Lenz or freedom

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Movie
Original title Lenz or freedom
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1986
length divided into 4 episodes,
a total of 376 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Dieter Berner
script Hilde Berger
Dieter Berner
production Peter Schulze-Rohr
Dietrich Mack
music Peter Fischer
camera Anton Peschke
Bernhard Watzek
cut Bernd Lorbiecki
occupation

Lenz or Freedom is a four-part historical drama of around six hours in total that was first broadcast in 1986 and produced by Südwestfunk under the direction of Dieter Berner for German television . It is the film adaptation of the originally English-language novel The Lenz Papers, written by Stefan Heym in the early 1960s (first published in 1963 in German translation under the title Die Papiere des Andreas Lenz in Leipzig).

Against the historical background of the final phase of the Baden Revolution of 1848/49 , the film tells the story of a fictional revolutionary named Andreas Lenz, who is representative of very different, so to speak, “nameless” biographies who were actively involved in revolutionary upheavals and after they were suppressed were forced to emigrate (in the case mentioned see also Forty-Eighters ).

action

In the framework of the story, American soldier Sergeant Andrew Lenz discovered the grave of his grandfather Captain Andrew Lenz, who came from Baden and was originally called Andreas, in the Gettysburg cemetery in 1944 .

The student and soldier Andreas Lenz enthusiastically takes part in the Baden Revolution , in which the longing for freedom and sensual pleasure are combined with the utopia of the elected people's government. Lenz stands between two women, the revealing red-haired Josepha and the good citizens' daughter Lenore Einstein.

After the revolution is lost, flees Lenz with many others in the United States , where he on the side of the northern states on Civil War participates and in the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg falls.

consequences

  • Episode 1: Departure . Length: 100 minutes, first broadcast on October 5, 1986
  • Episode 2: On a knife edge . Length: 94 minutes
  • Episode 3: Clear Fronts . Length: 87 minutes
  • Episode 4: Your own skin . Length: 94 minutes

background

Lenz or freedom integrates invented characters, including the main actors, together with historical people in historical events. The shooting took place in 1985 in Belfort , Wintzenbach , Wissembourg , Rastatt and Forbach , among others . The fortifications of Belfort served as a replacement for the Rastatt fortress, which only remains in ruins . In Rastatt itself, the interior of the still-preserved fortress casemates and the inner courtyard of the castle were filmed. The Rastatt town hall is portrayed in the film by the town hall of the Alsatian municipality of Wissembourg, the Karlsruhe town hall by that of the city of Belfort. In Forbach, among other things, the Herrenwieser Schwallung was filmed, the historic wooden bridge over the Murg in Forbach represents a German-Swiss border bridge over the Rhine, over which the defeated revolutionary troops set off into the neighboring country.

The film cost the Südwestfunk about 10 million DM (about 5 million €). That was expensive for the circumstances at the time, which the Baden-Württemberg Court of Auditors later complained about. Among other things, he questioned whether it was really necessary to use an elaborately hand-embroidered regimental flag for the shooting.

DVD

The film was released on DVD in October 2010. Bonus material includes a 43-minute SWF documentary from 1986 about the shooting. Hubertus Brock's film is entitled A revolution is being re-enacted - observations made during the filming of the novel Lenz or Freedom.

literature

  • Friedrich P. Kahlenberg & Dietrich Mack (eds.): Adventure Revolution. The SWF film Lenz or Freedom. TR-Verlagsunion, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-8058-1962-5

Web links

Footnotes

  1. Hubertus Brock: A revolution is re-enacted - observations made during the film adaptation of the novel Lenz or freedom. Documentary, SWF, 1986