Discoveries from East Germany World Cinema

Short film intended for the mobilization of NVA units to secure the state border in Berlin on 13 August 1961.

The 15th "Paul Hornick" Tank Regiment Cottbus, a unit of the "Heinrich Rau" Air Wing in Trollenhagen and the People's Navy are presented. In addition to the introduction of the units and a biographical outline of the namesakes, the garrison towns of Rostock, Cottbus and Neubrandenburg are also presented - urban and economic development in the region as well as cultural life.

The East German Volksmarine Academy "Karl Liebknecht" introduces itself.

1971 documentary about the concentration camp Sachsenhausen commissioned for the National Memorial and Monument Sachsenhausen (GDR).

Zeitspiele is a playful satire about optimal time management in a company with countless side blows to the socialist planned economy.

Rainer Burmeister (director) tells a story about everyday working life of 46 young Mozambican people in the GDR who were employed as contract workers. Among them is 20-year-old Luisa, who worked in the mining industry and, like the others, is now training to be a craftswoman.

Till Eulenspiegel works as a journeyman for a baker in Braunschweig who is not very kind to his staff or his customers. Now the master gets his comeuppance, because Till follows his employer's instructions all too literally, and instead of bread and rolls, there are only baked owls and guenons for sale in the morning.

On the occasion of the GDR Landeskulturgesetz (Law on the Conservation and Protection of the Environment), passed in 1970, the speaker explains the various aspects of environmental protection through vivid, visually pointed examples. The film repeatedly refers to the fundamental contradiction between exploitation and preservation of nature in a developed industrial state but is unable to resolve it.

“We no longer stand before a choice between peace and war, but between peace and annihilation (Brecht 1947)”, one of the posters in the Berlin Alexanderplatz underground station reads. In autumn 1981, the Berlin Art Academy had organised a poster competition on the subject of “Peace for the World”. The camera, and along with it the viewers, become waiters and observers.

This historically relevant documentation about the Lusatian original Gerhard "Gundi" Gundermann, who was received ambivalently at his time, is a truthful, unfalsified contemporary document, both about the folk song singer and excavator driver himself, as well as about the realities of the time within still existing GDR. His actual quality and significance to this day is evident in the timelessness of his profound songs and lyrics, also written for other artists, in their universality and the poetic power of various interpretations.

GDR documentary from the 1980s about the former district of Leipzig. The film goes beyond the city limits of Leipzig and conveys impressions of interesting buildings, typical businesses and unique landscapes outside the city gates of the trade fair metropolis. This film takes us beyond the city limits of Leipzig, into the GDR district of the same name. It conveys impressions from outside the city gates of the trade fair metropolis. Interesting buildings, businesses and landscapes, the historical and the contemporary form the basis of this multifaceted film kaleidoscope.

A mother hedgehog lives in the forest with her seven sons. Two of them fall down a slope; one is eaten by an owl, the other is found after hibernation by a forester who takes it home with him.

Rowing rider Klas Miggelsen is upset because his coach Breiting puts him in a boat together with amateur Heiner , How should he ever celebrate sporting successes with the beginner?

In this film about apprentices of the Rewatex laundry, Böttcher once again turns to the focal concern of almost all his films the attempt to report as truthfully and impressibly as possible on the life of workers. Böttcher takes the audience into the midst of a seemingly unknown environment only to let them realize how familiar this world in fact is.

GDR propaganda short

GDR propaganda short promoting waste steel collection

This documentary explores the life and controversial death of Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer, a close friend of President Gamal Abdel Nasser and once considered the second most powerful man in Egypt. Although his death was officially ruled a suicide after the 1967 defeat, the film presents evidence and testimonies that suggest he may have been assassinated. Through historical analysis and rare archival material, it sheds light on one of Egypt’s most debated political mysteries.

The film shows a workday of a garbage truck with garbage men on their tour through Prenzlauer Berg, especially in the area around Kollwitzplatz.

