How did the Nazi Regime affect the German Film Industry?
` In the year 1930’s Germany realized, that they were in deep crisis has highly affected the film industry, due to numerous aspects. There were various reliable writers, directors and actors left, and they immigrated to diverse nations when Hitler gained power in Germany, and were even alienated from their occupations. Less people were unable to utilize the rareness of the high payments for their work (Maier, Stanley, and Andrew 34). There production cost has appreciated in 95% from the year 1933 to 1936, and due to the reason when movies were harder to finance. It was usual that there was no profits made due to the costs of production were higher than the profit made from selling movie tickets (Gellately 32). There were German movies that tended to be avoided other countries, which made money through the exporting of various products. In the year 1993, the export of the movies was covered with 44% of the production costs of the production and the cost depreciated in 1937 by 7%. This has ultimate firms that lead to bankruptcy, as from the 114 German films production companies that produced movies in 1933, by 1938 only 79 left through the 1941. This was dropped to 16 until the single one was left in 1942. This was evident through the Nazi regime that had a major effect on the German film industries that were either positive or negative is debatable.
The national Socialists Film Policy developed when Hitler and the Nazi regime in 1993. The aspects of media , including the press, literature, art, film and the music was controlled by the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, led by Joseph Goebbels (Medawar and David 46). There was a principle that one of the most modern and scientific means of transferring the mass. Therefore, the government is supposed to consider them while making decision. He had a unique influence in the casting of movies, and censoring them if it was necessary. The film in Nazi government used as a form of propaganda, to spread information that was termed as biased and misguiding to advance the NSDAP’s political elaborate the points of the German nation. The Jews practiced bad traditions in the films due to the perception that the Nazis thought of themselves as the superior nations (Gellately 45). The propaganda films were viewed as news, and documentaries advertisements for the Hitler Youth, and other communities associated to Hitler and his reigning dictatorship.
The NSDAP is not a recent film business and are well known for their appealing and altering perceptions and emotions based on the mass. Their famous campaign videos aided Hitler to gain power in the first place, he raised the NSDAP to their goal of restructuring German film industry according to their basics, and this made their goal to restructure the whole film industry to their terms in which they succeeded. The main aim of controlling the film business that NSDAP had supported all the companies financially through supporting the production companies sharing their political viewpoints, making them powerful and they demolish the competition in form of the corporations though to disagree with their limitations (Maier, Stanley, and Andrew 47). Throughout the years, a production company vanished due to the belief of Hitler that it was easier to manage few big businesses than hundred of small, independent organizations. According to a research made, it was depicted that over a hundred active film production firms in Germany when it was still republic, but by 1942 under the Nazi regime only a single one was left: the governments-owned Ufi Concern, also known as the “Ufa-Film-GmbH”.
It did not affect the total number of the films produced due to the concern of expanding rapidly so that it would be so rapid that it produced so many films as hundreds of smaller corporation bind together (Gellately 54). Through the years of the Nazi regime, the German film industry developed instantly than it was able to produce many films as hundred of the smaller corporations would do together. In the years when the Nazi regime the German film industry actually grew stronger than before. The films during the periods of the war were very popular way as people viewed it as an alternative mode of getting rid of the saddening encounters they experienced in their daily lives. The NSDAP used the film to distract the Germans population from war and keep them in high spirits. The German film industry did to keep them in good spirits (Medawar and David 58). The German film organization improved when Hitler began dominating other countries in 1939, giving the NSDAP a chance to allocate their films in other countries under their management that made up for their lack of send abroad movies.
Directors who lived in the conquered countries influenced them to work under the control of the NSDAP and towards the implication of the propaganda films. During the Nazi regime, 5500 cinemas were developed around Germany; most of them belonging to the Ufa concern and the rest were left out for the private sectors of the businesspersons (Gellately 64). These closely observed the NSDAP and they had to follow the stern restrictions in pursuit of the allowance of the screen films, for example the prescription of the certain and very severe films on public holidays or at least 20% of the film should address and openly sustain Hitler’s politics. When Hitler abandoned films that came from countries that set up laws that alter the being shown in Germans movie theaters’ and after that commencement of the commencement of the World War II the import of foreign movies was altered completely (Maier, Stanley, and Andrew 57). Through showing the films favored and supported ideologies of Hitler’s politics, the NSDAP tried to appeal the emotions of the mass and made them stop the ideals of Hitler’s beliefs.
By showing films that favored and supported the ideals of Hitler’s politics the NSDAP tried to appeal to the emotions of the mass and make them believe what they wanted, without obviously imposing their ideas on people but rather appealing to their subconscious. Goebbels also imposed a law that prohibited film criticism; people were able to write what movies were about but no longer allowed to express their personal opinions on the films made in Germany during the Nazi regime.
By creating more workspaces and employing people the German economy was improved majorly by Adolf Hitler, the citizens could therefore now afford to go to the cinemas more often (Gellately 89). Year by year the cinema industry grew bigger in Germany; in 1939 during the crisis 624 Million movie tickets were sold and by 1944 this number increased to around 1,1 Billion. Besides the US, no other country in the world had more cinema sales than Germany. Even though schools, operas and theaters that practiced drama were shut down during times of war, cinemas were still screening movies although being under the tough conditions.
