Ufa, the state-run film studio, oversaw nearly all of the films during this period, with producer Erich Pommer shepherding such important films as The Cabinet of Dr. Theater, music, art and architecture all flourished, with film uniquely positioned to reap the benefits of simultaneous technical achievement and artistic innovation.Ī remarkable confluence of talent and opportunity characterizes Weimar cinema. A period of great political and economic instability – of rampant inflation and unemployment – the Weimar Era was nonetheless also a time of important and all-encompassing cultural revival. Certain distinct characteristics of German society at the time – a pronounced sexual, artistic and social freedom coupled with the tortured aftermath of WWI, which left the German people physically and psychologically wounded and the country in economic straits – combined to produce a unique and specific cinema that straddled the silent and early sound eras. By 1941, the Nazi Party’s Eher publishing house had become the largest ever in German history, and its main daily newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter (The National Observer) had reached a circulation of over 1,000,000.The Weimar Era, the brief interwar period in Germany that extends from roughly 1919 to 1933 and that marks the lifespan of the fledging Weimar Republic, resulted in an extraordinary and prolific flowering of German cinema. Within months, for example, the Nazi regime destroyed Germany’s previously vigorous free press. Although the Communists had not, in fact, developed any plans for an uprising, the impact of propaganda and terror on existing fears of a Communist takeover convinced many Germans that Hitler’s decisive action had saved the nation from “Bolshevism.” Even the US independent Fox Movie Tones newsreel reflected the German government version. The Nazi press described the Reichstag fire as the work of the Communists and a signal for their planned uprising. It also gave the central government the authority to overrule state and local laws and overthrow state and local governments. Justified on the false premise that the Communists were planning an uprising to overthrow the state, the Reichstag Fire Decree permitted the regime to arrest and incarcerate political opponents without specific charge, dissolve political organizations, and to suppress publications. Popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the regulations suspended the right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other constitutional protections, including all restraints on police investigations. They exploited the Reichstag fire to secure President von Hindenburg’s approval for an emergency decree, the decree "For the Protection of the People and State" of February 28, one day after the burning of the Reichstag. Though the origins of the fire are still unclear, in a propaganda maneuver, the coalition government (Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party) blamed the Communists. A temporary measure, it was followed by a more dramatic and permanent suspension of civil rights following the February 27 burning of the parliament building. This decree placed constraints on the press and authorized the police to ban political meetings and marches, effectively hindering electoral campaigning. Using emergency constitutional powers, Adolf Hitler’s cabinet had issued a Decree for the Protection of the German People on February 4, 1933. Commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the resulting act “For the Protection of the People and State” abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship. The Nazi leadership and its German Nationalist coalition partners exploited the fire to persuade President Paul von Hindenburg that Communists were planning a violent uprising to derail Germany’s "national renewal." They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. On February 27, 1933, the German parliament ( Reichstag) building burned down due to arson.
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