Moving Republic of Germany

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Movie
Original title Moving Republic of Germany
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 4 × 45 minutes
Rod
Director Thomas von Steinaecker
script Thomas von Steinaecker
production Norbert Busè
camera René Gorski
occupation

Günter Grass , Daniel Kehlmann , Roger Willemsen , Volker Schlöndorff , Christian Petzold , Dirk von Lowtzow , Herbert Grönemeyer , Uschi Glas and Dieter Birr from the Puhdys

Moving Republic of Germany is a four-part documentary film series by Thomas von Steinaecker , produced by Studio.TV.Film , which was broadcast on 3sat on December 8 and 10, 2014 from 8:15 p.m.

action

The series spans 70 years of German cultural history. In it, von Steinaecker particularly sheds light on the role of the arts, from literature, music and film to dance and theater to the visual arts. The four parts build a bridge between the cultural and historical development of Germany from the post-war period to the present day and examine what art and culture can achieve in the past and present. For this purpose, prominent minds and artists from different generations are interviewed. a. Günter Grass , Daniel Kehlmann , Roger Willemsen , Volker Schlöndorff , Christian Petzold , Dirk von Lowtzow , Herbert Grönemeyer , Uschi Glas and Dieter Birr from the Puhdys .

Guilt and Miracles (1945–1965)

The first part, Schuld und Wunder (1945–1965) is devoted to the period of reconstruction in post-war Germany that was destroyed until the mid-1960s. He interprets the success of the Heimatfilm genre and the multitude of apolitical comedies as a cultural displacement mechanism in post-war Germany. A film like Schwarzwaldmädel attracted 16 million people to the cinemas in 1950. While one tolerates that the personnel in the political and cultural structures of the FRG differs little from the Nazi dictatorship, one tries to divert attention from the horror of the Nazi ideology and to think back to the unencumbered German classical music. But the film also refers to a new artistic avant-garde that is showing at the Documenta Kassel and the studios for electronic music in Cologne. The film locates the Ulm School of Design and Group 47 as new, intellectual centers that stimulate new discourses. The young writer Günter Grass began to present his literature to the public among young writers. The documentary places the topic of coming to terms with the past in the cinema and theater, which plead for an open discussion. Bernhard Wickis Die Brücke (1959) and Peter Weiss ' The Investigation (1965) deal for the first time with the German question of guilt. A new, open dialogue about the German past begins.

To the gun, honey (1962–1983)

Part two of the series Moving Republic of Germany bears the ironic title Zur Waffen, Schätze and deals with two decades of German culture that are shaped by a generation that did not experience the war itself. The self-confident 68 generation is not only developing a new critical awareness and denouncing the encrusted structures of the civil servant state of Germany. It is also a youth culture that did not exist in Germany before. The film sees a cultural potential in the emerging German protest movement. B. becomes visible through the Spiegel affair of 1962. Von Steinaecker suggests u. a. a bridge to the new German film. Directors like Alexander Kluge and Peter Handke rebel against “Grandpa's Cinema” with their films. Bands such as the Can group, influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen and the electronic avant-garde, establish the new music genre Krautrock and give German pop music a new direction. Joseph Beuys draws attention to himself with his action art. Even beyond the student protest movement, the film tells of the crumbling of the bourgeois facade. The sexual liberation that the hippies proclaim is also addressed to a middle-class audience in films such as Zur Ding, Schätze (1968) with Uschi Glas and the schoolgirl report series .

The music of Hans Werner Henze and the literature of Heinrich Böll are just as much a part of the protest movement as Volker Schlöndorff and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films or the students who take to the streets and whose fight against the Adenauer government perceived as reactionary is escalating in the RAF terror. The filmmaker sees the revolutionary spirit of the 1968 movement reflected in a changed public awareness until the 1980s. The Green Party is founded. The masses take to the streets. Johannes Mario Simmel's bestsellers are just as much part of the public discourse as debates about disarmament and environmental protection.

