The U.S. film project on the Nuremberg Trial of the major war criminals: a contribution to the political culture in post war Germany.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Dörner
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies ; Political Science
• Term: from 2011 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 207543990

The second phase of the research project will especially take into account findings concerning the role of the U.S. military intelligence service (Office of Strategic Services, OSS) in the film project on the Nuremberg Trials against the major war criminals. The audio visual representation of Nazi war crimes as well as their contribution to prosecution and forward-looking measures taken by the U.S. civil and Army authorities are in the focus of research. The current research project revealed unpredictable and undocumented findings concerning the extent and variety of the secret service's contribution to the film project. In a far bigger scale than described in the literature, the OSS - launching the 'War Crimes Project' - was part of the system for the prosecution of war crimes. The authority was also essentially engaged in designing the court room, in equipping it with media techniques and was responsible for the audio visual tradition of the trial. Apart from this it also became apparent that the occupation and foreign political horizon of U.S. authorities was more far-reaching than the immediate tasks in post war Germany. Long term effects could be observed as well in the U.S. film policy as well as in the audio visual tradition of the trial. The film project created a sustainable visualization of the trial and fostered images of its protagonists. Film evidence, which were systematically collected by the OSS have become icons of the Nazi crimes and impact on discussions about National Socialism, the holocaust but also about initiating international criminal law. According to these research results it is necessary to expand our study in order to take into account these new facts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Wolfgang Form