East Germany Film: History of DEFA
These films are included in Hans-Micheal Bock's article in The Oxford History of World Cinema whose editor is Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.
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- DirectorWolfgang StaudteStarsHildegard KnefElly BurgmerErna SellmerAfter returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.
- DirectorFalk HarnackStarsErwin GeschonneckKäthe BraunGefion HelmkeAfter a crime is committed during the Nazi era in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, the aspiring local leader, a ship owner, needs to find an executioner to kill the perpetrators and turns to a butcher.
- DirectorKurt MaetzigStarsPaul KlingerIlse SteppatAlfred BalthoffIn Nazi Germany actor Hans refuses to divorce his Jewish wife Elisabeth. He is threatened to be drafted and sent to the front while she will be deported to a concentration camp. Desperate, Hans decides that suicide is their only way out.
- DirectorErich EngelStarsHans Christian BlechErnst WaldowPaul BildtThis early postwar suspense story, based on a well-known 1926 murder trial with Dreyfus-like overtones also represents an East German reflection on Nazism. Dr. Blum, a Jewish manufacturer living in Germany, is falsely accused of killing his booker. Even when the real killer's identity becomes evident, the state prosecutor refuses to accept Blum's innocence. The film explores German reaction to the trial and investigates the relationship between the legal system, antisemitism, and fascism, providing insight into the historical context that allowed Nazism to flourish.
- DirectorWolfgang StaudteStarsWerner PetersPaul EsserRenate FischerDiederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...
- DirectorKurt MaetzigStarsGünther SimonHans-Peter MinettiKarla RunkehlThe second part of the Ernst Thälmann films encompasses the time period between 1930 and Thälmann's murder in 1944. It shows Thälmann's battle to achieve a united front with all German workers against the National Socialists, his arrest following Hitler's seizure of power and the eleven years of his incarceration, in which he is unwavering in his beliefs until his death. An attempt to free him on the part of his comrades ends disastrously, and a corrupt offer of freedom from Göring himself receives Thälmann's refusal. He must also witness how his brave fellow Socialist Aenne Jansen in the women's prison across from his tragically loses her life during a bombing raid. The second primary character of the film is Aenne's husband Fiete Jansen, who already proved his loyalty to Thälmann's side as a friend and fighter in the first part. As the commander of the Thälmann Battalion, he fights in Spain on the side of the people and later in the ranks of the Red Army toward a speedy end to the war against Fascism.
- DirectorKurt MaetzigStarsGünther SimonHans-Peter MinettiErich FranzThis historical-biographical film begins in the first days of November 1918 on the western front. News comes to the soldiers of a revolutionary uprising in Kiel. Young Thälmann, a soldier against his will, would like to join the expanding conflict on the side of his comrades in Hamburg. As the revolution becomes threatened by the betrayal of the right-wing Social Democrats and the splintering of the working class, he nevertheless tries unremittingly to unite the workers. The reactionaries grow ever stronger and the neediness of ordinary people multiplies. In this dire situation, the Hamburg police commissioner would like to block the unloading of a ship full of provisions that were sent from Petrograd as a message of solidarity. But Thälmann prevails in unloading it. The high point and conclusion of the first part of the Thälmann films is established at the Hamburg Uprising in October 1923.
- DirectorMartin HellbergStarsWolf KaiserOtto MelliesMarion van de KampFerdinand is an army major and son of President von Walter; Luise Miller is the daughter of a middle-class musician. When they fall in love, their fathers urge them to end their relationship.
- DirectorGérard PhilipeJoris IvensStarsGérard PhilipeJean VilarFernand LedouxTyll Ulenspiegel's adventures fighting the Spanish lead by the duke of Alba.French co-production
- DirectorMartin HellbergStarsMarita BöhmeOtto MelliesChristel BodensteinThis film takes place during the Seven Years' War. The Prussian Major von Tellheim has become engaged to the Saxon noblewoman Minna von Barnhelm. After the war, the King - in an unwarranted move - deprives the major of his honor. Von Tellheim becomes impoverished and, filled with shame, breaks off his relationship to Minna. An innkeeper in Berlin, who is a police informer, makes the Major move to a shabby little attic because he cannot pay his debt. In the meantime, Minna has also arrived at the inn. She and her lady's maid Franziska are questioned and spied on by the nosy innkeeper. Minna has followed her beloved Tellheim and she now cunningly manages to elicit a new declaration of love from him. Because he is so focused on maintaining his honor she keeps him in suspense for quite a while before telling him that the King has reinstated him. Minna and Tellheim become a happy couple and Franziska, too, finds the love of her life - Werner, a sergeant. A sweeping story of love, pride and betrayal. Based on the drama by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
- DirectorAlfred WeidenmannStarsLiselotte PulverHansjörg FelmyNadja TillerFirst part of two of the saga of the troubled Buddenbrook family and their business in mid-19th-century Germany.West-Germany co-production
- DirectorAlfred WeidenmannStarsLiselotte PulverNadja TillerHansjörg FelmySecond part of two of the saga of the troubled Buddenbrook family and their business in 19th-century Germany.West-Germany co-production
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsJaecki SchwarzVasiliy LivanovAleksey EybozhenkoGregor Hecker, who fled Germany with his parents, returns to Germany as a lieutenant in the Red Army.
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsUlrike von ZerboniGünther SimonErwin GeschonneckPeople are sent off to a Soviet controlled uranium mine in 1950's Germany.
