Science on Screen and Paper

Mariana Ivanova is Associate Professor for German Film and Media and the Academic Director of the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her  monograph, Cinema of Collaboration (Berghahn Books, 2019) was finalist for the international Willy Haas award. Her research has been published in The German Studies Review, The Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and in numerous edited volumes on East German and Central European cinema. Juliane Scholz is coordinator for science communication and public relations at the Collaborative Research Center “Sexdiversity – Determinants, Meanings and Implications of Sex Diversity in Sociocultural, Medical and Biological Landscapes” at the University of Lübeck.

List of Illustrations

List of Acronyms



Introduction: Science and Media in Cold War Europe

Mariana Ivanova and Juliane Scholz



Part I: Institutional and Industrial Contexts



Chapter 1. Whitewashing the Nazi Past: Continuity and Transformation in Scientific Cinematography in Germany, 1934–1956

Juliane Scholz



Chapter 2. Flow Vis for the Space Race: German Science Films in US Education During the Cold War

Mario Schulze



Chapter 3. Raw Film Manufacturing: Between Economic Efficiency and Environmental Awareness in East Germany

Josephine Diecke



Part II: Imaginaries of Self and Other



Chapter 4. Between Cooperation and Competition: Cold War Imaginaries and Representations of US-Soviet Encounters in Space

Darina Volf



Chapter 5. Post-Colonial Science Heroes in East German Science Fiction Films

Evan Torner



Chapter 6. The Culture of Anticipation and Scientific Fiction in Socialist Romania

Doru Aurel Pop          



Chapter 7. (Un)Healthy Tunes: Body, Mind, and Music in Socialist Television

Sandra Schnädelbach



Part III: Science in Public and Educational Media



Chapter 8. Science for Children and Adults: The Space Race in Italian Communist Party Publications, 1957-1964

Ettore Costa



Chapter 9. “Effective Films:” Science Film and Education in East Germany

Sophia Gräfe and Kerrin von Engelhardt



Chapter 10. German Technology and Education for ‘Young Nations:’ Cold War Politics and Aesthetics of Development Aid in two West German Governmental PR Films of 1961

Jan Uelzmann



Chapter 11. French Educational Films for Africa: The Question of Decolonization in the 1960s and 1970s

Sarah Stein