"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.