Franz Rowas

Franz Rowas (* around 1917 ) is a German former ministerial official and employee in the Foreign Office who was temporarily entrusted with expert control tasks ( film censorship ).

Life

Little is known about Rowas' personal and professional career before he joined the Foreign Office. Presumably he studied and did his doctorate in Munich. In 1950 he appeared as editor of the works of Franz Grillparzer .

From 1953 Rowas worked in the foreign service. Initially, he was responsible for the film industry in “Referat 605” of the cultural department, which later received the department designation “IV6”. The department was responsible for art, film, radio, television and fiduciary management of cultural property. In the middle of 1968 he was transferred to “Referat IV5” of the cultural department, which was responsible for science, universities, youth issues and sport. Presumably in 1971 he moved to the "Foreign Information Department" at the management level, to which Rowas was a member until his employment relationship ended in 1982.

His tasks changed during his career, they included u. a. the evaluation of the annual reports of the diplomatic missions abroad on political public relations; Film, television and radio as media for political public relations; German wave; Deutschlandfunk; New World News Order; Use of development aid for political public relations and editing of information services. At times he was a member of the German delegation at the international film festival abroad and a representative of the federal government in the film committees of the then Western European Union. In addition, he was in charge of the secretarial business of the Joint Selection Committee for the International Film Festival and, if necessary, acted as an appraiser for the Foreign Office in the voluntary self-regulation of the film industry.

Film critical activity

"Censorship activities" by Rowas are documented in various cases. He was active in the run-up to the then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's ban on the film Until five past twelve - Adolf Hitler and the 3rd Reich in 1953. Adenauer saw his political efforts to reintegrate the FRG endangered by the film and obtained its ban through the Interior Ministry. The film was the first film banned in the whole of Germany. Rowas also played a role in the controversies surrounding Alain Resnais' concentration camp documentary Nuit et brouillard , which, under German pressure, was dismissed at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 and sparked international outrage. Rowas was active here with regard to the German non-performance at the Berlinale .

Also in 1956, the Cologne composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann accepted the commission to compose music for “Flood and Ashes”, a short film about the destruction of the war and reconstruction. At a screening of the film as part of the German Architecture Exhibition in Buenos Aires , criticism of the music was raised, which also reached Rowas through the German ambassador. Rowas then threatened not to show the film, which incidentally was very well received, abroad: “However, it does not seem possible to use the film in the current audio version, as one of these, especially the music, is a disturbing one Effect must be feared. ”Rowas put the director and producer of the film, Hans Joachim Hossfeld, under pressure, who had to exchange the music for Bach's choral music , with which the film was continued - at least abroad.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Franz Grillparzer, works ed. by Franz Rowas, afterword by Curt Hohoff, 2 volumes. Munich, Hanser, 1950.
2. ↑ Lt. Information from the Political Archives of the Federal Foreign Office on August 3, 2009
3. ↑ Guido Marc Pruys: The Rhetoric of Film Synchronization, Tübingen 1997 (Google partial digitization)
4. ↑ Heribert Henrich, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, catalog raisonné, Berlin and Mainz 2013, pp. 785–788
5. ↑ Heribert Henrich, Fundstücke from the capital, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of September 8, 1999, No. 208, p. 51