Black people and people of color appeared in numerous film productions in the Weimar Republic, initially as extras, but later also in larger roles. They were mainly hired to play dancers, musicians, or waiters.
While in the years before the Weimar Republic, British migrants initially took on extra roles in film productions, from 1918 onwards, almost exclusively people from the German colonial territories were cast in roles as Black people. Thus, at the beginning of the 1920s, many of the Black people and people of color living in the Weimar Republic worked in the film and theater industry. The demand for so-called “exotic” actors was quite high at the time, and the small number of Black people living in the republic often secured them jobs in the film and theater industry. As a result, their salaries were higher than those of the usual extras and supporting actors. As a result, Black extras founded the Berlin professional association “Afrikanischer Hilfsverein” (African Aid Association), led by Viktor Bell as spokesperson and chairman.
Black people are hired for films to embody white fantasies of the “exotic other” or the “oriental stranger.” Despite their immense impact on white audiences, Black actors and actresses of color are almost never mentioned in cast lists and reviews. Exceptions include American boxer Battling Siki, actress Madge Jackson, and actor Lewis Brody (Ludwig Mpesa). Although Brody is from Cameroon, he portrays Chinese or Malaysian people in films such as “Der müde Tod” (The Tired Death), “Genuine,” and “Die Perle des Orients” (The Pearl of the Orient).
At the end of the 1920s, the portrayal of Black people and people of color in German cinema and the perception of them by audiences changed. This was linked to the introduction of sound film and the resulting worldwide popularity of African American music such as jazz and other forms of artistic expression. The dancer Josephine Baker and other Black representatives of other art forms, such as poetry, were increasingly perceived positively by the public. The holding of the Brussels Conference on the initiative of German communists, which contributed to a critical perception of colonial rule, was another factor at the political level in the changing perception of Black artists during the Weimar Republic.
During the Nazi era, when film was used as an important propaganda tool, black actors and actresses no longer embodied “exotic” characters as they had previously, but rather (inferior) “natives,” as in the colonial film Ohm Krüger. In the anti-Semitic film Jud Süß, Ludwig Mpesa plays the duke's servant, but he is mostly hired for roles as cruel characters such as the executioner (see Film Propaganda during the Nazi Era, 1939-1945).
