The fall - Honecker's end

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Movie
Original title The fall - Honecker's end
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2012
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Eric Friedler
script Eric Friedler,
Silke Schütze
production Dagmar Rosenbauer
music Michael Klaukien ,
Andreas Lonardoni
camera Boris Becker,
Armin Plöger
Thomas Schäfer
cut Florentine Bruck

Der Sturz - Honecker's End is a documentary by Eric Friedler (editor: Patricia Schlesinger ) about Erich Honecker's career and the last days in the GDR . The core of the film are longer excerpts from an interview with Margot Honecker , who has not wanted to speak publicly in front of the camera since she left for Santiago de Chile. The 90-minute documentary was first broadcast on April 2nd, 2012 by the German television station Das Erste . The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the film as “a monumental, impressive, but in the end, above all, creepy example of such a stagnant clock of life”. The FAZ sees the "fall" as a "breathtaking history lesson, also because Friedler has meticulously reconstructed the crucial days and hours in which Erich Honecker was overthrown and the GDR came to an end, and as exciting as a thriller. The university's historical seminar Cambridge describes the film as "a milestone in German documentaries of the 21st century."

Content and background

The film is based primarily on quotations and O-tones of witnesses, the former through cutouts television programs and events are illustrated. For the first time in over 20 years, the GDR Minister for Popular Education , Margot Honecker , gave a television interview. This was recorded on three days in autumn 2011 in their apartment in Santiago de Chile . In it she defended socialism and state security as a necessity for protection and said that there should have been no wall dead (“They didn't have to climb over the wall to pay for this stupidity with their lives”). Furthermore, she denied the order to shoot and described traumatized victims of the youth work yards as "paid bandits". At the same time, she was convinced that the GDR had not existed for free and that a “germ had been planted” with it, that Germany would at some point use the experience of both systems for itself.

In addition to Margot Honecker, Uwe Holmer , Egon Krenz , Lothar de Maizière , Hans Modrow , Helmut Schmidt , Wolfgang Schäuble , Michail Gorbatschow , Eduard Schewardnadse , Gregor Gysi , Manfred Stolpe , Peter-Michael Diestel , Friedrich Wolff and Rudolf Seiters spoke in the documentation in interviews.

reception

"With comments from contemporary witnesses as well as political and psychological analyzes, the documentary encounters this dazzling personality in German history and, above all, brings interesting insights to light by looking at the years before and after the fall of the Wall."

- Lexicon of international film

Honecker interview

Although Margot Honecker gave her consent to the interview in writing, according to NDR, she defended herself against the film , supported by her publisher Frank Schumann . Margot Honecker had previously rejected all interviews with representatives of the "bourgeois media" and, after "Der Sturz" was broadcast, denied that she had ever given permission for an interview with Eric Friedler. The NDR was unable to refute this claim, as it was unable to present the allegedly existing written consent of Margot Honecker. The author Eric Friedler, according to Margot Honecker, rather sneaked the material under false pretenses. Only as an employee of Frank Schumann did he make image and sound recordings as part of research for a conversation volume by Margot Honecker, which were intended exclusively for the publisher's archive. Contrary to all agreements, Friedler withheld these recordings and withheld other personal documents from Erich Honecker. For its part, the NDR announced that the publisher Frank Schumann was only present at the interview as a companion to Eric Fiedler at Margot Honecker's request. That is why the NDR also paid its travel and hotel costs. Based on this, the NDR has rejected Margot Honecker and Frank Schumann's claims as completely unfounded.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://m.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/margot-honecker-im-fernsehportraet-die-rauchten-ja-nicht-ueber-die-mauer-zu-klettern-11701838.html
  2. ↑ DasErste.de : The fall - Honecker's end
  3. ↑ Always stable, metallic. In: sueddeutsche.de. April 2, 2012, accessed August 1, 2018 .
  4. ↑ http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-end-of-honecker/
  5. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: They didn't have to climb over the wall. In: FAZ.net . March 29, 2012, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  6. ↑ TV documentary: Margot Honecker blames victims of the wall - SPIEGEL ONLINE - news - politics . Spiegel-Online website, accessed April 2, 2012.
  7. ↑ The fall - Honecker's end. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 23, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ a b https://www.ndr.de/der_ndr/presse/mitteilungen/pressemeldungndr10067.html
  9. ↑ http://www.jungewelt.de/2012/04-12/036.php
  10. ^ Margot Honecker, Post from Chile, Berlin 2016, p. 249
  11. ^ Margot Honecker, Zur Volksbildung, Berlin 2012
  12. ^ Margot Honecker, Post from Chile, Berlin 2016, p. 231ff