Heaven divided (1949–1989)

The third part of the documentary film series deals with a different Germany. Where ideological influences on the West German side appeared less obvious, there was a clear ideological timetable in the GDR . Divided Heaven 1949–1989 tries to compare the systems between FRG and GDR culture and deals with the role that the arts played in this dictatorship. The film also begins in the east in the post-war period, when many exiles initially return to what they consider to be a “better Germany”. Intellectuals such as Bertolt Brecht , Hanns Eisler , Christa Wolf and Heiner Müller see the GDR as a state test arrangement in whose basic idea they believe. As a spiritual staple, art is at the top of the state agenda. The density of theaters in the GDR alone is in no way inferior to that of the FRG. The Berliner Ensemble becomes the artistic home of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel . And DEFA also continuously produces cinematographically high-quality film and television entertainment, some of which are in competition with the BRD entertainment industry. For example, the film compares DEFA's East German Indian films with the West German Karl May films.

The subject is also the constraints that artists in the GDR were exposed to. With the Bitterfelder Weg , the GDR is starting an attempt to emancipate from the cultural dominance of its big brother, the Soviet Union , towards its own “socialist national culture”. Not only is literary censorship tightened, cinematic masterpieces such as Frank Beyer's Trace of Stones are also banned. In addition, various rock bands are banned from performing . The 1973 World Youth Festival in East Berlin was an exception and contributed to a brief relaxation phase, but with the expatriation of the songwriter Wolf Biermann , even artists protested who had previously been loyal to the state. Professional bans followed, as well as numerous imprisonments. The documentary film traces the decline of a socialist utopia that is turning its back on artists such as Nina Hagen , Manfred Krug and Katharina Thalbach .

The Germany Machine (1989-2014)

Part four of the series Moving Republic of Germany attempts to determine the cultural position in today's Germany. Characterized by a new German lightness, the capital Berlin attracts everyone. Pop literature, techno culture and VIVA shape the 1990s. In the film, von Steinaecker describes the trivialization of German history and memory culture through infotainment. B. Christoph Schlingensief repeatedly comments publicly with his action art. On the other hand, the filmmaker looks to the former East, where the treasures of GDR culture are wiped out by the market economy without any awareness of their value and the economic problems to which the East German population is exposed are isolated in a wave of Ostalgie or as in Rostock-Lichtenhagen is reflected in xenophobia. Overcoming the internal divide of officially reunified Germany is a long process that is marked by great efforts and prejudices. In spite of everything, an all-German reality is breaking through in the arts. In the Berlin school von Steinaecker sees a cinematic movement attempting to find new images for Germany. Berlin artists and cultural workers such as the choreographer Sasha Waltz , Tom Tykwer , the young painters of the Leipzig School , the Nobel Prize winners Günter Grass and Herta Müller and even the former Ostrocker Rammstein attract the attention of the world. The engine of the Germany machine is running again, so von Steinaecker, but where the republic is going culturally remains open to the filmmaker in his critical assessment of the position.

reception

“(Thomas von Steinaecker) [...] shows Berlin 1945 once again, when a Russian soldiers' choir sang Schubert's Heideröslein among the rubble in front of thousands of moved people . When art moves us like that, von Steinaecker emphasizes in the end, then we move too. Art is the heart of our society. "(Heide-Marie Göbbel, kna - Catholic News Agency, Bonn)

“ 3sat gave itself a present for its 30th birthday with the Moving Republic of Germany . What could fit better with the small niche station than a documentary series on art and culture - both of which are essentially the core of the 3sat brand. And the broadcaster didn't mess with it, because the documentation is not only well-founded and at the same time extremely entertaining, it can also come up with many prominent contemporary witnesses. "(Sven Hauberg, teleschau - der mediendienst )

“It is almost unbelievable what treasures our film and television archives hold. And Steinaecker and the supervising editors are welcome to certify that their search energy and their success in finding were enormous. Hundreds of scenes from Group 47 to Joseph Beuys to Sasha Waltz or Tocotronic: Yes, the documentation here is indeed 'moving', often even moving. "(Jochen Hieber, FAZ , December 10, 2014)

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