The Golem (1915 film)


Der Golem is a 1915 German silent horror partially lost film, written and directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen. It was inspired by an ancient Jewish legend, the most prevalent version of the myth involving 16th century Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel who created the Golem to protect his people from antisemites. Wegener claimed the film was based on Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel The Golem, but Troy Howarth states "it is more likely that simply drew upon European folklore".
The film was the first of a trilogy produced by Wegener, followed by The Golem and the Dancing Girl and .

Plot

In modern times, an antiques dealer searching the ruins of a Jewish temple, finds a golem, a clay statue that had been brought to life four centuries earlier by a Kabbalist rabbi using a magical amulet to protect the Jewish people from persecution. The dealer resurrects the golem as a servant, but the golem falls in love with Jessica, the dealer's daughter. When she does not return his love, the golem goes on a rampage and commits a series of murders.

Cast

Co-writer/co-director Henrik Galeen played a major role in the film and years later went on to co-create other silent horror classics, such as F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu and Paul Leni's Waxworks
Actress Lyda Salmanova went on to marry Paul Wegener.
The few surviving clips from this film show Wegener in a costume almost identical to the one he used in his later 1920 version, and "show him stumbling around in a manner he would repeat in the later film", according to Troy Howarth.

Reception

Preservation status

The Deutsche Kinemathek film archive possesses "108 meter fragments". While many sources consider it a lost film, silentera.com states that a "print exists", and Professor Elizabeth Baer notes in her book The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction that Donald Glut claimed in The Frankenstein Legend that "European film collector" Paul Sauerlaender tracked down "a complete print" in 1958; Baer is careful, however, to point out that "Glut provides no source for this information."