Karl Gass

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Karl Gass (born February 2, 1917 in Mannheim ; † January 29, 2009 in Kleinmachnow ) was a German director for propaganda and documentary films , reports and portraits as well as in various administrative functions in the film sector of the GDR . With over 120 works, he was one of the most important documentary filmmakers in the GDR and was considered a pioneer and “Nestor” of DEFA documentary films . According to Frank Pergande , Gass was "one of the most influential propagandists" of the SED state.

Life

Before to after the war

Gass grew up as the son of a car mechanic in Mannheim and from 1925 in Cologne . After graduating from high school, he did an internship at a housing association in 1936 . He then began studying business administration and economics in Cologne. In 1940 he and his team were German champions in the row eight. In the same year he became a soldier and served in the Panzergrenadier division "Greater Germany" during World War II until 1945 . With the rank of lieutenant he was captured by the British at the end of the war.

From December 1945 he was a business editor at Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. As a radio journalist, he wanted to advance the process of coming to terms with the Nazi era . However, this met with little interest from his journalist colleagues. He was accused of being close to the KPD , to which he openly acknowledged, and his corresponding political comments were criticized. Gass drew the conclusion from this to  move to the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) - the later GDR .

Relocation to the GDR

In February 1948 he moved from West Germany to the Soviet sector of Berlin . There he produced commentaries and reports as head of the business editorial department at Berliner Rundfunk . Through this activity he met the documentary filmmakers Andrew Thorndike and Joop Huisken . The contact with this medium led him to concentrate his future work on documentary film . He also wrote screenplay concepts and film studies publications. From 1950 he worked as a freelancer for the GDR newsreel Der Augenzeuge , which was mostly shown in the opening programs of the cinemas. His comments and scenarios for the broadcast were "entirely in line with the propaganda line" of the SED state.

plant

In 1950 he made his first compilation film The Way Up , which he made together with Thorndike as a co-director. From January 1, 1951, he was permanently employed by DEFA. In 1954 he took over the artistic direction of the DEFA studios for popular science films and sharpened the studio's profile "entirely in the tradition of German cultural films, which he wanted to bring into the new era with Marxist philosophy ". He developed theoretical foundations for filmmaking and published on it. From July 1960 he worked as a director in the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries. In 1961 he founded the artistic working group "KAG Gass" - later renamed the group "Effekt" - which he headed until 1972. The working group had its own DEFA division in Kleinmachnow . During this time he became a member of the SED .

In 1962 he made his first full-length documentary Look at this city - a propaganda film about West Berlin , the reasons for the construction of the Wall from the perspective of the GDR and the reaction to it. The film premiered on the 1st anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Gass, for whom the “documentary was always a 'weapon'”, also retrospectively commented uncritically on his film: “Since I agreed in my basic attitude with the things that were being done, it wasn't really difficult for me to do this work do."

With the documentation Feierabend (1963–1964) about the work and leisure time of construction workers on the large construction site in Schwedt , he showed himself to be critical and beyond the " socialist realism " demanded at the time in GDR art. On the same large construction site, the report Asse was made in 1966 about a welding brigade . According to Ines Walk, the films put together “an image of the GDR that comes close to reality and also contains problematic and critical passages, but without questioning the system” and its “image of man in any way.” Contradictions have been ignored.

From 1965 to 1968 Gass worked as a lecturer and head of the directing class for documentary films at the University of Film and Television Potsdam . With Anno Populi - In the Year of the People 1949 , Gass made “the official film for the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR” in 1969; the film "with a clear propagandistic influence" explained "with recourse to German history, why the establishment of a new German state", that is, the GDR, was "a liberation from exploitation and warmongering". According to Karin Hartewig, the commission for this film was "an honor, a renewed test and a challenge for the veteran ideologue" who had successfully staged Walter Ulbricht's first state visit to Egypt in 1967 with Merhab . With October came ... from 1970 "another major project in the spirit of the state party" followed. The film should "not only have an impact on one's own society [...], but also serve at least as much as an advertisement for the class enemy ". Gass was commissioned to make this film because he was now "a proven professional in partisan documentary film".

When the Ministry for State Security (MfS) set up an operational group to centrally combat “hostile-negative cultural workers” in 1974, it received weekly reports on the status of the operational process “specialist” until 1978 , in which the MfS district administration Potsdam Karl Gass “operationally recorded” would have.

Gass returned to the Schwedt construction site in 1974 to document the development of his protagonists in Asse - Anno '74 . His portrait of an agricultural production cooperative (LPG) with the title Corners and Edges (1980) was not released for public performance for a long time. Again he drew the conclusions from this and from then on turned to more historical subjects.

His last film Nationalität: deutsch deals with the life of a village school teacher, which stretches across three social systems - from the Weimar Republic to the “ Third Reich ” to the GDR. The film, which premiered just a few months after the inner-German border opened, critically shows the extent to which people are able to adapt to the prevailing political systems. Here Gass attempts to exemplify the social aspect of opportunism .

