History of the newsreel in Austria

The history of the weekly newsreel in Austria begins in 1911, when Wiener Kunstfilm brought new reports from Vienna and other parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy on a regular weekly basis . This was in competition with the dominant French film companies, which had already been active in Austria for years as sales branches but also as newsreel producers.

history

The first Austrian newsreel reports were shot by French film companies that quickly conquered the international markets. In 1904, Pathé Frères opened a branch in Vienna and began producing newsreel reports on site as well as selling its own newsreels and short film productions made in France. Gaumont followed in 1908 and the Société Eclair in 1909 . They caused great competition in the newsreel sector for regular Austrian film production, which began in 1910, until the outbreak of World War I.

In order to be able to hold its own against the predominantly French competition, Wiener Kunstfilm tried to lure people into the cinemas with a particularly large number of current reports. These included events such as the launch of the kuk-Kriegsmarine battleship SMS Zrinyi in the port of Trieste and the flight week at Wiener Neustadt airfield - at that time one of the largest airports in the world in recent aviation history. The popular Viennese bathing island Gänsehäufel and the Vienna Prater as well as ski events, the Semmering in winter, the Plitwitzer Lakes , the fire disaster at Vienna's North Railway Station on July 29, 1911, city images of Krakow , Mariazell and Prague were filmed and brought to the Viennese cinemas. With types and scenes from Viennese folk life , one of the first documentary films was also released in 1911, a genre that, due to its documentary purpose, is closely linked to weekly news reporting. Until Sascha-Film was founded in 1912, the First Austrian Cinema Film Industry remained the leading Austrian producer of weekly news reports, documentaries and feature films.

Some filmmakers who later became very successful began their careers as cameramen for newsreels before the First World War. In addition to employees of the two companies already mentioned, these included Hans Theyer , Eduard Hoesch and Franz Planer .

In the first World War

With the beginning of the First World War, numerous states and their members suddenly became enemies of Austria-Hungary and were either imprisoned or expelled. Among them were the French filmmakers, whose era came to an end. The sudden disappearance of competition came in very handy for the local producers and new newsreels were created that met with great public interest. In September 1914, Wiener Kunstfilm produced the country's first war newsreel, the war journal . Raimund Czerny and Heinrich Findeis were on the front lines as cameramen . After the publication of the first eight editions, Sascha-Film, together with Philipp and Pressburger and the Austrian-Hungarian Cinema Industry Society, entered the market with the publication of the first war newsreel. This was called the Austrian weekly cinema report from the northern and southern theater of war . Despite the dissolute title, this newsreel was more successful. In 1915 it was called Cinematographic War Reporting , then Sascha War Weekly Report . The Sascha Messter Week was published at the same time .

In the interwar period

Cover picture of a contribution from Austria in picture and sound - the subject was a bomb attack carried out by National Socialist terrorists

From 1920 onwards, the Styrian Film Journal by Bruno Lötsch appeared in the pre-program in Graz . However, most of their work was carried out in Austria, where Hoesch got involved as a producer and director of Heimatfilme after the Second World War .

From 1931 to 1933 an international newsreel was published, which was produced in co-production by the Selenophon-Licht- und Tonbildgesellschaft with Gustav Mayer from the Hugo Engel company . On the other hand, the recordings of the Federal Security Film Guard , which had been filming public events since 1928, and which today represent an essential addition to the other contemporary reports and documents, such as the recordings of the international communist demonstration day in 1930 and the International 2 in 1931 , were largely not intended for public screening Workers' Olympics and in 1932 the military-technical preparation for the civil war.

From 1933 the Austria newsreel appeared in sound and image as a propaganda instrument for the authoritarian corporate state . The competition from abroad, especially from Germany, was great. State funding for newsreels promoted the continuous production of short films and newsreels for cinemas.

In National Socialism

The newsreel of the corporate state was continued as OSTMARK Wochenschau . From September 7, 1939, only the UFA-Tonwoche appeared in the entire German Reich , which after the last issue No. 510 on June 12, 1940 was called Die Deutsche Wochenschau . These weekly reviews of 600 to 800 meters or 20 to 30 minutes long were funded by the state, so that going to the cinema was very inexpensive, which the normal population could afford several times a week. The employees were specially trained, after all, the propaganda effect was enormously important for the warfare of the National Socialists. Many film reporters came from (the former) Austria, some of them died while shooting at the front.

In 1942, the German weekly newsreel appeared with 1900 copies in front of 20 million moviegoers a week. The German International Week was shown in around 1400 copies in 34 languages ​​across Europe. Adolf Hitler usually censored the newsreels himself. The last German newsreel of the National Socialists appeared on March 22, 1945 as the 245th edition.

After the Second World War

The first Austrian newsreel of the post-war period appeared in May 1945, shortly after the end of the war. It was the Austrian newsreel that Wien-Film produced for several editions with still available film material. However, it was then banned. The Allies started newsreel productions themselves. From 1945 to 1949, the newsreel Welt im Film, jointly produced by the British and US occupying powers in Austria, appeared . Fritz Olesko was the director. In 1949 it was renamed MPEA Tönende Wochenschau and appeared until the end of the occupation in 1955. The French produced the French newsreel . In addition, the weekly newsreels Spiegel der Zeit by Karl Zieglmayer and We are there .

On November 11, 1949, the first edition of the Austria Wochenschau appeared , which was produced until February 1982. It was then transformed into a cinema magazine and ran under the name Scope until 1994.

The Austrian newsreel was also temporarily brought back to life. This time, 52 percent of the owners were the federal government and 24 percent each were owned by the city of Vienna's Kiba cinema operating company and Sascha-Film . Karl Zieglmayer was hired as the first manager.

The increasing competition from television with its news programs from the 1950s onwards took away the livelihood of the newsreels. The newsreels in their previous form could not prove themselves on television either, since television news is up to date on a daily basis anyway. If you wanted to survive on television, you had to specialize. But the Austria Wochenschau, which ran from 1982 to 1994 only as a cinema magazine on television, had to be given up in the end.

The last newsreel in Austria was, at least in name, the ORF program Wochenschau , which has been broadcast on Sundays since October 28, 1979 . It was of particular importance for deaf people in Austria, as the moderation was not only acoustic, but also in sign language at the same time . Teletext subtitles could be added to the news reports themselves . As a result of savings measures, the weekly newsreel on ORF television was discontinued with the last episode on July 26, 2009.

See also

• Cinema and film in Austria - review article

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
• Michael Achenbach: Austria in picture and sound - the weekly film show of the Austro-Fascist corporate state. Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2002
• Ludwig Gesek : On the history of the newsreel in Austria. In: Günter Moltmann (Ed.): Contemporary history in film and sound documents. Musterschmidt Verlag, Göttingen 1970
• Wolfgang Wimmer: The Austria Wochenschau Ges.mbH 1966–1982. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2004
• Hrvoje Miloslavic: THE OSTMARK WEEKLY SHOW A propaganda medium of National Socialism , 2008 ISBN 978-3-902531-48-3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Achenbach, Karin Moser: Austria in picture and sound - the weekly film show of the Austro-Fascist corporate state . Ed .: Filmarchiv Austria . Self-published, Vienna 2002, ISBN 978-3-901932-18-2 ( Chapter online at Demokratiezentrum.org [PDF; 415 kB ]).
2. ↑ OSTMARK Wochenschau ( memento of the original from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 30, 2009  

Web links

• About the newsreel on filmarchiv.at