Film inspection office
The film testing was in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany , the censorship board , which decided whether completed films were approved for public display.
Period of the Weimar Republic
The legal basis for film censorship was created in Germany with the Film Act of May 12, 1920. The details were regulated by an implementing regulation. Since the most important film production facilities were in Berlin and Munich, a test center was set up here. The Munich film inspection office was responsible for production companies based in Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse, while the Berlin film inspection office was responsible for the rest of Germany. However, approval from Munich or Berlin was then valid for the entire Reich territory. An upper film test center, which served as the last instance, was also based in Berlin.
Each film testing center was manned by a civil servant chairman, who was appointed by the Minister of the Interior, as well as four assessors from the fields of film, art, literature, people's and youth welfare and popular education. Head of the senior inspection body were Dr. Carl Bulcke and from 1924 Ernst Seeger , who later became head of the film department in Joseph Goebbels ' Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .
The subject of the examination was the film, its title and the associated advertising material. Films that were made before the Film Act came into force also had to be submitted to the film inspection agency if they were to continue to be played in the cinema. The same applied to foreign films that were to be shown publicly in the Reich.
The audit procedure was subject to application and fees for the production companies. The hearing, which was held in the presence of the applicant, was followed by a non-public resolution. In the event of rejection, the applicant received a written justification.
The censorship of the film inspection bodies was carried out according to purely police criteria. The reasons for the prohibition consisted of endangering vital interests of the state, public order or security. In the Weimar Republic, films that had been judged to be harmless had to undergo a second test. This examination, which was based on the provisions of the Reichsrat on the entertainment tax and decided on the award of film awards , was carried out on an artistic basis. The Prussian Bildstelle at the Central Institute for Education and Teaching in Berlin and the Bayerische Lichtspielstelle in Munich were responsible for the rating.
Period in National Socialist Germany
The Film Act of February 16, 1934 and its implementing ordinances resulted in fundamental changes for film testing. The separation between police and aesthetic aspects of censorship was abolished, the film testing center in Munich was closed. From 1934 onwards, responsibility for film censorship and film rating lay solely with the Berlin Film Inspectorate, which was subordinate to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
In order to prevent unwanted films from being produced at all, a Reichsfilmdramaturg was also commissioned with the preliminary examination of each film project.
The leader principle was introduced into the work of the film inspection agency ; the assessors, who had previously had full voting rights, were now only allowed to advise. The decision-making power lay with the chairman, who was now appointed by the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Only the application process remained largely unchanged.
The most serious difference to film censorship in the Weimar Republic was the extension of the reasons for the prohibition . From 1934 onwards, films could also be banned that were capable of "offending National Socialist, religious, moral or artistic feelings, having a brutal or demoralizing effect, or endangering Germany's reputation or Germany's relations with foreign states". This allowed politically unpopular and badly made films to be banned. Since 1934 it has also been practically impossible to film the works of emigrated or politically unpopular authors. The admission requirements for youth films were also subject to a particular tightening.
In the best-case scenario, film censorship meant that the script and cast had to be changed a few times and the finished film had to be re-edited several times . In the worst case, a film was only allowed to be shown in (occupied) foreign countries or not shown at all. An implementation ordinance of July 3, 1935 stipulated that all films made or imported before January 30, 1933 had to be censored again. In this way, politically undesirable films such as Die Dreigroschenoper (1931) or Kuhle Wampe or: Who Owns the World? (1932), but also works that were produced with the participation of Jewish or emigrated directors and actors.
There was only liberalization in the area of amateur films. The legislature took into account the increasing spread of the cine film technology by the fact that film amateurs no longer had to submit their films to the film inspection agency, but could apply for permits for public screenings from the local police authorities.
At the end of the war, the film inspection agency had to stop working. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (FSK) was created as a democratic counter-draft .
See also
literature
- Ursula von Keitz, films in court. Theory and practice of film exams in Germany from 1920 to 1938, Frankfurt / Main 1999
- Klaus-Jürgen Maiwald, film censorship in the Nazi state, Dortmund (Nowotny) 1983