I.

Introduction

German Cinema, historical development of the cinema in Germany. Although Germany had a fair-size film industry before World War I, nothing of great interest emerged from it other than a series of fantasy films made by Paul Wegener and his associates (see below).

II.

The Silent Period

During the silent era, Paul Wegener, a major German stage actor, produced a series of feature films based on themes from German fantastic literature of the 19th century, starting with Der Student von Prag (1913; The Student of Prague) and The Golem (1914). During World War I, Ernst Lubitsch emerged as a major director, assimilating something of the American approach to comedy and drama, and also incorporating advanced graphic design in films such as Die Puppe (1919; The Doll) and Die Bergkatze (1921; The Wild Cat). Then, immediately after the war, there were a few films featuring decors heavily influenced by German Expressionist art, which had just started to be used for stage plays in Berlin. The first and best known of these was The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919), but this and its few successors over the next three years had no lasting effect on German cinema. The major German directors such as Fritz Lang, E. A. Dupont, and F. W. Murnau had their own individual signatures and explicitly disclaimed any connection with Expressionism, even if their films—such as Murnau’s Nosferatu—Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922; Nosferatu the Vampire) did exhibit the style’s characteristics. The vast bulk of German production (several hundred films a year) had much the same mix of genres and styles as the rest of European cinema, and underwent the same process of conscious “Americanization” in the latter part of the 1920s as French cinema and British cinema.

By 1926, UFA, the largest German film company, was in financial difficulties because of losses, partly owing to the expense of films such as Murnau’s Der Letzte Mann (1924; The Last Laugh) and Faust (1926), and Lang’s Metropolis (1926). This led it to amalgamate with the German sections of Paramount and MGM, and when the losses mounted further, the financier Alfred Hugenburg bought control of the company.

III.

German Sound Cinema

After the introduction of the sound film into Germany with Der Blaue Engel (1930; The Blue Angel) by Josef von Sternberg, there followed a very rich period of adventurous film-making, with clever use of the sound medium by Lang (M, 1930), G. W. Pabst (Kameradschaft, 1931), Ludwig Berger, Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht (1932; Me by Day and You by Night), and Max Ophuls (Liebelei, 1932). There were also a number of delightful musicals such as Der Kongress Tanzt (1931; Congress Dances), which made use of the skills of the great German and Austrian operetta tradition.

Through the 1930s, German film production remained at around 130 films a year. With the National Socialist (Nazi) assumption of complete political power in 1933, Jews were banned from having any part in the industry, and the most prominent Jewish figures left the country. Since these included the best film directors, the result was, as in the other arts, a near-cessation of any innovative work. However, some well-made and entertaining films continued to appear. The film industry came under the direct control of the State Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, who was passionately interested in both the artistic and propaganda potential of the motion picture. His general policy was not to interfere with film-makers and performers, as long as they did not contravene Nazi principles. Control of the content of the films was mostly exercised by checking the scripts before production, but post-production bans and changes were also used when necessary. The general Nazi policy was to exclude direct propaganda elements from feature films, and confine it to news films and documentaries, such as the notorious anti-Semitic Der Ewige Jüde (1940; The Eternal Jew). However, there were a small number of feature films made to promote Nazi policies, the most important of which was Ich Klage An! (1941; I Accuse). Although this film examined the case for and against euthanasia in an even-handed way, it was conceived and used as a softening-up for the Nazi introduction of mass killing of “degenerate” people. There were few supporters of the National Socialist Party among German film industry people, and even a certain amount of passive resistance, and one of the best directors of the period, Helmut Käutner, showed that it was possible to consistently make films that contained not a hint of Nazi ideology.

The non-Jewish directors Reinhold Schünzel and Detlev Sierk (Douglas Sirk) made the most of their opportunities, and created films such as the musical Amphitryon (1935) and the romantic melodrama La Habanera (1937). By 1937 an increasing number of foreign film imports were banned by the Nazi regime, and in retaliation German film exports were being refused by other countries. This created a financial crisis in the industry, which was solved by a concealed state takeover of the whole business. At this point more film-makers left Germany, most notably Schünzel and Sierk, who went to the United States. During this period, more new talent such as Frank Wisbar (Fährmann Maria, 1936; Ferrywoman Maria), Herbert Selpin (Heiratsschwindler, 1937; The Marriage Swindler), and Veit Harlan got their chance.

