From the “Why? Why not” files, here’s a Nazi-era German drivers ed film made available by the Library of Congress.

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It looks pretty much like a drivers ed film generally looks, just adjusted somewhat in terms of auto types and fashions. And of course, the occasional swastika.

Some things jump out:

• The streets look clean. I mean, *really* clean. And damn empty.
• The absolute dominance of the “pedestrian right of way” has not yet developed. Cars can push their way through crowds, just so they do so at “moderate speed.”
• You can’t really say that “U-turns” were allowed, because the cars apparently had a turning radius equivalent to that of a battleship. Fortunately the streets were empty, so the complicated monkeymotions needed to negotiate a 180-degree change in direction in the middle of the street were possible.
• Not near the level of Nazi propaganda I expected… in fact, I only picked up on one swastika flag, way in the background in one scene. Movies and such set during the Nazi era always put across the notion that when the National Socialists were in power, *everything* was about National Socialism. It seems slightly odd to see something as mundane as a drivers ed film and not have a Goebbels wannabe barking his head about “One Reich, One Volk, One Left Turn Lane” or something.

The story behind the LoC’s restoration of the film is here (and the film itself if it doesn’t play on this here blog:

Tales of the Unexpected