IN MAY 1939, Der deutsche Film, the official journal of the Reich Film Chamber, published a special issue devoted to the question of what the public wanted from cinema, “a dream world or reality?” Two mottos framed the discussion and imparted the highest authority in the Third Reich. The Führer was quoted first: “Theater, film, literature, press, radio, they all have to serve the maintenance of universal values living in the spirit of our folk.” The second motto stemmed from the propaganda minister: “Film should not escape from daily hardship and lose itself in a dreamland that only exists in the minds of starry-eyed directors and scriptwriters but nowhere else on earth.” This special issue also contained surveys and scholarly articles, in which moviegoers, actors, directors, and critics all agreed that the film industry should make exemplary films about contemporary life in Nazi Germany. Critics lamented that “problem films,” serious dramas dealing with social issues, seldom graced the screen. What the German public needed, they argued, was riveting stories about ordinary people with typical conflicts. Audiences would recognize the universal values National Socialism strove to uphold by watching movies with sympathetic characters representing the needs of the entire community. Normal problems in everyday life were not supposed to be covered up with the fairy tales of pure fantasy or depressing stories drenched in hopelessness and despair. Viewers needed positive films about daily hardships to learn how to form realistic expectations and deal with disappointment. The consensus was clear: cinema should reflect reality.

It is surprising that the trade press would argue so adamantly in favor of the problem film because the genre demands an honest discussion of society’s ills in a way that National Socialism routinely rejected. With its emphasis on how “the individual confronts social contradictions (class difference, moral conventions, poverty) beyond his/her control and/or comprehension,” the problem film casts a critical look at the world as it is and explicitly calls for change. Although the public wanted serious movies about contemporary life, the propaganda ministry required that these movies demonstrate optimism and conflict resolution at any price, a prescription contrary to the very definition of the problem film.