Herrmann Zschoche

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herrmann Zschoche

Herrmann Zschoche (born November 25, 1934 in Dresden ) is a German screenwriter and film director . He directed numerous DEFA feature films, especially for children and young people, and created a classic DEFA youth film with Seven Freckles . After 1990 he was mainly involved in television series and series and largely withdrew from the film business in 1997. Since then he has appeared as a non-fiction author and editor.

Life

Zschoche became interested in film work at an early age and was a member of a small film group during his school days. He graduated from high school and started working as an assistant and cameraman for the GDR news program Current Camera in the early 1950s . During his apprenticeship he worked with Ernst Hirsch on films about Pillnitz Castle and the Dresden Zwinger .

From 1954 to 1959, Zschoche studied directing at the University of Film and Television Potsdam and then came to the DEFA studio for feature films as an assistant director. For Frank Beyer he worked as assistant director at Königskinder , while he worked with Gerhard Klingenberg in What would be if ...? worked together. From 1961 Zschoche worked as a director in the DEFA studio for feature films and made his directorial debut in a feature film with the children's film Das Märchenschloß . In the following years several films for children and young people were made, including the Benno Pludra adaptation Lütt Matten and the White Shell and the German-Czechoslovak co-production The Hedgehog Friendship based on a story by Martin Viertel .

In 1965 Zschoche shot the feature film Karla based on a template by Ulrich Plenzdorf and thus “his first major contemporary film about truth and lies, secrecy and honesty in society using the example of the upbringing of young people.” The film is about a young teacher who is fresh from The university comes and fails with its ideals in the end, was banned as a result of the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in 1966. The film, which has been accused of pessimism and skepticism, only saw its premiere in June 1990. The 1977 film Fire Below Deck was also initially not allowed to be shown, as the main actor Manfred Krug had gone to Germany in the summer of 1977. The comedy about an enthusiastic paddle steamer who had to give up his beloved ship was only shown directly on GDR television in 1979. With island of the Swans was created in 1983, another film Zschoche, who received no immediate release and only after numerous changes, including a new, positive end, could be listed.

From the 1970s onwards, Zschoche made films for children and young people again. The youth film Seven Freckles , which was released in 1978 in the GDR cinemas, was Zschoche's final breakthrough. He received the GDR Film Critics Prize and a National Film Prize. With 1.2 million viewers within one year, Seven Freckles was a great success with the public and is now a classic of DEFA youth films. In 1989, Zschoche shot a continuation of the story with Green Wedding . The girl in the elevator was his last DEFA film.

After the fall of the Wall , Zschoche took on directing duties for television series such as Tatort , before he stopped directing the series Kurklinik Rosenau in 1997 . “ He in no way mourns such TV jobs, which [also] included Drei Damen vom Grill or Inspector Rex : They were technically neat work, but nothing that really challenged him,” said Ralf Schenk in 2009.

Since then, Zschoche has devoted himself to writing. Among other things, he published travel reports and memoirs of various painters, including several works on Caspar David Friedrich .

Herrmann Zschoche's first marriage was to actress Jutta Hoffmann . In 2002 he published his autobiography, Seven Freckles and Other Memoirs . He lives in Storkow, Brandenburg .

Filmography

Publications (selection)

  • 1998: Caspar David Friedrich on Rügen
  • 2000: Caspar David Friedrich in the Harz Mountains
  • 2002: Seven Freckles and Other Memories
  • 2006: Caspar David Friedrich - The Letters (as editor)
  • 2007: Pictures of a Childhood: the picturesque diary of the Retzsch brothers 1795–1809 (as editor)
  • 2007: Caspar David Friedrichs Rügen. A search for clues
  • 2011: Georg Heinrich Crola 1804–1879. Memories of a landscape painter

Awards

Prize of the GDR film criticism, "Big mouth"

  • 1978: Award for Seven Freckles in the Best Contemporary Film category
  • 1981: Award for guarantee for one year in the category of best film
  • 1981: Award for guarantee for one year in the category of best contemporary film

National Feature Film Festival of the GDR , "National Film Prize"

  • 1980: Award for Seven Freckles in the Special Jury Prize category
  • 1982: Award for guarantee for one year in the category Best Director
  • 1986: “Großer Steiger” for half of life in the audience award category

Other awards

literature

  • Herrmann Zschoche: Seven freckles and other memories . Das Neue Berlin , Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-360-00984-3 .
  • Christoph Prochnow: Herrmann Zschoche. Irony and sensuality. In: Rolf Richter: DEFA feature film directors and their critics. Volume 1, Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1981.
  • Anna Luise Kiss (Ed.): Lots of perspectives. The director Herrmann Zschoche. Cinegraph Babelsberg, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-936774-08-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Zschoche's biography on filmmuseum-potsdam.de ( memento of the original from September 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmmuseum-potsdam.de
  2. ^ Frank-Burkhard Habel : The large lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 311 (Karla).
  3. ^ Frank-Burkhard Habel : The large lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 546 (Seven Freckles).
  4. ↑ a b Ralf Schenk: What does ... Herrmann Zschoche. In: Berliner Zeitung. No. 195, August 22, 2009, p. M08.
  5. ↑ See Herrmann Zschoches biography on verlagsgruppe.de
personal data
SURNAME Zschoche, Herrmann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German screenwriter, director and non-fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden