Austria newsreel

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The Austria Wochenschau was a publicly owned newsreel company in Austria that was present in Austrian cinemas from 1949 to 1982 under this name .

history

The foundation of the Austria Wochenschau in Vienna VII, Siebensterngasse 19 was based on a basic agreement from June 1949 between the Austrian federal government and the four allied occupying powers. The federal government wanted to promote Austrian patriotism and emphasize the domestic reconstruction efforts . The first managing director of Austria Wochenschau was Ernst Marboe .

The majority owner of the company was the state with 52%, with the SPÖ- related Viennese cinema chain KIBA and the ÖVP- related Sascha Film each holding 24% . The system of proportional representation prevailing from 1945–1966 was thus institutionally expressed in the Austria Wochenschau. But it also made itself felt in the design of the film contributions with their reports, which were deliberately balanced between "red" and "black". A program of the Austria Wochenschau lasted 8 to 10 minutes. From 1954 to 1971 a second, more internationally oriented newsreel, the WELTJOURNAL, was also produced.

In 1954, before the onset of competition from television, around 300 copies per week were in circulation. As a topical medium, however, the newsreel fell hopelessly behind from the 1960s. The weekly cinemas , which were once heavily visited, became deserted and closed. However, as preliminary programs in regular cinemas, the newsreels with less topical topics could hold up for a while. The triple change of signation and logo of the Austria Wochenschau during the 1970s was already an expression of a deep crisis and desperate modernization efforts. The music contributions of the Austria Wochenschau and its successor, the magazine "Scope" (from 1982), dedicated to Austropop , proved to be quite successful and are now a valuable contemporary document (they can be seen as a pre-form of the video clip). From 1985 to 1994 only HELLO KINO was produced, a society magazine with cinema trailers.

In 1999, on the 50th anniversary of the Austria Wochenschau , the Filmarchiv Austria began a project to process and supplement the existing archive material. The film archive has also launched its own DVD and video edition “Austrian newsreels” for the general public.

literature

  • Hans Petschar / Georg Schmid: Memory & Vision. The legitimation of Austria in pictures. A semi-historical analysis of the Austria Wochenschau 1949-1960. with a contribution by Herbert Hayduck, Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt 1990, ISBN 3-201-01510-5
  • Austria Wochenschau 1964-1973 (Keyword catalog on the holdings in the Austrian film archive, edited by the Austrian Film Archive, Austria Wochenschau, Austrian Society for Film Studies) Published by: Die Gesellschaft, Vienna 1975, 482 pp
  • Austria Wochenschau 1974-1982 (Keyword catalog on the holdings in the Austrian film archive, created by Peter M Kraus, Austrian Film Archive, Communication and Media Research, Austrian Society for Film Studies) Published by: Austrian Society for Film Studies, Communication and Media Research, 1982
  • Wolfgang Wimmer: The Austria Wochenschau Ges.mbH 1966–1982. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniela Kirchner (Ed.): Film and Television Collections in Europe - The MAP-TV Guide . Routledge, New York 1995, ISBN 0-415-13678-4 , pp. 8 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed on May 10, 2020]).