F.A. Nöggerath’s Film Company

Franz Anton Nöggerath, sr. was one of the first theatre owners who shifted to showing films. In the fall of 1896, film shows from Madame Olinka were included in his programmes; in the year thereafter, motion pictures from the German film pioneer Oskar Messter were presented.

In order to make films a permanent part of his theatre shows in Variété Flora, Nöggerath needed to regularly change his film programme. Unlike the travelling cinemas, which had varying audiences, Nöggerath couldn’t get away with simply showing the same programme repeatedly.

Because film rental didn’t exist at that point, theatre owners had to buy the films themselves. For this reason, Nöggerath contacted the London-based film producer, Charles Urban. Starting in late 1897, films from Urban were a permanent part of the Variété Flora’s specialty programme. This co-operation with Urban allowed Nöggerath to show films from the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès and English film pioneers George Albert Smith and James Williamson.

Official representative

Not only did Nöggerath show films from the Royal Bioscope, he was also the official representative for Royal Bioscope’s parent company, The Warwick Trading Company. This allowed him to use the brandname The Royal Bioscope – named after Urban’s projector – to rent out films and projection equipment to other theatre owners who occasionally used films in their theatre programmes. Nöggerath resold films to other cinemas in the Netherlands, including the Mullens brothers (Alberts Frères), who lost all of their films after a fire.

In 1899, Nöggerath crossed over to making films. He had a small studio built on the roof of the Variété Flora, where he produced his first short films: ’n Herinnering aan wijlen Z.M. Koning Willem III, een rijtoer makende door het Vondelpark te Amsterdam and De oorlog in Transvaal. In addition to these works, from that point on he also produced a large number of news items. Nöggerath relied on employees such as Leon Boedels and Johann Theodor Vierboom for the manufacturing of his films, and a number of family members also worked at the company.

Disaster strikes

In 1902, Nöggerath was hit by a full-blown disaster: the Variété Flora burned to the ground, destroying both the studio and the entire film inventory. In December 1903, the renovated Flora was opened, and a new studio was set up on the Herengracht in Amsterdam.

During the first years of cinema in the Netherlands, Nöggerath and his company were pivotal to the film world in the Netherlands. He was one of the very first to show films in variety theatres, along with Frits van Haarlem and Carl Pfläging (a theatre owner in Rotterdam). Nöggerath, however, was not just a film exhibitor, he was also a trader and promoter of films.

Picture postcard of Variété Flora at Amstelstraat 20-28, Amsterdam.

Variety Theatres

In most of the Netherlands films were being screened at fairs, in travelling cinemas, but in major cities, film screenings regularly took place in variety theatres.

Nöggerath’s Film Studio in Sloten

In September 1911, Filmfabriek F.A. Nöggerath opened its own film studio on the Sloterdijk in Amsterdam.

Feestelijk bezoek van H.M. de koningin Wilhelmina aan Rotterdam (NL, Emile Lauste, 1899)

The Oldest Dutch Films in the Eye Archives

The vast majority of films made in the first decennia of film history are lost.

Picture postcard of an advertisement for Jean Desmet's Rotterdam cinema Parisien, circa 1912.

The Rise of Distribution

The emergence of a distributor acting as an intermediary between producer and exhibitor was a fundamental change in Dutch film screening practices.