Walther Günther

Walther Franz Gustav Günther (born July 1, 1891 in Zeitz ; † October 4, 1952 in Bonn ) was a German educator , economist and media official.

Life

Günther was the son of master carpenter Julius Günther (1864–1946) from Zeitz. He became a primary school teacher and worked from 1911 to 1914 in Mühlhausen, Thuringia . Drafted when the First World War broke out, he did his military service until 1917; in that year he enrolled at the University of Bern. He studied history, education, economics and law at the University of Berlin. Initially a working student, from 1920 he worked as a teacher at a private school. He came into contact with the medium of film when he held an assistant position at the “Society for Popular Education”. From then on, he campaigned for the appropriate use of photography and film in education.

In 1921 he founded the “Deutsche Bildspielbund”, of which he became director, and until 1931 organized the “Deutsche Bildwochen”, at which educators from all over Germany discussed the use of the medium of film in schools. They took place every year from 1920. Since 1923 he was also an assessor at the film inspection office and the upper film inspection office in Berlin.

He became head of the Berlin “Film and Image Working Group” and worked at the “Central Institute for Education and Teaching” in Berlin. Together with Hans Ammann , he published the magazine Der Bildwart , which was published by Erwin Loose in Berlin from 1923 to 1935 and addressed teachers, professors and artists, i.e. people who were professionally or ideally involved in the effects and development of film were interested.

With Ammann, he also promoted the use of cine film in schools.

In 1928 he became director of the Berlin City Film and Image Office and president of the "International Chamber of Film for Education", which was based in Basel . In 1929 he obtained his doctorate rerum politicarum at the University of Berlin with a thesis on the basics of social and economic development in Germany in the age of the Thirty Years War .

On May 1, 1933, Günther joined the NSDAP and the NS teachers' association and became a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture . From 1934 until he was called up for military service in 1939, he was in charge of the Berlin-Brandenburg state image office. At the same time he was head of department at the Reichsstelle for educational film . During this time he wrote several textbooks and numerous handouts for teachers on current educational films.

After the Second World War , he played a key role in building the Friesland children's home in Breddewarden near Wilhelmshaven operated by the German Red Cross . However, Günther could no longer find any connection to his earlier life's work. He died in Bonn in 1952.

Works

• Examination regulations for technical directors of photography events. Verlag Ferdinand Hirt , Leipzig 1924, DNB 580048209 .
• City films. (= Bildwart pamphlets. 3). 2nd Edition. Bildwart publishing cooperative, Berlin 1928, DNB 363944699 .
• as publisher: Directory of German Films, Basic Edition. I: teaching u. Cultural films. Bildwart publishing cooperative, Berlin 1927, DNB 368569519 .
• as publisher: Der Bildwart: Handbook for setting up and managing image and film jobs. Gauverlag Bayerische Ostmark, Bayreuth 1938, DNB 365924717 .
• Use of film and photography in school. Verlag J. Klinkhardt, Leipzig 1939, DNB 573603596 .

