Which came first, the “benshi” or the “byunsha”?

[Sarah Frederick]

This novel is about "benshi" in Germany.  The translation is readily available:

Hofmann, Gert.? Kinoerz?hler. English? The film explainer / Gert 
Hofmann ; translated from the German by Michael Hofmann.  Imprint 
Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press 1996.
-- 
Sarah Frederick
Assistant Professor of Japanese
Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
Boston University
718 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
(617)353-6232