The World of
the Habsburgs

Secondary menu

Pre-war
1914
Outbreak of the war
1915
1916
1917
1918
End of the war
Post-war

The Saturn censorship affair

Special performances with erotic films were among the great attractions of the early cinema days. These ‘gentlemen’s evenings’, as they were called, included not only ‘spicy’ films but also films about surgical interventions, diseases and physical deformities.

One Austrian photographer also recognized the lucrative side of these productions, circulating nude photos alongside family pictures and portraits. In 1906 Johann Schwarzer began to produce erotic films, distributed by Saturn-Films. He was following the example of renowned French companies, which for some time had been successfully selling ‘lewd’ films. The subjects were also similar: bathing scenes, artists and models, or Oriental scenes. Schwarzer’s films were often more revealing than those of his competitors. Whereas the bodies of the bathing beauties in Pathé films were covered with fine fabrics, the young women in the Saturn productions were completely naked. There was nothing pornographic about Schwarzer’s pictures, however. The scenes simply showed a plausible situation for disrobing (visit to the doctor, bathing, nude drawings, etc.). Examples included Baden verboten (A 1907) or Weibliche Assentierung (A 1908–10).

The demand for ‘spicy’ films from Austria-Hungary was very great, and they were regularly advertised. Saturn distribution catalogue appeared on the market not only in German but also in Italian and French. The films were renowned throughout Europe as ‘Viennese subjects’. A complaint by the Austro-Hungarian consul in Tbilisi about the presentation of ‘obscenities from Vienna’ finally drew the attention of the authorities to the ‘Saturn affair’. According to the trade press, protests were also received by the diplomatic envoys in Berlin, Paris, London, Rome and Tokyo, leading to the confiscation of Saturn films and a court case. The Imperial and Royal District Court of Vienna banned the further distribution of the films, and the destruction of the film and printed material was ordered. The judgement entered into force on 15 February 1911, thus ending the activity of the first Austro-Hungarian film production company.

In Vienna ‘gentlemen’s evenings’ had already been forbidden in February 1910. Other crown lands also gradually introduced bans, making it impossible for erotic films to be distributed at all. During the First World War, ‘spicy films’ were once again in great demand, however, and they were shown to the troops in field cinemas.

Translation: Nick Somers

Bibliografie 

Achenbach, Michael: Die Geschichte der Firma Saturn und ihre Auswirkungen auf die österreichische Filmzensur, in: Achenbach, Michael/Caneppele, Paolo/Kieninger, Ernst: Projektionen der Sehnsucht. Saturn. Die erotischen Anfänge der österreichischen Kinematografie, Wien 1999, 75-102

Achenbach, Michael/Ballhausen, Thomas/Wostry, Nikolaus: Tresor 1, Saturn-Filme 1906–1910, Die erotischen Anfänge der österreichischen Kinematografie, Wien 2009

Contents related to this chapter

Aspects

  • Aspect

    On the eve of war

    The last decade of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth were a time of modernisation, mechanisation and speed. In 1910, Vienna, capital of the Habsburg empire, had 2.1 million inhabitants and had grown to become an international metropolis. New technologies changed working life and leisure. Railways increased mobility, as did the bicycle, motor vehicle and aeroplane. How did this development manifest itself and what other trends emerged in the last years before the outbreak of the First World War?

Persons, Objects & Events

  • Object

    Media

    All Quiet on the Western Front was released in 1930. It was the film of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel of the same name about the experiences of a soldier during the First World War. Remarque’s book and the film adaptation are classic anti-war statements. Alongside the patriotic, glorified heroic epics and “authentic” documentation of service for the fatherland, this was just one way in which the First World War was portrayed in literature and films – a medium that had come into being only twenty years before the outbreak of war.

  • Object

    Monitoring & control

    Everyday life in the Habsburg Monarchy was characterised by propaganda, monitoring and control, as can be seen by the many blank spaces in the daily newspapers and deletions in private correspondence and telegrams. At the same time an attempt was made in texts and audio-visual media to whip up general enthusiasm for the war. Not even the youngest inhabitants of the empire remained untouched, and the influence of the state was also felt in the schools of the Monarchy.