With the film law dated from 16 February 1934, the position of a Reichsfilmdramaturg (the Reich's dramatic adviser for films) was attached to the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. His task was to pre-check all planned film productions.[1]
Contrary to the Film Review Office, which censored films already produced, the Reichsfilmdramaturg should prevent that inappropriate films being produced. It was therefore only possible to start the shooting of a film after the film's plot, manuscript and screenplay were approved by him.
The film industry was o.k. with the pre-check, as it prevented commercial damages through later censorship. The pre-check also allowed to get a cheap credit from the Filmkreditbank. This bank was set up to help financing films.[2]
The following persons were Reichsfilmdramaturg:[3] [4] [5]