defa futurum

defa futurum was an artistic working group (KAG) of the DEFA studio for documentary films in Potsdam-Babelsberg under the direction of director Joachim Hellwig and existed from 1971 to 1981 (Spiegel, p. 211). The artistic goal was the film documentary accompaniment of future developments in the GDR as well as their staging in feature films and so-called non-feature films. For this purpose, a workshop for the future was established, in which GDR scientists from various branches of science met with members of the KAG and discussed topics relevant to the future. defa futurum was a unique project within the film production of the Eastern Bloc , but it was abandoned in 1980 due to the real economic and technical developments in the GDR. Under the group's trademark, Hellwig realized a few productions until 1991 in which he dealt with German history from a Marxist-Leninist perspective .

Development and conception, Utopia 2000

defa futurum was designed by Hellwig as a counter-concept to the so-called bourgeois futurology in the Federal Republic of Germany . The first film project was developed in 1969 together with Claus Ritter under the title Utopia 2000 . Hellwig was aware of the influence of West German television in the GDR and wanted to provide appropriate answers. Utopia 2000 was transformed into Journey into the 3rd Millennium as early as 1969/70 . The plan was to use the buildings of the Expo 70 world exhibition in Osaka as a backdrop for the film, as there were no corresponding futuristic buildings in the GDR.

During the project phase it turned out that the foreign policy situation did not permit filming in Japan , as there were no diplomatic relations between the two countries. The project has now been renamed Adventure Future ; the necessary futuristic recordings should be shot in the Soviet Union or Soviet film material used. Among other things, a film section entitled Hexenküche der Futurologen was planned, which was to be underpinned with quotes and utopian films. Problems in the Third World should also be addressed . The film was supposed to end with fireworks at the turn of the millennium. The project ultimately failed because no corresponding buildings were available or were made available in the Soviet Union.

Realized projects

Love 2002 (1972)

The theme of love was primarily intended to reach a young audience. Should matchmaking institutes take over the partner selection by means of a computer, possibly also under genetic selection criteria up to the programmed desired child? The answer given by a moderator, referring to Friedrich Schiller , is no . But the film was a failure because due to coordination problems with two Polish artists an unintentional parodic component was introduced, which alienated the serious character of the film concern.

Workshop Future I-III

The principle of the future workshop was developed between 1970 and 1975. Hellwig put the leitmotif as follows:

Communism is not the kingdom of the satisfied, but the kingdom of the clever, gifted; not a paradise, but a workshop.

Hellwig / Ritter, p. 160.

The aim was to create a socialist future film as a separate film genre in contrast to utopian film or fantastic or scientific-fantastic film. According to Hellwig's definition, the future film was in principle a special form of DEFA's so-called contemporary film,

... because the existing reality is transcended with the intention of giving the viewer answers to today's questions in a special way ... to feel responsible for shaping the future in the present and to be actively involved in shaping the future in the present.

Hellwig / Ritter, p. 93.

The topics of the workshop discussions were:

- Needs in communism - life - living - creativity - behavior - education and knowledge - work and leisure - love and marriage - man and machine.

The following working principles were defined:

- Negative criticism is forbidden - Imagination is mandatory - Positive criticism is allowed - Ideas of others are to be accepted

Three non-fictional films were produced on the basis of the Future Workshop principle :

• Laboratory futurum (1975)
• Workshop Future II (1976)
• Workshop Future III (1977)

Who Loves the Earth (1973)

A documentary film about the X. World Youth Festival ( World Festival of Youth and Students ) in Berlin 1973, made with great logistical effort .

The World of Ghosts (1972)

A mounted from front pages short film about the violence of West German science fiction books, the Perry Rhodan - Heftroman series plays a particularly deterrent role.

Tobias Bremser

An animated series in 15 episodes.

In 7

In - Das Jugendmagazin (No. 7, 1976, futurum news from 2004). A spokeswoman and a spokesman read TV news from 2004: In the Soviet Union, a lightweight sports car is being developed in Senegal , a solar pump used for pumping water.

In the dust of the stars

In the feature film directed by Gottfried Kolditz , Akala, commander of a spaceship from the socialist planet Cynro , tries to find out on the slave world Tem IV why an emergency call was sent from there. Critics interpreted the film as a metaphor for the political situation in Angola and Mozambique .

On the way to Atlantis

This feature film by Siegfried Kühn , made in 1978, was temporarily supervised by defa-futurum during the production phase .

The Thing in the Castle (1979)

This feature film is set in an old people's home in which some inmates have constructed a rejuvenation machine or a time machine . To use them, they kidnap old Professor Bunzberger ( Erwin Geschonneck ) and get him to carry out an experiment. However, Bunzberger is not satisfied with the result, as only an external rejuvenation has taken place. At the end of the plot it turns out that Bunzberger only dreamed the plot. This last production from the group's science fiction genre, despite the excellent cast with Erwin Geschonneck, Vlastimil Brodský , Jaecki Schwarz , Renate Blume , Fred Delmare and Gerry Wolff, aroused the sharpest criticism of the press, according to Günter Agde in filmspiegel :

“A crack that couldn't be more comprehensive and harder. But that cannot be avoided. Kind indulgence would be out of place. After the contradictory and hopeful development of our DEFA films in the last two years, combined with the growing audience response, with the overall obvious and productive enrichment of realism through our film art - this miserable thing could and should have been prevented. "

- Agde, filmspiegel 1979.

