Previously unseen control and censor in the cinema’s history
As soon as the Nazis coming to power in 1933, they quickly took the control of the cinema. Joseph Goebbels, who was – like Hitler – a lover of cinema, was named Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in March 1933. He took under his power all the organism who controlled the production and the diffusion of films in Germany.
He headed the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture), a new institution comprising seven “chambers”, each dedicated to a particular art form or a media. The film chamber, called Reichsfilmkammer, was responsible for overseeing film production and its artistic direction.
On February 16, 1934, a great law about cinema (Lichtspieltgesetzt) was enacted. It created a previously unseen system of control on cinematographic production in the cinema’s history. Rather than censoring a film once it has been completed, the regime imposed “pre-censorship”. No film may be made without obtaining authorization from the Reichsfilmdramaturg. His role was to examine the scripts submitted by the studios and to decide whether they may be produced, based on both artistic and political criteria. Five men, all close associates of Joseph Goebbels, held this post in succession until 1945.
Photo 7 : Bundesarchiv (Bild 183-C05765) – Ewald von Demandowsky held the post of Reichsfilmdramaturg between 1937 and 1939. Prior to that, he was an actor and journalist in charge of the ‘Kultur’ section of the famous Nazi daily newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. Deeply involved in film-related matters, he took a particular interest in issues relating to screenwriting. In 1939, he was appointed production manager at Tobis. It was he who oversaw the production of Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941) and Ich klage an (1941, Wolfgang Liebeneiner). Joseph Goebbels regarded him as his most reliable production manager. Arrested in 1946
Photo 8 : All rights reserved – Joseph Goebbels (seated on the right) at the Austrian Styria studios in Vienna, during the filming of the anti-Semitic and anti-British film Leinen aus Irland (1939, Heinz Helbig). With this film, the Austrian film industry demonstrated that it was ideologically aligned with Nazi Germany in 1939.