BERLIN: A study has concluded that the founding director of the Berlin International Film Festival made a not insignificant contribution to the German film system under Nazi rule and later covered up his role, festival organizers said Wednesday.
Alfred Bauer led the Berlinale from 1951 to 1976, building the festival into a major draw for then-West Berlin. It is now one of the major European film festivals, along with Cannes and Venice.
In January, the festival suspended a prize named for Bauer after German newspaper Die Zeit reported that he was a senior figure in the Nazis’ moviemaking bureaucracy. It said it hadn’t previously been aware of Bauer having held an important position during the Nazi era and commissioned a study from Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History.
The study’s editor concluded that Alfred Bauer made a not insignificant contribution to the…