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsSasha KrusharskaJürgen FrohriepErik S. KleinThe tragic love of a Jewish girl and a Nazi officer is presented as a symbol of human purity defeated by fascism and racial prejudice.
- DirectorHeiner CarowStarsErnst-Georg SchwillAngelika HurwiczWilhelm Koch-HoogeA refugee from a Nazi concentration camp is discovered by some boys in WWII Berlin. They provide him with food and help him to continue his flight. Later one of the boys, the son of a communist, is charged with theft, arrested and sent to a concentration camp.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsErnst BuschErwin GeschonneckManfred KrugThe Spanish Civil War in the year 1936. Five brigadiers are singled out to stay behind in the Spanish Sierras and fend off the fascist enemy while the rest of the troops recede. They are supposed to rendezvous with a radio operator, but when they get to the meeting point there is nobody there. In search for the missing man, Kommissar Wittig is shot. Before his death he hands over a piece of paper with an important message which the remaining men have to transport across enemy lines. The paper is torn into five pieces and each piece is hidden in a cartridge. An odyssey across the mountain desert begins - with constant fear of enemy fire and dehydration.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsAnnekathrin BürgerArmin Mueller-StahlUlrich TheinSet in the historical context of anti-Nazi resistance, this love story explores the moral issues of the period. Beyer's second antifascist film, it stands out stylistically due to the clear references to the work of Tarkovsky.
- DirectorGerhard KleinStarsIlse PagéEkkehard SchallHarry EngelThe story of a group of rebellious teens in East Berlin.
- DirectorGerhard KleinStarsHannjo HasseChristoph BeyerttWolfgang KalweitRe-enacted true story of successful assault by Nazis, posing as Poles, on a German border radio station so that Hitler could "justify" thereby his invasion of Poland.
- DirectorFrank VogelStarsArmin Mueller-StahlKati SzékelyUlrich TheinOn August 13th, 1961-the night that the Berlin Wall goes up-three people must make a decision that will change their lives forever.... Upon learning of the building of the Wall, the director and scriptwriter changed the story they were working on to center it on this historic event. For four months a small team filmed with mobile cameras on the streets of East Berlin, capturing both its ordinary life and the extraordinary atmosphere of the period with precision and humor. Although the Wall itself would later become a taboo subject for East German filmmakers, And Your Love Too deals openly with the topic. The role of the border guard was one of the first major parts played by Academy Award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl (Shine, Angels & Demons).
- DirectorKonrad WolfStarsRenate BlumeEberhard EscheHans Hardt-HardtloffIn 1961, Rita returns to her childhood village after a breakdown. As she recovers, she remembers the past two years: her love for chemist Manfred, 10 years her senior; his enthusiasm about his new chemical process, which turned to bitter disappointment in the face of rejection; his escape to West Berlin a few weeks before the Wall was built; and his hope that she would follow him. This East German classic, praised by critics as one of Germany's 100 Most Important Films, is based on Christa Wolf's internationally-known novel, criticized in the GDR for questioning the construction of the Wall. Produced during a brief cultural thaw in the early 1960s, this film was strongly influenced by French Nouvelle Vague cinema.
- DirectorFrank BeyerStarsErwin GeschonneckMarita BöhmeManja BehrensAfter the second World War, Dresden has a lot of reconstructing to do. To get the cigarette factory he once worked for running again, Kalle has to travel to Wittenberg - the only place where carbide can be found. Once there, Kalle finds himself in the unfortunate situation of having to hitchhike his way back to Dresden, transporting seven heavy barrels of carbide. However, his inventiveness and optimistic attitude help transform the grueling task into an adventurous, entertaining, and funny journey.
- DirectorGünther RückerStarsHorst DrindaLissy TempelhofHerwart GrosseIn 1945, Ernst Machner returns home from the war in his mid-20s. Tuche would like him to weave for a living, but his comrades persuade him to become a young teacher instead. This decision begins to pose demands on him, however. Machner takes his leave of Hilde Tamm, who had lovingly taken him in as a homecomer. As a classroom teacher working in small villages, he starts a career that constantly puts him in new locales and new challenging situations. At the beginning of the 50s, he becomes the director of a Gymnasium steeped in tradition. There, the "average" teacher and extensively bourgeois faculty have already rejected the "Reds" and headed to the West. Machner is no professional match for the departed teachers, but he learns the more he teaches. Soon, the outright rejection of the conservative students collapses under his attention and concentration. New assignments await him, but he is skeptical as whether or not he has grown enough to handle them. Nevertheless, Machner chooses to tackle the challenges.
- DirectorKurt MaetzigStarsAngelika WallerWolfgang WinklerAlfred MüllerThe Rabbit Is Me was made in 1965 to encourage discussion of the democratization of East German society. In it, a young student has an affair with a judge who once sentenced her brother for political reasons; she eventually confronts him with his opportunism and hypocrisy. It is a sardonic portrayal of the German Democratic Republic's judicial system and its social implications. The film was banned by officials as an anti-socialist, pessimistic and revisionist attack on the state. It henceforth lent its name to all the banned films of 1965, which became known as the "Rabbit Films." After its release in 1990, The Rabbit Is Me earned critical praise as one of the most important and courageous works ever made in East Germany. It was screened at The Museum of Modern Art in 2005 as part of the film series Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany.