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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.

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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).


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