DDR - that's us

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Movie
Original title DDR - that's us
Country of production Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR German Democratic Republic
original language German
Publishing year 1967-1971
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director among others Armin Georgi , Wolfgang Bartsch
script among others Armin Georgi, Wolfgang Bartsch
music including Wolfgang Pietsch
camera including Peter Sbrzesny , Wolfgang Braumann

GDR - This is us is the title of an eight-part documentary film series by DEFA Studios for popular science films . The films describe the productivity of GDR citizens and their economy, as well as their significance for the development of society, under the influence of state-controlled socialism, using exemplary examples from everyday life. The style is based on a state-official or internal view. The comments, shaped by GDR dogmatism , convey a positive image of the GDR , for example in the manner of an image film . Each short film deals with three to four individual topics.

Social context of film production

The films were made from 1968, when the GDR had already walled itself in with the closure of the gap at the inner German border ( Berlin Wall , 1961) to prevent dissatisfied citizens from fleeing to the West, while the mood of optimism of the post-war period still persisted . The gradual economic reforms between 1963 and 1970 were intended to consolidate this development.

content

The focus of the topics dealt with is the presentation of the economic performance of the GDR companies, their research and automation in production, as well as international relations both with socialist countries (“our friends”) and with the capitalist West, the “others who definitely do not yet happy about the socialist state ”(Part 1). Exports to the United Arab Republic are not only about exporting machines, but also about distributing wealth in a society that has become independent and that no longer allows the conditions for cotton exports to be dictated, but rather with machines from the GDR could start production (episode 2). We are particularly proud of the research and automation of production processes (episodes 3 and 4) and plant engineering (episode 6) in the chemical industry. Agriculture and fishing are shown with the representation of cotton production abroad (part 2), the deep sea fishing (part 4) and the cultivation of wasteland (part 8).

It describes German masters such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Bertolt Brecht (episodes 1 and 3) and the opportunity to develop folk art with the help of his business. So under socialism the working person has become the most important art object, once suffering and oppressed under the social circumstances, today “the self-confident, creative person”. Using the example of the construction worker Willi Streicher, it is shown how companies support their employees in their artistic development. In Streicher's artistic work, “the strength and the attitude to life of a socialist person” is manifested (episode 5).

The restoration and preservation of historical building stock as well as evidence of human ingenuity is illustrated by three examples (Part 2): Evidence of early mechanization in agriculture and mining is shown from Freiberg , while here, as in Quedlinburg, the poor districts are contrasted with the buildings of the rich . Quedlinburg, which was once the metropolis of an early German state, paid hard for its medieval idyll with its petty-bourgeois narrowness. Stralsund stands for a happier development as a historically cosmopolitan trading center between East and West and "a defensive, cosmopolitan independence". Based on a quote from Brecht (“History may clear the table, but it shies away from the empty”), monument preservation is presented as a historical basis for looking to the future. The fact that the GDR often gave preference to the new building over the preservation of slums and testimonies of feudal or bourgeois splendid buildings and sacred buildings is only indirectly addressed with the help of Alexanderplatz and the television tower in Berlin. Here, the socialist society made it possible "to plan free from any speculation, ... to create spacious building ensembles" and to take future developments into account when building housing and solving traffic problems (Part 5).

Even Karl-Marx-Stadt , called formerly "Manchester of Saxony" or "soot Chemnitz", had been rebuilt along socialist lines. With the “strength of the workers who have always given this city its character”, a “little Paris” was created in addition to the production of textile machines and printing, booking and computing systems (episode 7), which continued until the end of the GDR has shaped the cityscape and history of the city. The New Palais in Potsdam-Sanssouci (part 7) and the electoral summer residence in Bad Lauchstädt (part 8) are examples of how the feudal splendor of bygone times is made available to the citizens. Spa facilities, pavilions, gardens, ballet and theater should be available to everyone in the workers 'and peasants' state. The manufacture of Meissen porcelain is given as an example of how valuable luxury goods are only available to everyone through automation. (Episode 7)

In the health sector, as a result of growing prosperity, one has to admit the development of lifestyle diseases. Using the example of diabetes it is shown that on the one hand it is important to return to a healthy lifestyle, on the other hand it deals with research in health care. With series examinations at company level and new treatment methods with tablets and syringes, the GDR created possibilities to counter the consequences of diabetes more effectively and to create a better quality of life than was previously possible (episode 6). The research and the production possibilities of the pharmaceutical industry (episode 8) enable the production of around 3,000 preparations in the GDR without "private profiteering".

