Discoveries from East Germany World Cinema

A film poster advertises 100 years of cinema in 1995. When cracks open in the wall, typical characteristics of Charlie Chaplin spring out and combine themselves to make a portrait of the famous film artist.

11-year-old René loves his Punch and Judy puppets and dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher - a dream for which he is often ridiculed and even his father shows little understanding. Deeply hurt, he withdraws and finds solace in the children's home, where he plays stories to the young children with his puppets.

The Nikolaikirche is the oldest building in Berlin. The reconstruction of this building in 1981 marked the beginning of the reconstruction of the historic heart of Berlin. The film shows the work on the Nikolaikirche, the Ephraim-Palais and the equestrian statue of St. George and describes how the restoration was carried out in painstaking detail, using almost forgotten craftsmanship. In 1987, the reconstructed quarter with its mixture of old and new was handed over to the people of Berlin.

A polemical report. "Way to the neighbors" is the motto of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. In their "Remarks on the Oberhausen 66 Film Festival," the GDR documentarians Gerhard Scheumann and Walter Heynowski take the competition selection to task: They see formal experiments as "excesses on the big screen" and instead of political themes, they discover a "surge of perversity." After her own film "Kommando 52" was rejected by the festival, a criminal complaint by the GDR lawyer Friedrich-Karl Kaul against the mercenary and commander "Kongo-Müller" is the focus of a press conference. The refusal of a cinema owner to show the film was a "hint from the neighbors", the neighboring public order office, and therefore state censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kollwitzplatz, Prenzlauer Berg: Children are playing and climbing all over the monument to Käthe Kollwitz, frowning adults are watching them. What would Gustav Seitz, the creator of the sculpture, say? Christa Mühl has asked him but reveals his answer only when the adults have finally disappeared. Until then, she constructs explosive matter as light as a feather, set to Belgian cembalo jazz and with the perky montage style that characterises her early documentary work. After Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler himself had the most controversial scene cut, the film could be broadcast on television and triggered a lively discussion about the practical value of art.

The country is portrayed before and after the storm of the military to the government palace “La Moneda” when Salvador Allende is killed and the directors discover the implications of American companies that were involved in the political developments.

A statue, with outstretched arm pointing “forward,” is unveiled to thunderous applause. Then one day it points the other way. Once again, thunderous applause!

A man meets a yellow dog. They play with one another, and the man turns yellow. This doesn’t please a blue dog. The silhouette films by Bruno J. Böttge continue with and further develop the silhouette films by Lotte Reiniger.

The little dog Nero looks around inquisitively in a world that is still somewhat foreign to him. He doesn't really know who or what he is and wants to have everything he admires in others. Only when the fox intrudes does Nero come to his senses.

It's the holidays and a German freighter captain takes his whole family - his wife, ten-year-old Klaus and five-year-old Andrea - on a cruise to Czechoslovakia. The children have secretly smuggled Jackie the Fox Terrier aboard...

On the table, the pencil is resting from his work. A hungry mouse discovers him on her foray. She threatens the pencil to gnaw him if he does not get her something to eat. In his distress, the pen begins to draw and paints various goodies. When the mouse greedily wants to get over it, the pencil connects the drawn figures to a cat with a few strokes. The mouse squeals in horror and flees.

Uli has found an old book in the attic of the Kulturhaus that tells of the exploitation of the peasants by the feudal lords. He tries to imagine how the robber barons would fare in a socialist village. Then two of this type step out of a dusty picture and Uli joins them on their way to the village. There they fail miserably with their overbearing behavior, and even a break-in turns into a failure.

East German documentary about the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

A group of drummers from various backgrounds gather together for a special performance.

Documentary film

Grand Central Station, New York - the town's landmark. The camera captures impressions within 24 hours.

The women’s committees in the GDR factories promote the technical and ideological-political qualification of female staff members. However, the film identifies deficits in the women’s private environment, since the men by their side often support their professional development only to a limited extent and the women’s multiple responsibilities persist despite state support.

