Norbert Weber, O.S.B. (20 December 1870 – 3 April 1956) was a German

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. He was a

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of the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

Order and an archabbot of St. Ottilien Archabbey. He is remembered in South Korea for his role in starting the first male monastic order in the peninsula, as well as for his extensive photos and videos of Korean culture and civilization.

Biography

Weber was born on 20 December 1870 in Langweid am Lech,

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Korea

In 1909, Weber dispatched two missionaries to Korea in order to establish a monastic community there. Weber himself visited the peninsula twice, once in 1911 and once in 1925, for a total of eight months. Weber extensively photographed and filmed Korea on his second trip to the peninsula. Prior to his films, video had been taken on the peninsula, but only in short fragments. Weber uniquely filmed enough footage for not only a feature-length film, but also five other short films, with of 35 mm film with unused footage left over. Given the expense and rarity of filming equipment at the time, this was a significant investment on his part. Im Lande der Morgenstille Page 125

Weber had an interest in anthropology, and was fond of the Korean culture and people. He hoped to document as much as he could, as he was concerned that the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

, which had colonized Korea in 1910, was going to wipe out Korean culture. After he returned to Germany, he edited his footage together and recorded additional clips of him lecturing on various aspects of Korean society, technology, and language. He produced two films in 1925: the feature-length ''Im Lande der Morgenstille'' (lit. ''In the Land of the Morning Calm'') and a shorter film on Korean weddings. He premiered the former in 1927, at the

Bavarian National Museum The Bavarian National Museum () in Munich is one of the most important museums of decorative arts in Europe and List of largest art museums, one of the largest art museums in Germany. Since the beginning the collection has been divided into two ...

. The film was shown in various places in Germany and Austria until the end of the 1930s. In 1979, the South Korean broadcaster MBC acquired copies of his feature-length film on VHS and showed it for the first time on the peninsula. For decades afterwards, more of his films have been discovered, archived, and distributed for viewing. In 2020, the

Korean Film Archive The Korean Film Archive (KOFA; ), or the Korean Federation of Film Archives, is the sole film archive in South Korea with nationwide coverage. It was founded in Seoul in 1974 as a non-profit organization. In 1976 KOFA joined the International Fe ...

gained access to the original films, redigitized them into 4k resolution, and improved the picture quality.

Works

Books

* ''Im Lande der Morgenstille'' (1915) * ''In den Diamantenbergen Koreas'' (1927)

Films

* ''Im Lande der Morgenstille'' (1927)

References

External links

* : 1925 film (based on an older recording) * : A 2010 KBS documentary with much of Weber's footage in it, in higher quality * : his 1915 book {{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Norbert 1956 deaths 1870 births People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German Benedictines German Roman Catholic missionaries German expatriates in Korea Roman Catholic missionaries in Korea German missionary educators Koreanists Foreign supporters of Korean independence German filmmakers 20th-century German photographers