From the Author
from the first public showing of short, poor quality films in Berlin
by the brothers Max and Emil Skladanowsky in 1895 through the golden
age of silent films, the early years of sound films and finally to
Nazi Propaganda films from 1933 to 1935.
During the early years of silent films, the German motion picture
industry went through turbulent growing pains as part of the cinema
evolution which was taking place in the rest of Europe and America.
The first silent films were produced by entrepreneurs who possessed a
motion picture camera, an idea for a short story and a few actors who
usually had little or no professional training. These films were
shown in kintopp or storefront type theaters which were often a mom
and pop type operation.
Between 1906 and 1910, motion picture production became more
professional, the films were longer in length and covered more
artistic and cultural subjects. By 1911, almost all feature films had
producers, directors and professional actors. During this period, a
clash between the expanding motion picture industry and the stage
theaters reached a climax. The stage theater owners saw the cinemas
as a threat to their existence but ultimately rational thinking led to
a peaceful coexistence between the two.
Prior to and during World War I, German film producers were so eager
to draw larger audiences to the cinema, the films they produced
covered stories and subjects as diverse as possible. Then, as the
popularity of motion pictures grew, the producers found it difficult
to keep up with the demand. As a result, film quantity far exceeded
film quality bringing about the production of hundreds of films which
ranked well below mediocrity. Only detective films, comedies and a
few quality films based on dramas, folk stories and fairy tales gave
the industry a measure of esteem.
The last ten years of silent film production in Germany (1920 - 1929)
was deemed the Golden Age of Silent Films. It was during this period
that silent films reached their pinnacle of excellence through the
production of artistically designed historical, adventure, modern
drama, utopian, novelistic, musical and nature films.
The demise of silent films in the late 1920s by the introduction of
sound was a major transformation for film studios, directors, actors
and theaters. The studios and theaters had to learn the technology of
sound recording and reproduction and actors had to integrate the art
of acting with speaking. Just when the production of quality sound
films in Germany was declared a success, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi
regime came into power and subjected the film industry to rigorous
controls which had profound effects on the people in the industry and
on many of the films they produced. Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of
Propaganda not only censored all German films beginning in 1933 but
the Ministry instigated the production of a number of Nazi propaganda
films which were designed to indoctrinate the German people in the
Nazi philosophy. The book includes 240 photographs of scenes from
early films.
