Vienna film

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The Wien-Film was a great Austrian film production company , in 1938 from the Tobis-Sascha-Film AG emerged and existed until the 1985th Until 1945, the company was owned by the Cautio Treuhandgesellschaft , which was subordinate to the German Reichsfilmkammer , and was responsible for almost the entire film production in Austria ("Ostmark").

From the late 1940s until its dissolution in 1985, it mainly served as a state studio company.

history

National Socialism

With the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 , the country's independent film production came to an end. The German-Austrian Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG , which had to be sold to Cautio under pressure in 1937 , was converted into Wien-Film on December 16 . The official motto that preceded it, “ Competing with the rest of the arts, the film should create what fills and trembles human hearts, and transports them to better worlds through the revelation of the Eternal ” was signed by Joseph Goebbels . The propaganda mission was thus documented. As early as 1935, Jewish employees were no longer permitted because the German Reich Filmkammer had threatened to ban Austrian films from importing if German regulations were not followed.

Austrian themes dominated the feature film production of the new company, their trademark was the richly equipped Viennese film , which mostly portrayed bygone times. From 1943/44, Wien-Film also produced color films , a privilege that was previously reserved for the UFA . In addition, Wien-Film also produced cultural films .

In addition to the feature film and cultural film production, Wien-Film also concentrated on the operation of cinemas. Across Austria there were 14 cinemas in Vienna, Berndorf , Linz , Steyr and Steyrermühl . In Vienna it was the “Scala”, “ Apollo ”, “Busch” and “UFA-Ton” cinemas that were used for premieres. The cinemas formerly owned by the Wiener Kinobetriebsanstalt (Kiba) and UFA were operated under the newly founded "Ostmärkische Filmtheater Betriebsgesellschaft mbH"

The program of film production imposed by Berlin was to make films that were rooted in the soil of the “ Ostmark ” and were intended to have a distracting effect - according to the motto “ strength through joy ”.

After the end of the Second World War, Wien-Film was confiscated by the Allies as “German property”. After Vienna had been divided into four zones of occupation , it was also clear that the film studios in Sievering and the headquarters in Siebensterngasse were assigned to the American administration, while the Rosenhügel film studios were in the Soviet sector. The Sievering film studios should be liquidated by the Americans . The United States also pursued an interest in not competing with the Hollywood productions.

At the end of 1945, the former Vienna Film Production Manager Karl Hartl was appointed Managing Director. While the Soviets took over all formerly “German” enterprises as reparations according to the provisions of the Potsdam Agreement , the Western occupying powers USA , France and Great Britain waived this measure. For the newly founded Wien Film, this meant that it could continue to work with the film studios in Sievering and Schönbrunn , but had to do without the Rosenhügel film studios. These were incorporated into the Soviet USIA and continued to operate as "Wien-Film am Rosenhügel". On August 21, 1945, Wien-Film and the State Office for Reconstruction signed a contract for a documentary film about the restoration work in Vienna.

post war period

After the State Treaty of 1955 , the company became federal property and from then on served mainly as a studio company. The film studios were also rented to international productions. Due to the film crisis and the death of theaters in the 1960s, the Rosenhügel studios were sold to ORF in 1966 .

Since the in-house production and also the rental of the Sieveringen studios to third-party productions continuously lost profitability from the 1960s onwards, Wien-Film was finally dissolved as a state company in 1985. Only a successor company remained to preserve earlier productions.

staff

The first directors of Wien-Film were general director Fritz Hirt , Paul Hach and the Viennese film director Karl Hartl , who was also head of production until the end. The cultural filmmaking was controlled by the former Selenophon-Film under the direction of Josef Lebzelter . The Reichsfilmdramaturg and later the Reichsfilmintendant were responsible for the control of the film productions - from the idea to the showing.

The first shareholders' meeting took place on December 16, at which the supervisory board members were also appointed. These goods:

Until 1945 the stars of Wien-Film were Wolf Albach-Retty , Elfriede Datzig , Marte Harell , Hans Holt , Olly Holzmann , Attila Hörbiger , Paul Hörbiger , Winnie Markus , Hans Moser , Rudolf Prack , Jane Tilden and Paula Wessely .

Wien Film's busiest directors were the experienced translators of Nazi propaganda content Gustav Ucicky and EW Emo , who directed a third of the 60 or so feature films. They were followed in terms of productivity by Willi Forst , who was responsible for the best productions of the time, Géza von Bolváry , Hans Thimig , the brothers Ernst and Hubert Marischka, and Géza von Cziffra , who made the most commercially successful Vienna film with The White Dream .

The most frequently used cameramen were Günther Anders , Georg Bruckbauer , Hans Schneeberger and Jaroslaw Tuzar . As composers, Wien-Film mainly employed Anton Profes and Willy Schmidt-Gentner . Erich von Neusser and Fritz Podehl were production managers .

A large number of those involved were able to continue their careers in the post-war period with productions by Wien-Film.

Studio facilities

As film studios were the only two large plants in Austria, the former Sascha film studios in Sievering and the former Vita-Film -Ateliers at Rose Hill be used. There was also the small, former Viennese art film studio at the Bauernmarkt in the 1st district of Vienna and the also small studio in Schönbrunn.

In three years of construction, from 1939 to 1941, a synchronous hall complex with a large and a small synchronization hall , cutting rooms and offices was built next to the Rosenhügel studios .

Film productions

Fifty films were made between 1939 and 1945. In addition there were commissioned productions that were handled by Forst-Film , Emo-Film and Styria-Film .

literature

  • Franz Antel, Christian F. Winkler, Hollywood on the Danube. History of the Vienna Film in Sievering , Vienna (Edition S, Verlag der Österreichische Staatsdruckerei) 1991
  • Wilhelm Guha, The story of an Austrian film company. From the Sascha Film Factory in Pfraumberg in Bohemia to Wien-Film , Vienna 1976
  • Günter Krenn: The cultural films of the Vienna film, 1938-1945 . Austrian Film Archive, Vienna 1992.
  • Helene Schrenk, The production of the Wien-Fim between 1939 and 1945 , Vienna 1984
  • Fritz Walter, The Vienna Film. Born in 1910! 1986 died ; in: Sterz 36, Graz 1986, p. 12f
  • Fritz Walter, Hollywood in Vienna - or the “Wien-Film” commissioned in the Third Reich ; in: Rathkolb, Duchkowitsch, Hausjell, Die veruntreute Demokratie , Salzburg 1988, pp. 35–42

See also

Web links