The purpose of this guide is to assist in the exploration of the world of German film, as it was during the Nazi era (1933-1945).
The research of this guide is aimed at exploring and discovering the types of films that where popular in Germany during the Third Reich (1933-1945), as well as their reception, production and dissemination in order to better understand how the medium of film relates to political ideology and public consciousness.
The research questions addressed in this guide are:
It has been previously demonstrated that modern mediums of information, such as film, have had a profound impact on the way society collectively understands the world. Now, when the world is facing the rise of authoritarianism in various forms, through the emergence of new mediums of information and methods of mass communication, many are attempting to grapple with the anti-democratic messaging that emerges through these new technologies. While these attempts are well meaning, most of them are held back by the baseless assumption that authoritarian ideology attempts, and even finds success in, convincing people of ideas that they would not otherwise believe to be true. This is rooted in a misunderstanding of how authoritarianism takes root. Historically, authoritarianism was the result of mass ignorance, not mass enlightenment, as in the above assumption. Therefore, to dispel this assumption, work needs to be done in research over the manner in which modern mediums of information have affected the social consciousness of previous authoritarian societies. The research presented in this guide is coming from the conviction that the best place to look for these answers is Nazi Germany. And the best medium to investigate there is film, due it its unparalleled importance as a popular medium. The research question guiding this survey is: “What was the popular reception and effect of film in Nazi Germany?” The methodology is to search for what experts have written about film and Germany history, at the crossroads of social science and the humanities. This was accomplished through a thorough combing of academic databases, such as JSTOR and ProQuest for relevant research from scholars in film studies, history, and Germanic studies. The biggest trend found across all the research was the subtlety of the propaganda found in most German films of this era. While there were some overtly propagandistic films in the Third Reich, most of those that were overtly propagandistic did not sell very well at their box office. The kind of movies that were most prominent in Nazi Germany were very lighthearted films, such as musicals and comedies. Another important trend in the research findings is the timing of the research. The initial wave of research on the topic of Nazi film was conducted mostly in the 1960s. And then there was another wave of research that took place over the course of the 1990s and early 2000’s. The crickets chirp in the interval between those two periods. German audiences were not too different from American audiences at the time, in that, they seemed to get escapism and idealism out of the movies. Likewise, German filmmakers, at the time, seemed most interested in making fantastical films that emphasized the technique behind music, sets, and costume design, rather than emphasizing character depth or realism in storytelling. Thus, the best answer found for the question “What was the popular reception and effect of film in Nazi Germany?” is that film played the role of projecting the dreams and aspirations of an optimistic people, preparing for a war of conquest and expansion of what they thought of themselves to be: A noble race, a mighty nation. Nazi propaganda, at least in film, was therefore less about convincing people of a political doctrine, and more about reconfirming and reenforcing a preexistent sense of greatness already held by the hearts of the public. Understanding this is necessary for current research on contemporary authoritarian movements of today. If researchers continue to assume that ideological persuasion is somehow the end goal of authoritarian messaging, then researchers will lose their ability to accurately assess and predict societal impulses towards authoritarianism. The information presented in this guide will be of use to those who seek to understand the real means by which authoritarianism takes root in the popular imagination: Celebration and re-enforcement of what people already believe. This is not the same as what they can be convinced of or persuaded to believe. Information is however lacking in primary source justification for these claims. This study only evaluated secondary source material. Thus, more thorough research is needed on Nazi films, research that takes great care to analyze the primary source information on things like audience reactions and public perception.
Important background information on this topic:
In the 1930's, film was coming into its own, as a medium. This was the decade in which sound film had fully replaced silent film. Over the course of the decade, cinema attendance in Germany increased by an order of over 70% (Hull, 17). German cinema thus, was part of the zeitgeist of this time. And the Nazi Party took great lengths to leverage their influence in this most critical medium of information. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote: “The picture in all its forms up to the film has greater possibilities. Here a man needs to use his brains even less; it suffices to look, or at most to read extremely brief texts, and thus many will more readily accept a pictorial presentation than read an article of any length. The picture brings them in a much briefer time. I might almost say at one stroke. the enlightenment which they obtain from written matter only after arduous reading.” Here, Hitler recognizes the power of film, its ability to truly influence people. What he speaks of is film's ability to convey messages, despite not requiring much comprehension skills or efforts on the part of the viewer. The Nazi Party was interested in film very early on, having made films that document Nazi Party rallies, even before the party's seizure of power in 1933 (Rethmeier 25). As far back as 1927, there was a film produced by the party titled Eine Symphonie des Kampfwillens or "A Symphony of the Will to Fight" which is a documentary produced by the party. This film documents the 1927 Reichsparteitag or "national party day" a demonstration of the Nazi Party's vision for German leadership.
