Bornholmer Strasse (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bornholmer Strasse |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christian Schwochow |
| script |
Heide Schwochow , Rainer Schwochow |
| production |
Benjamin Benedict , Nico Hofmann |
| music | Daniel Sus |
| camera | Frank Lamm |
| cut | Jens Klüber |
| occupation | |
| |
The film Bornholmer Strasse is a German tragic comedy directed by Christian Schwochow from 2014 . It shows the last hours before the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing from the perspective of Commander Harald Schäfer. Schäfer is modeled on the commander Harald Jäger , who headed the border crossing at the time and ordered the border to be opened. The script largely follows the actual events.
Das Erste broadcast the film for the first time on November 5, 2014, a few days before the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The film was also broadcast on the 25th day of German reunification on October 3, 2015. The film was also broadcast on the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2019.
action
On the evening of November 9, 1989, the border guards at the border crossing under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Harald Schäfer prepare for normal night duty. The apparent high point of the night shift is a West-East “border violator”: a dog whose picking up becomes an administrative act.
Over dinner in the canteen - the border guards have set themselves up for a quiet night shift - they watch the press conference live with Günter Schabowski on GDR television , in which he says that it is now possible with the new travel regulations to look (relatively) uncomplicated to leave the GDR - this regulation comes into force immediately. Schäfer then telephones his superior Stasi Colonel, who insists on the old visa requirement, but asks whether people have already appeared at the border.
In the hours that followed, more and more GDR citizens gathered in front of the barrier at the crossing point, demanding louder and louder for the opening. Harald Schäfer consults with his officers, abandoned by his superior, meanwhile drunk, in spite of several phone calls in which he repeatedly demands an order . But these, partly true to the line, partly completely overwhelmed themselves, also seem to have no solution and remain vague or even completely silent. The exception is a captain who wants to enforce the use of the "Lilly" Dragunow sniper rifle, which Schäfer prevents.
During a phone call with the Stasi Colonel and his superior general, the question arises whether Schäfer could really assess the situation at all or whether his pants are full. Schäfer, who overhears the conversation, bursts his collar and holds the telephone receiver out of the window - both the intoxicated Stasi Colonel and the general in charge of him are shocked to discover that the situation has completely slipped away from them. After Schäfer has picked up the phone again, he is shocked to find that his superior and the general have hastily hung up. He now understands that his superiors are completely abandoning him.
Schäfer therefore has to act independently: Although he is not entitled to do so, he calls all available men to serve - but due to the special circumstances at the border, only a few people get through. For the first time in his professional life he showed initiative as a border guard.
When one of the officers tries to distribute machine guns, Schäfer whistles back at him. And when a young border soldier threatened those wishing to leave the country with a pistol, the commander prevented bloodshed and immediately ordered him to be on duty in the building.
Only after 10 p.m. did the border guards finally receive the longed-for order from the Stasi Colonel: As part of a "valve solution", the loudest protesters were to be allowed through, but their IDs would be invalidated by stamping the passport photo and the people would be secretly expatriated. This tactic does not work, however, because it only incites the rest of the crowd more and at the same time some expatriates want to re-enter the GDR. So Harald Schäfer makes the decision - which he finds difficult - to open the barrier and let all citizens through. It's after 11 p.m.
When the people poured past the border guards cheering, an officer told Schäfer that the GDR was now over. Last but not least, the owner of the dog appears, who was picked up as a "border violator" before the events.
After work, Schäfer goes home as usual, where his wife greets him. After getting breakfast, he tells her that he opened the border that night - but his wife merely replies that it is not a joke.
background
The ARD television film produced by Babelsberg's UFA Fiction for the 25th anniversary of the political turnaround depicts the events of the fall of the Wall on November 9th on Bornholmer Strasse in great detail. The figure "Lieutenant Colonel Harald Schäfer" is based on the historical figure Harald Jäger . The main actor met his historical role model several times in preparation. The script is based on the documentary The Man Who Opened the Wall. Why Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger refused the order and thus wrote world history . Its author Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg has a short appearance in the film as a West German television reporter. A camera team from Spiegel TV filmed the hours at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing point from the East Berlin perspective of those willing to travel up to the opening of the border, which is why the processes are particularly well documented. At the border crossing point Bornholmer Straße / Bösebrücke, the border was first opened to the general public, and only then did this also take place at other crossing points in Berlin.
reception
The film was mostly well received by the critics, for example in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . In retrospect, producer Nico Hofmann said that the work was celebrated with a standing ovation at the Munich Film Festival .
By contrast, praised Rheinische Post while Charly Hübner , of its main character, "Lieutenant Colonel Harald Schäfer so much depth (give), as it allows the script," and also the "strongest moments" of the film when the East Germans emotional "representation that can no longer be sent away ”into focus. Ulrich Matthes in particular shines "as a colonel in the SED headquarters on the verge of madness." The paper complained above all:
“For some inexplicable reason, Schwochow decided to tell the dramatic night at the border facility as a tragic comedy. He would have been better off sticking to the real thriller that was going on. (... He) could not or would not be satisfied with the historic steep draft. And so, in his film, the GDR border guards are degraded to a troop of dumb dilettantes and knockers who have nothing threatening about them. (...) The then very real danger that the machine gun would have been aimed at civilians is corrupted. The attitude of the film, which underlines the clumsy actions of the helpless border guards with silly music, is strange. "
“With the tragic comedy 'Bornholmer Straße', […] director Christian Schwochow shot the gentlest and at the same time riskiest TV film about the opening of the Wall in the last 25 years. Schwochow is an expert on the idylls of the GDR that disappeared with reunification. For the real ones, but of course also the wrong ones. "
Audience ratings
The first broadcast of Bornholmer Strasse on November 5, 2014 was seen by 6.99 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 21.5% for Das Erste .
Awards
- 2014: Bambi in the TV Event of the Year category
Theater version
After the script of Heath and Rainer Schwochow and the 2014 film adaptation made by Christian Schwochow formed Jörg Steinberg , a theater version, which he at the 13 November 2015 hall spectacle new theater / in Halle (Saale) to premiere brought.
Web links
- Bornholmer Strasse in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Photos from the shooting on filmfotos-berlin.de , accessed on December 17, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Bornholmer Straße . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2014 (PDF; test number: 146 175 V).
- ↑ Lena Bopp: Who is responsible for that? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 5, 2014, accessed November 7, 2014 .
- ↑ Caroline Bock: The fall of the wall from the point of view of the border guards - the tragic comedy “Bornholmer Strasse” illuminates a historic night of duty . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . November 5, 2014, p. 14 ( [1] ). Available online for a fee ( Memento from November 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Rena Lehmann: The GDR border guards as joke characters. In: Rheinische Post . November 5, 2014, accessed November 12, 2014 .
- ↑ Christian repentance: turning comedy "Bornholmer Strasse". The lieutenant colonel is constipated. In: Culture. Spiegel Online, November 6, 2014, accessed November 18, 2017 .
- ↑ Sidney Schering: Primetime Check: Wednesday, November 5, 2014.quotemeter.de , October 6, 2014, accessed on October 6, 2014 .