[Demonstration in Dresden am 22. Januar 1990; Besichtigung in Dresdener Stasi-Objekt] [Ausschnitt]
anonymous
D
Film Archive
[Demonstration in Dresden am 22. Januar 1990; Besichtigung in Dresdener Stasi-Objekt] [Ausschnitt]
Credits
anonymous
An amateur film document in the midst of the political and social changes that were demanded, desired or feared since the opening of the inner-German border in November 1989. The uncertainty of that time seems to operate the filmmaker’s camera: shot from an awkward angle, trying to get a clear view but inexperienced and as yet unable to create a comprehensive picture, the speakers are to be captured on stage between banners and flags. There, prominent speakers explain their interpretation of the past and, to the enthusiastic applause of their listeners, make demands for the political design of the immediate future.
Konstantin Wiesinger
Konstantin Wiesinger
[Kolloquium Ausstellung „Zeitzeichen. Stationen Bildender Kunst in NRW“ am 11. November 1989 in Leipzig] [Ausschnitt]
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
[Kolloquium Ausstellung „Zeitzeichen. Stationen Bildender Kunst in NRW“ am 11. November 1989 in Leipzig] [Ausschnitt]
On the occasion of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a panel of renowned artists and art mediators in the GDR talk about the mutual pervasion of art and society in the GDR and the FRG. Among the panellists are the painters and professors Arno Rink and Wolfgang Mattheuer, both spokesmen for the Leipzig School renowned beyond the borders of the GDR, and Erhard Frommhold, publicist and former chief reader of Verlag der Kunst in Dresden. The interviewees reflect on their own biographies and attempt to give an outlook on the freedom of art under the auspices of the free market.
Konstantin Wiesinger
Konstantin Wiesinger
[Universitätskirche Leipzig, Sprengung 1968; Interview mit Manfred Köhler 1999]
The cinematographer Manfred Köhler talks about filming the controlled demolition of the Leipzig university church in 1968.
[Universitätskirche Leipzig, Sprengung 1968; Interview mit Manfred Köhler 1999]
Documentary Film
GDR
1968
11 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Manfred Köhler, Rudolf Etzold, Paul Pfingst
The cinematographer and television producer Manfred Köhler, who died in 2013 and was head of the “Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig” in the 1960s, talks with Stefan Gööck about the circumstances of filming the controlled demolition of the Leipzig university church in 1968. The master baker Rudolf Etzold from Schmölln is mentioned as a member of the team, the vocational school teacher Klaus Büttner developed the 16mm material, bypassing the DEFA lab – both of them members of the “Bezirksarbeitsgemeinschaft Amateurfilm Leipzig” (district amateur film association). Köhler cites the production of this material as proof that it was possible to not be taken in completely.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Brücke über den Strom
Manfred Kern
The border town of Frankfurt on the Oder is portrayed as symbolising central issues of a design of society and the state under socialist auspices.
Brücke über den Strom
Documentary Film
GDR
1969
21 minutes
subtitles:
No
Credits
Amateurfilmclub Frankfurt an der Oder
Manfred Kern
Detlev Mohr
Manfred Kern
The border town of Frankfurt on the Oder is portrayed as symbolising central issues of a design of society and the state under socialist auspices. The division of labour in the assembly line production at a semiconductor plant testifies to the transformation from agricultural to industrial economy. Anyone living in the GDR was expected, according to its self-conception as a civic collective, to contribute to this progress by a disciplined, committed and, for women, emancipated lifestyle. In foreign policy, the workers’ and peasants’ state stood for reconciliation with its Eastern neighbour, Poland. The collaboration of Polish and German female workers in the semiconductor plant illustrates this mission.
Konstantin Wiesinger
Konstantin Wiesinger
Czechoslovakia, the Year of Trials
Anatoliy Koloshin
A look back at the events of 1968 in Prague from a contemporary Soviet standpoint.
Czechoslovakia, the Year of Trials
Documentary Film
Soviet Union
1969
69 minutes
subtitles:
VO_German
A look back at the events of 1968 in Prague from a contemporary Soviet standpoint. Using international archive and newsreel footage, the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops is construed as a consequence of the Cold War.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Exkursion Thierbach
Invited by the SED district authorities and the council of the district of Leipzig, a group of Leipzig artists visited the newly-built brown coal power plant Thierbach in 1974.
