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The Shooting Star: the depiction of Bohlwinkel

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sliat_1981
Member
#11 · Posted: 5 Jun 2007 11:16
I don't think it's anti-Semitic just to have a Jewish person as a villians. There are evil Jewish people in this world. I just think that it was just bad timing. If he had had a Jewish villian earlier, it probably wouldnt have been so controversal.
My point to the topic was that the changes weren't really significant enough to fool us that he was South American. He always did and always will be Jewish.
Balthazar
Moderator
#12 · Posted: 5 Jun 2007 11:54
jock123
...it was the cartoonist's short-hand of the day.

I understand your point, jock, and if we were talking about the stereotypical facial features of the Jewish people portrayed in some other Tintin books (the Zionist gang members in the original versions of Black Gold for instance), I think you'd be right that these could be put down to cartoonist's shorthand of the time - a bit offensive now, but commonly acceptable at the time.

However, I think the portrayal of Bohlwinkel goes beyond being just a bit of dated cartoonist's shorthand. It's not just that his features look exactly like the Jewish capatalist bogey-man of Nazi propoganda posters of the time; his actions and his role in the story also seem to come directly from the same Nazi propoganda machine. He's not only an archetypal hook-nosed, fleshy-lipped Jew; he's an archetypal hook-nosed, fleshy-lipped Jewish banker skulking behind the scenes in his office, the hidden power behind an international network of influence and agents which he uses to attempt to thwart and sabotage the honest, decent efforts of "Aryan" scientific progress for his own financial gain. That's not cartoonist's shorthand - that's a core belief of Naziism.

When Tintin analysts talk about Hergé's pre-war anti-Nazi book, King Ottokar's Sceptre, they don't say that Hergé just happened to name the Bordurian leader Mussler, and just happened to give the Bordurian airforce Messerschmitt 109s (or Heinkels in the black and white original). They quite rightly point to the fact that Mussler's name is clearly a mix of Mussolini and Hitler, and that the planes are clearly supplied by Nazi Germany, and that this suggests that Hergé deliberately intended Borduria's attempted annexation of Syldavia to be symbolic of the real-world behaviour of Nazi Germany.

But when it comes to The Shooting Star some of these same Tintin analysts claim that the fact that the baddie's name is Jewish and the fact that Tintin's expedition plane is supplied by Nazi Germany is somehow random or accidental - a bit unfortunate, but not significant.

I suppose it's possible that Hergé was thinking about what he was doing when writing King Otttokar's Sceptre, and not thinking about what he was doing when writing The Shooting Star, but surely that's trying to have it both ways. If the baddie leader's name and details such as aircraft makes were deliberately chosen and politically significant in King Otttokar's Sceptre, then surely it's logical to conclude that the baddie leader's name and details such as aircraft makes were also deliberately chosen and also politically significant in The Shooting Star.

I'm not saying that Hergé should be condemned as a Nazi sympathiser on the basis of this one book - it's quite untypical of his output generally, and was clearly written and drawn in a time of great pressure and fear. And he might have been influenced by prevalent beliefs and stereotypes of the time without being fully aware of it. And I'm not saying The Shooting Star shouldn't be read and enjoyed now. In other respects, it's a great book, and in these happier times the Jewish conspiracy subtext is irrelevant enough to most reader's beliefs to go unnoticed. But I don't think we should brush under the carpet what Bohlwinkel was meant to represent at the time.

Re the TV programmes you mention, jock, I don't think Love Thy Neighbour can be likened to Father Ted. Love Thy Neighbour was a lazily written show peddling unfounded stereotypes and beliefs (that were offensive to many people even at the time).
Father Ted, however, was a sharply satrirical Irish production, written by Irishmen who were mocking aspects of their own country's culture that were long overdue for attack - offensive to some church authorities, no doubt, but not to Irish people per se.
I think Hergé's portrayal of Bohlwinkel is more like Love Thy Neighbour - a lazy ill-informed jibe at a stereotype from a persecuted minority group - whereas Hergé's prortrayal of Jolyon Wagg is more like Father Ted - a well-observed jibe at an archetype from his own culture.
harishankar
Member
#13 · Posted: 6 Jun 2007 16:23
Mates, when I first read the book, I had no ideas of the political connotations. I don't read too much into TIntin, even after knowing the political connotations.

