According to the research “Window on the Cold War. New research into the history of the Berlinale in the time of Alfred Bauer (1951-1976)”, Bauer was not the only one who should be considered as close to the Nazis.
The influence of other factors Berlinale close to the Nazis except its first director (1951-1976) Alfred Bauer finds new, expanded, research by Institute of Modern History of Munich (IfZ).
When, two years ago, it was revealed that Bauer had played a more important role in the National Socialist regime than previously known, the Berlinale administration immediately revoked the Silver Bear award- Alfred Bauer and commissioned the independent Munich Institute of Modern History (IfZ) to re-examine in more detail his position in the Nazi film bureaucracy, the possible existence of other Nazis at the post-war Berlinale, and to answer the question of whether Bauer’s Nazi involvement had an impact on the organization of the festival.
Rumors about Bauer were already circulating in the 1950s, claims he dismissed as “slander”, and in 1960, the Berlin Senate administration looked into the allegations against him, but the information gathered was not enough to have any concequenses. On the contrary, the IfZ investigation proved that during the de-Nazification processes, from 1945 to 1947, Alfred Bauer had deliberately concealed the importance of his role during the Nazi period with false statements, half-truths and various claims.
The new investigation concluded that Bauer was not an opponent of the Nazi regime, as he claimed, but that he contributed to the stabilization and legitimization of the Nazi regime, since as an adviser to the Reichsfilmintendanz of the Third Reich, he had a central role in planning of the producers and direct contact with the regime’s Minister of Propaganda, the infamous Joseph Goebbels. Even before the opening of the first Berlinale, Bauer was in favor of showing a film by Carl Ritter, one of the most prominent Nazi propaganda directors, withholding his name, but this was ultimately prevented by the Berlin Senate administration. Beyond that, however, there is no other indication that Bauer’s selection of films for the Berlinale was ideologically laden, or that Nazi directors were deliberately included in the program. At the same time, Bauer emphasized his apolitical attitude towards films, however, as festival director, he joined the new system of East-West conflict: According to it, the Berlinale had to demonstrate the superiority of the Western system as a “showcase of the free world » with the help of cinema.
According to the IfZ investigation, in the early years of the Berlinale, Bauer was not the only one who should be considered close to the Nazis. Specifically, in the conclusions of the research entitled “Window on the Cold War. New research into the history of the Berlinale in the time of Alfred Bauer (1951-1976)” states: “The biographies of Oswald Kaman, Hans Chirlis and Guder Schwarz as well as the activity of Alfred Bauer before 1945 prove that the International Film Festival of Berlin, especially in the early years, was shaped by people who can certainly be considered to have had a heavy Nazi past.” At the same time, however, in the conclusions it is pointed out that “in no case were other persons, agents of the Berlinale, Nazi officials”.
The research also does not establish an “unbroken continuity of persons associated with the Nazis”, given that “until the start of the Berlinale, the period of de-Nazification intervened”.
People who had criticized the Nazi regime and had been partly politically persecuted also played an important role in the founding committee of the Berlinale. Former supporters and opponents of the Nazi regime met in the founding committee of the Berlinale, which, however, worked under the constant surveillance of the British and American occupation forces, each of which had sent a representative, in order to establish the Berlin film festival as ” showcase for the free world’ on the front lines of the Cold War.
In the conclusions of the IfZ it is also pointed out that “in the administration of the Berlin Senate there were by no means convinced National Socialists responsible for the film festival. Joachim Tibertius was a member of the (anti-Nazi, Protestant) Confessing Church and Tedor Bendt was a victim of the Nazi regime. The founding committee member of the first Berlinale, Max Buettner, representative of the Berlin Film Distributors Association, had even spent several years in a concentration camp because of his activities in the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Alfred Bauer’s own relationship with the Berlin Senate administration was, however, repeatedly conflicted, while his arbitrary actions, especially as head of the selection committee and the films he selected for the Berlinale in that capacity, were repeatedly criticized.
The Berlinale’s current director duo, Mariete Riesenbeek and Carlo Hatrian, said of the findings of the new expanded investigation: “As of 2020, it was certain that Bauer held an important position in Nazi film production and that he was able to continue his career in the cultural scene of the young Federal Republic through skillful concealment of facts. The new IfZ study identifies this, but also concludes that it did not lead to a Nazi ideological orientation of the festival program. The consideration of the history of the festival has been strengthened and this once again confirms how important it is to continue to critically examine one’s own history.”
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