Kino. Hier haben Sie eine Anzahl der gewünschten Blätter: „Die Lichtbild-Bühne“, „Der Deutsche Lichtbildtheater-Besitzer“, „Erste Internationale Film-Zeitung“, „Internationale Film- und Kinematographen-Industrie“, alle in Berlin erscheinend; „Der Kinematograph“ in Düsseldorf; „Erste Internationale Kinematographen-Zeitung“ in Hamburg; „Der Komet, Organ des gesamten Schausteller-, Kinematographen-, Händler- und Messereisenden-Standes“ in Pirmasens; „Kinematographische Rundschau“, „Oesterreichischer Komet, Fachblatt für Kinematographie, Grammophon-Industrie und Schausteller“ in Wien.¹

This is an entry in a newspaper that was published in Bonn on February 23, 1910. It was printed in the category Briefkasten (letterbox) which was meant as a possibility for readers to send questions to the editorial office and receive the answer with an upcoming newspaper. Sadly only the answer was printed and not the original question. Therefore we have to guess the original request. Since the answer is a list of film related Blätter (trade journals) the questioner must have inquired regarding such a list.

This contemporary list gives us a good overview about the available trade journals for the German-speaking audience at the beginning of 1910. Four Berlin-based journals are mentioned as well as one from Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Pirmasens. Additionally two journals from Vienna are listed. In total nine trade journals are named:

• Erste Internationale Film-Zeitung (Berlin)
• Erste Internationale Kinematographen-Zeitung (Hamburg)
• Internationale Film- und Kinematographen-Industrie (Berlin)
• Der Kinematograph (Düsseldorf)
• Kinematographische Rundschau (Vienna)
• Der Komet, Organ des gesamten Schausteller-, Kinematographen-, Händler- und Messereisenden-Standes (Pirmasens)
• Die Lichtbild-Bühne (Berlin)
• Der Deutsche Lichtbildtheater-Besitzer (Berlin)
• Oesterreichischer Komet, Fachblatt für Kinematographie, Grammophon-Industrie und Schausteller (Vienna)

The lists includes references to Zeitschriften Datenbank the German catalogue of newspapers and journals (if available).

thoughts

Among the obvious and well known trade journals there are some lesser known like Der Deutsche Lichtbildtheater-Besitzer, Erste Internationale Kinematographen-Zeitung and Internationale Film- und Kinematographen-Industrie. Even though I have been doing research for a while now the total number of available trade journals still surprised me while reading the above article. The large number of trade journals indicates the existence of a larger and vivid audience for film related news in German-speaking countries in the early years of film.

copyright

The image used in this article is taken from:

• zeit.punktNRW The images used fall under public domain as stated by the provider zeit.punktNRW.

sources

The Newspaper can be accessed on the zeit.punktNRW.