Der Drehbuchautor

What characterizes the histories of the profession of the scriptwriter? Juliane Scholz's study in cultural and media history traces the occupational history of German and American scriptwriters, which is shaped as much by diverse occupational roles and demands as through shifts between artistic self-conception and commercial commission work. An image emerges of a media occupation which, during the era of National Socialism, the GDR dictatorship and during the persecution of communists in the USA, was exploited for political ends, and which, in no small part because of this, references the ambivalent position of cultural workers in the 20th century.