Walter Ruttmanns abstrakter Kurzfilm OPUS III (1924) mit der Musik von Hanns Eisler (1927)

Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Rekonstruktion

Abstract

Although the film music of Hanns Eisler belongs to the most analyzed in the history of film music, his first film music which he wrote for the experimental silent short film OPUS III by Walter Ruttmann, one of the most important avant– garde film directors during the 1920s, is nearly forgotten. Ruttmann’s abstract short films OPUS I–IV (1921–1925), milestones of the genre, were first published on DVD in 2008 in a new reconstruction. This article provides the reader with the most important sources, discusses the problems of a reconstruction and gives a new theory to the question, which version of OPUS III was used during the first performance of the film with Eisler’s music 1927 in Baden-Baden.