152 | Mass Media and Historical Change
Heimatfilm – sentimental films usually set in idyllic rural surroundings –
accounted for about a quarter of the total West German productions before
1964 was interpreted as providing a means of escapism from the ruined
cities, forced displacement, and Nazi past (Wilharm 2006: 194). A great deal
of attention was paid to war films, which were successful in both Western
Europe and the United States. They frequently showed brave soldiers who
valiantly proved their mettle by asserting themselves against their cowardly
superiors. In this way these films helped to deal with both the individual and
collective past, and were thus part of a historical policy that rehabilitated
the Wehrmacht in the wake of German rearmament (Hugo, in Zuckermann
2003: 76; Paul 2004: 274).
Critical Turnabout: Media and Democratic Cultures past 1960
About 1960 the cinema experienced a crisis on an international scale. Genres
like westerns, Heimatfilm and war films became less important, and at the
end of the 1960s, cinemas were frequently closed down or used for showing
sex films. In West Germany, approximately 800 million viewers per year had
attended the cinema during the 1950s, but by the end of the 1960s there were
scarcely 180 million (Grob, in Jacobsen, Kaes and Prinzler 2004: 217). This
was not only the fault of television but rather of a new consumer culture, more
attractively furnished homes, and opportunities for free-time activities avail-
able in cities and suburban residences (Bakker 2008: 405f.; Williams 2010:
186).
After 1960 this development gave the cinema new scope to produce art
films and films with socially critical themes. In Western Europe there were
similar demands for programmatic and aesthetic reform. François Truffaut’s
Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) stood for the transition from a ‘cinéma de
papa’ towards ‘Nouvelle Vague’ in France. In Great Britain, Room at the Top
(1959) signalled a change in the direction of the British ‘New Wave’ cinema.
In West Germany films such as Kirmes (1959), that took a critical view of
society and the past, rang in the advent of the ‘New German Film’, the film
d’auteur and the short art film. Such reforms were formulated by the ‘DOC
59’ group (1959) and the ‘Oberhausener Manifesto’ (1962). Even the United
States joined this trend during the course of the 1960s, with ‘New Hollywood’
now producing films containing more social criticism. Films of this kind were
prestigious and thus fostered the growth of critical attitudes at an early stage
- especially among younger academics. However, these films influenced only
a small number of viewers.
After 1960 the field of journalism experienced a similar transformation.
Critical, social and political confidence of the press increased. In the United