literature

• H. Ammann, in: Film, Image, Sound. Journal of audio-visual resources in education. Edited by Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education. III. Volume, H. 9, December 1952.
• Helmut H. Diederichs: Early history of German film theory, its origin and development up to the First World War. Frankfurt am Main 1996, Internet publication : 2001
• Malte Ewert: The “Reich Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education”. (= Writings on cultural studies. Volume 15). Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-86064-681-8 , pp. 255-256.
• Malte Ewert: New documents on the history of the school film movement in Germany: Berlin and the British occupation zone 1945/46. (= Writings on cultural science. Volume 19). Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-86064-692-3 .
• Walther Günther (Ed.): The picture keeper. Leaves for popular education . 4th year, issue 1, January 1926. Bildwart-Verlags-Genossenschaft, Berlin 1926.
• Christine Kopf: "The appearance of neutrality" - institutional film censorship in the Weimar Republic . ( online , accessed June 20, 2017).
• Landesarchiv Berlin: Archives No. A Rep. 020-01-01 re : Film and Image Office Berlin / Landesbildstelle Berlin.
• Anne Marquardt: The film as an instrument of formation education in the Third Reich: The school media use of the National Socialists, examined in films by Leni Riefenstahl. Diplomica Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-8346-8 , pp. 25, 36, 38, 51, 74, 75, 77.
• Fritz Terveen: Documents on the history of the school film movement . Lechte publishing house, Emsdetten 1959.
• Fritz Terveen:  Günther, Walther Franz Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 278 ( digitized version ).
• Max Tiesler: Narrow film as a school film. (= Film books for everyone. Volume 1). Hall 1931.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bruno Jahn et al.: The German-language press: A biographical-bibliographical manual . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-096157-1 , p. 379.
2. ↑ founded on June 14, 1871 as a society for the dissemination of popular education , from 1915 society for popular education , cf. Josef Olbrich: History of adult education in Germany . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-95032-1 , p. 89 f. and 95
3. ↑ formerly "Picture Stage Association of German Cities", cf. Harro Segeberg: Media mobilization. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film. (= Media history of film. Volume 4). Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 , p. 74; Ulrich Bendel: 75 years of Darmstadt image agencies. 75 years of media education and technology for regional education. Darmstadt, May 1998. ( online , accessed on June 20, 2017): "In July 1917 [...] a call was made to found a 'Picture Stage Association of German Cities', which began its work on April 1, 1918."
4. ↑ In 1919 the Bildstelle in Berlin was created in the Central Institute for Education and Teaching, and as early as 1920 the first "German Bildwoche" took place in the Reich capital, at which educators from all over Germany discussed the use of film in schools. Also in Berlin in 1921, the "Deutsche Lichtspielbund" was founded by Walter Günther, who from 1923 also published the specialist magazine "Der Bildwart".
5. ↑ On these two institutions of film censorship in the Weimar Republic, cf. Christine Kopf: "The appearance of neutrality" - institutional film censorship in the Weimar Republic . ( online ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , accessed on June 20, 2017). 
6. ↑ Film and Image Working Group Greater Berlin, founded by teachers in 1920, worked closely with the Bildbühnenbund Deutscher Städt e. V. together. In 1927 the AG was taken over as a "film seminar" in the city administration. In 1934, the Landesbildstelle was created, which, in addition to school pedagogical tasks and adult qualifications in film work, projection work and photography, aimed to set up an image and film archive for Berlin. See Lars Nebelung: Findbuch A Rep. 020-01-01 . Landesarchiv Berlin, August 2004, accessed on June 20, 2017 (PDF; 221 kB).
7. ↑ The Central Institute for Education and Teaching was founded in Berlin in 1915, and held a course on the reform of the cinema in Stettin at Easter 1917 during the First World War. Cf. Ulrich Bendel: 75 years of Darmstadt picture sites. 75 years of media education and technology for regional education. Darmstadt, May 1998 ( online , accessed June 20, 2017)
8. ↑ Engineer and high school teacher (1881–1955), one of the most important theorists and methodologists of school film in the Weimar Republic, headed the Bildstelle in Munich and significantly promoted the use of cine films in the classroom, cf. Harro Segeberg: Mediale Mobilmachung. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film . (= Media history of film. Volume 4). Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 , p. 74; Michael Kühn: Educational film in National Socialism. The work of the Reich Office for Educational Film / Reich Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education . Septem Artes Verlag, Mammendorf 1998, ISBN 3-929168-21-9 , pp. 259-260; Ulrich Bendel: 75 years of Darmstadt image agencies. 75 years of media education and technology for regional education. Darmstadt, May 1998 ( online , accessed on June 20, 2017): Advances in film technology also promoted the picture system in the following years: as early as 1929 (presented at the German Bildwoche in Dresden and the educational film conference in Vienna) there was a new developed 16 mm security film, the first handy silent film projectors that could now be operated in the darkened classroom without special security precautions. With this, the old demand that special educational films should replace the cinema in schools became feasible.
9. ↑ The picture manager . In: difarchiv.deutsches-filminstitut.de. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
10. ↑ Ulrich Bendel: 75 years of Darmstadt picture sites. 75 years of media education and technology for regional education. Darmstadt, May 1998. ( online , accessed on June 20, 2017): “That the 16 mm cine film subsequently caught on just as quickly as the new small format 24 × 36 mm, which was the old one as a 5 × 5 cm slide The 8.5 × 10 cm format is mainly thanks to the willing cooperation of the picture departments and their fundamental abandonment of lavish large formats. " The 16mm film was developed by Kodak in 1923 . As early as 1931 there were around 400 films copied from 35 mm format to cine film on offer from various companies, cf. Harro Segeberg: Media mobilization. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film . (= Media history of film. Volume 4). Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 .
11. ↑ formerly film seminar, later state image office Berlin-Brandenburg, cf. Harro Segeberg: Media mobilization. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film . (= Media history of film. Volume 4). Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 , p. 74.
12. ↑ recherche.bar.admin.ch . Retrieved March 17, 2020.
13. ↑ 115 p .; 8 °. The dissertation appeared in print in 1931, cf. DNB 57139504X .
14. ↑ Newspaper Studies . Duncker & Humblot, 1935, pp. 192 ( google.de [accessed on February 23, 2020]).
15. ^ Anne Marquardt: The film as an instrument of formation education in the Third Reich: The school media use of the National Socialists examined in films by Leni Riefenstahl . Diplomica Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-8346-8 , p. 36 ( google.de [accessed on February 23, 2020]).
16. ↑ z. B. on “Wolkenstürmer” (1931) and “Day of Freedom - Our Wehrmacht” (1935), as well as the two-part film “Olympia” produced in 1936 from recordings by Leni Riefenstahl , cf. Anne Marquardt: The film as an instrument of formation education in the Third Reich: The school media use of the National Socialists, examined in films by Leni Riefenstahl. Diplomica Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8428-8346-8 , pp. 38 and 51.
17. ↑ “Günther, as a capable and skilful organizer, as a thorough practical and theoretical expert, made important contributions to the development of the image and film system in schools and public education. The German and international educational film movement owe countless impulses to his restless and varied, often idiosyncratic, but always stimulating work between 1920 and 1934. ”was the verdict of F. Terveen in 1966.
18. ↑ An invaluable source of research to this day. In: Harro Segeberg: Medial mobilization. Volume 1: The Third Reich and the Film . (= Media history of film. Volume 4). Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 , p. 74.
19. ↑ 8 °. Original box with cover title; Image of the title page at amazon.com (accessed on September 20, 2015)