Chicken Gock and the mice Singeschön and Springeschön want to celebrate a sports festival. It is to begin with a big race. At the starting line are a scooter and a tricycle for the mice and a little cart for the rooster. But since the mice feel like they are going to win from the outset, they don't try very hard, and the rooster wins.

Accompanied by fast-paced editing and pop music, a young GDR citizen explains that even in rural areas the latest in literature can be enjoyed without a problem. Shipping is quick and easy, everything can be found in the extensive catalogues of Buchhaus Leipzig! All you need to do is send a postcard. One of seven films in the “Buchhaus Leipzig” collection at the Leipzig State Archive.

Actor Manfred Krug reports on winter sports in the GDR. Numerous topics are covered in short segments: promoting young talent in winter sports, training young figure skaters at SC Karl-Marx-Stadt, coach Schellhorn, young talents Romy Kerner and Tassilo Thierbach, presenter Manfred Krug interviews Gaby Seifert, ski jumping in Oberhof, ski jumper Dieter Neuendorf, young talent in alpine disciplines, Spartakiade in Oberhof, Jutta Müller briefly on screen, ice hockey, and cross-country skiing.

The film shows images of the "Solidarity" vacation home in Oberhof.

An adaptation based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe.

The animated film, created as a puppet and clay animation with a drawn and painted backdrop, shows a day in the life of a painter. He drives to the countryside in his sports car, paints a landscape motif, returns to the city - and hangs his painting in an exhibition.

Shortly before the end of WWII, two young soldiers were murdered directly behind Goethe's garden house in Weimar. The place where our greatest German poets worked was also a place of a concentration camp.

The film by Uwe Belz shows Krug in his major roles in films, as a performer as a jazz singer, and as a private person.

A portrait of the Islamic Museum in Berlin, now the Museum of Islamic Art in the Pergamon Museum. One of its most famous exhibits is the Jordanian desert castle Mshatta. With footage from Islamic countries, maps and exhibits from the museum, the film traces the history and the various forms of art of this world religion.

Short film about the production of artificial leather

short feature film

The film honors the achievements of the NVA in preparing and securing the World Festival. It documents the opening, the demonstrations of the GDR youth, a military concert and a meeting at the memorial in Treptow.

The GDR is disarming and NVA tanks and aircraft are being scrapped. Members of the army have their say.

Experiments and interviews are used in order to illustrate the special duties of care when raising children with regard to their behavior in road traffic.

East German short documentary by Lutz Schütze

The founding phase of the Bauhaus in Weimar and its move to Dessau until its closure in 1932. The designs, models and reconstructed parts of the Bauhaus building in Dessau are shown with calm camera work and beautiful editing sequences. The clear lines and basic ideas of the architecture and the everyday objects presented, such as lighting and seating, show the practical and functional applications of 1920s design.

All sorts of shenanigans happen at the East German army's recreation home.

This color documentary reports on young Chilean pioneers in the capital of the GDR. We experience the development of their pioneer newspaper from the first ideas to the printed new edition. Pictures by the Chilean painter César Olhagaray depict the struggle for freedom and the hopes of the Chileans, accompanied by excerpts from Pablo Neruda's "The Great Song" (Canto General).

Ingeborg Tölke recaps her filmic biography, explains its elaborate technical conditions and talks about future core themes. She was presumably responsible for several short intermission films for Deutscher Fernsehfunk as well as a commissioned educational film. Until old age, she explored the possibilities of macro shots and time-lapse technology, which became her trademark.

A fairytale by the Brothers Grimm.

Documentary film footage of ground personnel starting the propeller of an American B-17 bomber is repeated in a tightly edited, rhythmic structure. The obsessive fragmentation of the young soldiers lifting the propellers renders their action an exercise in frustration; A study in memetic repetition by Klaus vom Bruch.

A hard-hearted nobleman chases away all of his aged servants. Only one thresher manages to stay in service. However, he cannot do the required work without outside help. He receives help from an old, frail journeyman who only asks the nobleman for what he can carry on his back. The newly hired servant turns out to be the devil, who of course completes the work in no time at all and carries the entire harvest away on his back, along with the bull and the nobleman.