Are the people of Alsace and Moselle just like any other spectators?
The freedom to love German films
During the annexation, going to the cinema remained an everyday activity: people went to a movie theater, watched the stars, laughed, cried and hummed along to the songs. It was, above all, the context in which this pastime took place that changed. The films shown in Alsace and Moselle were not just those the public chose to see: they were also those that the Nazi regime authorised, imposed or promoted.
A list published in 1944 by the Ministry of Propaganda sets out the films that were most successful in the Reich: Die goldene Stadt tops the list, followed notably by Der weiße Traum, Immensee, Die Große Liebe, Wiener Blut, Wunschkonzert, Münchhausen, Annelie, Hab mich lieb!, Fronttheater, Die Große Nummer and Sophienlund. Comparing this list with the box-office charts compiled in towns in Alsace and Moselle reveals a clear similarity with the major hits identified in Germany. Die goldene Stadt, Wiener Blut, Die Große Liebe, Annelie and Der weiße Traum were also among the most frequently screened films in the annexed territories. The tastes of audiences in Alsace and Moselle partly corresponded to the films favoured by German audiences, just as they often appreciated the same stars.
This reflects the Nazis’ desire to unify the mental world of the annexed populations through a shared culture. However, cinema adapted to suit the different territories. The experience of watching films differed depending on whether one was an annexed Alsatian, a German sympathetic to the Nazi regime, a soldier, or a woman. One might even say that it is possible to enjoy the same films as one’s enemies, but not necessarily for the same reasons. This is what Anne Frank’s diary reveals, in a way. In ‘the Secret Annex’, where she lived in hiding with her family in Amsterdam, she continued to dream of the cinema thanks to the magazines her friend Victor Kugler brought her. In them, she discovered summaries of new films showing in cinemas, mainly German productions.
This encapsulates the ambiguity of cinema as a pastime during the annexation. German cinema was controlled, monitored and integrated into the project of Germanisation. Yet, in the shadow of the cinemas, audiences didn’t necessarily receive the films in the way the authorities intended. They might enjoy a comedy without supporting the regime, remember a song without accepting the ideology, or seek in the film a breathing space amidst the constraints of daily life.
Photo 98 : Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum – Photograph from Fronttheater (1942, Arthur Maria Rabenalt).
Photo 99 : DR – Cover of the magazine Illustrierter Film-Kurier dedicated to the film Der weiße Traum (1943, Géza von Cziffra).
Photo 100 : Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum – Photograph from Wiener Blut (1942, Willi Forst).