Sorry, no english text yet except this abstract below. More will follow (hopefully ;-)).

This website presents the results of my final thesis for M.A. degree. The thesis studied the reasons of invention and the function of new cinema forms (Klubkino, Kino-Café, Visionsbar), which were built since the 1970s, in the context of the centrally governed GDR media system. These forms of cinema offered movie screening in a club atmosphere connected with gastronomic service and became a widespread facility, especially in the southern boroughs of the GDR.

The new concepts of cinema were invented independently from centralised decisions by agents of the subordinated regional levels of the cultural administration as a direct response to serious problems of GDR cinema. The central administration (Hauptverwaltung Film) reacted sceptically, but finally accepted the alternative forms as a solution. So the stereotypical concept of the GDR as a strictly organised system of political constraints and sequestration can not be applied to this subject. However the potential to take advantage of these cinemas to use them as a scope to develop a small-range public on the basis of different events was not used by the staff nor by the visitors.

For more information just send an e-mail to tanja (at) ddr-klubkinos (dot) de