The films were collected by a research team as part of a project about "Europafilme" supervised by Professor Clemens at Hamburg University and funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from 2009 to 2012.
The collection, covering the period from the 1950s to the early 1970s, was deposited at the HAEU by Professor Gabriele Clemens from the History Department of University Hamburg and research fellow Anne Bruch in September 2018 under the terms of a deposit contract signed on 5 June 2018 between the depositor and the HAEU, represented by the Director Dieter Schlenker.

This collection holds around 245 films produced throughout the late 1940s and early 1970s. The films were commissioned by supranational and national institutions (like European Cooperation Administration, Council of Europe, Brussels Pact, European Communities, and press and information services of national governments), the European Movement, state-owned companies and private companies as well.
The corpus "Europafilme" covers films which were produced and distributed with the intention to advertise the idea of European unity, i.e. to inform the European citizens about the newly established European communities, and to create a feeling of European identity. It also includes films which were not produced with the intention to advertise the European integration process but which contribute by their images and arguments to the dissemination of the European idea and may promote a feeling of togetherness between the Europeans.
Most of these films are short-films with a length between ten and thirty minutes and they were shown to the public in cinemas as well as in schools and other educational institutions, in films clubs, youth centres etc. They cover a wide spectrum of styles and genres; they comprise compilation documentaries, animations, fictional or feature films or a combination of all of those. Apart from some special issues which cover the topic of European integration, the collection does not include newsreel films.

For further information please consult:
Gabriele Clemens (ed.): Werben für Europa. Die mediale Konstruktion europäischer Identität durch Europafilme, Paderborn (Schöningh) 2016.

Given that the collection draws on documents from a range of institutions, it proved impossible to conform to a single production company’s classification scheme. As such, it was necessary to create a classification system that incorporated the diversity of the institutions and countries that produced the films of the collection. To that end, its components are categorised into eight distinct series with corresponding subseries. These include European Institutions, Transnational Institutions, various contemporary European movements and material produced from specific nations.
All filmographic information are given including cross references, key words, and specification of the archive of origin, but according to the fact that some of the films are considered as ‘orphan films’, e.g. films that lack clear copyright holders, a final designation for some films is eventually not possible.

The HAEU does not own rights to the films. Copyright or other restrictions applying to the material should be assessed by the user. Any copyright violations resulting from the use of documents held at the Historical Archives are solely the user’s responsibility. More about copyright

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The present collection is a not finalized draft of the inventory of AE's archival collection deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence in September 2018.
Up to now 150 films have been processed and described which correspond to approx. 70 to 75 % of the material deposited.
We kindly request the reader to be aware that this draft has not yet undergone a final editorial revision and that the work is still in progress.
For any information or consultation please refer to the archiv@eui.eu