William Held Film: Charité Berlin [1919-1922]

Footage of and from the Charité in Berlin: views of buildings, monuments and sculptures, doctors, nurses and patients, an operation. „Approaching the Charité“ is one of three documentary films made by the American doctor and amateur filmmaker William Held during a stay in Berlin from 1919 to 1922. His films are especially interesting from the standpoint of the state of health in Germany, particularly maladies of deficiency such as rickets and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. In intertitles Held explains their spread as originating in the British naval blockade from 1914 to 1919, which caused considerable shortages in food supply in Germany. In his denunciation of the blockade, the amateur filmmaker displays a pro-German attitude, which may be linked to his origins: Held was born in 1871 in either Vienna or Moravia and emigrated to Chicago in 1891. He may have shown his films at private screenings and distributed them himself, in order to mobilise support for Germany in the USA.