German National Cinema

German National Cinema is the first comprehensive history of German film from its origins to the present. In this new edition, Sabine Hake discusses film-making in economic, political, social, and cultural terms, and considers the contribution of Germany's most popular films to changing definitions of genre, authorship, and film form.

The book traces the central role of cinema in the nation’s turbulent history from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Berlin Republic, with special attention paid to the competing demands of film as art, entertainment, and propaganda. Hake also explores the centrality of genre films and the star system to the development of a filmic imaginary.

This fully revised and updated new edition will be required reading for everyone interested in German film and the history of modern Germany.

Sabine Hake is the Texas Chair of German Literature and Culture in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of several books on German cinema and Weimar culture, including The Cinema's Third Machine: German Writings on Film 1907-1933 (1993) and Popular Cinema of the Third Reich (2001).