“The history of German cinema prior to 1919 would be completely unknown today but for the fact that colour prints were saved in Amsterdam. Otherwise they would have been lost or else conserved only in black and white or 16mm prints. This material in Holland has survived not only two world wars and nazism. It was also the subject of a second rescue operation at the end of the 1980s when the Nederlands Filmmuseum has undertaken their restoration.

German cinema historians have approximately transmitted the first period from three points of view: a national contribution to the development of cinema -the Skladanowsky brothers and Oskar Messter are the hero-founders of it; a national idol -the German diva Henny Porten remained unforgotten; and finally the era of the precursors of author cinema of world fame from Weimar – Der Student von Prag, Der Andere and certain other films which were deemed worthy of being conveyed in posters alongside Caligari and Metropolis. There is no point in looking for the latter titles in Goethe Intitute’s programme. It intentionally avoided presenting them. In fact, its purpose is to bring to light that cinema of the Williamite era which would otherwise have been condemned to oblivion. The German films of the 1910s, which are unknown today, transmit the impression that the Republic of Weimar could have won”. (Heide Schlüpmann)