For the purpose of spreading their films and not only showing them in the main cities, special vans were constructed by the NSDAP that would contain and transport all the material needed to screen movies anywhere Hitler wanted. This method was called mobile cinema and it made it possible to reach audiences that had never seen moving pictures in their life before. Hitler thought of Germany’s youth as the main target audience, he therefore discarded all strategies that stated age ratings for movies (Medawar and David 67). For the Hitler Youth, whole movie theaters used to screen enlightening films; lecturing the young about the war and making them believe that they will fight for social darwinism, racial ideologies and anti-semitism.
The Features of the movies that were shown to adults and it was related to issues such as sacrifices, reliability towards your country, veneration of Hitler and his principles, announcement for war and the concept of enemies like the English, Jews and communists. None of the films was used to neither instruct and address people, nor participate in the movies showing substance about massive murders of Jews, as they were as if they actually occurred under the Nazi Regime in order to entertain the masses from the political reality (Maier, Stanley, and Andrew 69). The readers admired the films so much he NADAPS as they acquired power war shows that were popular among the individuals for example the WWI.
The audience comprised of the people who lived in the nice color film about the awful days they lived through. There was a propaganda film not common among the people; majority of the individuals saw it as a comedy (Gellately 86). The NSDAP promoted the hilarious movies due to their concept of escapism, meant to distract people from the cruel reality of bombings during the WWII and seeking a way to keep them comfortable. The NSDAP inculcated humorous movies that were based on escapism of the direction they were aimed at determining.
. The NSDAP promoted humorous movies because of their concept about escapism, which meant to distract the mass from the harsh reality of bombings during WWII and finding a way to keep them happy. However, even comedic films of that time represented the political ideals of the Nazis for example through showing blond and very family-committed women in the main roles, no characters from foreign countries or in fact any other languages besides German. Besides comedy, dramas and thrillers were also well-liked genres at that time. Before they were admitted to the chamber, they are expected to work on the working in the arts involving a Jewish background, through their families or marriages as they were banned immediately from the businesses. This meant that an estimate of 3,000 people lost their job due to these features (Medawar and David 71). The directors were not classified based on their political viewpoints but steady political viewpoints of Adolf Hitler in their works and in order to prove themselves they had to direct such a film, if they refused to do this they were recruited and sent to battlefronts immediately.
According to Friedrich Christian Anton Lang, the Austrian-German-American film director, he produced movies for example the “Die Spinnen” and “M” in Germany where he had been respected as a director. His second film included a sound called “Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse” that was however said to imply that Lang did not share the political views and ideals of the NSDAP. Joseph Goebbels himself banned this movie from being shown in public theaters. Although the Nazi Regime did not have a direct effect on Slang or his work because he was not of Jewish, he did not want to undermine his imaginative emancipation and support Nazism (Gellately 99). Joseph Goebbels tried to persuade Lang to use his ability to make misinformation movies and it is said that he obtained Lang a position as a leading part of the administration of the German film industry. The same night Lang rejected the offer and he took the train to Paris. the offer and took a night train to Paris. In France, he met a director named Erich Pommer, with whom he directed another feature movie in 1934 called Liliom. Later that year Lang decided to immigrate to the States.
Fritz Lang continued his career in the heart of the film industry; Hollywood. The movies that he produced in the U.S had common characteristics with the ones he made back in Germany, for example, his movie “Blinde Wut- Fury” was just like “M”, about a killer being chased by a mob. However, he did not manage to live up to his good reputation and never produced any film that was successful. He was especially engaged and played a major role in the formation of the “Anti-Nazi League” and started producing movies that fall under the genre of anti-Nazi films. In later interviews, he stated that he did regret going to the States even though his career might have benefited from a life as a major director in Germany (Medawar and David 86). Fritz however, did not believe in the ideals Hitler promoted and spent his later life in the states expressing his opinion.
Few directors were able to oppose and mock the Nazis ideologies. One of them was Helmut Käutner. In 1943 he directed a film called “Romanze in Moll” which has an ending that showed exactly what the NSDAP did not want the masses to see. Käutner tells the story of a woman who is married and eventually begins an affair with a composer; this already went against the standards of the Nazis as women were expected to be loyal and faithful to their men. A close associate of her husband finds out about the affair and threatens to tell the truth if she does not sleep with him. Frustrated and seeing no other way out the woman to kill herself. The love collapses between all the characters due to differences in social classes and everyone is left by themselves and there is no resolution that shows something positive or a successful conclusion. The last shot of the movie, a close up for the protagonist, is what made it so scandalous and revolutionary. It shows what the NSDAP wanted to avoid under all circumstances; the face of the hero becomes blurred and out of focus. The conclusion of the movie is not appealing to the viewer; it leaves him behind saddened and frustrated, which was exactly the opposite of the goal of the national socialist film politics.
Concluding it is evident that the Nazi Regime had a major effect on Germany’s film industry of that time due to the strict rules and regulations that filmmakers had to follow. Even though some chose not to comply with Hitler’s politics, the majority still did. Most films produced in Nazi Germany are minted with elements of propaganda, which made Hitler and the Nazis stronger during WW II (Medawar and David 101). Still the fact that Hitler completely reinvented and restructured the cinema industry from it being in a crisis to one of the most authoritative in the globe at that time cannot be hidden.
Work Cited
Maier, Charles S, Stanley Hoffmann, and Andrew Gould. The Rise of the Nazi Regime: Historical Reassessments. Boulder: Westview Press, 1986. Print.
Medawar, J S, and David Pyke. Hitler’s Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled by the Nazi Regime. New York: Arcade Pub, 2001. Print.
Gellately, Robert. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
