List of West German films of 1955. This was the sixth full year of film production since the formal partition of Germany into East and West in 1949. Major production centres were gathered in Hamburg, Munich and West Berlin. A separate East German film industry controlled by DEFA operated in East Berlin.
| Title | Director | Cast | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinderella | Fritz Genschow | Rita-Maria Nowotny, Renée Stobrawa, Werner Stock | Family | |
| Rumpelstiltskin | Herbert B. Fredersdorf | F.W. Schröder-Schrom, Harry Wüstenhagen, Wilhelm Grothe | Family | |
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Erich Kobler | Elke Arendt , Addi Adametz | Family | |
| Der Struwwelpeter | Fritz Genschow | Fredy Kaindl, Traude Höhnisch, Eric Canso | Family | Based on Struwwelpeter |
The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20th century film industry in Europe, similar to Hollywood later. Early German and German-speaking filmmakers and actors heavily contributed to early Hollywood.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state, and it described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The economy of this country was centrally planned and state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc.
Wings of Desire is a 1987 romantic fantasy film written by Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Richard Reitinger, and directed by Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist, played by Solveig Dommartin. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.
DEFA was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic throughout the country's existence.
Frank Paul Beyer was a German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Trace of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the ruling SED. His 1975 film Jacob the Liar was the only East German film ever nominated for an Academy Award. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until his death he mostly directed television films.
Rudolf "Rudi" Fehr, A.C.E. was a German-born, American film editor and studio executive. He had more than thirty credits as an editor of feature films including Key Largo (1946), Dial M for Murder (1954), and Prizzi's Honor (1985). He worked for more than forty years for the Warner Brothers film studio, where he was the Head of Post-production from 1955 through 1976. Fehr was instrumental in establishing the 1967 "sister city" connection between Los Angeles and Berlin, which he had fled in the 1930s.
Erich Pommer was a German-born film producer and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European film industries in the 1920s and early 1930s.
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
František Čáp, also known as Franz Cap in Germany, was a Czech and later a Yugoslav film director and screenwriter. He directed 32 films between 1939 and 1970. Having created Slovene film classics such as Vesna, Ne čakaj na maj and Our Car, he is also one of the most popular directors of early Slovene cinema in 1950s and the 1960s.
Bruno Mondi was a German cameraman and director of photography.
Berolina Film was a film production company which operated in West Germany between 1948 and 1964. The film's production was supervised by the experienced Kurt Ulrich and was based in West Berlin. The company helped launch a cycle of popular heimatfilm made in the 1950s.
Arthur Maria Rabenalt was an Austrian film director, writer, and author. He directed more than 90 films between 1934 and 1978. His 1958 film That Won't Keep a Sailor Down was entered into the 1st Moscow International Film Festival. Two years later, his 1960 film Big Request Concert was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. His career encompassed both Nazi cinema and West German productions. He also wrote several books on the 1930s and 1940s wave of German cinema.
Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film.
Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. Kettelhut is considered one of the most important artists in the history of early German cinema, mainly for his set direction for Die Nibelungen (1924) and his design and visual effects for Metropolis (1927). His early career was defined by a working relationship with fellow designers Otto Hunte and Karl Vollbrecht, the trio working on many of Fritz Lang's early German films. Despite being best known for his iconic visuals on several of the most important films of German Expressionist cinema, he is also noted for a career spanning into the 1960s and his work on more light-hearted films and musicals.
The Wandsbek Studios are film production and television studios located in Wandsbek, a district of the German city of Hamburg.
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