Metropolis: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Thea von Harbou's 1925 novel was written as the literary blueprint for Fritz Lang's film, forged in Weimar Berlin's fever of expressionist mysticism, technocratic dread and utopian architecture. This mix traces the Wellsian and German pulp-scientific roots beneath its cathedral-and-machine imagery, the Berlin scene that housed it, and the science fiction that inherited its skyline.

The Kynda mix for Metropolis

• Key Influence · The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells (1910). Wells's vision of a future megacity of towers, aerial traffic and an underclass of labourers ruled from above is the closest structural ancestor to von Harbou's stratified Metropolis, with its pleasure gardens for the elite and workers below. Wells himself reviewed Lang's film harshly in 1927, complaining it recycled his own book — an accusation that itself documents how closely the German material tracked his urban dystopia.medium:literature.
• Influencia Obscura · Glass Architecture (Glasarchitektur) by Paul Scheerbart (1914). Scheerbart's ecstatic manifesto imagined crystal cities of coloured glass transforming humanity's soul, and it electrified Bruno Taut and Berlin's Glass Chain circle. That utopian-mystical strain — architecture as spiritual instrument, the city as cathedral — runs directly through von Harbou's New Tower of Babel and her belief that the heart must mediate between hand and brain. A near-forgotten key to Metropolis's metaphysics.
• Local Roots · Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin (1929). Written a few years later in the same Berlin whose traffic, advertising and crowds fed von Harbou's imagery, Döblin's montage novel renders the metropolis as a devouring organism of noise, slaughterhouses and machinery. Read against Metropolis it shows the actual city behind the fantasy: Weimar Berlin as the laboratory where German writers first tried to give literary form to mass urban modernity.
• Beyond the Medium · The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563). Bruegel's swarming, half-built ziggurat crawling with labourers is the iconographic template von Harbou reworks explicitly: her central legend of the New Tower of Babel, where those who conceived the tower could not speak to those who built it, restages this painting as class parable. The film's vast crowd-and-monument compositions carry Bruegel's aerial scale directly into cinema.
• Peer · The Tunnel (Der Tunnel) by Bernhard Kellermann (1913). Kellermann's bestseller about a transatlantic tunnel driven by a visionary engineer, financed by tycoons and paid for in workers' lives, was the German technological novel every Weimar reader knew. Its heroic-engineer figure, mass labour disasters and capitalist patriarch map closely onto Joh and Freder Fredersen, making it the nearest contemporary literary orbit to von Harbou's industrial melodrama.
• From the Canon · Die Nibelungen by Fritz Lang (1924). Immediately before Metropolis, von Harbou scripted this two-part epic for Lang, adapting the medieval Nibelungenlied into monumental tableaux of dragons, treasure and doomed dynasties. It established the partnership's method — mythic scaffolding, vast sets, fate-driven characters — that they then transposed from Germanic legend onto the industrial future city.
• Legacy · Metropolis (manga) by Osamu Tezuka (1949). Tezuka's early manga takes its title and its artificial-being-in-a-vertical-city premise from the German material, which reached Japan through the film's reputation. The lineage runs onward into Rintaro and Katsuhiro Otomo's 2001 anime adaptation, making von Harbou's tower-city and its ambiguous android one of the founding images of Japanese science fiction comics and animation.

