Acronyms and Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. The Birth of German Cinema and Its Development during the Postwar Crisis: 1919-1923 1. 1896-1918: From Country Roads to Main Street and the Discovery of Film by Political Interest Groups 2. 1919-1923: The "Golden Years" 3. The SPD and Film: From Calls for Reform to Affirmation of Cinematic Entertainment and Edification 4. Film and the Communist Left: Leftist Radicalism versus Democratic Centralism and the Consequences for a Communist Film Program Part Two. The Years of Relative Stability: 1924-1928 5. Hollywood, Moscow, and the Crisis of German Film 6.

The Developing Relationship between Politics, Economics, and Commercial Film Aesthetics 7. The Past as Metaphor for the Present and Der alte Fritz (Old Fritz) as an Example 8. The Question of Social Mobility and a Close Look at Die Verrufenen (The Notorious) 9. The SPD and Film: Ambivalence toward Mainstream Cinema and the Initiation of an Independent Film Program 10. The KPD and Film: The Defeat of Leftist Radicalism, the Theory of the "Scheming" Capitalist Film Industry, and the Communist Response from Panzerkreuzer Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin) to Prometheus 11. The Birth of the Volksfilmverband: Partisan Nonpartisanship and Grass-Roots Organization from Above? Part Three. The End of the Weimar Republic: 1929-1933 12. The Great Coalition and the Disintegration of Parliamentary Democracy 13.

Sound, the Economic Crisis, and Commercial Film's Images of the Past, Present, and Future 14. The SPD and Film: The Intensifying Critique of Political Reaction in Commercial Film and the Party's Program of Cinematic Propaganda 15. The KPD and Film: From Stubborn Perseverance to Eleventh-Hour Experiments with Alternative Forms of Production and Reception 16. The Inevitable Decline of the VFV Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index.