From my childhood

Movie
Original title	From my childhood
Country of production	German Democratic Republic
original language	German
Publishing year	1975
length	81 minutes
Age rating	FSK / JMK 0
Rod
Director	Bernhard Stephan
script	Bernhardt Stephan, ; Wera Küchenmeister, ; Claus Küchenmeister, ; Volker Koepp
production	DEFA - studio for feature films
music	Gerhard Rosenfeld
camera	Otto Hanisch
cut	Brigitte Krex
occupation
	Michael Hundrieser : Ernst Thälmann ; Torsten Borawski : Karlchen; Norbert Christian : Thälmann's father; Barbara Adolph : Thälmann's mother; Johannes Wieke : Behr; Doris Thalmer : mother of Franz; Katrin Martin : Lina; Manfred Karge : Franz; Willi Schrade : gym teacher; Lothar Bellag : teacher; Bodo Schmidt: Landlord; Horst Pape: Uncle; Hartmut Puls: trade unionist; Mathias Kamm: Friedrich; Sabine Schulze: Thälmann's sister;

From my childhood there is a DEFA German feature film by Bernhard Stephan from 1975.

action

The film shows episodes from Ernst Thälmann's childhood and youth based on his diary entries. Ernst Thälmann is portrayed as a typical boy of his time who wanders through Hamburg with his friends . He has to help his father, who runs a trucking business as a small business owner, with his work and after graduating from school he joins his trucking company.

There is a dispute with his father about the amount of his wages and his casual way of dealing with money. Eventually Thälmann left his parents' house and got to know the misery prevailing in Hamburg, which brings hunger and homelessness with it, as well as the difficult everyday work of many citizens. With his friends and colleagues, he first came into contact with political ideas from which his later political work would develop.

production

Gerrit List was the production manager for the feature film. The production company was the DEFA studio for feature films in Potsdam-Babelsberg. A special feature of the feature film were the locations: not a single scene was shot in Hamburg, the actual location of Ernst Thälmann's childhood and youth. The shooting took place in downtown Schwerin , among other places . The Hamburg four-country fountain was recreated as an outdoor prop on the Schwerin old town market square . Jürgen Janitz was the outside prophet. The shooting for the trade union assembly took place at the post office building in the city center and in the Schwerin town hall , on the west bank of the Schwerin Pfaffenteich , the scenes “Hamburg greets the emperor” were staged on the promenade, another location was on Schwerin Lake in the sports fishing club hall Bornhövedstraße No. 101. Shooting also took place on the Baltic Sea.

Background, publication

The DEFA feature film from 1974/75 deals with the childhood and youth of the later workers' leader Ernst Thälmann. The original commission for the film was for a documentary about Ernst Thälmann. For the feature film, previously unknown material was made available to the public. The film primarily depicts the petty-bourgeois milieu in which Ernst Thälmann grew up.

The film premiered in Neubrandenburg . It also appeared in Italian and was also published in 1975 in Greece under the title Ta neanika mou hronia .

Web links

From my childhood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
From my childhood at filmportal.de
From my childhood at the DEFA Foundation

swell

From my childhood , program PROGRESS Film-Verleih 08/75 Berlin, Ag 500 203/74 (32 933).
SVZ , Schwerin, August 15, 1974, No. 193, page 8: The DEFA-Babelsberg "Gruppe Berlin" erects a fountain prop in Schwerin on the old town market square for its feature film shooting "From my childhood - Ernst Thälmanns".
A feature film about the young Thälmann ND-Archiv: Neues Deutschland from February 18, 1975, page 8.