Nazism and Cinema - Film Production

Film Production

In the mid-1930s, the German film industry suffered the most severe crisis it had ever faced. There were multiple reasons for this crisis. Firstly, many of the most capable actors and film-makers had left the country after the rise to power of the Nazi government; others had been banned by the new Reichsfilmkammer. These people left a gap that the film industry could not easily fill. Secondly, the remaining actors and film-makers seized the opportunity to demand higher salaries, which considerably increased production budgets. Consequently, it became more and more difficult to recover production costs. Thirdly, the export of German films dramatically dropped due to international boycotts. In 1933, exports had covered 44% of film production costs; by 1937, this figure had dropped to a mere 7%.

More and more production companies went bankrupt. The number of companies dropped from 114 (1933–35) to 79 (1936–38) to 38 (1939–41). This did not necessarily lead to a decrease in the number of new films, as surviving production companies became more prolific, producing many more films.

The consolidation of the film industry was undoubtedly beneficial for the Nazi government. On the one hand, an ailing and unprofitable film industry would not have been of much use for the propaganda requirements. And on the other hand, a small number of big film production companies were easier to control than a multitude of small ones. Goebbels went even further and directed a holding company – Cautio Treuhand GmbH – to buy up the stock majorities of the remaining film production companies. In 1937, the Cautio acquired the largest German production company, Ufa, and in 1942 merged this company with the remaining companies – Terra Film, Tobis, Bavaria Film, Wien-Film and Berlin-Film – into the so-called “Ufi-Group”. With one stroke, the entire German film industry had been practically nationalized, but unlike the situation in the USSR, German film-making preserved its character as a private industry. Although Goebbels founded the Filmkreditbank GmbH in order to fund the industry, the funds came from private investors. Thus, there were no government subsidies to the film industry in Nazi Germany. Because of this, the industry was forced to remain profitable – and to produce films that met the expectations of the audience.