09/12/2025
by Fritz Lang
Germany, 1927
The message behind Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis remains powerful and fitting in today’s debate even though the film is almost a hundred years old.
Starting under the shining sun of the Eternal Gardens, we quickly discover that the beautiful upper part of the city is nothing without the hard labour of millions of exploited workers underground. In their misery, however, these workers have hope. They gather to listen to stories of unity and solidarity, bringing together the ‘head’, the ‘hands’ and the ‘heart’, like an unsung version of the Internationale.
Fearful that the workers may revolt, the corporate power running the city turns to technology, instructing the chief engineer to spy on the workers. The Machine-Man is then used to become a messenger of hate and destruction, which ultimately leads to the central power source of the city being stormed and brought down by a violent crowd. With the fooled workers eventually realising their mistakes, they hope to find their leader again. In the end, the film brings the workers and the corporate leaders together: ‘the mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart.’
When Metropolis was shot, the Weimar Republic was still a place of hope and social innovation, building on the legacy of its first president, Friedrich Ebert, who passed away two years before the film was released. Despite its ill-fated ending, the Weimar Republic brought representation for employees. It also brought unemployment benefits, as well as training and support for workers in transition. The film, which was made in 1927 but which projects forward so that its events take place in 2026, is an important reminder that nothing in the world runs without workers; that technology, without being bad by nature, can be used to solve societal problems on condition that it is democratic and that its benefits are shared; and that social dialogue is of fundamental importance.
Today’s political debate is framed by the same tension, from platform workers to algorithmic management. Billionaires still live in eternal gardens run by millions of oppressed workers, depleting the strength of an exploited planet. Technology is the vehicle for polarised and inflammatory messages that have already shaken the power foundations of our society. It can only be hoped that the time of transition and turbulence we live in today will unite workers in a more peaceful manner, without bringing our world to destruction – but instead ensuring that the heart remains the true mediator of public policies.
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