Cinema Newsreels in the Postwar Period

From 1949 to 1982, the Austria Newsreel (Austria Wochenschau) was part of the Austrian movie-going experience in the format of a news programme shown before the feature film. It replaced the newsreels of the occupying powers. The production of an independent newsreel was part of the policy agreement between the Austrian Federal Government and the Allies. The cinema screenings began on November 11, 1949. The majority shareholder of Austria Newsreel Ltd. was the Republic of Austria with 52%. The remaining 48% was pro-rata distributed to film industry companies connected to the SPÖ (Social Democratic Party of Austria) and the ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party). The purpose of the newsreel was to create a sense of Austrian national consciousness by showing the country's reconstruction and featuring the “Austrian homeland”. As the author of “The Book of Austria” (Österreichbuch, 1948), the first company director, Ernst Marboe, was already known for his identity politics. In the 1950s, the Austria Newsreel boomed as a format for current cinematic news clips, e.g. the signing of the State Treaty in 1955. With the permeation of television, the newsreel quickly lost its significance as a news medium, and was discontinued in 1982; the last successor format was terminated in 1994.