Kino#

Cinema: The silent era: in Austria the first demonstration of a Lumiere cinematographe took place in 1896 in the Vienna educational and research institute for photography and reproduction processes. Cinematographes were demonstrated at fairs (e.g. at Louis Veltee´s "Stadt-Panoptikum" opened at the Vienna Kohlmarkt in 1896). As it proved difficult to enlarge touring cinemas and cinemas in tents or shops, the first buildings for cinemas began to be erected; by 1906 there were 12 cinemas in Vienna, by 1918 155 and by 1928 178 cinemas had been established (in all of Austria there were 750). The first film distributing companies were formed, later the first cinemas owned by distributing companies were established (like the Sascha Palast or the Ufa-Palast). In 1912 the first laws concerning cinema were passed; since 1898 film projectionists have had to pass special examinations to obtain a licence. By 1921/1922 film production had begun to boom, and censorship was abolished in 1926.

The sound era: The first sound films were shown in Austria around 1930. In 1934 Film Censorship was partly re-introduced in the provinces; an amendment to the law governing cinemas in Vienna in 1937 stipulated that licences were only to be granted if there was actual demand. In 1935 there were 179 cinemas in Vienna and 738 in all of Austria. In 1938 the German Reichsfilmkammer seized the Austrian film industry and controlled the Austrian cinemas; film productions became instruments of the Ministry of Propaganda. Along with Berlin and Munich, Vienna became a centre of film production (the newly founded Wien-Filmproduced several films). At the beginning of the war there was a temporary cinema boom (222 cinemas in Vienna in 1939) which was, however, followed by a sharp decline in the number of cinemas in the following years of war. When international films were brought to Austria after 1945, the cinema experienced an upward trend again, and a climax in popularity was reached in 1958. However, new technological developments like wide-screen production, CinemaScope (1956), stereo, later Dolby stereo and 3D could not prevent another downward trend when television was first introduced and the film industry went through a very difficult period. Between 1960 and 1977 more than 700 Austrian cinemas were closed. When multiplex cinemas were established in the 1980s a short positive development was to be noticed, (1986: 536 cinemas in Austria, 97 in Vienna), since then the number of cinemas has again been declining (in 1993: 260 cinemas in Austria, 50 in Vienna).