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Films often are products of their time, and German cinema after the fall of Nazism is a prime example.

Early “rubble” films like 1946’s “The Murderers Are Among Us” unflinchingly deal with Germany’s psychological guilt over the Holocaust. Sumptuous productions like 1955’s “Sissi” were produced after Germany’s economic boom.

UCLA Film and Television Archive hopes to illustrate this history in its series, “After the War, Before the Wall: German Cinema, 1945-1960,” starting April 19 in the James Bridges Theater.

The stories detail the greater part of German reconstruction after World War II. Margit Kleinman, programming coordinator at the Goethe Institut, Los Angeles recognized that pushing the film series to audiences and venues alike would be a harder task due to the relative rarity of German cinema from the post-World War II period seen within American mainstream.

“Very few people know about the titles; very few people know about the period,” said Kleinman. “These films weren’t aggressively exported, and these topics at the time had very German appeal. They did not have international appeal because these films were produced to shelter the war-battered souls and minds of Germany. The topics were very German and tailored to the people of that post-war generation.”

The majority of films shown during World War II under Hitler’s Third Reich were propaganda and escapist. In contrast, a number of German filmmakers after the war used a more gritty film style in order to underscore the changes undergone after 1945 with the fall of Adolf Hitler.

Andrea Alsberg, co-head of programming at the archive described the filmmaking style as “real” realism, something reminiscent of Italian realist films made at the same time, taking a humble look at a slice of life.

“Then comes a film called ‘In Those Days,’ which was really amazing in terms of putting the camera on the street and really showing the utter destruction of not only Berlin but the whole country and on reflecting on what just happened,” said Alsberg.

The reconstruction of the late 1940s led to an economic boom in the 1950s, ushering in a more spectacular filmmaking style. For one thing, more people could afford to see films.

“Movie-going was a big cultural event (in the 1950s),” said Kleinman. “It was a luxury, but people went to the movies, and these movies actually played a role in the restoration of Germany. In a way, they accompanied and then they participated in the ‘economic miracle.’”

In trying to construct a new identity, the German cinema later revisited the genre of heimatfilms, which Alsberg terms as “returning to the homeland” films. In trying to return to a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, many German films attempted to restore a sense of nationalism. “Sissi,” is known as the quintessential “heimatfilm” or “feel good” German movie. Its plot of a Bavarian princess falling in love with the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph is an idyllic fairy tale. These films helped supply a connection to Germany’s past glory while forgetting the unpleasantness of daily war-torn life.

“I think (the filmmakers) were trying to return to normalcy in some fashion,” said Alsberg. “They need to examine society and perform some sort of healing capacity.”

Though a useful guide to help connect audiences with how Germans might have dealt with the devastating post-World War II effects, many past film critics have attacked German cinema in this era as aesthetically unpleasing or morally suspect.

“These are not the most polished, incredible forms of studio filmmaking, but that’s because there was no money to make films. In the early films, particularly in ’46, ’47, ’48, it was all shot with natural light because they didn’t have any money to light the films.”

“In terms of the morality, I find the films made during the Nazi regime much more offensive than these films,” Alsberg added. “But whether you agree or not, I think these are the kinds of films that people argue about. I think these films will reap discussion.”

For more information, go to www.cinema.ucla.edu or call (310) 206-FILM.