Exkursion Thierbach
Credits
Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig
In socialist realism art was not meant to be an end in itself. It was expected to refer to the production of goods and the state of quota fulfilment. Invited by the SED district authorities and the council of the district of Leipzig, a group of Leipzig artists visited the newly-built brown coal power plant Thierbach in 1974, presented as the result of a “socialist economic integration” directed by Soviet specialists. The Leipzig Bezirksfilmstudio (district film studio), originally “Technisches Zentrum Amateurfilm” (technical amateur film centre) followed 40 painters, musicians, writers and “theatre makers”, including Wolfgang Mattheuer, Helmut Richter and Karl Kayser.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Frühe Fragmente: Funktionäre an der Basis
Two silent, black and white pieces of film material, preserved in (standard) 8mm format and screened in a version edited by the Saxon State Archive.
Frühe Fragmente: Funktionäre an der Basis
Documentary Film
GDR
1957
5 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Two silent, black and white pieces of film material, preserved in (standard) 8mm format and screened in a version edited by the Saxon State Archive. On 9 August 1957 Walter Ulbricht, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), welcomes Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, at the GDR agricultural fair in Markkleeberg near Leipzig. Around 1960 Otto Grotewohl, Prime Minister of the GDR, speaks to employees of the VEB (Publicly Owned Corporation) Steinkohlewerk (hard coal mine) “August Bebel” in Zwickau. In the following decade the miners were to be retrained and hard coal mining in the GDR closed down because the deposits were exhausted.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Gäste aus dem Kosmos
When Soviet cosmonauts toured the GDR yet again in 1977, the propaganda centred on East German space technology.
Gäste aus dem Kosmos
For many GDR citizens, the initial dominance of the USSR in the space race was a source of genuine enthusiasm for progress. However, circumstances were reversed when the US astronauts were the first to land on the moon in 1969. When Soviet cosmonauts toured the GDR yet again in 1977, the propaganda centred on East German space technology. Part of the visitors’ schedule in Leipzig was a visit to the ISKRA memorial in Russenstraße which commemorated the printing of Lenin’s first revolutionary newspaper. The 35mm film was obviously a secondary exploitation, professionally edited from various dupe negatives and with an added soundtrack. No positive is preserved.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Leipzig 1990 – Der Handelsplatz
The 1990 Leipzig spring fair took place at a time of critical junctures for Leipzig, Saxony and Germany.
Leipzig 1990 – Der Handelsplatz
Credits
DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme, Produktionsgruppe Video
The Berlin Wall has fallen, last elections to the People’s Chamber; the currency union and the Unification Treaty are still to come. The 1990 Leipzig spring fair took place at a time of critical junctures for Leipzig, Saxony and Germany. This location sound film features atmospheric images, documents conflicting political and economic expectations, hope and discouragement. In this DEFA video businessmen from the East and West speak up, but also a female pensioner whose neighbourhood is falling into ruin. Hans Modrow, who as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR had submitted the concept of “For Germany, our united fatherland”, takes a tour of the fair, accompanied by Johannes Rau, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck
Rowdys … werden nicht geboren, sondern erzogen! Nach Tatsachenmaterial hergestellt von einem Kollektiv des VPKA Leipzig
Amateurfilmkollektiv der Volkspolizei Leipzig
Rowdys … werden nicht geboren, sondern erzogen! Nach Tatsachenmaterial hergestellt von einem Kollektiv des VPKA Leipzig
Documentary Film
GDR
1958
14 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
The so-called “Rowdies” youth movement is portrayed in the style of wanted posters, using police photos and collage-like condensations of typical characteristics. Various scenes are used to illustrate the danger to society these youngsters represent. The text title “… that’s how it ends” demonstrates clearly the consequences of the behavioural problems depicted: criminal prosecution by the police and the judiciary. This is accompanied by pictures of the alleged masterminds and backers: contemporary FRG politicians. The film releases its audience with an appeal to the public headed by slogans like “education”, “work” and “structure”.
Konstantin Wiesinger
Konstantin Wiesinger
Wir begrüßen unsere Gäste zum Erntefest in der Kooperation Laas
Agriculture in the small town of Laas in the district of Oschatz was held up as an outstanding example in 1987 to spur less successful cooperatives and state-owned farms to higher performances.
Wir begrüßen unsere Gäste zum Erntefest in der Kooperation Laas
Credits
AGRA-Filmstudio
Agriculture in the small town of Laas in the district of Oschatz was held up as an outstanding example in 1987 to spur less successful cooperatives and state-owned farms to higher performances. The “University in the greens”, as the GDR agricultural fair AGRA in Leipzig-Markkleeberg styled itself, often followed this pattern to sell modern production methods, scientific findings and the latest agricultural technology to the farmers. This 35mm film, however, revolves around the master narrative of socialist agriculture. Amateur actors in the parade act out the liberation of concentration camp inmates by Soviet soldiers in 1945.
Stefan Gööck
Stefan Gööck