National Socialist Film Policy

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The National Socialist film policy was essentially pursued after Hitler and his NSDAP came to power in order to establish a völkisch-nationalist dictatorship in the German Reich (see Period of National Socialism ). It is inextricably linked with Joseph Goebbels ' Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . Goebbels proclaimed himself "patron of German film" which through a variety of measures such as management and control of film production, censorship , " Aryanization ", repression and promotion of individual artists and entrepreneurs the German film industry as an important part of the Nazi propaganda apparatus made . Since entertainment had a political function under National Socialism, it is not a contradiction that the majority of the feature films in the Third Reich were apparently non-political in nature.

After the NSDAP had already gathered in the silent era experience in the production of campaign films, the National Socialist film policy focused after the accession (1933) to the DC circuit and enslavement of the German film industry. This harmonization process was extremely successful and in 1938 also integrated the film industry of the associated Austria (Ostmark or Alpen- und Donaugaue). The process came to an end in 1942 with the establishment of the state monopoly UFA group. Beyond all political goals, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler were also personally fascinated by the film.

Goals of National Socialist Film Policy

Goebbels saw the medium of film as an effective advertising medium that was supposed to give the National Socialist regime glamor. A film landscape in which the NSDAP and its daily politics would have been omnipresent would hardly have achieved this goal. The open propaganda found its place in newsreels , educational and documentary films . The NSDAP and its symbols or organizations - such as the SA , Hitler Youth or Reich Labor Service  - only appear sporadically in the feature film . Even the so-called propaganda films of politically loyal directors such as Veit Harlan or Karl Ritter formed a minority of less than 20% compared to the flood of more or less light “ entertainment films ”.

prehistory

Long before 1933, the NSDAP had already started using film as a form of media expression for its own purposes. The Reich Propaganda Headquarters of the NSDAP, established in June 1926, had an “Office Film” which prepared the use of propaganda films. In 1927 the first official film about a Nuremberg party congress  - A Symphony of Willing to Fight  - was produced. After such films had initially only been made for internal use, the newly established Reichsfilmstelle of the NSDAP took over the production and distribution of films in November 1930 , which were now also used for campaign advertising.

Authorities and agencies

After the NSDAP came to power in January 1933, the threads of National Socialist film policy came together primarily in two authorities: in the film department of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and in the Reich Film Chamber . However, the Reich Chamber of Culture and the Film Office of the Reich Propaganda Management of the NSDAP also had an influence . Goebbels was in charge of all these authorities and departments. Therefore, in accordance with the National Socialist Führer principle , he was able to make direct decisions on an abundance of filmic and film-political issues; He didn't have to listen to the authorities actually responsible. Traditionally, he influenced the casting of roles in some films; he also had the last word on film censorship and rating . To what extent Goebbels actually made use of these special powers in view of his workload is, however, controversial today.

The only area for which another Reich Ministry had the authority was the educational film . Here, the Minister of Culture, Bernhard Rust, and the Reich Office he set up decided on the educational film .

Film policy measures (overview)

The most important measure for the political use and conformity of the film in the German Reich between 1933 and 1945 was the subordination to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . The Ministry of Propaganda was thus endowed with a monopoly of competence from March 1933 on. It did not have to endure interference from other ministries and was able to implement a highly efficient film policy.

A large part of the NSDAP's film policy measures aimed at restructuring the film industry . Through state intervention, the industry was gradually completely restructured and thus expanded into a powerful propaganda industry. The first step was to found Filmkreditbank GmbH , with the help of which production companies loyal to the political line were given financial support. Since a combined film industry would not only function more efficiently than a confusing landscape of hundreds of small businesses, but would also be easier to control and manage, the entire production and distribution sector would then be radically concentrated . Of more than 100 production companies that had been active in the Weimar Republic between 1930 and 1932 , only one company remained in 1942 - the state-owned Ufi Group (Ufa-Film GmbH). Beyond the forced concentration, the National Socialist policy had from the outset in mind to secure the European sales markets for the German film industry and to free it from the existence-threatening US competition. The establishment of an international film chamber served this goal in 1935 . The German invasion war from 1939 onwards was - from an economic point of view - a stroke of luck for the German film industry. Because in the occupied countries not only were German films marketed at a profit, but the production facilities were also robbed and incorporated into the German film industry. The "healthy" shrunken film industry thanked the National Socialist regime for this protectionist policy with unconditional loyalty.

In addition to promoting the film industry, there were also direct harmonization measures. So a Reichsfilmdramaturg was appointed, who had to check all scripts, manuscripts and film drafts before the start of production. The film censorship that already in the Weimar Republic had existed, was continued and strengthened. From 1934 onwards, films could also be banned which, in the eyes of the state leadership, were capable of “offending National Socialist, religious, moral or artistic feelings, having a brutal or demoralizing effect, or endangering German reputation or Germany’s relations with foreign states " . Socially critical films like Kuhle Wampe or: Who Owns the World? (1932) or Robert Siodmak's preliminary investigation (1931), but also films by Fritz Lang and Georg Wilhelm Pabst that were significant in terms of film history were no longer allowed to be shown. Due to the very effective previous censorship, it was practically impossible that new, politically unpopular films would even be completed. However, some films that were considered harmless at the time of shooting were banned after their completion because they no longer appeared opportune in view of a political situation that had changed in the meantime. This applies e.g. B. for the film Friesennot , completed in 1935 , which after the Hitler-Stalin Pact would have thrown a strange light on the friendship between the German Reich and the USSR, which was given at times.

