Luxembourg: watching German films – between rejection and appeal
TEXT PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF PAUL LESCH
Even before the war, German films were already very popular in Luxembourg. Audiences found them easy to follow, and comedies, musicals and adventure films from Germany filled the movie theaters across the Grand Duchy. This popularity had its limits, however, as films with more overt political themes were far less well received. Following the invasion in May 1940 and the subsequent annexation of Luxembourg by the Nazis, the cinema industry was placed under German control.
French, British and American films disappeared from the screens, whilst the Deutsche Wochenschau and Kulturfilm programs framed the screenings. As in Alsace-Moselle, audiences mainly watched German productions, and the same genres proved popular: comedies, musicals, melodramas and star-studded films. After the outbreak of the war, the people of Luxembourg returned to the movie theater in search of a moment of escape, despite a brief period of boycotting the movie theaters.
The audience’s reactions were closely monitored by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the SS intelligence service. The reports highlighted that the Nazis viewed the cinema as a political tool and that the impact of the films was constantly assessed by the SD. However, this policy met with resistance from the local population. The Deutsche Wochenschau sometimes provoked hostility from the audience:
- in Esch-sur-Alzette, some members of the audience left the cinema before the screening began,
- in Luxembourg City, footage of German and Italian aeroplanes bombing their targets provoked laughter.
Even some major propaganda films didn’t work as intended. In the case of Ohm Krüger (1941, Hans Steinhoff), the authorities noted that many Luxembourgers refused to go and see the film despite a major advertising campaign. The film was a diatribe against the British, and the people of Luxembourg felt a close affinity with the British, if only because the Grand Duke and his family had taken refuge there at the time.
Local programming continues to be shaped by local history, language, audiences and contexts. While the annexations in the west enabled the Nazis to control movie theaters from Eupen in Belgium as far as Mulhouse in Alsace – a stretch of around three hundred and seventy-five kilometres – the history of cinema in these territories wasn’t quite the same, nor was its reception by the public.
Photo 94 : Coll. part. Paul Lesch – Photograph of the movie theater Corso in Luxembourg during Christmas 1942. The film Wiener Geschichten (1940, Géza von Bolváry) was screening.