National socialist film policy
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Despite its authoritarian core, Nazism was populist, a political movement that courted the masses by the means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. It is therefore not surprising that the Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power. The interest that Adolf Hitler and his Propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels took in film was not only the result of a personal fascination. The instrumentalization of film for propaganda had been planned by the NSDAP as early as in 1930, when the party first established a film department.
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[edit] Goals of the Nazi film policy
Goebbels who appointed himself "Patron of the German film" assumed, accurately, that a national cinema which was entertaining and put glamour on the regime would be a more effective propaganda instrument than a national cinema in which the NSDAP and their policy would have been ubiquitous. The main goal of the Nazi film policy was to promote escapism, which was designed to distract the population and to keep everybody in good spirits. The open propaganda was reserved to documentary films and newsreels. There are only very few examples of German feature films from the Third Reich that deal with the NSDAP or with party organizations such as Sturmabteilung, Hitler Youth or Reich Labour Service. Even the so called propaganda films that refer directly to the Nazi politics amounted to less than a sixth of the whole national movie production, which mainly consisted of light entertainment films.
[edit] Authorities and NSDAP departments
The following authorities and NSDAP departments were in charge of film policy:
- the film department of the Propagandaministerium
- the Reich Chamber of Culture (‘’Reichskulturkammer’’)
- the Reich Chamber of Film (‘’Reichsfilmkammer’’)
- the film department of the Party Propaganda Department (‚’Reichspropagandaleitung’’)
[edit] Measures of Nazi film policy
The measures to subdue film to the goals of propaganda (“Gleichschaltung”) included:
- subordination of the entire film business and administration under Joseph Goebbels’ Propagandaministerium
- concentration and gradual nationalization of the film production and distribution industry
- mandatory membership of all film actors, filmmakers, film distributors etc. in an official professional organization (‘’Reichsfilmkammer’’)
- founding of a film bank (‘’Filmkreditbank GmbH’’) that provided the film industry with reasonable loans for the production of politically welcome films
- appointment of a Reich Film Dramaturge (‘’Reichsfilmdramaturg’’) who in the very first stages of production pre-censored all manuscripts and screenplays
- increase of the censorship that had already been established during World War I and the Weimar Republic
- introduction of film ratings that provided politically welcome films with tax benefits
- establishment of a national film award (‘’Deutscher Filmpreis’’)
- prohibition of film criticism
- foundation of a state-run professional school for politically reliable filmmakers (‘’Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg’’)
[edit] Film production
In the mid-1930s, the German film industry suffered the most severe crisis it had ever faced. There were multiple reasons for this crisis. Firstly, many of the most capable actors and filmmakers had left the country after the rise to power of the Nazi government; others were banned by the new professional organization (‘’Reichsfilmkammer’’). These people left a gap that the film industry could not easily fill. Secondly, the remaining actors and filmmakers seized the opportunity to demand higher salaries, which considerably increased production budgets. Consequently, it became more and more difficult to recover production costs. Thirdly, the export of German films dramatically dropped due to international boycotts. In 1933, exports had covered 44% of film production costs; by 1937, this number had dropped to a mere 7%.
More and more production companies went bankrupt. The number of companies dropped from 114 (1933-35) to 79 (1936-38) to 38 (1939-41). This didn’t necessarily lead to a decrease in the number of new films; surviving production companies became more prolific, producing many more films.
The consolidation of the film industry was undoubtedly beneficial for the Nazi government. On the one hand, an ailing and unprofitable film industry would not have been of much use for the propaganda requirements. And on the other hand, a small number of big film production companies were easier to control than a multitude of small ones.
Goebbels went even further and directed a holding company – ‘’Cautio Treuhand GmbH’’ – to buy up the stock majorities of the remaining film production companies. In 1937, the ‘’Cautio” acquired the largest German production company, Ufa, and in 1942 merged this company with the remaining companies – Terra Film, Tobis, Bavaria Film, Wien-Film, and Berlin-Film – into the so-called “Ufi-Group”.
With one stroke, the entire German film industry was practically nationalized, but unlike the situation under Stalinism, German filmmaking preserved its character as a private industry. Although Joseph Goebbels engaged a 'film bank' (‘’Filmkreditbank GmbH’’) in order to fund the industry, the funds came from private investors. Thus, there were no government subsidies to the film industry in Nazi Germany. Because of this, the industry was forced to remain profitable – and to produce films that met the expectations of the audience.
[edit] Film distribution
A concentration also took place in the distribution field. In 1942, the Ufa-owned ’’Deutsche Filmvertriebs GmbH (DFV)’’ took the place of all companies that had been remaining so far. For the export of films to foreign countries special companies had been established such as the “Cinéma Film AG’.
