How to Mediate the Bohemian-Moravian Film Culture? The Role of Sudeten-German Actors in the Protection of Local Culture During the Occupation
Abstract
This study deals with Wilhelm Söhnel and Anton Zankl, two Sudeten German officials who shaped the German film policy in the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and who came into contact with Czech actors, directors, and other filmmakers in a variety of different situations. Both of them were career Nazis and both pursued the interests of German cultural policy consistently and at times ruthlessly.
At the same time, both Zankl and Söhnel were very ambivalent personalities. Both were personally and familially closely connected to Bohemian-Moravian regional culture, which they defended within their means.
They were well connected in Czech as well as in German circles and cultivated intense and even friendly relationships with certain Czech cultural actors. Both became real mediators and negotiators between Reich and Czech interests.