A brief history of German cinema
To trace the history of German cinema is to travel through more than a century of the seventh art. Indeed, it was in Germany that the first examples of cinematic projection were found. Contemporaries of the Lumière brothers, Max and Emil Skladanowsky organized the very first film show in Berlin on November1, 1895, using their own machine, the Bioscop. A decade later, there were already almost a thousand cinemas in Germany in the 1910s. Babelsberg, one of the first German film studios still in operation today, was founded in 1912 and saw the rise of the first German stars, which continued after the war via Universum Film AG (UFA), which accompanied the careers of the great filmmakers of the 1920s, as well as the birth of the German Expressionist movement. Characterized by an abandonment of realism and a penchant for tales of horror and crime in the difficult post-war context, this artistic movement produced such gripping films as Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Paul Wegener's The Golem (1920), Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse (1922) and Metropolis (1927), as well as Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu (1922). A contemporary of these figures, Ernst Lubitsch(Ninotchka, 1939, with Greta Garbo) moved to the United States in 1922 and became one of Hollywood's leading lights.
At the same time, Marlene Dietrich starred in more intimate but equally powerful works, such as Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930). Germany was also one of the cradles of animation, and Lotte Reininger, a leading figure in this movement in the 1920s, was one of the world's first female directors. Her feature film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is a marvel of animated shadow puppets, now available online in a restored version, as are many of her short films.
At the end of the Second World War, cinema, which had become a propaganda machine, was struggling to recover. From the rubble of the conflict (think Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, filmed in Berlin in 1948), a new German cinema emerged, divided by the East-West divide. While cinema in the East developed under the strict control of the GDR regime, in the West the New German Cinema gradually took hold, flourishing in the 1970s through directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, as well as Rosa von Praunheim and Margarethe von Trotta, who brought feminist and LGBT causes to the screen in films such as Ce n'est pas l'homosexuel qui est pervers mais la société dans lequel il vit (1971) and Les années de plomb (1981).
Pêle-mêle, let's mention Le Tambour (Schlöndorff, 1979), the first German film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Fitzcarraldo (Herzog, 1982, with Klaus Kinski), Le Mariage de Maria Braun (Fassbinder, 1978) and Paris, Texas (Wenders, 1984). Parallel to these critical successes, the 1980s saw an increasing number of mainstream successes. These included Wolfgang Petersen's cult hit Das Boot (1981) and L'Histoire sans fin (1984). Television, and co-productions with France, also saw the emergence of major series such as Edgar Reitz's Heimat (1984) or the well-known Inspector Derrick (1974-1998), marred in 2013 by the discovery of the Nazi past of its lead actor Horst Tappert.
Since reunification, German cinema has become plural, with a fine array of independent filmmakers. The Berlinale, one of the world's most popular film festivals, showcases this diversity every year. At the same time, the Babelsberg and Munich studios, which are almost a hundred years old, are welcoming more and more international productions, from V for Vendetta to the latest Wes Anderson films, and Hollywood still has its share of notable Germans, such as Hans Zimmer, an internationally renowned composer, or Roland Emmerich, a specialist in disaster films with big special effects.
On the series front, there's the sci-fi thriller Dark (2017-2020), the strange Unorthodox (2020) and Nos mères, nos pères (2013), a mini-series tracing the fate of five young Germans during the Second World War. All these productions can now be discovered on streaming platforms, to the delight of the most curious.
Iconic venues in the region
There are a plethora of cinemas to choose from, not only to enjoy these nuggets of German cinema, but also the latest international releases. In Cologne alone, you'll find over fifty cinema screens, some of which have been in operation since the 1950s. The Weisshaus Kino, opened in 1953, now offers a selection of arthouse films in two cosy cinemas, while the Cinedom - with its 14 screens and 3,500 seats - is one of the city's must-see multiplexes.
Even more vintage: the Neue Filmbühne, in Bonn, has been welcoming audiences since the 1930s, with its preserved style and friendly atmosphere, while the Cine Star, or Sternlichtspiele, has been in operation since... 1913! More atypical is the Bonner Kinemathek, also known as "the cinema in the bakery". Founded in 1986 in a converted former bakery factory, this cultural center has since won numerous awards for its finely-crafted programming.
Last but not least, Düsseldorf boasts ten cinemas and a Film Museum, taking the curious on an odyssey through the history of the seventh art. The institution also houses an extensive film collection for the curious, and regularly hosts iconic exhibitions on both renowned filmmakers and forgotten periods of cinema history. Your cinematic journey ends in the Black Box, a room attached to the museum, where pianists regularly perform live accompaniments to silent film classics. An unforgettable plunge into the past, for those who let themselves be tempted.