Projects

Adam Eve Superstar (1973)

In this non-feature film land Terminauten (Honeymooners) from the 3rd millennium with a flying saucer when Kyffhäuserdenkmal on a landing point . The moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969 is commented ironically ; a reporter reports on the events on site. Real interviews with young people about their future ideas are included. At the end of the scenario , the origin of the appointment minutes is clarified:

“Suddenly the original TV picture from the landing point is there again. Two strollers roll out of the lander. The camera detects two kicking, happy babies from above. Reporter: 'There is the picture again. There they are, the people of the 3rd millennium - they are among us - they can convince themselves of the truth of the fact, my viewers (...). A great program lies ahead of them. It is the task of all of us to help ensure that they succeed (...). '"

- Hellwig / Ritter, p. 188.

The mystery of the great god (1974/75)

Motion pictures. A cyberneticist in the USA realizes when participating in a secret research project, the focus of which is a giant computer ( The Great God ), that it is being manipulated by certain power groups in the USA and that the US government is receiving false data through it. This is how these groups exercise their rule in the USA informally.

Rebellion of the Forgotten (1974/75)

Feature film comedy. On the tiny Pacific island of Mini-Oceania , capitalism survived 1910 with cowboys and farmers living in a parliamentary democracy . The island has previously exported beef bile, which was used in the communist rest of the world to produce a perfume, but this has now gone out of fashion. To solve the problem of overproduction, the island declares war on the rest of the world. However, the communist earth government finds a pacifist solution to the conflict in which the island is transformed into a vacation paradise.

The end of the vision

Right from the start, defa-futurum was under strong competitive pressure from western television among the film and television audiences of the GDR. From 1970, more and more domestic and foreign utopian television series were broadcast on western television, which, depending on the regional reception options, could also be received in the GDR, such as UFO , SRI and the uncanny cases , Alpha Alpha , Raumschiff Enterprise , Time Tunnel , Das Blaue Palais or Moon base Alpha 1 . There were also classics of the SF film genre, which were broadcast by ZDF in the series Mummies - Monsters - Mutations of the third programs or as part of the series Der phantastische Film . In addition, there was the breakthrough in computer-generated trick technology in 1977 with Star Wars , which the film production of the Eastern Bloc could hardly counter. In addition, the GDR finally saw itself forced to allow dystopian feature films such as Der Test des Piloten Pirx (TEST PILOTA PIRXA / DOSNA NIJE PILOTA PIRKSA, Poland / USSR 1978) and Stalker (STALKER, USSR 1979), the content of which was in line with defa -futurum were diametrically opposed.

defa-futurum was dissolved in 1981. The last film that was nominally still produced by the KAG was Disco 38: Silly (Christian Klemke, GDR 1981). The long documentary In the Land of Eagles and Crosses (Joachim Hellwig, GDR 1981), which Hellwig had prepared in defa-futurum times, was finally released under the care of the KAG defa kinobox, to which Hellwig was now assigned.

literature

• Doreen Mende: A Time Lag of defa-futurum: A Socialist Cine-futurism from East Germany , in: Aga Skrodzka, Xiaoning Lu, and Katarzyna Marciniak (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures , 2020, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-088553-3 . ( Online )
• Simon Spiegel: Pictures of a better world. The utopia in non-fictional film , Marburg 2019, pp. 179–211. ISBN 978-3-7410-0340-0 .
• Sonja Fritzsche: East Germany's Werkstatt Zukunft: Futurology and the Science Fiction Films of defa-futurum , in: German studies review , Vol. 29, H. 2 (2006), pp. 367-386.
• Sonja Fritzsche: Science fiction literature in East Germany , Oxford a. a. 2006 (Phil. Diss.). ISBN 978-3-03910-739-1 .
• Joachim Hellwig / Claus Ritter: Findings and problems, methods and results in the artistic design of socialist visions of the future in film with special consideration of the experiences of the AG defa-futurum , Leipzig 1975 (Phil. Diss.).
• Günter Agde: A miserable thing. "Das Ding im Schloß" , in: filmspiegel , 1979, No. 17, p. 12.
• Ralf Schenk (editor): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 , Berlin 1994.
• Günter Jordan / Ralf Schenk (editor): Black and white and color. DEFA documentaries 1946–1992 , Berlin 1996.
• Detlef Kannapin: "Peace in Space" - DEFA in space. Notes on progress and utopia in the film industry in the GDR , in: Frank Hörnlein / Herbert Heinicke (eds.): Future in film. Social science studies on Star Trek and other science fiction , Magdeburg 2000, ISBN 3-933046-47-5 .
• Karsten Kruschel : glue for Venus. The science fiction film in the GDR , in: Wolfgang Jeschke (Hrsg.): Das Science Fiction Jahr 2007 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, pp. 803-888. ISBN 3-453-52261-3 .
• Stefan Zahlmann: New times and new people. GDR future drafts in feature films , in: Hörnlein / Heinicke, Future in Film , pp. 71–86.

Web links

• Lecture by the film scholar Dr. Simon Spiegel, University of Zurich, on defa-futurum at the annual conference of the Society for Fantastic Research, on youtube.com
• Love 2002 on youtube.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Krautz (Red.): Film bibliographic annual report 1981 . In collaboration between the GDR Academy for Film and Television and the GDR State Film Archive. Berlin: Henschel 1984, pp. 45-48.