How young people were manipulated to join the war during the Imperial Era.

With films including the 'rubble woman' portrait Martha, the three-part experimental film cycle Potter's Stier, Venus nach Giorgione and Frau am Klavichord, the portrait of the artist Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner, and also the documentaries Rangierer and Die Küche, noted for their outstanding sound and visuals, Jürgen Böttcher distances himself yet further from the didactic tone and abstract heroic representation of socialist films.

Presentation of a commited State Party secretary at the Chemicals Combine in Buna. A former miner and small farmer rises to a leading political position.

When the Nazis took power, the Jewish artist Leo Haas (1901-1983) was arrested in his Czechoslovakian hometown. He spent the next six years in different concentration camps and became known for the paintings he did in the Theresienstadt camp. This film presents Haas as a political artist and resistance fighter and celebrates him as a socialist caricaturist dedicated to the GDR.

Documentary short to propagate the positive effects of labour protection laws.

Die Novemberrevolution 1918 (The November Revolution 1918) (1956) is a short East German documentary directed by Andrew and Annelie Thorndike. Produced by DEFA, the 6-minute film explores the pivotal events of the November Revolution, which led to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. Using historical footage, it examines the socio-political upheavals in Germany at the end of World War I, offering a concise yet impactful portrayal of this transformative period in German history.

A girl is sitting in the garden doing schoolwork and is distracted by butterflies flying around. She throws away her pen and runs after the butterflies. Meanwhile, a little ink devil forms at the tip of the quill and gets up to all sorts of mischief.

Documentary about the brothers Skladanowsky and their first films.

The well-known illustrator Werner Klemke uses his drawings to teach the youngest bookworms about the value of reading. Taking this as a starting point, Lotte Thiel presents the GDR as a land of books whose capital is Leipzig. Figures and images from the 1971 International Book Art Exhibition underscore the significance accorded to books as a tool for shaping the “socialist personality”.

From the union of different characters, bizarre mythical creatures finally populate the screen.

Holidays in colony (in Thuringia and on the Baltic) of the children of workers of a chemical industry in the DDR.

Meta Morfoss is not only a child with fantasy, she can also transform herself into an angel or crocodile. Often, she gets into strange situations and people around Meta react both negatively and positively.

At the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost an der Oder, a new blast furnace is being moved to replace a burnt-out one. 2000 tons have to be moved 18 meters: Three times we hear it in the commentary. Master Klaus is now in command. His orders are to be obeyed at all costs. Men at work: tense faces, examining hands, the sound of screeching winds and steel cables stretched to breaking point. Everything is going well, and it is a new best performance: The downtime of the plant has been reduced from 80 to 40 days, the commentary says.

East German short documentary

In 1987, after over ten years of work, Werner Tübke (1929-2004), one of East Germany’s most important painters, completed the monumental, oil-on-canvas painting The Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany. Painted in the Renaissance styles of Albrecht Dürer and Albrecht Altdorfer, the painting—measuring 14 meters high and 123 meters wide—is in the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, the site of the last battle of the German Peasants’ War. The museum was specifically built for the painting, one of the most figurative in recent art history.Interspersed with interviews with the artist, the documentary follows the complicated and elaborate creation of the monumental work, from signing the contract in 1976 to the last brush stroke on September 11, 1987. In 2011, the Panorama Museum was awarded the European Seal of Cultural Heritage.

An enumeration of various ways by which the public might react to a film projection.

A polemical report on wealthy German-speaking residents of Namibia who revel in memories of the colonial era and support the apartheid policy of racial segregation. In contrast, the film depicts the miserable living conditions of the indigenous population, who sell their labor to white people for meager wages to ensure the survival of their families crammed together in reservations.

