio was more than just a European genre film. For the Brazilian public, it was an example of the European nations' bias against a Latin American nation, and Falcão planned to put an end to this. Brazil's next step in the diplomatic debate, however, also had unexpected consequences for the country.

The Brazilian import ban
In the hope that the Brazilian government would abandon its decision, the Südfilm decided in June to change the title of the film to Die Grüne Kugel [The green globe], delete all Brazilian references in the film and revise the entire advertising material. For German authorities, the company's offer seemed to settle the case 81 , but the Brazilian government stuck to its ban.
The outrage about a German film that was never shown in Brazilian cinemas began in the coming years to affect the distribution of German films in Brazil It took more than a year until the film scandal was revisited by the Brazilian press. Entries in the  Brazil, but the ban not only harmed Brazilian exhibitors but also the Brazilian cinema audience, putting them at a disadvantage to other countries and audiences.
The reassessment of the incident in the press did not end the ban, which was not lifted until March 1933. However, the exhibition of Der Weg nach Rio, which probably caused one of the most serious cultural-diplomatic tensions in the diplomatic history between Germany and Brazil, remained prohibited.

Conclusion
A multi-dimensional and multi-perspective approach, as has been presented in this article and case study, is a promising approach for exploring new terrain in film and in New Cinema History.
Historians agree that it is difficult if not impossible to master all aspects of Werner and Zimmermann's elaborated approach. 84 Histoire croisée, therefore, should be understood as an attempt to mediate between cultural transfer and historical comparison rather than as a programme that can be implemented in research practice. 85 The case study on Der Weg nach Rio demonstrates how the combination of German and Brazilian perspectives gives the film a very complex meaning, from genre to politics, politics to press coverage, and to Brazilian cultural politics.
The distribution and exhibition history of Der Weg nach Rio the film is a perfect example of how decisions made in Brazil influenced the film's history in Germany. For German-Brazilian  20 relations, Der Weg nach Rio was a disaster in diplomatic and public communication. It also shows that the asymmetrical relationship between the two nations, in political or economic terms, does not necessarily mean that the 'weaker' nation, economically speaking, had no way to react to the 'stronger' one. Brazilian authorities had a very strong response to the film's exhibition in Germany, and Brazil's reaction to the film's exhibition found strong support in the Brazilian and the German press, something that was not expected by German authorities. However, the public outrage in Brazil also had far-reaching consequences for the Brazilian film market and the Brazilian film audience. Research on this film has demonstrated that the history of Der Weg nach Rio goes beyond a traditional production-distribution-exhibition history. Rather, the film's history is the result of conflictual international relations. It is also not a singular event in the diplomatic correspondence between Germany and other nations. Correspondence between the German Foreign Office and Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela that were studied parallel to this investigation show that film was a recurring topic in diplomatic affairs. Further research could therefore corroborate the significance of this under-researched aspect and integrate public diplomacy into cinema history.
Second, and following Rick Altman's conclusion that genres are like nations -they are not closed systems but, amongst others, must be open to changes and modifications -one could add the significance of asking for the relationship between genres and a nation's cultural identity. As was argued, films of the white slavery genre were shown in Brazil but not viewed