Kracauer, in From Caligari to Hitler, explores the connections among film aesthetics, the prevailing psychological state of Germans in the Weimar era, and the evolving social and political reality of the time. Kracauer makes a startling (and still controversial) claim: films as popular art provide insight into the unconscious motivations and fantasies of a nation.

via: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691191348/from-caligari-to-hitler