Dancing with the Jews: Jews and Other Minorities in the German Miniseries Hotel Adlon (2013)

• In Event: Jews and other “Others” on Global Television

Abstract

he 2013 German miniseries Hotel Adlon: A Family Saga uses Berlin’s most luxurious hotel to dramatize the turbulent period between 1904 (the hotel’s founding) and 1997 (its postwar reopening). The miniseries also charts the life of fictional protagonist Sonja Schadt, an independent-minded woman from an aristocratic Prussian family, and her star-crossed love affair with Julian Zimmermann, a Jewish musician. Hotel Adlon draws attention to topics that have often been overlooked in popular accounts of twentieth century German history, including German colonialism, queer love, and other relationships that cross class and religious boundaries. These subplots give viewers a diverse portrait of German society, yet they can also be quite limited, as is underscored by the dance scenes. Dance scenes in Hotel Adlon highlight the way that minority characters are often portrayed as exotic. For instance, Julian is not depicted as religiously observant, yet, when he gets married to a Jewish family friend, the men and women dance horas in two separate circles. Such dancing also signals the open-mindedness of sympathetic “Aryan” characters. Julian invites Sonja to his wedding and she happily dances in the women’s circle, yet spends the entire time exchanging suggestive glances with the groom. This paper discusses dance scenes in Hotel Adlon in the context of German debates about multiculturalism. The miniseries includes social issues that interest contemporary viewers without provoking them––it is, after all, popular entertainment about a luxury hotel. As seen in the dance scenes, Hotel Adlon gestures to a politically and racially diverse period of German history without fully fleshing out its minority characters or reflecting on how such individuals could actually participate in post-war German culture.

Author

• Sonia Gollance, The Ohio State University