In his late years from 1990 onwards, as a non-fiction author, he preferred to focus on the history of Prussia . According to Frank Pergande, Gass was less “about Prussia, but about the GDR heritage”. Gass' book The Military Temple of the Hohenzollern describes Pergande as "a combat script in the shrill tone of disgust". The Prussian kings see Gass as "mentally deranged, alcoholic, depressive, thugs and murderers". According to Peter Bahl, who proves a number of factual errors in Gass, the book "lags far behind the last [...] developed level of GDR-Prussian historiography."

successes

Gass was co-founder of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (short: DOK-Filmfestival ) and the National Documentary Film Weeks of the GDR , as well as Vice President of the Association International des Documentarists (AID) . The documentary filmmakers Volker Koepp , Winfried Junge , Eduard Schreiber and Gitta Nickel , with whom he was married from 1964 to 1970, were influenced by him. DEFA director Konrad Weiß called him an "honest filmmaker who held his protective hand over us". From 1961 he worked with his future wife, the film editor Christel Gass. Also as a presenter of the GDR television quiz programs Are you sure? and you and he and 1000 questions he was successful. 1972 played a leading role in the Hungarian television film B 21 .

At the suggestion of Karl Gass, his assistant director at the time, Winfried Junge, made a short film about school beginners in 1961 with the title: When I go to school ... This film became the cornerstone for the long-term documentary The Children of Golzow by Barbara and Winfried Junge - the longest documentary of film history (1961–2007), awarded numerous national and international prizes.

His multiple award-winning documentary The Year 1945 (1985) was particularly successful internationally . The film about the last 128 days of World War II was able to attract two million viewers to the cinemas in 1985, making it the most successful DEFA film of the year.

Gass last lived in Kleinmachnow. His estate is administered by the Filmmuseum Potsdam .

Awards (selection)

Film productions

Filmtheater Babylon in the eastern part of Berlin in 1962, one day after the start of the DEFA documentary film Look at this city by Karl Gass
  • 1952: the decisive year
  • 1953: Turbine I
  • 1957: Hellas without gods
  • 1959: freedom, freedom above everything
  • 1960: light over Palermo
  • 1960: Kosmos - memories of Alexander von Humboldt
  • 1961: Sorah and Ali
  • 1961: Allons enfants… pour l'Algérie
  • 1962: hit of the week (TV movie)
  • 1962: Look at this city
  • 1964: End of work
  • 1966: With us in May
  • 1966: aces
  • 1969: Anno Populi - In the year of the people 1949
  • 1972: Rocketeers, Stars and Stripes and Federal Eagles in NATO
  • 1975: Tuscan women
  • 1975: The green, white, red Tuscany
  • 1975: Asse-Anno '74
  • 1976: Do you want to film our misery
  • 1977: Richard - The Farmer
  • 1980: rough edges
  • 1982: Two days in August, reconstruction of a crime
  • 1982: When NATO generals dream
  • 1982: I am alive now
  • 1985: The year 1945
  • 1986: Nuremberg - not guilty
  • 1987: a German career
  • 1990: Nationality: German

Books

  • I believe in the documentary when ... (Ed.) (= From Theory and Practice of Film, Issue 2). VEB DEFA-Studio for documentary films and company school of the VEB DEFA-Studio for feature films, Berlin 1987
  • The military temple of the Hohenzollern: from the story of "our dear" garrison church in Potsdam . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-360-00884-7
  • Aim well, brothers !: the short life of Maximilian Dortu . Märkischer Verlag, Wilhelmshorst 2000, ISBN 3-931329-24-0
  • “You should love me!” Biographical sketches of the nine Prussian kings . GNN-Verlag, Schkeuditz 2002, ISBN 3-89819-108-7

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Father of the GDR documentary film" Karl Gass has died . Time online
  2. ↑ a b Frank Pergande: Always practice faithfulness and honesty. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b Elke Schieber:  Gass, Karl . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  4. ↑ Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (ed.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 211.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Ines Walk: Karl Gass. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Volker Koepp: He paved the way for us . Deutschlandradio Kultur , January 30, 2009; on the death of Karl Gass
  7. ↑ Steinle, Matthias: From the enemy image to the external image. The mutual representation of FRG and GDR in the documentary . Marburg and Paris 2002, p. 195 .
  8. ↑ Hartewig, Karin: Freedom and Censorship. Notes on DEFA films . Norderstedt 2018, p. 24 and 27 .
  9. ↑ Hartewig, Karin: Freedom and Censorship. Notes on DEFA films . Norderstedt 2018, p. 24 .
  10. ↑ Joachim Walther: Security area literature - writers and state security in the German Democratic Republic . Ullstein (Taschenbuch 26553), Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-548-26553-7 ; on "hostile-negative cultural workers" p. 100, on Gass p. 101
  11. ↑ a b : Karl Gass - Nestor of the documentary film .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Märkische Allgemeine , January 30, 2009; obituary@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.maerkischeallgemeine.de  
  12. ↑ progress-film.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.progress-film.de  
  13. ↑ Peter Bahl: Review of: Karl Gass. The military temple of the Hohenzollern . In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History . tape 51 . Berlin 2000, p. 199 ff., here p. 201 .
  14. ↑ Yvonne Jennerjahn: Golzow's children have grown up . In: Berliner Morgenpost . February 8, 2008, p. 19
  15. ^ A b GDR documentary filmmaker Gass died . Spiegel Online / dpa, January 30, 2009
  16. ↑ progress-film.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.progress-film.de  
  17. ↑ imdb.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.imdb.de  
  18. ↑ filmportal.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  19. ↑ cosmos. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Asse-Anno '74. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Richard - The Farmer. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  22. ^ Nuremberg - not guilty. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Gass, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German filmmaker and documentary director
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2009
Place of death Kleinmachnow