The film criticism was eventually banned. The production of politically desirable films should be promoted through the introduction of new film ratings and the award of a national film prize (“German State Prize”). The compulsory registration of those working in the film industry in National Socialist professional associations ( Reichsfachschaft Film ) and the establishment of a state training facility for film artists who are loyal to the line ( Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg ) aimed at bringing into line personnel . All persons who worked in film in the German Reich had to be members of the Reich Student Council. Unwanted persons such as regime critics or Jews were refused membership, which amounted to a professional ban.

Film production

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels during a tour of the UFA studios, 1935

In the mid-1930s, the German film industry fell into its worst crisis to date. There were several reasons for this. First, many of the best film artists had left the Reich after Hitler came to power; others had been banned from working by the Reichsfilmkammer. Replacements were not easy to find. Second, the salaries of the remaining film artists and with them the film production costs rose by 95% between 1933 and 1936. Often it was not possible to bring back the high production costs in the cinemas. Thirdly, films from the Reich were increasingly boycotted abroad, so that export figures fell dramatically. In 1933 exports covered 44% of production costs; in 1935 it was 12% and in 1937 only 7%.

More and more film production companies went bankrupt. Of the 114 German production companies that produced feature films in the years 1933–1935, 79 were still working in the years 1936–1938. In 1939 there were 32, in 1940 25 and 1941 16 companies. The total number of films produced did not decrease as a result, because the few remaining companies were doing better and better and they were producing more and more films.

Goebbels went even further and had a private holding company , Cautio Treuhand GmbH , buy up the majority of shares in all the remaining film production companies. In 1937, Cautio acquired the largest German film company, Ufa-Film GmbH , which in 1942 was merged with the five remaining companies - Terra Film , Tobis-Tonbild-Syndikat , Bavaria , Wien-Film and Berlin-Film  - to form the UFI group .

The film production was practically nationalized , but - unlike z. B. in the Soviet Union under Stalinism  - their private sector structure. Filmkreditbank GmbH was set up to support the film industry , but it raised its funds from private investors. There was no state subsidy for the film industry under National Socialism. The film industry was thus still forced to pay off and to meet the expectations of the cinema audience. Box office results played a major role even when the NSDAP was particularly interested in film projects.

The leader principle was introduced in the production companies under National Socialism . While the director was responsible for the artistic design of the film project, the production group leader took care of all non-artistic matters. The head of production, who worked out the film company's annual program and specified the materials, was superordinate to both. From 1942 on, the heads of production were again superordinated to a Reichsfilmintendant . In keeping with the Führer principle, Joseph Goebbels often intervened directly in practical production issues.

Film rental and picture locations

A concentration was also brought about in the rental sector. Deutsche Filmvertriebs GmbH (DFV), a subsidiary of the nationalized Ufa based in Berlin , replaced all distribution companies that had existed up to that point in 1942.

The system of image locations, which had already existed in the Weimar Republic , was subordinated to the Reich office for educational film and expanded further. In 1943 there were 37 regional picture sites in the Reich, to which a subsystem of 12,042 city picture sites belonged. At the same time, the Reich Propagandaleitung had a network of picture sites, which in 1936 already had 32 Gau, 171 district and 22,357 local group film sites. These image areas had well-stocked film stocks and also loaned out portable projectors for 16mm films that could be used to show films in classrooms, in university seminar rooms, and at home evenings.

Cinemas and Audiences

Unlike in the production and distribution sector, there was no nationalization of the cinemas. Apart from the Ufa cinema chain , most of the 5506 movie theaters that existed in 1939 in the so-called Altreich (excluding Austria and Sudetenland) were small, privately owned companies.

The entrepreneurial freedom of these cinemas was, however, severely restricted by laws and orders from the Reichsfilmkammer. Was prescribed z. B. a supporting program from cultural or documentary films and newsreels . It was also stipulated that serious films had to be shown on certain holidays. With the law on the showing of foreign film strips of June 23, 1933 , the Reich government was also authorized to forbid the showing of foreign films. Already from the Weimar Republic came a quota regulation that stipulated how many foreign films could be imported. After the beginning of the Second World War , the import of films from certain countries was banned completely for the first time. From 1941 z. B. American films were no longer allowed to be shown in German cinemas.

National Socialist media policy relied entirely on the emotional impact that watching movies and newsreels in large, fully occupied cinemas had on individuals. Film programs were therefore also held in barracks and factories. The mass experience amplified the effects of the propaganda, especially among the youthful audience. In order to be able to reach all age groups with film propaganda, the cinema law of February 16, 1934 repealed the previous age limit of 6 years for going to the cinema. The Hitler Youth were given cinemas for the so-called youth film hours. In order to be able to supply rural areas with film programs, the Reich Propagandaleitung made sound film vehicles available that contained all the equipment that was needed to host film events, e.g. B. to carry out in the halls of restaurants. Then there was a film event for the Hitler Youth in the afternoon and a normal cinema program for the adults in the evening. With the help of these traveling cinemas, National Socialist film propaganda also reached a considerable extent those viewers who had never before had the opportunity to visit a cinema.

