A masterful study of Weimar culture's engagement with American slapstick, Paul Flaig's book uncovers forgotten histories-Berthold Brecht on Charlie Chaplin, Walter Benjamin on Frank Capra, Germany's lost Laurel and Hardy-restoring the intellectual and historical contexts that shaped this transatlantic comic dialogue. A genuinely revelatory work.

Robert J. King, Columbia University, USA

In this brilliant book, Paul Flaig shows how the familiar characters of American slapstick (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Mickey) assumed new meanings within the crisis-laden context of the Weimar Republic. Both film history and intellectual history, Weimar Slapstick covers an astonishing range of contexts, from philosophy to the Bauhaus to advertising film.

Michael Cowan, The University of Iowa, USA

Weimar Slapstick provides a welcome deep-dive into the influence of American slapstick on Weimar and post-Weimar German cultural practice and theory. It is an invaluable resource for scholars in transnational media studies and will remain essential reading for those interested in U.S.-German cultural relations for years to come.

Ervin Malakaj, University of British Columbia, Canada