Weimar Cinema: From 1919 to 1933

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After the war, Germany was left with political and social instability, economic uncertainty and large cultural shifts. German cinema did not have the huge Hollywood budgets of American films and this led to film-makers taking new, groundbreaking approaches. By exploring darker plot themes and new methods of creating atmosphere and emotion, German expressionism was founded. This new, cultural phenomenon went on to give rise to both Gothic Horror and film-noir.

The exhibition is compiled from the Modern Record centre’s series of Illustrierter Film-Kurier (IFK) - illustrated programmes for films released in Germany between 1924-1944. This was acquired in 1997 from Henning Harmssen, retired film and radio journalist. It was his life’s work to collect material on pre-war German film; the Library collection also contains many of his books. Though incomplete (about 1600 programmes) our IFK holdings are very substantial from the later 30s and 40s. We also hold the published catalogue of IFK from 1924 to 1944. To discover more online, visit the collection here: https://archive.org/details/illustrierterfilmkurier Link opens in a new window