Kurt Maetzig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maetzig (left) and main actor Günther Simon (2nd from left) at a screening of the second Thälmann film in 1955

Kurt Maetzig (born January 25, 1911 in Berlin ; † August 8, 2012 in Bollewick-Wildkuhl ) was a German film director . His best-known films include An Französ Kaminen (1962), The Flag of Krivoy Rog (1967) and the documentary Berlin under construction (1946).

He had a decisive influence on the film of the GDR , especially in its propagandistic aspects. He was also a co-founder, co-licensee and board member of DEFA . His work as a director includes contributions to the weekly newsreel, 23 full-length feature films and six documentaries.

Life

Kurt Maetzig, son of Robert Maetzig and his wife Marie geb. Lyon, acquired essential knowledge of film production in his father's business, the FEKA film printing company. After graduating from high school in 1930, he studied chemistry, engineering, economics and business studies at the Technical University of Munich and sociology, psychology and law at the Sorbonne in Paris . In 1935 he began to produce opening titles and commercials, and received his doctorate in Munich on the subject of accounting in a film copier .

In 1937 he was banned from working in film because of his mother's Jewish descent (she committed suicide shortly before the end of the war). Maetzig now ran a small photochemical laboratory in Berlin and gave lectures on film technology. In 1944 he joined the banned KPD .

Immediately after the war he took part in the reorientation of film and the renewal of German film art in the Soviet zone of occupation . In May 1946 he was one of the founders of DEFA and the initiator and first director of the DEFA weekly newsreel Der Augenzeuge . One of the highlights of his work at that time was the film Marriage in the Shadow, based on the novel It won't be so bad by Hans Schweikart . The popular actor Joachim Gottschalk was advised in the Third Reich to separate from his Jewish wife, whereupon the couple chose to commit suicide together. Ehe im Schatten became the most successful German film in 1947. In September 1949 Maetzig's film Die Buntkarierte took part as the first East German contribution to the Cannes Film Festival in 1949 .

In addition to this, four of Maetzig's later films, two of which dealt with the life of Ernst Thälmann , were awarded the GDR National Prize. In 1950 he became a member of the German Academy of the Arts Berlin (East), from 1955 he was professor for film directing and director of the German Academy for Film Art Potsdam-Babelsberg (until 1964) and in 1956 he became the first chairman of the Association of Film Clubs of the GDR.

His film The Rabbit I Am (1965) based on a novel by Manfred Bieler was not allowed to be shown. Despite this ban, Maetzig continued to comply with the system. From 1967 to 1988 he was a member of the board of the Association of Film and Television Workers in the GDR. In 1973 he became President of the Central Working Group for Film Clubs at the Ministry of Culture. In 1981 Maetzig received the Star of Friendship of Nations and in 1986 the Patriotic Order of Merit . From 1973 to 1978 he was vice-president of the FICC (Fédération Internationale des Ciné-Clubs) , the Unesco association of non-commercial film clubs, and from 1979 its honorary president for life. He was a member of the jury for the 1983 Berlinale . In 1986, on his 75th birthday, he was awarded the Foundlings Prize for his overall work. In 2010 Maetzig received the DEFA Foundation Prize for his services to German film.

Several documentaries have been made about him.

tomb

Maetzig was married four times, including the journalist Marion Keller and the actress Yvonne Merin , and had three children. His extensive written estate is in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He was buried on August 31, 2012 in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin , with Andreas Dresen giving the funeral speech .

Filmography

literature

Web links

Commons : Kurt Maetzig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Defa director Kurt Maetzig has died
  2. ^ Günter Jordan: Film in the GDR. Data facts structures . Ed .: Filmmuseum Potsdam. 2nd revised edition. Filmmuseum Potsdam, Potsdam 2013, ISBN 978-3-9812104-2-2 , p. 427 .
  3. ^ Prize winners 2010. In: DEFA Foundation. Retrieved on March 19, 2019 (German).
  4. ^ Kurt Maetzig Archive Inventory overview on the website of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
personal data
SURNAME Maetzig, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 2012
Place of death Bollewick-Wildkuhl