After their seizure of power, the Nazi Party went to great lengths in reigning in and regulating the German film industry toward their ideological ends. Nazi ideologue Joseph Goebbels was appointed head of a new government organization known as the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (RMVP) or the "Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda", in 1933, just after Hitler's rise to power as chancellor. The task of this organization was to regulate and censor all mediums of information, including film, as well as the press in Germany (Welch 9). The majority of the films produced in Germany during this period were done so in the private sector. Only one-sixth of the films were produced by the state (Welch 266). A great majority of those in the private sphere were produced by a production company known as Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), or “Universal Film Corporation” a company which had a great monopoly over the film industry at the time (Welch 24). The UFA collaborated very closely with the Nazi Party.
One of the ways in which the party was able to control the content of films, was through controlling the artists who created them. In the Third Reich, there was one labor union that oversaw all labor across all industries in Germany known as the “German Labor Front” (DAF). In September of 1933, leader of state propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, established the Reich Chamber of Culture (Reichskulturkammer) (RKK) as a new arm of the RMVP, in order to regulate artists directly. This was done as a means of circumventing the Labor Front’s (DAF) authority over artists in Germany, as members of the union (Steinweis 32). The state thus had control over the artists’ professional lives, including their paychecks, and even who they can associate with professionally. The most important of the artists were those who worked on film, especially writers.
Most of the films in Nazi Germany were not outright propaganda, however. Many of the films were purely entertainment focused. Of the 1,094 feature films that were released in Nazi Germany, 523 of them were comedies and musicals, the least political of genres (Albrecht, 96). Finding fascism in German films, thus, is not that different from the task of finding democracy in American films that were produced in this same period (1933-1945). It is exceedingly difficult to do so because many of these films have seemingly nothing to do with politics or society.
Works Cited:
Albrecht, , Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik, Gerd. F. Enke, 1969.
Rethmeier , Michaela. Die Funktion Und Bedeutung Fritz Hipplers Für Das Filmschaffen Im „Dritten Reich. 2006. (Link not available, unfortunately.)
Steinweis, Alan E. Art, Ideology, and Economics in Nazi Germany. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Welch, David. Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. I.B. Tauris, 2011.
PS: This CREDO database entry is a REALLY good source for background info on this topic!
UFA Palast am Zoo in Berlin
Pictured: Berlin theatre "Palast am Zoo" viewed from across the street, with U-ban entrance and parked vehicles in the foreground
Credit: Willem van de Poll - 1935
Creative Commons License: cc0 1.0
The above is a picture of "Palast am Zoo", the biggest and most important movie theatre in Berlin during the 1930s. This building housed all of the major premiers of German films that were released in the Nazi era. The premiers were often attended by Goebbels and Hitler.
Source: “Berlijn. Nachtopname van de Hardenbergstrasse Met Een Toegang Tot de U-Bahnhalte Zoologische Garten En Het Feestelijk Verlichte Cafe-Restaurant Wilhelmshallen Met de Ufa-Bioscoop Palast Am Zoo | Nationaal Archief.” Nationaalarchief.nl, Nationaal Archief, 2025, www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/fotocollectie/aea29f34-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84. Accessed 12 June 2025.
Leni Riefenstahl documentary from Duetsche Welle:
The video below is a documentary that presents the story of the most well-known Nazi filmmaker of all time. It recognizes the talent behind her unique technique and approach to filmmaking. And it also probes into the questions surrounding her dark past, and whether or not her defenses of herself were accurate or not. This documentary is an interesting and important jumping off point for understanding the world of Nazi films. This is because it is important to understand that many Nazi films were very well made and well received films, going into this topic.
Source: DW History and Culture. “Leni Riefenstahl: The Horrible Power of Images.” YouTube, 19 Jan. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgUCdzc3Qe8.
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