Europa Im Bild

English summary: Cinema Newsreels provide a unique - and up until now neglected - opportunity to examine the beginning of the European integration (1949-1958) in the media of the post-war period. Newsreels were important in shaping opinions, especially by creating powerful images. This book aims at analysing and classifying these images and concepts - proposed identities - of the European integration in Austria, France, Germany and Great Britain of the the 1950s, especially by...
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English summary: Cinema Newsreels provide a unique - and up until now neglected - opportunity to examine the beginning of the European integration (1949-1958) in the media of the post-war period. Newsreels were important in shaping opinions, especially by creating powerful images. This book aims at analysing and classifying these images and concepts - proposed identities - of the European integration in Austria, France, Germany and Great Britain of the the 1950s, especially by comparing the specific methods of photography and filmmaking used to produce a certain perception in the audience. These newsreel items are not only records from the beginning and consolidation of the European integration but also political instruments. On the one hand, they informed a wider public about the new institutions, their purposes as well as their decision-making procedures; on the other hand, they intended to propagate a European identity. This audiovisual representation of Europe as a economical and political community, or, respectively 'the idea of European integration', was not only a result of a political discourse but also a continuation of a centuries-old iconographic tradition. German description: Welche Bilder machten sich EuropaerInnen von Europa? Von dieser Frage ausgehend untersucht Eugen Pfister osterreichische, franzosische, deutsche und britische Wochenschauen der Nachkriegszeit: Viele EuropaerInnen machten sich im Kino ein erstes Bild von den europaischen Gemeinschaften, das im weiteren Verlauf zur Grundlage ihrer Meinungen und Uberzeugungen wurde. Dies gilt insbesondere fur die ArbeiterInnen und KleinburgerInnen Europas, deren Wahrnehmung des Integrationsprozesses von der Integrationsforschung bisher kaum beachtet wurde. Fur eine Rekonstruktion des Europadiskurses jenseits intellektueller Zirkel bieten Wochenschauen deshalb eine lohnende Untersuchungsquelle. Pfister zeigt zudem, dass die audiovisuelle Reprasentation Europas der 1950er Jahre als okonomische und politische Gemeinschaft nicht nur das Ergebnis eines politischen Diskurses ist, sondern immer auch einer ikonographischen Tradition verpflichtet war.