As a result of the decline in unemployment and the associated improvement in the standard of living, cinema attendance increased from year to year in the German Reich: 624 million cinema tickets were sold in 1939, and 1.1 billion in 1944. Apart from the USA , no country in the world had more cinema seats than Germany. While schools and theaters closed their doors, cinema operations continued until the end of the war, despite the most difficult conditions . In Berlin z. B. In 1944 anti-aircraft troops were deployed to protect cinemas. Even the conversion of cinemas into hospitals and military hospitals, which would have been urgently required due to the massive increase in the number of war casualties as a result of the increasing Allied air raids on the Reich territory, was often prevented by political decision-makers. From September 1st, all theaters were banned from playing. The cinemas were allowed to continue to play. As a result, some theaters were temporarily converted into cinemas. The Vienna Volksoper was the second largest cinema in the city for several months from October 6th.

National Socialist Film Propaganda

The National Socialist ideology was openly propagated in the non-fictional genres: in newsreels, in educational, cultural and documentary films. The German newsreel was produced by a subdivision of the film department in the Reich Propaganda Ministry and monitored by Goebbels in every phase of production. By the winter of 1942/43, Hitler often even took control himself. Educational films that were used at universities and schools served in many cases to directly disseminate central elements of National Socialist ideology such as social Darwinism , racial doctrine and anti-Semitism . Cultural films that found wide audiences in cinemas often served the same purpose. Topics that were not normally dealt with in the feature film were also discussed here.

For example, only one single feature film was dedicated to the subject of “ euthanasia ” or “killing of disabled people” ( I complain , 1941), but there were a number of non-fictional films (e.g. Das Erbe (1935), Erbkrank (1936)) , Sacrifice of the Past (1937), All Life is Struggle (1937), What You Inherited (1939)).

In contrast to the Soviet Union , where feature film directors vied to erect a monument to the dictator Stalin , not a single feature film was produced in the Reich about the person of the dictator Hitler. After the film industry offered three hastily shot NSDAP feature films ( SA Mann Brand , Hitler Youth Quex , Hans Westmar ) to the new regime in advance obedience , such films were later only made sporadically. The NSDAP, on the other hand, found plenty of room for self-portrayal in the newsreels and in documentaries such as Der Marsch zum Führer and Leni Riefenstahl's party conference films The Victory of Faith (1933) and Triumph of Will (1935). Among the films that were intended to promote National Socialist Germany at home and abroad, the two-part film Olympia, produced on behalf of the state and also directed by Leni Riefenstahl, was the most successful example on the occasion of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. However, a number of biographical feature films, which can thematically be grouped under the heading Great Germans , fulfilled the same function, e.g. B. The immortal heart , Robert Koch, the fighter of death (both 1939), Friedrich Schiller - Triumph of a Genius (1940), Friedemann Bach (1941), Andreas Schlueter (1942) and The Infinite Path (1943). With portraits like The Big Ice. Alfred Wegener's Last Drive (1936), Joseph Thorak - Werkstatt und Werk (1943) and Arno Breker - Hard Times, Strong Art (1944), the cultural film willingly took up the motif.

The number of feature films with clearly anti-Semitic language or content is relatively small; The films The Rothschilds and Jud Suss (both 1940) propagated undisguised anti-Semitism . Again, it was the non-fictional genres in which anti-Semitic propaganda found its real forum, e.g. B. in Der Ewige Jude (1940), but also in less well-known documentaries such as Jews without a mask (1937), Jews, lice, bugs (1941) and Lodz becomes Litzmannstadt (1941/42). Although these films went to extremes and sensitive viewers could easily guess what measures this propaganda ultimately resulted in, one looks in vain for explicit references to the impending mass murder in these films. On the contrary, with films like Theresienstadt. A documentary film from the Jewish settlement area (1945) distracted the filmmakers from the political reality even after millions of Jews had already been deported or murdered. Newsreel footage showing the unspeakable living conditions in the Warsaw ghetto shortly before the residents were deported to the extermination camps were withheld.

Other dark concepts of National Socialist ideology, such as the German cult or the blood and soil motif, found their cinematic expression almost exclusively in the non-fictional genres, e.g. B. in Hanns Springer's film epic Ewiger Wald (1936). The same applies to the emotionally charged topic of overseas colonialism or the former German colonies (from the 1880s to 1918), with which only a few films ( Die Reiter von Deutsch-Ostafrika , 1934; Ohm Krüger , 1941; Carl Peters , 1941) , but many cultural films dealt with, e.g. B. Our Cameroon (1936/37), The Path to the World (1938) and Longing for Africa (1938).

The National Socialist war propaganda had the most comfortable and least noticeable entry into the feature film landscape, since the war film genre was well established with the audience from the time of the First World War . However, films critical of the war, such as the internationally successful productions Western Front 1918 by GW Pabst not long before the Nazis came to power, or the Oscar- winning American film adaptation of the Remarque classic In the West, Nothing New were banned. With the latter, Goebbels was able to enforce a temporary ban on performance even before Hitler came to power during the Weimar Republic . 3% of the Nazi feature films were war films (33 films), including many highly rated films such as The Old and the Young King (1935), Patrioten , Urlaub auf Ehrenwort (both 1937), Pour le Mérite (1938), Kampfgeschwader Lützow (1939 ), The Great King (1942) and the film Kolberg (1945). The sharpest incitement to war was again found in documentaries such as The West Wall (1939), Baptism of Fire (1939/40) and Campaign in Poland (1940).

