<P> Cinemas themselves began to be established landmarks in the years immediately before World War I. Before this, German filmmakers would tour with their works, travelling from fairground to fairground . The earliest ongoing cinemas were set up in cafes and pubs by owners who saw a way of attracting more customers . The storefront cinema was called a Kientopp, and this is where films were viewed for the most part before World War I . The first standalone, dedicated cinema in Germany was opened in Mannheim in 1906, and by 1910, there were over 1000 cinemas operating in Germany . Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen (the latter originally from Denmark) were the first major film stars in Germany . </P> <P> Prior to 1914, however, many foreign films were imported . In the era of the silent film there were no language boundaries and Danish and Italian films were particularly popular in Germany . The public's desire to see more films with particular actors led to the development in Germany, as elsewhere, of the phenomenon of the film star; the actress Henny Porten was one of the earliest German stars . Public desire to see popular film stories being continued encouraged the production of film serials, especially in the genre of mystery films, which is where the director Fritz Lang began his illustrious career . </P> <P> The outbreak of World War I and the subsequent boycott of, for example, French films left a noticeable gap in the market . By 1916, there already existed some 2000 fixed venues for movie performances and initially film screenings were supplemented or even replaced by variety turns . In 1917 a process of concentration and partial nationalisation of the German film industry began with the founding of Universum Film AG (UFA), which was partly a reaction to the very effective use that the Allied Powers had found for the new medium for the purpose of propaganda . Under the aegis of the military, so - called Vaterland films were produced, which equalled the Allies' films in the matter of propaganda and disparagement of the enemy . Audiences however did not care to swallow the patriotic medicine without the accompanying sugar of the light - entertainment films which, consequently, Ufa also promoted . The German film industry soon became the largest in Europe . </P> <P> The German film industry, which was protected during the war by the ban on foreign films import, became exposed at the end of the war to the international film industry while having to face an embargo, this time on its own films . Many countries banned the import of German films and audiences themselves were resisting anything that was "German". In addition, the economic situation was unstable and the devaluation of the currency made it difficult for the smaller production companies to function . Film industry financing was a fragile business and expensive productions occasionally led to bankruptcy . In 1925 UFA itself was forced to go into a disadvantageous partnership called Parufamet with the American studios Paramount and MGM, before being taken over by the nationalist industrialist and newspaper owner Alfred Hugenberg in 1927 . </P>

What factors contributed to the development of cinema in weimar germany