European Film Fund
Language aside, getting by in America depended on contacts and most of all money for many people in the film industry. Only a small portion of German emigrants managed to make it onto the studios’ payrolls.
Exile as a topic in the arts
From 1933 on, exile from the regions controlled by the Nazis put artists from all disciplines in the situation of a forced new beginning, and their creative responses to this new beginning varied widely. Those who were able to confront their exile as an object for artistic reflection perhaps took up the struggle to also penetrate the trials of flight, internment and exile intellectually, and perhaps also comment on them politically.
Exile Cinema
From 1933 onwards, the Nazis forced thousands of filmmakers to flee their own countries for reasons of racial discrimination or political persecution. Only a few of those who fled were able to continue with their work.
Exile press
German-speaking émigrés published some 400 newspapers and magazines in their countries of refuge during the Nazi era. Some of these publications had already been in existence before 1933, e.
Exile studies in Germany
What is it that exile studies deal with? The question about what subject matter exile research should deal with is one that has to be asked again and again. Today, in an era of migration, in which almost 3 percent of the world population is made up of international migrants according to the German UNESCO Commission, issues such as the impact of exile on the countries of origin and the receiving countries, and the transfer of knowledge and culture are matters of interest for the world of research.
Film
The “Golden Twenties” in Berlin coincided with a film boom: the young medium fascinated artists and writers, technicians and scientists from all over Europe, who cooperated to build the most creative, technically outstanding film production business of the age in Germany. Many of the films made there are regarded as milestones in cinematic history, even today.
First International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture, Paris 1935
In face of the threat posed by the Nazis, the Congress of Writers “for the defence of culture” took place in Paris in 1935 for the first time. Artists from all over the world responded to the appeal issued by a number of French authors and more than 250 participants from 38 countries attended the discussions that took place between 21 and 25 June every afternoon and evening.
Formalism debate
State control of the arts
Forms of anti-Semitism
From elements of anti-Judaism, the religiously-grounded antipathy towards Jews which accompanied Christianity from its inception, the 19th century saw the development of anti-Semitism, which also encompassed social and racist motives.
France
Many of the artists who stayed in Europe during the Hitler regime initially resided in France. On account of its liberal asylum policy, France had been seen as a traditional destination country since the 19th century and over 20,000 emigrants fled to France in 1933.
