ABSTRACT
The film industry in West Germany during the 1950s and 1960s was dominated by two major tendencies arising from the end of the war. First, since
66 Women Filmmakers: Refocusing
the cinemas and distribution of films were in the hands of the allied powers, the films shown in West Germany were largely American. Second, when German producers appealed to the government for funds, the government would, in order to get around American censorship, encourage only the most politically innocuous and cheaply made films. What came to be known as a "Bavarian cottage industry" arose in both TV and the film industry, which produced many kitschy "Heimatfilme," or films about happy domesticity. Above all, these films tend to show women as housewives, loving mothers, and supporters of their husbands. It is probably these films, among others, that so disturbed Helma Sanders Brahms as a child that she asked for her money back from the theatre.