An important technical development during the period was the Agfacolor process of colour cinematography. This system, unlike Technicolor, incorporated colour-sensitive dyes in the three emulsion layers of a single negative film, and it forms the basis of all present-day systems of colour motion-picture film. Agfacolor was produced as a 16-mm reversal film from 1936, and as a 35-mm negative material for professional production from 1939. A small number of features were produced in Agfacolor during the war, the most notable of which was Münchausen (1943).

During the war, film production dropped sharply, to about 70 feature films a year, but cinema-going increased, as in other countries. The vast bulk of films were escapist entertainment, but there were some big productions intended to remind the public of Germany’s past military glory under Frederick the Great—Der Grosse König (1942; The Great King), and Kolberg (1944), both made by Veit Harlan.

After the war, Germany was divided into separate zones under the occupation of the Allied armies, and so was the film industry, with a large number of small new companies formed in West Germany, and a single state company, DEFA, in East Germany under its Communist government. Although some of the older directors still permitted to work in films, such as Helmut Käutner, tried to produce interesting films—Film Ohne Titel (1947; A Film Without a Title), Der Apfel ist Ab! (1949; The Apple Has Fallen!)—the vast bulk of German production, both East and West, was of little value over the next decade. The most popular genre was “Heimatfilme”, dramas and comedies set mainly in the south German countryside, with heroines in regional costume, and German folk music on the soundtrack. In the late 1950s there was some sign of a new artistic ambition among younger directors, the most important example of which was Das Mädchen Rosemarie (1958; The Girl Rosemarie) by Rolf Thiele. This preceded the French nouvelle vague (New Wave) in its use of the zoom lens, Brechtian effects, and jump cuts, while exposing the connection of the German “economic miracle” with a recent major scandal in its story.

However, foreign films, particularly American examples, took over more and more of the market, and a group of young would-be film-makers who were eager to have their own version of the French New Wave were able to persuade the West German government to give state support for film-making of artistic intent. The “Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film” was set up in 1965, and it aided the production of films by Alexander Kluge—Abschied von Gestern (1966; Yesterday Girl), Lebenszeichen (1967; Signs of Life) by Werner Herzog, Liebe ist Kälter als der Tod (1969; Love is Colder than Death) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Der Junge Törless (1966; Young Törless) by Volker Schlöndorff, Jean-Marie Straub’s Nicht Versöhnt (1965; Not Reconciled) and others. The style of these films was also heavily influenced by the example of the French New Wave films, with jump cuts, dead time, sudden musical interruptions, and interviews with real people often included.

In the 1970s a few of these directors attained popularity on the international art film circuits, with films such as Herzog’s Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972; Aguirre, Wrath of God), Fassbinder’s Angst Isst die Seele Auf (1973; Fear Eats the Soul), and Im Lauf der Zeit (1976; Kings of the Road) by Wim Wenders, but the mass cinema audience in Germany lost interest in such work, and the market became completely dominated by imported films. The only real international successes of the German industry at that time were due to Wolfgang Petersen, with Das Boot (1981; The Boat) and Die Unendliche Geschichte (1983; The Neverending Story). Wenders and Herzog moved into production outside Germany with films such as Paris, Texas (1983) and Fitzcarraldo (1981) respectively.

After reunification the new artistic freedoms enjoyed by film-makers from the former GDR brought hopes of a renaissance in German domestic production, but this soon faltered due to rising production costs, an increased emphasis on commercialism in film policy, and the domination of the home market by Hollywood, leading Volker Schlöndorff in 2000 to criticize tax-breaks that encouraged German investors to back American films at the expense of home-grown productions.

What home-grown successes there have been since 1990, mainly comedies by Doris Dörrie, Sönke Wortman, and Helmut Dietl, have been limited in their international appeal, and German expatriates such as Roland Emmerich, director of the blockbusters Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000), continue to prefer working in the United States.