The political propaganda in the National Socialist feature film concentrated largely on the subjects of victims, allegiance, glorification of Germanness, war advertising and images of the enemy (English, communists, Jews). There is little agreement about the exact share of propaganda films in total feature film production. From the National Socialist Film Inspectorate, 7% of all films submitted received the rating “politically valuable” or “particularly politically valuable”; The films Ohm Krüger , Heimkehr , the Bismarck film The Discharge and two films by Veit Harlan received the highest awards : the Fridericus Rex film The Great King and the state-commissioned film Kolberg .

Entertainment film

In the short and feature films , political-propagandistic content can generally be detected less often than in the non-fictional genres. The film historian Gerd Albrecht, who carried out the first extensive data collection on Nazi feature films in the late 1960s, put the share of propaganda films in total feature film production at 14.1%. If you use a more complete sample than was available to Albrecht - e.g. B. if he did not consider international co-productions - the share of propaganda films is only 12.7%.

The largest group within the feature film production of the Nazi era are cheerful films. 569 films - that is 47.2% of the total production - can be classified as comedy , confusion, swank , grotesque , satire or similar. The fact that belonging to the cheerful genre does not always guarantee ideological harmlessness is shown by contemporary military comedies (e.g. Soldiers - Comrades , 1936), but also comedies such as Robert and Bertram (1939) and Venus in front of a court (1941), in which strong anti-Semitic moments exist. In the majority of the cheerful films, for which Die Feuerzangenbowle is the best-known and still most popular example, there are hardly any references to National Socialist propaganda.

The second large group is made up of films that are primarily aimed at a female audience. 508 Nazi feature films (42.2%) are love or marriage films or can be assigned to one of the related genres - such as women’s film, psychological film, moral film, doctor’s film, fateful film, young girl film, etc. There are also films in this group that offer a highly explosive mixture of propaganda and entertainment. B. Annemarie (1936), Request Concert (1940), Auf Wiedersehn, Franziska (1941) and Die Große Liebe (1942). Request concert and Die Große Liebe were even the most commercially successful films of the entire Nazi era. These films, which were obviously enriched with Nazi ideology, were in turn contrasted with a large number of largely inconspicuous films that - such as The Step on the Path (1939) or Romance in Moll (1943) - still find their audiences today.

The fact that open Nazi propaganda can hardly be proven in the majority of Nazi feature films has repeatedly challenged film historians and film sociologists to look for traces of subtle and hidden propaganda in the entertainment films of the time. The basic social statements of these films - e.g. B. the image of women - has been given special attention. The gain in knowledge from these investigations is, however, small overall, because the image of man in Nazi feature films only rarely corresponds closely to the requirements of National Socialist ideology. Most of the main characters correspond to the type of the average person who fights for his little personal happiness with the means at his disposal and thereby pays homage to modern values. Although in individual cases women are shown as self-sacrificing mothers of a large group of children (e.g. in Mutterliebe , 1939), the majority of the main female characters are childless and employed. Among the main male characters, the most important group is not soldiers and heroes, but everyday civilians, especially those men who, as lovers, are a bit clumsy and wooden, but are thoroughly nice and reliable. An idealization of the film characters in the sense of the National Socialist image of man would have robbed the audience of the possibility of identification and the medium of its attractiveness.

The high proportion of apparently non-political feature films is only surprising if one does not take into account that feature films in the cinema were always shown with a supplementary program from newsreels and documentaries. With all of this, the entertainment films with their illusion of an ideal world with a happy end, even in seemingly hopeless situations in the last years of the war, ensured a desired diversion and distraction from the increasingly clear everyday reality of war. Prior to the situation, these films were often the result of a subtle form of perseverance propaganda.

The music films should also spread a good mood. This group cannot be precisely quantified. Although 194 films (16.1%) can clearly be assigned to a musical genre - such as music film, operetta , singer film or revue film  - the number of films in which there is sung or dance or with which a new hit is supposed to be released is, however considerably higher. Even relevant propaganda films such as Jud Süß (1940), Ohm Krüger (1941) or Kolberg (1945) had their musical "catchy tunes".

If love and marriage films mark the female pole on the scale of film genres, the action-oriented genres are found at the “male” end. 333 Nazi feature films (27.6%) are adventure, crime, war, espionage or sensational films. The proportion of propaganda films in this group is noticeably high, there are 75 individual films, i.e. almost a quarter of all feature films produced primarily for a male audience. The war and espionage films are the most polluted . In individual cases (e.g. In the Name of the People , 1939) crime films serve propaganda purposes and generally seek the cause of crimes more in the character of the perpetrator than in their social situation; However, this dramaturgy is nothing special in Nazi cinema; They can also be found in the crime films of the pre-fascist and post-war periods. The proportion of propaganda films is lowest among adventure and sensational films , in which the escapist moments predominate and their protagonists - e. B. Hans Albers , Harry Piel and Luis Trenker  - were among the most popular male stars of Nazi cinema.