It's a fun book to read and that's all that matters to me.
Andrew
Member
#14 · Posted: 31 May 2011 19:00
Bohlwinkel was a character who could have made a re-appearance, but we only saw once. Maybe he spent longer in prison than Allan, Dr Müller, etc?
Briony Coote
Member
#15 · Posted: 2 Nov 2011 12:06
I never thought of Bohlwinkel as a Jew, just a typical ugly caricatured villain.
Furienna
Member
#16 · Posted: 19 Nov 2011 06:31
While it was unfortunate in hindsight, that Hergé had a villain, who can be seen as a Jewish stereotype... What can we do about it now, except moving on and enjoy the album for what it is? And even if Blumenstein/Bohlwinkel happens to be a Jewish stereotype, can't we just take him as a villain, who happened to also be a Jew?
blisteringbarnacle
Member
#17 · Posted: 21 Nov 2011 06:06
Well it was definitely meant to portray Blummelstein/Bohwinkel as a Jew.
Belgium was under Nazi-occupation, and it was certainly written as Nazi propaganda.
That doesn't mean Hergé was a Nazi though. I'm sure if he had continued with The Land of Black Gold, that probably would have been the last Tintin book.
It's obvious that Skoil and Müller are German, and with King Ottokar's Sceptre a critique of the Anschluss, I doubt the Nazis were fond of Herge and Tintin.
As pointed out in Post-War versions, Hergé tries to hide Blummelsterin/Bohlwinkel is an American Jewish banker. But its origins remain.
I don't blame Hergé or consider him a racist.
I think he was quite enlightened for his time, when dealing with other races. Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo were just as much propaganda written to satisfy Hergé's bosses at the time. As we know, he didn't think highly of those two works either.
Furienna
Member
#18 · Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:47
That's true, Hergé wasn't at all proud of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, which is also was the only orginally black and white adventure, that he never colorized.
And we also know how unkind time has been towards Tintin in the Congo.
I'm only surprised that Hergé still used stereotypes about Jews in The Shooting Star, when he was such a pioneer about the Chinese several years earlier in Blue Lotus.
But I guess you're right, that he was forced to satisfy his Nazi bosses at the time. And he did make some changes in the album version: Blumenstein became Bohlwinkel (even though it unfortunately also turned out to be known as a Jewish surname), New York became Sao Rico, a panel with two stereotype Jews discussing the end of the world was removed. And anyone can make a mistake or two.
GSC
Member
#19 · Posted: 31 Dec 2011 20:41
In the first edition (Which I don't think is in print anymore), he's American.
jcjlf
Member
#20 · Posted: 2 Jan 2012 13:11
Furienna:
I'm only surprised that Hergé still used stereotypes about Jews in The Shooting Star, when he was such a pioneer about the Chinese several years earlier in Blue Lotus. But I guess you're right, that he was forced to satisfy his Nazi bosses at the time.

Amongst Roman Catholics and other Christians it was not uncommon to have prejudices against Jewish people at that time. The Holocaust may have changed this later. I suppose: also for Hergé, who was quite a sensible man. Later he might have felt ashamed for Blumenstein/Bohlwinkel but maybe more ashamed for a bit opportunistic behaviour during the occupation, like the majority of the people.

Still I find remarkable other tendencies in Crab and The Shooting Star that could be used for Hergé's defence:
Haddock and Allan seem to be adversaries when Tintin meets them, but a short while later Haddock is Tintin's helper. This could be a metaphor suggested by Hergé: "The English are supposed to be our enemies, that is what the reigning occupying power lets us believe, but in the end the English will help you!"

Captain Chester is also an Englishman who helps Tintin and Haddock in the next album.

Are these signs of hidden resistance and sympathy for the Allies? By their introduction the censors of Le Soir are satisfied: Allan and Haddock are villains and drunks, but when they don't look sharply anymore, one of these two turns out to be Tintin's best friend.

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