Felix Kuballa

FELIX KUBALLA by Kamilla Pfeffer

Felix Kuballa (born July 9, 1944 in Hameln ) is a German photographer, television journalist and filmmaker.

Life

After training as a photographer in Cologne , he worked as a freelance photo reporter for newspapers and magazines in the 1960s. In 1970 he changed the medium and began working for Westdeutscher Rundfunk , as an author for current programs - such as the culture magazine Spektrum , the ARD counselor law , the political magazine Monitor and the broadcast Tagesthema .

In 1974 he was employed as an editor and reporter at WDR. Three years later he took a break to work as a development expert for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in what was then the People's Republic of the Congo .

Back in Cologne, from 1981 onwards he realized documentaries and reports in the Inland program group of WDR , thematically mainly in the field of politics and current affairs. He soon made a name for himself as an investigative filmmaker.

He has received awards for many of his reports and documentaries. He received the renowned Adolf Grimme Prize several times: for "Walks through the GDR: The Lower Lusatia" ( Adolf Grimme Prize 1985 for the series), for " We are looking for ... Josef Mengele " ( Adolf Grimme Prize 1986 ), and for “We are looking for ... a cause of a crash” ( Adolf Grimme Prize 1989 ). For the documentary film "Like a rampant lump of earth on the soul - messages from a dumb autistic person" he was awarded the "Special Prize of the Minister of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia at the Adolf Grimme Prize" in 1995. In 1992 he received the Civis Prize for "For example Berlin - On dealing with xenophobia".

In 2004 Felix Kuballa moved to the history department of the WDR, where he was responsible for numerous documentaries and documentaries on contemporary history. During this phase he also realized the series “Mein Kriegende”, in which 25 cultural workers - from Mario Adorf to Gerhard Zwerenz - talk about their very personal end to the Second World War .

In March 2008 his time with WDR ended. Since then he has been working again as a freelance writer and dramaturgical advisor for documentary films (" Wader Wecker Vater Land ", 2011, director: Rudi Gaul ; "Woodstock in Timbuktu ", 2012, director: Désirée von Trotha; "Viktors Kopf", 2015, director: Carmen Eckhardt; "Who is Oda Jaune ?", 2016, director: Kamilla Pfeffer)

Felix Kuballa lives in Cologne.

Filmography (selection)

• 1981: The last shift in the Deutz printing house
• 1981: The returnees , experience reports from development workers
• 1983: The miracle of Ranschbach
• 1983: A songwriter and his impact - Konstantin Wecker
• 1984: Hikes through the GDR: Lower Lusatia
• 1985: Gold rush in Pinneberg
• 1985: Fischer Oestmann: His fight against thin acid
• 1985: We are looking for ... Josef Mengele
• 1986: Of German tolerance
• 1986: who is hugging whom? - About the relationship between politicians and TV journalists
• 1987: Heads, experts, backdrops: Konstantin Wecker
• 1988: Pictures of Germany: My honor is loyalty
• 1988: Looking for ... a cause of the crash
• 1989: spoil the state? - About the power of political parties
• 1989: Heads, experts, backdrops: the photographer Herlinde Koelbl
• 1990: Experienced: Transsexual - finally living as a woman
• 1990: War game in the heath
• 1990: German couples: male friendship
• 1991: Muslims in Germany - life like a nightmare
• 1991: We are looking for ... the mouthpiece of God
• 1992: Anger in Ried
• 1992: For example Berlin - On dealing with xenophobia
• 1992: Dream destinations: Lambarene
• 1993: Pictures of Germany: Friederike S., 28 - Diagnosis: Multiple Sclerosis
• 1993: Passau - Washington: The 'terrible girl' emigrates
• 1994: Like a rampant lump of earth on the soul - messages from the dumb autistic Birger Sellin
• 1995: Passau - Washington: The 'terrible girl' in America
• 1995: We are looking for ... the crack in the head
• 1995: Courage against Nazi terror: Mother Courage and the Jews
• 1996: Border experience: Between Germany and Poland
• 1998: Searching for traces in former German colonies: Felix Kuballa in Namibia
• 1998: Searching for traces in former German colonies: Felix Kuballa on Samoa
• 1998: Searching for traces in former German colonies: Felix Kuballa in Papua New Guinea
• 1999: Born in '49 - grew up in two German states
• 1999: irritation of the skin - approaching an organ , with Carmen Eckhardt
• 1999: The nomad from Cologne
• 2000: The singer from hell
• 2002: The dream of Nazi gold
• 2003: Multiple Personalities: The Therapists' Delusion?
• 2012: People, no more numbers - schoolchildren visit Auschwitz with Kamilla Pfeffer

Works

• Fascism doesn't come overnight , Raith-Verlag, 1976, with Jürgen Roth
• My end of the war , Propylaen-Verlag, 2011, ed., With Dieter Hildebrandt

literature

• Cornelia Bolesch (Ed.): “Documentary television: A workshop report in 48 portraits”, Paul List Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-471-77171-9 , pp. 160–163.