A fourth large group of entertainment films is constituted by Heimatfilme , which gained additional emotional significance in the 1950s with more than 14 million displaced persons , but was not a new genre as a genre. 179 Nazi feature films (14.8%) are set in the high mountain or village milieu, including classic Heimat films such as Der Jäger von Fall (1936), Der Edelweißkönig (1938) and Die Geierwally (1940). Almost 90% of these films lack open propaganda.

A special group are the biographies and period films, which accounted for 5.9% of feature film production during the Nazi era. Noticeably many of these films have a political-propagandistic character; Almost all of the 19 period films , many of which are set in the Prussian royal court, use the opportunity for a history lesson in line with National Socialist ideology. Of the 52 film biographies , almost every second one contains propagandistic elements, as the heroes of these films in their entirety form, so to speak, a “ Hall of Fame ” of - in the eyes of the National Socialist rulers - outstanding Germans. Although biographies and period films were used particularly frequently by the National Socialists as a propaganda medium, on the other hand they are not an invention of Nazi cinema, but part of a long tradition of the genre, which began before the First World War, and extends far into the history of post-war film was by no means restricted to Germany.

(The numbers in this section add up more than 100% because most films are from multiple genres at the same time.)

Star system and media network

In the German Reich there had been movie stars before 1933, but the star system was  still in its infancy - especially in comparison to Hollywood . In order to improve the image of the Hitler Reich, Goebbels pushed the development of the star system massively. This did not succeed straight away, as many film greats were not ready to submit to the dictatorship. Marlene Dietrich had left the Reich, as had the successful directors Ernst Lubitsch , Georg Wilhelm Pabst , Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder . Both Marlene Dietrich, who openly rejected the Nazi regime, and the Swede Greta Garbo , who was also successful in the Reich, refused to be harnessed as figureheads despite tempting offers from Joseph Goebbels. Others, like Heinrich George or Gustaf Gründgens , who had also been blatantly critical of the Hitler dictatorship at the beginning, finally agreed to work with them.

Still other stars were rebuilt. One of the best-known examples of this is the Swede Zarah Leander , who was hired by Ufa in 1937 and, within a few years, became the most prominent and best-paid film actress in Germany. The Ufa press office led the advertising campaign for Zarah Leander. Her earlier films, which were produced in Sweden, were kept secret; it was immediately put on its nimbus as a singing star. The press was informed by pre-written descriptions of how the new star should be presented. Zarah Leander was given detailed instructions on how to appear in public.

Feature films were also very often used as advertising measures for new hits . Not only Zarah Leander, but also other popular film stars - such as Hans Albers , Marika Rökk , Johannes Heesters , Ilse Werner , even Heinz Rühmann  - brought record sales to the record industry. The film stars often made more money from recordings than from their film fees. Some hits - as I know, a miracle will happen one day and the world won't end of that (both sung by Zarah Leander in 1942 in Die große Liebe ) - were deliberately circulated because, in addition to their sentimental significance, they also have a political one Possessed subtext , which was used as a slogan in the sense of the National Socialist perseverance policy. Film stars were omnipresent in everyday life not only through film and records, but also in the radio program of the Großdeutscher Rundfunk . Films and movie stars even had a permanent place in the Paul Nipkow television program, which has broadcast a regular program in the Berlin area since 1936. In addition, the media network also included print media such as artist postcards , the extremely popular cigarette collectors' pictures and the daily illustrated magazine Filmkurier , which completely replaced the daily newspaper in many households. How inseparably Nazi cinema was interwoven with other media is shown e.g. For example, the successful film Wunschkonzert , which focuses on a real Berlin hit event that was broadcast weekly on the radio during the war.

A novelty in the self-portrayal of politics was that high-ranking politicians such as Hitler, Goebbels and Göring presented themselves in public with film stars. The female stars in particular were supposed to lend glamor to the male-dominated character of the National Socialist events. Hitler's favorite table ladies included Olga Chekhova and Lil Dagover . Hermann Göring married the popular actress Emmy Sonnemann in 1935 . Numerous details have also come down to us about Joseph Goebbels' relationships with prominent film actresses.

The personal closeness to the political leadership often determined whether careers were promoted or slowed down. Renate Müller, for example, made Goebbels a personal enemy. There were lists that determined how often an actor was used. There were five categories. These ranged from “no vacancy to be filled under any circumstances” (e.g. Zarah Leander, Lil Dagover, Heinz Rühmann) to “no longer wanted to work under any circumstances”.

How important the film stars were for the image of the National Socialist regime can also be seen from the fact that in 1938 Hitler issued tax breaks for prominent artists (film actors and directors), who from then on could deduct 40% of their income as advertising costs.

The war profaned the image of the stars. They performed on small front stages as part of the troop support and collected on the street for the winter relief organization . Although most male movie stars were indispensable, there were also actors such as B. Heinz Rühmann, who - accompanied by crews from the newsreel - took part in military courses. Film artists were only sent to the front if they were disliked.

