In December 2023, the contractual relationship between the Film department of the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) and Transit Film GmbH was not extended, which meant that, as of January 1 2024, the Bundesarchiv became responsible for all inquiries related to its film holdings, and would deal therefore directly with users.
The subsequent benefits to the international film community are highly significant, points out top German archive producer Monika Preischl, as now a vast body of German archive material is available for a fraction of the previous cost, in essence amounting to little more than an admin fee.
Non-license access to post-1945 footage costs three to nine euros per second, Preischl explains, while no costs whatsoever apply to pre-1945 materials, as long as their use is deemed to be reasonable after proof of use and concept is established, and rights clearance.
Six thousand films are currently available online at https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/en and a further 10,000 are accessible onsite in Germany. “A lot of the material is from the Nazi era,” adds Preischl, who was able to access much footage from Leni Riefenstahl’s notorious Triumph of the Will for Andres Veiel’s feature doc Riefenstahl, which world-premiered at Venice 2024.
There are also thousands of non-digitised film reels in the Bundesarchiv, where “pearls” are yet to be discovered, advises Preischl.
In total, the Bundesarchiv comprises 250,000 films (analogue and digital) including but not limited to:
- Film materials from the early years of cinema since 1895
- Films from the period between 1930 and 1945
- Weekly newsreels produced after 1945
- Films produced in the GDR
- Productions commissioned by the federal authorities
- Films supported by funds of the Federal Republic of Germany
Preischl thanks the “new generation” of staff at the Bundesarchiv, who acknowledged their “responsibility, ethically and morally” in making freely available such important historical archive materials, “as a cinematic memory of society.”
“Previously, this was an installation of the German government making money out of, in the main, mostly Nazi film heritage,” says Preischl, who argues that this is not material that should be profited from financially. “[In the past] we would have a production from, let’s say, a Polish film production making a film about the Holocaust, but they would have to pay for it. It’s not only about money, it’s also about responsibility and ethics. Why should they pay for material such as out of the Warsaw ghetto?”
The archive producer hopes that films will continue to be made about the Nazi era for new generations. “But they must be affordable. This is our film heritage but it’s open to be used. This is good news, so we try to share this information with everyone. And we use events like DOK Leipzig to spread it in the world.”
Preischl has been working in the field of archive research and as an archive producer for 20 years and has contributed to more than 40 international documentary and fiction film productions. In 2023 she co-founded the German Researchers and Archive Producers (GRAP) trade body to promote and protect the interests of its members in their dealings with broadcasters and producers, and to establish communication and networking between archives and their representatives.