What influenced Metropolis

• Alfred Hitchcock (1899). Hitchcock is named among the concept series’ inspirations. (also via Blackmail) “The Metropolis concept series draws inspiration from a wide range of musical, cinematic and other sources, ranging from Alfred Hitchcock to Debussy to Philip K. Dick .” (Wikipedia)
• Bauhaus. The film's art direction is stated to draw influence from Bauhaus. “the film's art direction by Otto Hunte , Erich Kettelhut , and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus , Cubist , and Futurist design” (Wikipedia)
• Cubism. The film's art direction is stated to draw influence from Cubism. “the film's art direction by Otto Hunte , Erich Kettelhut , and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus , Cubist , and Futurist design” (Wikipedia)
• Futurism. The film's art direction is stated to draw influence from Futurism. “the film's art direction by Otto Hunte , Erich Kettelhut , and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from opera, Bauhaus , Cubist , and Futurist design” (Wikipedia)
• Art Deco. The city design in Metropolis is described as strongly informed by Art Deco. “The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly informed by the Art Deco movement” (Wikipedia)
• Upper Silesian Tower. The New Babel Tower design was inspired by the Upper Silesian Tower. “The New Babel Tower, for instance, has been inspired by Upper Silesian Tower in Poznań fairgrounds, which was recognized in Germany as a masterpiece of architecture.” (Wikipedia)
• The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel. The Tower of Babel imagery was modeled after Brueghel's painting. “The Tower of Babel in Maria's recounting of the biblical story was modeled after this 1563 painting by Pieter Brueghel .” (Wikipedia)
• Blackmail by Alfred Hitchcock. The Schüfftan process pioneered in Metropolis was used again in Hitchcock's Blackmail. “This new technique was seen again just two years later in Alfred Hitchcock 's film Blackmail (1929).” (Wikipedia)
• Claude Debussy. Debussy is named among the concept series’ inspirations. “The Metropolis concept series draws inspiration from a wide range of musical, cinematic and other sources, ranging from Alfred Hitchcock to Debussy to Philip K. Dick .” (Wikipedia)
• Philip K. Dick. Dick is named among the concept series’ inspirations. “The Metropolis concept series draws inspiration from a wide range of musical, cinematic and other sources, ranging from Alfred Hitchcock to Debussy to Philip K. Dick .” (Wikipedia)
• The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells (1910). The Sleeper Awakes (H. G. Wells) — titan for Metropolis (openlibrary.org)
• The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563). The Tower of Babel (Pieter Bruegel the Elder) — culture for Metropolis (wikidata.org)
• The Golem: How He Came into the World by Paul Wegener (1920). The Golem: How He Came into the World (Paul Wegener) — culture for Metropolis (wikidata.org)
• Tomorrow's Eve (L'Ève future) by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (1886). Tomorrow's Eve (L'Ève future) (Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam) — titan for Metropolis
• Glass Architecture (Glasarchitektur) by Paul Scheerbart (1914). Glass Architecture (Glasarchitektur) (Paul Scheerbart) — ghost for Metropolis
• Two Planets (Auf zwei Planeten) by Kurd Lasswitz (1897). Two Planets (Auf zwei Planeten) (Kurd Lasswitz) — ghost for Metropolis

Peers and kindred spirits

• Metropolis: Metropolis Rescore. The New Pollutants created a live rescore performed alongside screenings of Metropolis. “The New Pollutants ( Mister Speed and DJ Tr!p) has performed Metropolis Rescore live for festivals since 2005” (Wikipedia)
• Factory Floor. Factory Floor created a new live score for Metropolis, later released as an album. “the British electronic music duo Factory Floor were commissioned by London's Science Museum to create and perform a new 150-minute live score for a screening of ''Metropolis'' at the museum's IMAX cinema” (Wikipedia)
• Jeff Mills. Jeff Mills created a techno score for Metropolis, released as an album. “In 2000, Jeff Mills created a techno score for Metropolis which was released as an album.” (Wikipedia)
• Thea von Harbou. Metropolis is named among the films von Harbou co-wrote. “She co-wrote every Harbou-Lang film till 1933, including Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler ("Dr. Mabuse the Gambler", 1922 – which ran for over four hours, in two parts in the original version, and was the first in the Dr. Mabuse trilogy), the fiv…” (Wikipedia)
• F. W. Murnau. Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — peer for F. W. Murnau “Flaherty, Emil Jannings, and Fritz Lang, who delivered the eulogy.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin (1929). Berlin Alexanderplatz (Alfred Döblin) — geography for Metropolis (openlibrary.org)
• Sergei Eisenstein. Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — peer for Sergei Eisenstein (themoviedb.org)
• Alpine Architecture (Alpine Architektur) by Bruno Taut (1919). Alpine Architecture (Alpine Architektur) (Bruno Taut) — geography for Metropolis
• The Tunnel (Der Tunnel) by Bernhard Kellermann (1913). The Tunnel (Der Tunnel) (Bernhard Kellermann) — peer for Metropolis
• The Power of Three (Die Macht der Drei) by Hans Dominik (1922). The Power of Three (Die Macht der Drei) (Hans Dominik) — peer for Metropolis

