During the past decade, a number of English-language works on West German cinema since World War II have been published. Though they have dealt with the genre in general historical and theoretical terms, their treatment of individual films and more specific thematic concerns has been minimal.

This translation of Hans Günter Pflaum's Deutschland im Film is the first work in English to provide a means to analyze and interpret the thematic complexity and apparently obscure symbolism of much of serious West German cinema. Pflaum focuses on the context and content of a large number of films, helping the reader to understand both a given work's socio-historical background as well as the aesthetic intent of its author/director. Among the topics of Pflaum treats are the rediscovery of a regional German genre, the proletarian film, crime and war films, avant-garde and experimental films, comedies, and films based on literary works.

For this English-language edition, Pflaum provided additional text material to bring the information in the 1985 German edition up to date. Cinema specialists, teachers and students of contemporary German culture and society, as well as film critics and journalists will find his work invaluable in understanding the thematic multiplicity, the divergent social and political concerns, and the aesthetic-didactic intentions of West German Filmmakers.