Cinema in the young Federal Republic was varied, combative, and lively – surprisingly different from how established views and judgements describe it. Superficial and inconsequential? Without any interest in the thematisation of urgent societal problems or the working through of German guilt? Orientated towards kitsch and purported mainstream tastes? Homogenous and predictable? A very different picture emerges from the 33 texts in this book which were written for the occasion of the 2016 Festival del film Locarno. Polyphonic and outspoken, with values and interpretations which were both contradictory and complementary – the authors here explore the diversity of filmmaking during the Adenauer years. As a result, a comprehensive panorama of the era and its cinema emerges, large parts of which have yet to be discovered. Essays by Olaf Möller, Claudia Dillmann, Miguel Marías, Lars Henrik Gass, Ralph Eue, Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen, Fabian Tietke, Rudolf Worschech, Fritz Tauber, Jörg Gerle, Uwe Mies, Dominik Graf, Stefanie Plappert, Werner Sudendorf, Rainer Knepperges, Stefanie Mathilde Frank, Christoph Huber, Peter Ellenbruch, Hervé Dumont, Marcus Stiglegger, Fabian Schmidt, Hannu Nuotio, Marco Grosoli, Chris Fujiwara, Ralf Schenk, Andreas Goldstein, Elisabeth Streit, Carolin Weidner, Jürgen Dünnwald, Jennifer Lynde Barker, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, and Thorsten Krämer. With 270 pictures from the archives of Deutsches Filminstitut and other archives