A girl stands alone at the window after a night of love, which is the end of the relationship with a guy, and thinks about the past time with the boyfriend. She remembers the beautiful moments and decides not to despair and dare to make a fresh start.

When Jacques Offenbach's melodies are heard, the delighted audience usually asks very little about the man who inspired the great composer with his texts and fable sketches, namely the librettist Ludovic Halévy, who stood in the master's shadow. He and his friend Meilhac came up with the story of 'Belle Helena', for example, at the very moment when the scandalous stories about the Empress Eugénie were being whispered in the Parisian salons. 'Pariser Leben', 'Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein', 'La Périchole', 'Die Banditen' and 'Orpheus in der Unterwelt' are just a few of the works in which the French present of the Second Empire - around 100 years ago - was mocked with Offenbach-Halévy-like irreverence on the stage of the cheerful musical theater. And that's where we want to go now, among the wax figures of the Second Empire, which of course all, almost all, let's say around midnight, come to life.

Three military drivers are introduced. They bear a special responsibility in their collective and often fulfill a dual function.

Wheelus Air Base was once the largest American air base outside the USA itself. Ordered to be cleared by June 30th, 1970 by Libya’s Revolutionary Command Council.

Documentary film

Father's behavior towards his fellow human beings is thoughtless and without consideration. But when he gets into a difficult situation, the neighbors behave completely differently. Father recognizes himself.

Legal equality is one of the inalienable rights of GDR women.

Der Fall Harzmann und andere (The Harzmann Case and Others) (1957) is a 31-minute East German documentary directed by Andrew and Annelie Thorndike. Produced by DEFA, the film explores notable legal and judicial cases, likely examining political or social injustices within post-war Germany. Through documentary storytelling, it sheds light on the broader implications of these cases in the context of East German society. Released on August 14, 1957, the film continues the Thorndikes’ tradition of politically engaged documentary filmmaking.

A pretty mouse, gray as a pebble, comes into money, builds herself a cabbage house and looks around for a man. As she likes to sing herself, she wants him to have a nice voice. She doesn't like sheep, frog and rooster, so she gives her favor to a tomcat. One day, when he gets to lick her blood, his appetite overcomes him. She manages to escape - and they have lived in enmity ever since.

Kochberg Castle was once owned by the von Stein family and Goethe visited Charlotte von Stein there several times. On the occasion of the "1000 years of Weimar" celebrations, the castle, which has been converted into a memorial, is being opened to the public. At the inauguration ceremony, students of the Weimar Academy of Music will give a large festive concert. On the basis of old engravings and personal letters and pictures the audience learns more about the relationship between Goethe and Charlotte von Stein.

In the courtyard of a royal castle stands a well from which the residents must fetch their water. The king is very displeased by this; what annoys him most is the farmhand Hans, who appears at the well every day, whistling a cheerful tune. The princess likes the tune and asks Hans to teach it to her. This drives the king’s anger to a fever pitch.

This documentary reports on the well-known winter sports resort of Oberhof in Thuringia and the "2nd Winter Sports Championships of the GDR" with thrilling competitions in downhill skiing, ski jumping, slalom, cross-country skiing, and bobsleigh racing.

Documentary film by Wolfgang Bartsch.

One day the meadow king notices that the grass has grown so high that he can no longer see over it. He investigates and finds out that the sheep have not come to graze, that the shepherd cannot work because he is hungry, that the farmer does not give the shepherd anything to eat because the mice are eating everything and that the cat does not want to chase the mice because they are so dirty. Then the king speaks a word of power...

Peter is a good football goalkeeper, but as much as his team can rely on him, he takes it so little exactly with his duties, with schoolwork and washing, for example. Of course, the fives literally grow over his head. They crawl out of the booklet and take Peter with them to the land of Fives. There he is naturalized and entered in the population register of the country of the lazy. Peter thinks it's wonderful here. He does not need to study and does not need to wash. However, over time, it bothers him that not only he is dirty, but the whole country is decaying, because no one works.