Since the days of the Weimar Republic, there also existed an extensive system of educational film hire services which under the Nazi administration was even extended. In 1943, there were 37 regional services and 12,042 city services. In parallel, the Party Propaganda Department (‚’Reichspropagandaleitung’’) run an own network of educational film hire services which included 32 Gau, 171 district, and 22,357 local services. All film hire services had extensive film collections as well as rental 16 mm film projectors available that made it possible to show films in any class or lecture room and at any group meeting of the Hitler Youth.
[edit] Movie theatres
Apart from the Ufa-owned theatre chain, the movie theatres were not nationalized. The majority of the 5506 theatres that existed in 1939 within the so called Altreich (Germany without Austria and Sudentenland) were small companies run by private owners.
But there was a big number of laws and orders issued by the Reich Film Chamber (‘’Reichsfilmkammer’’) that limited the entrepreneurial freedom of the movie theatres considerably. For instance, it was mandatory to include a documentary and a newsreel in every film program. By a law from 1933 (‚'Gesetz über die Vorführung ausländischer Bildstreifen vom 23. Juni 1933’’) the government was also entitled to prohibit the presentation of foreign films. An import quota for foreign films had been set aldready during the Weimar Republic. During World War II, it occurred that the import of films from certain foreign countries was completely prohibited. From 1941 on f. i. the presentation of American films became illegal.
In order to boost the propaganda effect, the national socialists supported film shows in large movie theatres with large audiences where the feeling of being part of the crowd was so overwhelming for the individual spectator that a critical film perception didn’t have too much of a chance. Film shows also took place in military barracks and factories. The Hitler Youth arranged special film programs (‘’Jugendfilmstunden’’) where newsreels and propaganda films were shown. In order to supply even rural and remote areas with film programs, the Party Propaganda Department (‚’Reichspropagandaleitung’’) operated 300 film trucks and even two film trains that carried all equipment which was necessary to perform film shows f. i. in village inns. The dislike that Joseph Goebbels and other film politicians carried for individual, more private film perception was probably one of the reasons why they didn’t make any effort to develop television – at that time a technique that was ready to be applied – as a new mass media.
Film propaganda had highest priority in Germany even under the severe conditions of the last years of World War II. While schools and playhouses stopped working in 1944, movie theatres continued to operate until the very end of the war. In Berlin for instance, anti-aircraft units were posted specially to protect the local movie theatres in 1944.
[edit] Star system
There always had been movie stars in Germany, but a star system comparable to the star system in Hollywood didn’t yet exist. In order to improve the image of Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels took great efforts forming a star system. After Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo had gone to Hollywood and could not be persuaded to serve the national socialistic film industry as figureheads, new movie stars were promoted.
The best-known example is the Swedish actress Zarah Leander who was hired in 1937 by the Ufa and became the most prominent and highest-paid German movie star in only very few years. The publicity campaign for Zarah Leander was run by the press office of the Ufa who concealed her past as a film actress who was in Sweden already well-known and put their money right away on her charisma as a singer with an exceptionally deep voice. The Ufa press office provided the newspapers with detailed instructions how the new star would have to be presented, and even the actress herself had to follow detailed instructions whenever she appeared in public. This kind of star publicity hadn’t existed in Germany before.
High politicians such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Hermann Göring appeared in public flanked by popular German movie actors. The female stars in particular were supposed to lend some glamour to the dry and male-dominated NSDAP events. Adolf Hitler’s preferred dinner partners were the actresses Olga Tschechowa and Lil Dagover, and since 1935, Hermann Göring was married to the popular actress Emmy Sonnemann. The relationships of Joseph Goebbels to several female movie stars are notorious, too.
The personal proximity to the political leaders became a determining factor for the career success of movie actors. Renate Müller found in Hitler a personal enemy. An informal system of listings decided how frequently an actor would be cast. The five categories extended from “to cast at all costs even without a vacancy” (for instance Zarah Leander, Lil Dagover, Heinz Rühmann) to “casting under no circumstances welcome”.
How crucial the movie stars were for the image of the national social regime, is also evident from tax benefits that Hitler issued in 1938 for prominent film actors and directors. From that time on, they could deduct 40% of their income as professional expenses.
But World War II finally caused a grave profanation of the German movie stars. They appeared on small front stages as troop entertainers or collected money for the German Winter Relief Organization (‘’Winterhilfswerk’’). Although most of the male stars were exempted from military service, some – such as the popular Heinz Rühmann – participated in the war as soldiers, often accompanied by newsreel film crews.
[edit] See also
[edit] Literature
- Gerd Albrecht, Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik, München (Hanser) 1969 (German)
- Jürgen Spiker, Film und Kapital. Der Weg der deutschen Filmwirtschaft zum nationalsozialistischen Einheitskonzern, Berlin (Volker Spiess) 1975 (German)
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- This article is translated from an article in www.de.wikipedia.org (see left).