Who Metropolis influenced

• Janelle Monáe (1985). Janelle Monáe's concept albums are based on Metropolis. (also via The ArchAndroid) “Janelle Monáe based both her concept albums on the original film, including her EP, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) , released in mid-2007, and The ArchAndroid , released in 2009.” (Wikipedia)
• Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka's manga was inspired by seeing a still image from Metropolis. (also via Metropolis (manga)) “Mangaka Osamu Tezuka has said that he saw a single still image of the movie in a magazine at the time of creating his manga.” (Wikipedia)
• Jean-Paul Gaultier (1952). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — culture for Jean-Paul Gaultier “Maria’s robotic transformation in Fritz Lang’s 1927 Weimar sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis , have in common? They all turned up in Jean Paul Gaultier ‘s Fall/Winter 2013 collection” (Interview Magazine)
• Blade Runner by Vangelis. The film shares design similarities with Lang's Metropolis. “Blade Runner has numerous similarities to Fritz Lang 's Metropolis , including a built-up urban environment, in which the wealthy literally live above the workers, dominated by a huge building” (Wikipedia)
• David Dryer (2000). Dryer directly used Metropolis stills as reference for effects shots. “Special effects supervisor David Dryer used stills from Metropolis when lining up Blade Runner ' s miniature building shots.” (Wikipedia)
• Frank Gehry (1929). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — culture for Frank Gehry (curator-witnessed, NewsHour 1997) “it kind of fits visions of fantasy cities by Fritz Long and-- ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The film maker. FRANK GEHRY: Yes. And where you saw these ramps and moving cars up in the air coming into buildings and stuff, and so I built on that idea.” (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (public broadcasting))
• Diamond Dogs. David Bowie's Diamond Dogs album and tour were inspired by Metropolis, according to Amanda Lear. “He rented the film and ran it over and over again in his house. And that's where Diamond Dogs came from – the whole staging and album and everything, Bowie got from Metropolis” (Wikipedia)
• Live! In the Air Age. Be Bop Deluxe's album cover used a still from Metropolis. “The cover of 1970s British rock band Be Bop Deluxe 's 1977 album Live! In the Air Age is a still from the film.” (Wikipedia)
• Motörhead. Lemmy wrote the song 'Metropolis' after seeing the film. “The rock band Motörhead 's album Overkill contains the song "Metropolis", which was written by Lemmy , the band's lead singer and bassist, after he saw the film in 1979.” (Wikipedia)
• Queen. Queen's Radio Ga Ga video uses imagery and clips from Metropolis. “Queen 's 1984 music video for song " Radio Ga Ga " uses imagery and clips from the movie.” (Wikipedia)
• Madonna (1958). Madonna's Express Yourself video pays homage to Metropolis. “Madonna 's 1989 music video " Express Yourself " pays homage to the film.” (Wikipedia)
• Whitney Houston by Whitney Houston (1963). Whitney Houston's video pays homage to Metropolis with a Maschinenmensch-inspired costume. “Whitney Houston 's 1994 music video " Queen of the Night " also pays homage to Lang's film, with Houston wearing a metallic costume inspired by the Maschinenmensch .” (Wikipedia)
• Superman's Metropolis. Superman's Metropolis graphic novel places Superman in the world of Lang's film. “The 1996 DC Comics graphic novel Superman's Metropolis is an Elseworlds story that places Superman in the world of Fritz Lang's Metropolis .” (Wikipedia)
• System of a Down. System of a Down's Sugar video features footage from Metropolis. “In 1998, American nu metal band System of a Down released a music video called " Sugar ", which features footage from Metropolis .” (Wikipedia)
• Lady Gaga (1986). Lady Gaga's music videos reference Metropolis. “Lady Gaga has made a series of references to Lang's film in some videos for her songs.” (Wikipedia)
• The M Machine. The M Machine's EP is inspired by Metropolis. “The 2012 EP Metropolis Part I by the electronic music trio The M Machine is a conceptual work inspired by the film.” (Wikipedia)
• Sepultura. Sepultura named an album after a quote from Metropolis. “The Brazilian metal band Sepultura named their 2013 album The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart after a quote from the film.” (Wikipedia)
• St. Vincent by St. Vincent (2014). St. Vincent's Digital Witness video presents her as a stand-in for Maria from Metropolis. “The 2014 music video " Digital Witness " by St. Vincent in collaboration with Chino Moya presents "a surreal, pastel-hued future" in which she is a stand-in for Maria.” (Wikipedia)
• The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010). The album cover was inspired by the film’s poster. “Aside from sharing a name, they also share visual styles (the cover for The ArchAndroid is inspired by the iconic poster for Metropolis ), conceptual themes and political goals, using expressionistic future scenarios to examine and explo…” (Wikipedia)
• Metropolis (manga) by Osamu Tezuka (1949). Metropolis (manga) (Osamu Tezuka) — legacy for Metropolis “While still in medical school Tezuka published his first masterpieces: a trilogy of science fiction epics called Lost World (1948), Metropolis (1949), and Nextworld (1951).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984). Neuromancer (William Gibson) — legacy for Metropolis (openlibrary.org)
• Syd Mead (1933). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — culture for Syd Mead (themoviedb.org)
• Forbidden Planet by Fred M. Wilcox (1956). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — titan for Forbidden Planet (themoviedb.org)
• David Bowie (1947). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — culture for David Bowie
• Kraftwerk (1961). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — culture for Kraftwerk
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (1968). Metropolis (Fritz Lang) — titan for 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Haddaway. Haddaway's Life video was inspired by Metropolis.