Filmmaking courses did not become available in Germany until the mid-1960s. Until that time, the federalist structure of the Federal Republic of Germany prevented the establishment of a national film school. Precursors were the Institut für Film und Fernsehen (DIFF) in Munich and the Institut für Filmgestaltung Ulm, which was founded by Alexander Kluge and Detten Schleiermacher, and closed in 1989.
The two West German film schools began teaching in the mid-1960s, and were also heavily influenced by the so-called autorenfilm, or cinema d'auteur, of that era. The dffb (Deutsche Film- und Fernseh-Akademie Berlin) took in its first students in 1966, followed a year later by the Munich Academy for Television and Film. They were joined after the fall of the Berlin Wall by the Konrad Wolf College for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg in the former GDR, so that Germany now has three film schools.
There are other opportunities for film students at colleges specialising in fine arts and media studies.
Ulmer Dramaturgien. Reibungsverluste
Zur Arbeit des Ulmer Instituts für Filmgestaltung.
With contributions by Günther Hörmann, Reinhard Kahn, Michael Leiner, Maximiliane Mainka, Wilfried Reinke, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schubert.
Published by: Carl Hanser Verlag, München, Wien 1980.
ISBN: 3-446-13009-8 (German-language publication)
