Landscape as Lebensraum: Construction of Space in Nazi German Animation

The article analyzes how the concept of Lebensraum is visualized in German animation of the Nazi era. Closely reading the animated film Der Storenfried (Bavaria Filmkunst, dir. Hans Held, 1940), the article argues that Lebensraum is represented in German animation through the construction of a composite landscape embedded into the primordial landscape of the forest and populated by animalistic characters visually marked as German. The article demonstrates that animation, with its ability to seamlessly connect various visual fragments through camera movement, color, and mise-en-scene techniques, becomes an ideal medium for representing the politics and ideology of the Nazi cultural imaginary.