Knowra New German Cinema New German Cinema A West German film movement that emerged in the 1960s and flourished through the 1980s. Its formally adventurous films confronted contemporary society, German history, and the legacies of Nazism.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder : A German filmmaker whose prolific work examined power, desire, class, and postwar German society. His films made social hierarchies and their costs central to the movement.
The Marriage of Maria Braun : A 1979 film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder about a woman’s rise amid postwar West Germany’s economic recovery. Maria’s private ascent turns the economic miracle into a story of compromise and national reconstruction.
Oberhausen Manifesto : A 1962 declaration by young German filmmakers rejecting the commercial film industry and calling for a new cinema. Its claim that the old cinema was dead became a rallying point for renewal.
Heimatfilm : A German-language film genre centered on rural settings, local customs, and idealized community. Its reassuring rural nostalgia contrasts with the movement’s scrutiny of postwar social realities.
Werner Herzog : A German filmmaker known for feature films and documentaries about obsession, nature, and human limits. His singular, often physically demanding films widened the movement’s stylistic range.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God : A 1972 film by Werner Herzog depicting a Spanish expedition into the Amazon led by a delusional conquistador. Its feverish historical adventure exemplifies Herzog’s pursuit of obsession and extreme landscapes.
Oberhausen Group : A group of West German filmmakers who issued the Oberhausen Manifesto and advocated independent filmmaking. The group’s public challenge helped create the movement’s institutional and intellectual starting point.
New Hollywood : A period of American filmmaking from the late 1960s through the 1970s marked by director-driven films and stylistic experimentation. The parallel movement shared formal risk-taking but arose from a different national history and industry.
Wim Wenders : A German filmmaker whose films often explore travel, memory, music, and the images of modern life. His road movies gave the movement a searching account of postwar identity.
The Tin Drum : A 1979 Volker Schlöndorff film adapted from Günter Grass’s novel about a boy who refuses to grow up under Nazism. Its grotesque fable confronts Germany’s complicity and its failure to reckon with the Nazi past.
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