Kameradschaft (1931): Representing Solidarity Beyond Borders in Face of Disaster

Kameradschaft ("Camaraderie" in English), a 1931 film directed by G.H. Pabst, focuses on the participation of German miners rescuing French victims of a gas explosion deep inside a mine located at the border between France and Germany. The 1931 film is set after the Great War (WWI), but it was inspired by the 1906 mining disaster in Courrieres, where 1,200 miners died due to a gas explosion and where Belgian and German miners participated in search and rescue operations. The first part of the film describes borders in physical, territorial, and identity terms-such as border crossing checkpoints, lines on the ground, gates, metallic bars underground, and linguistic-cultural differencesbetween French and German miners exploiting the same mine. The mine explosion leads to the intervention of the German rescuers crossing all the borders, from checkpoints to gates and language differences. Once the crisis terminates, authorities restored borders, premising an uncertain future.