Personnel policy

Since 1933, every activity in the areas of film production, distribution and cinema was tied to membership in the Reichsfachschaft film of the Reichsfilmkammer . In addition to the control of those working in the film industry, this authority primarily served to exclude undesirable persons. In a questionnaire, applicants had to provide information not only about their political background (e.g. party membership), but also about their "racial origin and religion" - including that of their spouses, parents and grandparents. The indication “Jewish” or a previous engagement in a left party or organization almost always led to the applicant being rejected. Not being accepted into or excluded from the Reich Film Fachschaft (Reichsfachschaft Film) amounted to a professional ban. It is estimated that the number of people lost in this way was more than 3,000. Many of them went abroad, others were arrested or deported. A special permit was granted in individual cases for very popular artists. Goebbels made it possible for the directors Kurt Bernhardt and Reinhold Schünzel , the actor Horst Caspar and the singer Jan Kiepura to continue working . Because of their " mixed marriages ", the actors Paul Bildt , Karl Etlinger , Paul Henckels , Wolfgang Kühne , Theo Lingen , Hans Moser , Heinz Rühmann , Wolf Trutz and Erich Ziegel and the director Frank Wysbar were also dependent on special permission. In Gustaf over his homosexuality and became socialist past as well as a blind eye on Henry George's former KPD -Membership.

Some directors who could not be categorized politically or whose previous films deviated from National Socialist ideas, but were artistically and commercially very successful, were asked to make a filmic "declaration of loyalty". The directors were asked to produce a film that corresponded to National Socialist ideology in every respect, or they were unequivocally advised to make such a film. If the directors fulfilled their "task", they could continue their career in the Reich until further notice. If they refused, their careers were over and they were often called up to the front. This is what happened with Werner Hochbaum , who was supposed to stage the three non-commissioned officers , a song of praise for the fulfillment of military duties, but underlined the film with critical undertones. Even Peter Pewas suffered this fate. Carl Junghans , on the other hand, refused to produce a film that was “true to the line” in any other way. When Altes Herz geht auf die Reise (1938) was submitted, a Nazi propagandist was assigned to him, who revised the script accordingly, whereupon Junghans was given permission to film. Junghans nevertheless dared to work with the original version of the script, which was also seen through at the internal premiere. He immediately fled to the United States via Switzerland. A last resort for filmmakers who did not want to cooperate with National Socialism was to stop or limit their work in film. This usually required going underground in order to avoid being drafted into military service, which of course was a strenuous and risky method. The popular costume designer Gerdago managed to escape the National Socialists.

Politics hit other artists with all their might. Joachim Gottschalk z. B. committed suicide with his entire family in 1941 because his wife, the actress Meta Wolff , was about to be deported to the concentration camp. Screenwriter Walter Supper and his wife suffered a similar fate . In order to forestall an announced deportation, two other actors - Paul Otto and Hans Henninger  - also committed suicide; the former was persecuted as a Jew, the latter because of his homosexuality. The actor Theodor Danegger and the hit writer Bruno Balz were temporarily imprisoned for homosexual acts.

The actors Ernst Arndt , Eugen Burg , Max Ehrlich , Maria Forescu , Kurt Gerron , Fritz Grünbaum , Kurt Lilien , Paul Morgan and Otto Wallburg and the director Hans Behrendt died in the concentration camp or during deportation there . The actors Horst Birr , Robert Dorsay , Hans Meyer-Hanno and Hans Otto were executed or murdered by the National Socialists .

On the other hand, artists loyal to the political line were occasionally rewarded with high posts in the film bureaucracy. In this way, z. B. the director Carl Froelich , who headed the art committee of the Ufa since 1937 and was president of the Reichsfilmkammer since 1939. The actor and director Wolfgang Liebeneiner was not only allowed to head the Reich Film Department, but also the artistic faculty of the German Film Academy Babelsberg . The directors Fritz Hippler and Willi Krause and the actor Carl Auen also held high offices. Others, such as the director Karl Ritter and the actors Eugen Klöpfer , Paul Hartmann and Mathias Wieman , were appointed to the Ufa supervisory board. Heinrich George, Gustaf Gründgens, Karl Hartl , Heinz Rühmann and others held influential positions in the film industry as production managers. If the number of vacancies was not sufficient,  a professor title could be awarded - as in the case of Veit Harlan .

Many propaganda films were produced as state-commissioned films, and Joseph Goebbels has dealt with practical production issues such as: B. the roles are often switched on directly. The pressure film directors were really exposed to during the Nazi era is, however, controversial among film historians today. In addition to politically adapted directors or directors who clearly advocate National Socialism, who - such as Fritz Peter Buch , Carl Froelich, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Herbert Maisch , Johannes Meyer , Heinz Paul , Karl Ritter, Hans Steinhoff , Gustav Ucicky and Veit Harlan - willingly and repeatedly produce propaganda films there were also those who didn't make any propaganda films at all, including B. Boleslaw Barlog , Harald Braun , Erich Engel , Willi Forst , Carl Hoffmann , Theo Lingen , Karl Heinz Martin , Harry Piel , Reinhold Schünzel and Detlef Sierck . Although most Nazi feature films completely renounced artistic experiments and innovations, some directors - such as Géza von Bolváry , Erich Engel, Arnold Fanck , Gustaf Gründgens, Rolf Hansen , Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Arthur Maria Rabenalt , Detlef Sierck, Herbert Selpin , Hans Steinhoff , Gustav Ucicky, Viktor Tourjansky , Paul Verhoeven and Frank Wysbar - repeatedly beyond mediocrity. As the artistically extremely interesting films by Helmut Käutner prove, directors had far more freedom than most contemporaries dared to claim, even within the narrow guidelines of Nazi film policy.

