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16/4/1896: Germany's First Screenings
Ludwig Stollwerck of the Cologne chocolate manufacturing company Gebr. Stollwerck & Co. introduced Germany to the cinema on the 16th April 1896 when he held the country’s first film show in the canteen of the Stollwerck factory. The company’s interest in moving pictures probably stemmed from their use of automated vending machines for selling their products, and the fact that these vending machines were often positioned in the same sites at which early films were screened. On the 18th April 1895 Stollwerck had become part of the Deutsche-Osterreichische-Edison-Kinetoscop-Gesellschaft group, which held exclusive rights to Edison’s Kinetoscope in Germany, and had also tried to win the exclusive rights to the Edison Phonograph. Stollwerck also commissioned Birt Acres to make films for presentation on the Kinetoscope. On the 26th March 1896, Stollwerck entered into a contract with the Lumieres in which the French brothers were to receive 60% of all income from the sale and projection of their moving pictures.
The first public show took place in Cologne on the 20th April. By the 28th of the same month, Stollwerck was showing the Cinematographe pictures in Berlin, followed by Stuttgart, Dresden, Hamburg, and Hanover. Stollwerck also made use of agents such as Paul Behrens in a similar fashion to the Lumieres, who travelled throughout the country making and showing their own films. [ADD]
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