Kurt Barthel (director)

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Kurt Barthel (born January 30, 1931 in Berlin ; † January 3, 2014 in Potsdam- Babelsberg ) was a German director and screenwriter .

Life

After finishing school, Barthel trained as a car mechanic from 1946 to 1949 and then worked, among other things, as a tractor driver. At the same time he made up his Abitur and graduated from the Workers and Farmers Faculty in Potsdam in 1956 . He then studied at the German Academy for Film Art Potsdam-Babelsberg and finished his studies in 1961 with the thesis The art of film under the sign of literature - On the possibilities of epic film and the diploma film SPW vor .

Barthel came to the DEFA studio for feature films as assistant director and worked with Heinz Thiel , Joachim Hasler and Konrad Wolf , among others . During the filming of The Divided Heaven , Barthel met Christa Wolf in 1963 , who, together with her husband Gerhard Wolf, wrote the screenplay for Fräulein Schmetterling , which was to be Barthel's directorial debut. However, the rough cut of the film was made in 1966 after the XI. Plenary session of the Central Committee of the SED forbidden and only premiered in a montage version in 2005.

Barthel's other film ideas, including a ghost story between GDR and FRG, conceived together with Claus-Ulrich Wiesner , were not implemented. After mediation by Inge Desert , Barthel directed the youth film Die Nacht im Grenzwald in 1968 . "It was pure bread work, I did it listlessly, proper craft, but nothing more," said Barthel looking back. The contemporary criticism of the GDR described the film as "unsatisfactory". When Barthel was offered to work again as an assistant director, he declined. Instead, he went to the DEFA short film studio as a writer and director in 1970, where he directed numerous short and documentary films, especially popular science works and educational films, until 1991. Since 1991 he has worked as a freelance director and screenwriter.

Barthel has three children and lived with his second wife, the editor Petra Barthel, in Potsdam-Babelsberg.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1962: The fortress on the Rhine (as assistant director)
  • 1962: Der Kinnhaken (as assistant director)
  • 1963: Nebel (as assistant director)
  • 1964: The Divided Sky (as assistant director)
  • 1966: Fräulein Schmetterling (as a director)
  • 1968: The Night in the Border Forest (as a director)
  • 1973: Order and Security (educational film, 10 episodes, direction and screenplay)
  • 1973: Maxe im Straßenverkehr (TV, 10 episodes, director and screenplay)
  • 1975: Brick Gothic in the GDR (TV documentary, as a director)
  • 1979: Man hold you tight (short film, director and screenplay)
  • 1982: Zug um Zug (short film, direction and screenplay)
  • 1985: Warning! Children! (Direction, scenario)
  • 1991: Märkische Herrenhäuser (TV documentary, 6 parts, direction and screenplay)
  • 1993: Frank Beyer - Between the Times (TV documentary, as a director)
  • 2002: Against violence - 3 projects against violence (TV documentary, as a screenwriter)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ralf Schenk: A conversation with the director Kurt Barthel . In: DEFA Foundation (Hrsg.): Information sheet on Fräulein Schmetterling . June 2005, p. 26.
  2. ^ Eo: fruits of a friendship . In: Neue Zeit , June 28, 1968.