Gustav J.

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Movie
Original title Gustav J.
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1973
length 19 minutes
Rod
Director Volker Koepp
script Volker Koepp
production DEFA studio for short films, KAG : "Profile"
camera Christian Lehmann
cut Angelika Arnold
occupation

Gustav J. is a documentary film by the DEFA studio for short films by Volker Koepp from 1973.

action

The 80-year-old from Lithuania, Gustav Jurkschat, is sitting at the living room table with his family at a party and playing a waltz on his accordion . He is now at home in Bad Doberan , near the Baltic Sea , but has seen a lot in the past that he will tell in this film.

He was born on the German-Lithuanian border , an area where the Germans were one ethnic group of many. His family began to migrate even before he was born. His grandfather moved with his family from Germany to an estate in Lithuania to work as a wheelwright . Gustav's father came back to the estate after his military service and got married there. The couple had seven boys and one girl. Since the family became too big for the landowner, they had to leave the estate. Gustav's father found a job on another estate, albeit with a lower salary, which is why Gustav, who was still a child, worked for a large farmer as a herding boy for five rubles a year for the next three years. Then he got a job in a brick factory for another three years , where he had to carry 2500 bricks to a drying scaffold every day within 14 hours of work. In return he could buy a pair of shoes, a hymn book and a suit for confirmation .

Then he learned a trade. After three years he started working as a journeyman with a master blacksmith in the city and was paid one ruble a day. Then the First World War came and the peaceful coexistence of the peoples in this area came to an end. Gustav became a soldier and was taken prisoner of war in Tula , but he couldn't get a job there and took the train to Orenburg , where he worked for a year in a restaurant as a machinist on an alternator . Then he found a job in Arkhangelsk for a year as a machine helper on a passenger ship that was on the Suchona in regular service .

Gustav was annoyed that he could not write. So he bought a primer and learned the letters. First he learned Russian , then German and then the Lithuanian language . He sought the acquaintance of the son of a bookbinder who had a beautiful sister to whom he could now write in a letter that he wanted to meet her to ice-skate . She agreed and so they spent the whole day. When Gustav told this, he started to sing a song with joy, which is one of his favorite pastimes.

The First World War was over and Gustav drove back to the Lithuanian border area, got married and the first children were born. He worked again as a blacksmith and as a farm laborer. Now the Second World War came and the common people had to hike again, so Gustav came to Bad Doberan. He found work in the Warnow shipyard in Warnemünde , became an activist and made suggestions for improvements for over 50,000 marks . Every now and then his children visit him. The three boys have studied and are now historians, mathematicians and physicists. Gustav would have liked to study too, but it didn't work.

production

The black and white film Gustav J. from KAG Profil was shown for the first time on May 3, 1973 in the GDR .

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Annerose Richter.

criticism

In New Germany , Rolf Richter wrote:

"A beautiful film, it is made with empathy and care."

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 9, 1974, p. 4