[Fight against infection in early cinema - a retrospective in times of COVID-19]. / Der Kampf gegen die Ansteckung im frühen Kino ­ Eine Retrospektive in Zeiten von COVID-19.

ABSTRACT

Contagious diseases and other conditions from the field of internal medicine have always kept the world on its edge. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has recently reminded us of this with all its terror. If one looks for a historical equivalent, the Spanish flu impresses with as many similarities as differences. However, many of these aspects are difficult to measure by statistics. How were the waves of infections perceived socially almost 100 years ago? What significance did they have in the lives of the ordinary people? And in what light was medical world showcased? An insightful way to get to the bottom of these questions can be through the historical analysis of the mass medium of film.This paper will therefore systematically analyze the decades surrounding the Spanish Flu, known in film history as the silent era. This venture not only fills a gap in film and medical history research, where the portrayal of the main antagonist of epidemics - the internist - has been missing. Furthermore, such a study helps to put the present events in an adequate context. As a result, it becomes clear how little contemporary developments should be seen as an anomaly; how cinema, as an anticipatory medium with a warning function, reflects medical reality; how poorly the film industry used the therapeutic possibilities of cinematic art in times of pandemics. Finally, however, it becomes particularly apparent what a significant role internal diseases or internists played in the history of cinema from the very beginning.