The early Federal Republic was characterized by efforts to (re)define what it might mean to be German after National Socialism. The German Cinema of the 1950s - long regarded as escapist, narrowed, and restorative - becomes the focus of attention in this book as the central location of national self-image negotiation. Starting from the consideration of the figurations of white masculinity, Maja Figge's comprehensive study shows that efforts have been made to normalize the basis of racist and sexualized interpretations, displacements, and omissions. Social discourses and cinematic movements - fades, flashes, dissolves - cooperated in this ambivalent process.