[KS] DVD, 1925 film by Norbert Weber, "Im Lande der Morgenstille"

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear All:

The following DVD publication of a 1925 b/w documentary film by Father  
Norbert Weber (1870-1956) of the German Benedictines seems worth  
mentioning. The DVD was published last year. Yoo Kwang-On was so kind  
to make me aware of this publication. Thanks!

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고요한 아침의 나라에서 / Im Lande der Morgenstille
(성 베네딕도회 한국진출 100주년 기념)
노르베르트 베버 (Norbert Weber)
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One of several possible order links with further info and still photos:
http://www.yes24.com/24/goods/3537472
(You can also order it via Aladin.co.kr or Kyobo.com.)
The German Benedictines in St. Ottilien have their own printing press,  
EOS Verlag, but since this was published in Korea it is not available  
through them, and thereby not available though any of the usual book  
distribution systems in Europe or the U.S. (However, EOS Verlag has a  
couple of other publications available about their missionary  
experiences during the first half of the 20th century in southern and  
northern Korea and in Yanbian.

You may know Norbert Weber's fascinating 1915 book, _Im Lande der  
Morgenstille_. Weber did not live in Korea all these years, but he  
returned in 1925 to produce this now (re)published 118 minutes long  
documentary. Roughly two thirds of the film show scenes of daily life  
in Korea, some with a somewhat "National Geographic" almost (or  
really) staged kind of aesthetics and outview, of course. After all,  
this is a missionary movie. And -- to be expected -- the last third  
shows the Benedictine's missionary work. Keeping this in mind, this is  
just wonderful material of which you can sure use excerpts in any  
class on traditional and modernizing Korea. Not a single Japanese to  
be seen here! But as Yoo Kwang-On already noted in an email, a small  
Korean boy performing a Cossack (Kaзaчoк) dance! Kalinka, Kalinka  
...aigo, that is pretty amazing to see in 1925! In any case, this is  
worth getting. There also is a second DVD coming with this  
publication, 67 minutes long, were a Korean speaker comments some of  
the scences -- the clean up-to-date nationalist reinterpretation of  
Weber's missionary view, so to say. It's poorly done ... there would  
have just been so much to say, but that might then have disrupted the  
beautifying statements, I suppose. So, in teh end this second film is  
only good for clarifying some of the places and place names, for those  
less familiar with Korea, is otherwise hardly worth viewing.

In the early 1990s I stayed twice at the St. Ottilien Archabbey  
(Bavaria, southern Germany) and also briefly met with two of the then  
still alive old Korea hands, missionaries who had been there from the  
1930s to the 1950s. Most impressive was also the monastery's library.  
Although just a late 19th century building, it somehow still had _The  
Name of the Rose_ qualities to it (in my eyes anyway), and it was such  
an amazing experience to see all those 1920s and 1930s publications,  
partially handwritten Korean language books, used to teach kids in  
their various abbeys in Korea and Manchuria. Please note that the  
first German Koreanist, André Eckardt, son of a Munich painter, also  
started out as a Benedictine monk there. It should also be noted that  
the famous St. Ottilien "Diamond Mountains" (Kŭmgang-san) album by  
Chŏng Sŏn (1676-1759) that was once bought by Norbert Weber and  
brought to St. Ottilien is now back in Korea (at the Waegwan Abbey  
there, and is on display since 2009).


Best,
Frank