The brigadier's hat

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Movie
Original title The brigadier's hat
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1986
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Horst E. Brandt
script Horst E. Brandt
production DEFA studio for feature films, KAG "Berlin"
music Walter Kubiczeck
camera Hans-Jürgen Kruse
cut Karin Kusche
occupation

The Brigadier's Hat is a contemporary German feature film by DEFA directed by Horst E. Brandt in 1986.

action

Ralf Reider undertakes to work in the capital of the GDR for one year as part of the FDJ initiative Berlin in order to earn more money here. At his workplace, a concrete mixing plant , he gets into trouble with his superiors. After discovering for several months that the concrete that had been produced was being distributed unfairly on the construction sites, one day he changed the delivery address on his own initiative, thus helping the Fritz Siegert Brigade to fulfill its plan. That is the reason why he is being transferred and is now supposed to work in this particular brigade , since a colleague is missing there. But even here he made no friends from the start. At first he does not immediately output a cost situation and then he cannot get used to the chaos in the work organization. Above all, he annoys that his colleagues prefer to stand around than to look for another job when there is no concrete again.

In his home village of Katzsprung in the Rhön he lives with his in-laws with his wife Heide and their children and now wants to build his own house. Only on weekends does he go to where he is eagerly awaited and where he spends most of his time building the house. Here, too, he will tell his wife about the transfer to another department, who does not understand that he is getting into such trouble, since he will only work for the company for five months before the one year is up. But Ralf explains to her that with his healthy sense of justice, he cannot act otherwise. Together they dream of living together after his time in Berlin, because he had already been with the NVA for three years .

Back on the construction site, Ralf gets into trouble with his colleagues again, because they interrupt work on the formwork just because it is raining. Since he has no understanding for this, he continues to work alone, because, according to him, he doesn't earn his money sitting around. He even gets into trouble with the site manager , who is responsible for letting a concrete pump stand around , because an excavator was not repaired in time, for which he is to blame, and then asks him directly how he conceals the shit. This courage is well received by his colleagues and on the evening bowling evening, Ralf finally makes his debut with several bottles of sparkling wine.

Suddenly a special shift should be done on the weekend. Ralf says that he will not go home because he really wants to see his wife, but because this shift was made necessary by the sloppy organization of the management. Brigadier Siegert, who is recognized by all of his people, visits him in the evening in his dormitory to change his mind, but does not succeed. However, Ralf had doubts about the correctness of his decision on the train journey. When he got home, he decided to take part in the special mission and took a taxi back to Berlin, as there were no more trains. Of course, there are derisive remarks from his colleagues when he gets out of the taxi. Now everyone is there, except for Fritz Siegert. The site manager appears in the middle of work and informs the assembled colleagues that Siegert had a fatal motorcycle accident on the way to work that morning.

Suddenly a new brigadier is needed. The previous deputy mouse is not able to do this, which he sees. Then comes the suggestion that Ralf Reider should take over the post, which the site manager strictly rejects. Another declines the task because he was never taught to take responsibility. As no other opinions are expressed, the site manager threatens to disband the brigade. Even when Ralf reconsidered the matter and wanted to become a brigadier, the site manager turned him down, and even the SED party leadership did not immediately give him the support he wanted. After lengthy discussions, and especially with the support of his master Kosenkamp, ​​Ralf is appointed as a brigadier by the operations manager, which, however, not all of his colleagues endorse.

Now Ralf first has to learn the tasks of a brigadier and seeks help from Brigadier Eisenbacke, who works in another department. But he gets drunk during the briefing and explains to Ralf how, above all else, you can improve your accounts so that your colleagues earn enough money. But Eisenbacke doesn't help him with that. Although Ralf now has to work and study more, after a long time he is once again going to a cat jump. When he arrives at home early in the morning and his wife is not in her bed, he learns from his father-in-law that she's been doing night shifts recently, but will be coming soon. When Heide arrives, he immediately tells her that he will be staying in Berlin for at least two years, which affects her very much. Completely disturbed and also quarreling with her father about the extension in Berlin, Heide stays behind in her village while Ralf drives back to the construction site.

When Ralf refuses to let the hoax on some of the accounting slips, there is a fight with the mouse. As a result, he decides to give up the post as brigadier, but receives support from Master Kosenkamp, ​​who puts Maus in his place. In the afternoon Ralf picks up his wife at Berlin-Lichtenberg train station .

Production and publication

The film, shot on ORWO- Color by the DEFA Artistic Working Group “Berlin” , premiered on March 20, 1986 in the Kosmos cinema in Berlin . The first broadcast in the 2nd program of the GDR television took place on December 18, 1987 and on July 13, 1988 the film was broadcast by ZDF .

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Anne Pfeuffer and Werner Beck , while Manfred Richter was responsible for the scenario . The recordings in the fictional location "Katzsprung" were shot in Wohlmuthausen, Thuringia . The title song Großer Träumer was recorded by the Silly group with Tamara Danz .

background

A construction worker is transferred to a penalty for insubordination and arbitrariness, but does not want to give up. The film was quite critical of the system for the time. Among other things, the shortage of materials in housing construction in the GDR and the difficulties in dealing with private affairs and everyday work are discussed.

criticism

Günter Sobe remarked in the Berliner Zeitung :

“Although the figure of Reider claims the focus of the film as well as the focus of interest, Manfred Richter and director Horst E. Brandt still draw a group portrait of workers. They left out any character embellishment and any construction site romance. The consistent objectivity of the style, not least influenced by Jürgen Kruse's camera work, corresponds to the realities to be conveyed and is convincing in its way. "

In New Germany Ursula Meves wrote:

“There have not yet been so many works in our national film production that deal so impressively and so specifically with the subject of the working class in the present, that deal so intensively with questions of socialist morality. This is what makes this production so close to life. The scenes on the construction sites are dense and realistic, the men and women in the brigades have an unmistakable profile. "

The lexicon of international film says:

“An occasionally whitewashed contemporary film from the GDR, commissioned for the XI. Party congress and the Berlin initiative of the capital. In the description of the problems with the work ethic in a building brigade and in the naming of bad planning and sloppiness, surprisingly open. "

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of March 21, 1986, p. 7
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland, March 22, 1986, p. 7
  3. ↑ The brigadier's hat. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 28, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 26, 1986, p. 4
  5. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of June 19, 1986, p. 7