Educational Cinema in the Weimar Republic

Abstract

The Weimar Republic is not only seen as a historical period in its own right in terms of its difficult social parameters and political circumstances which led to its failure in 1933 but also as a breakthrough concerning the rapid expansion of mass communication. Especially film was regarded as the most important and influential media resource in modernizing Germany after the First World War. Accordingly, progressive educationalists believed that the employment of educational films could alter thoroughly the prevailing conventional teaching methods. At the same time a new curriculum was designed which implemented civic education as a novel subject. This article examines how, as well as why educational films were introduced as a new medium in schools. It explores also the debates among educationalists, teachers and film producers, and discusses in what way these films were utilized to communicate new teaching contents in the field of civic education.

Key words: Educational Film, Weimar Republic, Reform Pedagogy, Film Didactic, Early Civic Education