Micro-histories of the "Anschluss"

March 16, 2008

The third presentation in the Film Museum's new series revolves around Austria's "Anschluss" to Nazi Germany in March 1938 and introduces several "new" – i.e. recently restored – film documents. The image we have today of this event, derived from TV documentaries, teaching aids and feature films, is largely determined by the films which were produced at the time by the German UFA Studios. This programme aims to introduce different forms of representing the „Anschluss” into the discourse: it contrasts the official newsreels with minoritarian artefacts, including privately made films. It is through these "micro-(hi)stories" that the event can gain a dimension of contemporaneity.

 
A joint programme of the Austrian Film Museum and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for History and Society, in cooperation with the University of Vienna. The Film Museum presents an extended version of this programme in New York, at the Austrian Cultural Forum from March 10 to 14.