The individual episodes and their topics
  1. Presentation of the Leipziger Messe and international business relationships; Modernization and mechanization with conveyor systems and large machines in lignite opencast mining; Book exhibition in New York , where 11 books from the GDR were created as the “most beautiful books in the world”; Presentation of the Rostock overseas port and the GDR merchant navy. (355 m, 13 min, first performance: June 23, 1967)
  2. Relations of the GDR to the VAR and machine exports to the textile combine in Shibin al-Kaum ; Development aid in Burgas (Romania) in the tourist town of Nessebar and with an excavator team in the expansion of the port on the Black Sea ; Preservation of monuments in Freiberg, Stralsund and Quedlinburg based on presented historical houses and art objects. (250 m, 8 min, first performance: June 28, 1968)
  3. Presentation of production in the chemical industry and automation in quality control using the example of ORWO products; Heavy mechanical engineering in the GDR with the presentation of diesel engines of various sizes and purposes; Children's drawings and pictures for Bertolt Brecht's 70th birthday in an exhibition in the Berliner Ensemble , with texts from Brecht's works. (379 m, 14 min, performance: February 21, 1969)
  4. Flotilla fisheries of the GDR deep-sea fisheries with the representation of the work on the transport and work ships; Leipzig Book Fair with an overview of the GDR publishers; Production of synthetic rubber in Schkopau with presentation of chemical processes, tests and applications of GDR rubber. (331 m, 13 min, first performance: September 5, 1969)
  5. Presentation of products from the cement industry and their worldwide use, as well as export of cement production facilities; Presentation of the development opportunities of folk artists who are supported by their production companies; Berlin 1968 and its development into a socialist capital. (278 m, 10 min, as the only episode with age rating from 6 years, first performance: October 17, 1969)
  6. Reports on chemical plant construction that it had given the GDR a world-class position in the per capita production of chemical products; Project planning and construction of cold rolling plants in heavy engineering, on the basis of which new and modern production technologies and processing machines are created; Presentation of the fight against diabetes in the GDR and its controlled countermeasures. (319 m, 12 min, first performance: November 7, 1969)
  7. Reopening of the restored New Palace in Potsdam-Sanssouci with the ballet Petruschka by Igor Stravinsky ; almost fully automatic production of Meissen porcelain; Reconstruction of Karl-Marx-Stadt and its change with modern buildings, central squares and residential complexes, as well as the presentation of local companies that manufacture textile and booking machines. (382 m, 14 min, first performance: May 8, 1970)
  8. Pharmaceutical industry of the GDR with a presentation of research, development, mass production and quality controls; Cultivation of wasteland and marshland for green fodder production with representation of the production processes for concentrated feed; Restoration and reconstruction of the dilapidated electoral summer residence Bad Lauchstädt. (426 m, 16 min, premiere: as the only episode in the Federal Republic of Germany July 23, 1971)

Production and publication

The films were shot in color throughout. Director, screenwriter and cameramen changed almost every episode. The speaker was Otto Mellies . The individual parts are each on after the completion of 35-mm film of Orwocolor when VEB Progress Film distribution appeared. After the fall of the Wall, they were made accessible by the Federal Archives . On February 21, 2011, Icestorm Entertainment released a DVD with all eight parts. The film is occasionally shown in art house cinemas, e.g. B. in the Zeughauskino of the German Historical Museum .

reception

The series and its title, which expressed pride in the reconstruction of the country on the 25th anniversary of the state, was taken up by the FDJ for propaganda purposes. So the motto "GDR - That's us" was u. a. 1985 re-elected for a literature competition by the FDJ and the voice of the GDR and conveyed a feeling of togetherness on posters and banners. In some cases, the documentation, such as the human-animal relationship as a secondary aspect of the film, is used as a secondary source for analyzing GDR society.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to Jörg Roesler: Between plan and market. The economic reform in the GDR between 1963 and 1970. Berlin: Haufe Verlag 1990, p. 164. Quoted in Antonie Curtius: The fate of the economic reform of the 1960s in the GDR - or: The “built-in self-destruction” of the system. Bachelor thesis at TU Dresden, 2004 ( PDF file online )
  2. ↑ all content-related information, in particular quotations: cf. Web links of the DEFA Foundation
  3. ↑ Historical film treasures captured on DVD. Freie Presse / Chemnitzer Zeitung, October 23, 2015
  4. ↑ cf. Search at bundesarchiv.de with production data in the federal archive
  5. ↑ Handout for the film: Berlin in the Sixties (6) - Towarisch Berlin (USSR 1969). Deutsches Historisches Museum, February 22, 2016, accessed on June 21, 2019
  6. ↑ A new day calls for new action. Freedom, October 10, 1974
  7. ↑ Distinguished writers ended season. Page of the young writers. Freedom, August 7, 1985
  8. ↑ cf. also freedom, November 17, 1962 (untitled)
  9. ↑ Katrin Wittneven: "Zugewinngemeinschaft": The fifth Werkleitz Biennale combines art and film. Der Tagesspiegel (culture), August 2, 2002
  10. ↑ Anett Laue: The socialist animal: Effects of the SED policy on social human-animal relationships in the GDR (1949–1989). Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2017. ISBN 3412507121 , ISBN 9783412507121 ( online at Google Books )