Expansion of the film industry

With the expansion of the empire, the imperial film industry gained new sales markets. Wherever it seemed worthwhile, the production facilities in the occupied countries were looted and incorporated into Imperial German companies; Local artists were often forced to work and put into the service of Greater German propaganda.

Before the Anschluss in 1938, German Austria became the first country in Europe whose film industry came under the direct influence of Hitler's politics. As early as April 20, 1936, the provisions on film and its contributors were applied almost one-to-one to German films from Austria. The Reichsfilmkulturkammer signed a corresponding contract with the Federation of Austrian Film Producers in Berlin. Right from the start, the National Socialist regime put pressure on the Austro-Fascist regime in Austria to prevent people who were unpopular in the Reich from participating in the film. The threat of a total ban on imports was used as the strongest means of pressure, although from 1934 onwards all films by people who were unpopular in the Reich were refused to import.

Austria's largest film production company , the Vienna Tobis Sascha film AG which to export into the realm before 1938 after the threat of a ban, was forced to implement the anti-Jewish policies of Hitler and did not employ Jewish artists more than was Wien-Film GmbH newly founded. Since the Cautio Treuhandgesellschaft, in cooperation with Creditanstalt, had already acquired the majority of shares in Tobis-Sascha a few months earlier, this takeover was practically legal. Vienna then became a center of National Socialist film production alongside Berlin and Munich with directors such as Willi Forst , Gustav Ucicky , Hans Thimig , Leopold Hainisch and Géza von Cziffra . Busy actors here included Paula Wessely , Marte Harell , Hans Moser and Attila and Paul Hörbiger . Around 50 feature films and 60 cultural films were made . (See also the history of early Austrian talkies .)

After Hitler's homeland Austria came Czechoslovakia , which on September 30, 1938 initially had to cede the entire border area populated by Germans to the Greater German Reich in a legally binding manner and whose remaining territory the dictator had occupied by Wehrmacht troops on March 15, 1939 and the Czech part to Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia declared. The Czech production company AB-Filmfabrikations AG with its famous studio facilities in Barrandov and Hostivař was " aryanized " and on November 21, 1941, transformed into Prag-Film AG , which - mostly with local directors - became a branch of the Ufi group German from 1942 - and Czech language films produced. Only two Czech companies - National Film and Lucernafilm - were allowed to continue working. When filming in the Reich became more and more difficult during the bombing war, Prague became an indispensable alternative address for German film production.

The Polish film industry officially ceased to exist after the invasion of the Wehrmacht on September 1, 1939, the occupation of the country and the establishment of the General Government; the artists went underground, the film production was completely stopped. (See also Polish Film History .)

On April 9, 1940, on Hitler's orders, the Wehrmacht also occupied Denmark , whose film industry remained largely unaffected by Reich film policy. German films were quietly boycotted by the Danish audience. At the time of the German occupation, the film industry in neighboring Norway was too little developed to arouse interest among the occupiers. The few active Norwegian film directors were able to continue working almost undisturbed.

On May 10, 1940, the Benelux countries were occupied. In the Netherlands , the three active studios that had flourished as a result of the wave of refugees from Nazi Germany were incorporated into Ufa, which made no Dutch films and used the facilities for its own purposes. Many Dutch directors left the country. In spite of its important documentary film school, the Belgian film industry, like the Norwegian film industry, was too underdeveloped to arouse the desires of the occupiers. The continued work of the film people was largely tolerated.

After the military defeat and the armistice of Compiègne on June 22, 1940, France split into an occupied part and the unoccupied puppet state of Vichy . In Vichy France, the industry was reorganized on the model of fascist Italy, but the southern French film industry with its main location in Nice was able to continue its work largely unrestricted. In Paris and all of northern France, however, the German military ruled. This part of the country was flooded with dubbed German newsreels and feature films. At the beginning of 1941, Continental Film was founded, a subsidiary of Ufa and Tobis , which owned all the film studios in the greater Paris area and which had produced 27 French-language films before the country was liberated. (See also French film history .)

With the continuation of the war of expansion in 1941 on the territory of the USSR , the National Socialist leadership gained access to Soviet film production facilities, above all in Riga in Latvia , in the Estonian Reval (today: Tallinn ) and in the Ukrainian Kiev . The confiscated facilities were transferred to the property of the Zentralfilmgesellschaft Ost , founded in November 1941, which organized film propaganda in the occupied Soviet territories from Berlin. (See also Russian film history .)

Dealing with Nazi film propaganda after 1945

After the end of the Second World War , the death of the dictator and the smashing of the Nazi dictatorship, the victorious Allied powers introduced various programs to eliminate the remaining National Socialist ideology as part of the demilitarization , democratization and denazification of the occupied country. Among other things, the Allied High Command subjected all German films in circulation to censorship and banned 19% of the feature films from being shown because their examination committee classified them as Nazi propaganda.

