ABSTRACT
In 1923 Lotte Reiniger began production on her animated feature film The Adventures of Prince Achmed/Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, which was finally released in 1926. It has often been noted that her friend and collaborator Walter Ruttman is said to have been upset by the fact that this film apparently has nothing to do with the year 1923, in what was a very challenging time in Germany economically and politically. The chapter seeks to situate both Reiniger as a filmmaker, and her landmark film, Prince Achmed, within the context of Germany at the time of the film's production and release. It argues that the film can be understood as a liminal or "in-between" work, making it impossible to categorize in the traditional canons of art and culture of the Weimar period. This difficulty is a result of the fact that the film is both fantasy and animation.
