The Film Director’s Tragic Bargain

January 20, 2026 in Library Corner

By Robin Jacobson

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (translated from German by Ross Benjamin) is a powerful, darkly comic World War II novel about art, ego, and bad choices. The “Director” of the title is Georg Wilhelm (called G.W.) Pabst, a real-life 20th century Austrian film director who escaped the Nazis only to return to them.

Pabst fled Europe for Hollywood in 1933 after Hitler rose to power. Although not Jewish, Pabst was vulnerable to Nazi persecution because of his leftist, communist-leaning views and films showcasing social justice issues. His nickname was “Red Pabst.”

Bafflingly, in 1939, Pabst returned to German-occupied Austria. Thereafter, Pabst made films for the Third Reich. What led to this bewildering turnabout? No one knows, but Kehlmann’s novel blends facts and informed speculation to propose an intriguing answer to this puzzle.

The Sad Journey of G.W. Pabst

In The Director, G.W. Pabst first appears on a sunny Hollywood patio. Speaking broken English, Pabst is pitching a new film idea to Warner Brothers Studio executives. The Hollywood men put him off, saying they first want him to do another movie project. He dislikes the script but reluctantly agrees.

Although Pabst is internationally renowned for his innovative filming, editing, and approach to working with actors, the studio allows him little creative input into the making of A Modern Hero. As Pabst predicts, the movie is a box office flop. Afterwards, no one is willing to finance Pabst’s film idea. In the meantime, an envoy from the Third Reich entreats him to end his exile, return home, and make German films with complete artistic freedom and abundant resources. Outraged, Pabst spurns the offer.

Nevertheless, in August 1939, Pabst travels to Nazi-controlled Austria with his family. In Kehlmann’s novel, Pabst’s purpose is merely to make elder care arrangements for his mother. Fatefully, he is injured, delaying the family’s departure from Europe. When war breaks out, the trip is canceled. Neighbors and shopkeepers inform local authorities that communist Pabst is back and demand his arrest.

Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, controls all German filmmaking. He is determined to show the world that the Reich can produce magnificent art. He offers Pabst the opportunity to make “non-political” films. Initially, Pabst refuses, but a mix of flattery, promises of bountiful budgets, and menacing threats wears down his resistance.

As Pabst begins filming, he continues to make moral compromises, gradually surrendering his principles. By the time he reaches a climactic decision point, he feels justified in choosing a course of action he once deemed reprehensible. Creating great art, he insists, is what matters most.

Everyday Life in the Third Reich

Kehlmann masterfully portrays both the awfulness and absurdity of life in an authoritarian state. Based on his Jewish father’s stories of growing up in Austria, Kehlmann shows how self-censorship and complicity with the regime permeated schools, workplaces, and everyday interactions.

In one telling scene, Pabst’s wife, Trude, discovers that her new book club exclusively reads the works of a mediocre Reich-approved author. Afraid to say anything critical, Trude limits herself to insipid comments. One woman is summarily ejected from the meeting for inadvertently mentioning a blacklisted author. All the while, the women sip coffee from dainty porcelain cups confiscated from a Jewish family.

Pabst pays a heavy price for his return to the Third Reich. His sensitive, artistic son, Jakob, transforms into a zealous member of the Hitler Youth. Despairing, Trude escapes into alcohol. Pabst himself becomes a broken man, his post-war reputation blackened by charges of having been a Nazi collaborator. Tragically, that was never his intention.