Gerd Albrecht put the share of propaganda films in total feature film production at 14.1%. While the share was 11% up to 1939, it rose to 24% in the period 1940–42 - that is, after the start of the Second World War - and fell to 6% in the second half of the war. The explanations for the turnaround in film policy that took place in 1942 concentrate on the assumption that the audience was meanwhile tired of propaganda and that a cinema that spread good humor, under the living conditions of the beginning bombing war, was itself a better advertisement for the Nazi regime than anyone Propaganda film.

Most of the films banned by the Allied occupation authorities received an FSK approval in the Federal Republic of Germany, which was newly founded in 1949 . A small number of so-called reserved films  - including many war films and all anti-Semitic propaganda films - are still only partially accessible to the public.

See also

literature

  • Gerd Albrecht: National Socialist Film Policy. A sociological study of the feature films of the Third Reich. Enke, Stuttgart 1969.
  • Alfons Maria Arns: "The wicked legacy". The films of the “Third Reich” in their unity of propaganda and entertainment. In: Fritz Bauer Institut (ed.), Insight 09 / Spring 2013, pp. 54-61, ISSN: 1868-211.
  • Alfons Maria Arns: The Nazi Film Heritage in Documentary Film. Review of Forbidden Films - The Replaced Legacy of Nazi Cinema. A film by Felix Moeller, Germany 2014. In: Fritz Bauer Institut (ed.), Insight 13 / Spring 2015, pp. 85-86, ISSN  1868-4211 .
  • Wolfgang Becker: film and rule. Organizational principles and organizational structures of the National Socialist film propaganda. Volker Spiess, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-920889-05-3 ( On the political economy of Nazi films 1), (also: Münster, Univ., Diss. 1970).
  • Francis Courtade, Pierre Cadars: History of Film in the Third Reich. Hanser, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-446-12064-5 .
  • Thomas Hanna-Daoud: The NSDAP and the film up to the seizure of power. Böhlau, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-412-11295-X ( Media in past and present , 4).
  • Bogusław Drewniak: The German Film 1938–1945. A complete overview. Droste, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-7700-0731-X .
  • Friedemann Beyer and Norbert Grob (eds.): The Nazi film . Reclam, Ditzingen 2018. ISBN 978-3-15-019531-4 .
  • Bernd Kleinhans: One people, one empire, one cinema. Play of light in the brown province. Papyrossa, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-89438-262-7 ( New small library 88).
  • Klaus Kreimeier: Anti-Semitism in National Socialist Films. In: Cilly Kugelmann , Fritz Backhaus (ed.): Jewish figures in film and caricature. The Rothschilds and Joseph Süss Oppenheimer. Thorbecke, Sigmaringe 1996, ISBN 3-7995-2318-9 ( series of publications by the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main 2).
  • Marcus Lange: The politicized cinema. Ideological self-presentation in the “Third Reich” and the GDR . Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8288-3264-0 .
  • Ulrich Liebe: Adored, persecuted, forgotten - actors as Nazi victims. With audio CD. Beltz, Berlin a. a. 2005, ISBN 978-3-407-22168-1 . (First publication without CD 1992)
  • Armin Loacker, Martin Prucha (eds.): Unwanted cinema. The German-language émigré film 1934–1937. Filmarchiv Austria , Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-901932-06-2 .
  • Peter Longerich : Goebbels. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88680-887-8 .
  • Felix Moeller: The film minister. Goebbels and the film in the Third Reich. Henschel, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89487-298-5 .
  • Constanze Quanz: The film as Joseph Goebbels' propaganda instrument. Teiresias, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-934305-12-1 (film studies, 6), (also: Bamberg, Univ., Master's thesis, 1999).
  • Sonja M. Schultz (Ed.): National Socialism in Film. From the triumph of will to Inglourious Basterds . Series: Deep Focus, 13. Bertz + Fischer Verlag , Berlin 2012 ISBN 978-3-86505-314-5 .
  • Ernst Seidl (Ed.): " Jud Süss ". Propaganda film in the Nazi state. Exhibition catalog, December 2007 – September 2008, House of History Baden-Württemberg , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-933726-24-7 .
  • Gerhard Stahr: Volksgemeinschaft in front of the screen? National Socialist Film and its Audience. Theissen, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-935223-00-5 (also: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 1998).
  • Jürgen Spiker: Film and Capital. The path of the German film industry to the national socialist group of companies. Volker Spiess, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-920889-04-5 ( On the political economy of Nazi films 2), (also: Münster, Univ., Diss., 1972).
  • Jerzy Toeplitz : History of the Film. Volumes 2 to 4: 1928–1933 / 1933–1939 / 1939–1945 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin (GDR) 1976, 1979 and 1982 (several editions each).
  • David Welch: Propaganda and the German cinema 1933-1945. Tauris, London 2001, ISBN 1-86064-520-8 ( Cinema and Society Series ).
  • Joseph Wulf : Theater and Film in the Third Reich. A documentation. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1966 ( Rororo # 812-4).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Chapters belonging to the lemma: The National Socialist Image Policy; WHY WE FIGHT! - Antifascist counterparts; Germany after the war, the project of re-education ; Allied film policy; Personal continuities: The failed denazification of the film industry ; as well as the following years. Numerous illustrations content (PDF; 89 kB).
This version was added to the list of excellent articles on April 22, 2006 in this version .