Cinema in village thanks to cinema lorries
The Gaufilmstelle Baden der NSDAP (the NSDAP’s Regional Film Office for Baden) placed particular emphasis on rural areas lacking cinemas, devising a specific program to ensure that all sections of the population could see German films and related programs, particularly newsreels intended to strengthen the bond between the front and the home front.
Just as in a typical cinema screening, the program consists of a feature film (Spielfilm), a documentary (Kulturfilm) and the week’s newsreel (Die Deutsche Wochenschau). These screenings usually take place in ‘village halls’, depending on the size of the village, or even in pubs, inns or restaurants. It is the famous ‘Tonfilmwagen’, or ‘cinema lorries’ – equipped with sound film projectors – that bring the films to the villages of Alsace.
To distribute films across the region, those in charge draw on the territorial grid – namely the Kreise (districts) and the Ortsgruppen (subdivisions of the Kreis) – to complement them with a network dedicated to cinema. Thus, the Kreisfilmstellen send documents to local representatives – the Ortsfilmstellenleiter, or heads of the cinema service responsible for organising screenings – so that they can schedule the screenings within the deadlines set by the ‘half-yearly’ program (Spielplan). They must then invoice the central office’s projectionists, who travel throughout the regions, for the admission fees and the cost of the screening.
Whilst it is difficult to gauge the reception of these screenings beyond what is reported by a press that is, to say the least, biased, it must be noted that the newspapers are reporting an enthusiastic reception! In the small town of Kintzheim, attendance was high, with 171 spectators for the film Die Große König, a film with a strong political message, screened on March 26, 1943. However, whilst it is impossible to quantify attendance figures for a travelling rural cinema given the current state of the sources, we can nevertheless say with certainty that the regime is doing everything in its power to ensure that attendance matches that in the cities. To date, no such travelling screenings have been identified in Moselle.
Photo 56 : Coll. part. William Gillespie – Photograph of the Gau Thüringen cinema lorries on the roads. In the photograph at the bottom, a record player can be seen. It was used to play music whilst waiting for the audience to gather.
Photo 57 : Coll. privée S. SOSTER – Document sent on 05/05/1944 by the Kreisfilmstellenleiter of the Sélestat district to the Ortsfilmstellenleiter of Kintzheim regarding the organisation of a film screening on 06/24/1944.
Photo 58 : Coll. privée S. SOSTER – Invoice for the screening of Die Große König in Kintzheim in March 1943.
Photo 59 : BNUS – Strassburger Neuestes Nachrichten, on July 31, 1941. An article entitled ‘Film im Dorf’ (Film in the Village) promoting the travelling screening in Achenheim of the film Feinde (1940, Viktor Tourjansky) and the newsreels to be shown at the same time.