German “Grenzkinos”

Panel 7-3: Film Reception

German film history and its hidden treasures: A paper about German “Grenzkinos” (“border cinemas”) in Berlin between 1945 and 1961

by Lea Wohl

The lecture of Elizabeth Prommer of the University of Vienna at the ECREA conference in Hamburg was a good example for the hidden treasures of German film history. She presented the result of a study she conducted with master students at the Potsdam Film and Television University. They did research on the phenomenon of the “Grenzkino” (border cinema): In parted Berlin after 1945 and before the wall was built in 1961 there was a type of cinema which was called “Grenzkino”. These cinemas were located in western Berlin, but right at the border to the eastern part of the city. In this period it was still possible to move unrestricted between the parts of the city and to cross the border between West and East Germany without any problems.

picture by Mascha Brichta

The “Grenzkinos” offered mainly American entertainment movies to an audience from eastern Berlin. They were installed to offer them the opportunity to see films differing from the usual German Democratic Republic (GDR) productions and to have a short way home afterwards. To make the cinema visit more convenient for this audience, the “Grenzkinos” were much cheaper than other cinemas in western Berlin. The price for a regular cinema-ticket amounts to between 1 DM and 2,50 DM while a “Grenzkino” ticket cost only 0,25 DM. Furthermore, the tickets could be paid in GDR money, so it was not necessary to change money which was always connected with financial losses.

This form of crossing borders by going to cinemas in the other part of Berlin was a very unique form of crossing borders. 10% of the cinemas in western Berlin were “Grenzkinos”. People attending these “Grenzkinos” were called “Kinogrenzgänger” (“Cinema-Crossers”), and the phenomenon was so well known that even popular phrases were invented: It was very popular to say “Voll wie ein Grenzkino” (“Full like a border cinema”) about someone who was very drunk. Interestingly, on the one hand, these “Grenzkinos” were installed with special prices and programs to suit the eastern German or eastern Berlin taste and, on the other hand, the Eastern German politicians reacted to this phenomenon by developing an eastern German film production and more entertaining movies without “heavy issues”.

The main research question of Prommer’s paper was: Why did people living in eastern Berlin cross the border to go to the cinema? Was it because of the films shown in the “Grenzkinos” or was crossing the border itself the more important part? In order to find out, the researchers conducted biographical interviews with “Kinogrenzgängern” who were born between 1930 and 1945. Some of the individual memories and narratives of these “Kinogrenzgänger” told by Elizabeth Prommer were quite impressive, like that of a woman who was at a “Grenzkino” the night the wall was built. If she had gone for a drink afterwards she would not have been able to return home to her children anymore. This approach of the interviews was combined with extensive archive research, which certainly benefitted from the size of the group of five master students involved.

The results of Prommer´s work showed that the East German audiences went to the “Grenzkinos” for several reasons: they were close to home or work, the tickets were cheap, and they liked the program. It seems particularly interesting to take a closer look at the film program of the “Grenzkinos” which was at least one reason to visit them: The researchers discovered that the eastern Berlin audiences were not emotionally attached and did not feel connected to the East German DEFA (Deutsche Film AG) productions.

As Prommer mentioned, the first phase of DEFA films from 1945 to 1952 can be described as the antifascist and democratic phase, but later the films became very schematic. The audiences of the “Grenzkinos” were mostly young and – as they remember today – they liked the fun and entertaining films, which were mostly genre films like western films, action films, dramas and comedies and, for the most part, of American origin. Ultimately, crossing the border itself seems not to have been among the main reasons for visiting the “Grenzkinos”. Elizabeth Prommers paper presentation was well-structured and therefore easy to follow, highly interesting, inspiring, full of detailed information and a proof that there is still a lot to discover in German film history.