Final Report on the Research Project "The Audience's Choice: The State Organization of Cinema and the Film Preferences of Cinemagoers in the GDR, 1949-1990"

Abstract

Although the SED elite wanted to establish cinema in the GDR as a political cultural institution, it ultimately functioned much like the cinema in the Federal Republic of Germany. The research project is based on a broad empirical foundation: Extensive archives on cinema in the GDR were evaluated and annual ticket sales charts were compiled for the first time. The SED elite in the Politburo and the Ministry of Culture deliberately used film in the GDR as an instrument for the political education of East Germans. To this end, film production, distribution, and cinemas were nationalized, and a complex, centralized, hierarchical system of control was established. All important functions in film policy and the film industry were filled with personnel loyal to the SED and controlled by the Stasi. Films had to conform to the overarching goal of political education, so Western entertainment films were allowed only in exceptional cases. In order to achieve preferential programming of politically desirable films, distribution and admission prices for films were differentiated. The attempt to establish cinema as a political cultural institution ultimately failed because of East German audiences. The majority ignored politically desirable films, including those pro- duced by DEFA, and opted for the few entertainment films from the West that appealed to West German audiences. Employees of film companies such as distributors, district film of- fices, and cinemas based the number of prints per film on expected audience demand and showed films in cinemas as often as paying audiences showed up. To avoid political pres- sure, they selectively reported attendance figures to the Ministry of Culture by withholding or manipulating information. The research project expands the possibilities of film and cinema history research by analys- ing the lasting impact of cinema in the context of film policy, the film industry, and cinema au- diences. It offers innovative tools, such as the GDR's annual ticket sales charts from 1952 to 1989, and methodological knowledge on how to measure and compare the success of films across countries. Finally, the book resulting from the research project (Garncarz 2026) en- courages reflection on autocratic states, which often function far less efficiently than they ap- pear.