Look at this city (DEFA)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Look at this city |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Karl Gass |
| script | Karl Gass |
| production | DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries |
| music | Jean Kurt Forest |
| camera |
Winfried Junge Hans E. Leupold Hans Dumke |
| cut | Christel Hemmerling |
| occupation | |
| |
Look at this city is a documentary by the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries by Karl Gass from 1962 . It was premiered on the 1st anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1962.
action
This documentary shows the motives - from the perspective of the GDR - that led to the construction of the wall. It shows the situation in Germany from May 1945 and the peculiarities of the four-power status after the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference . Based on recordings by cameramen from the GDR, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, the United States, France, United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany, the film shows the development of both parts of Berlin of the postwar years with the founding of the Berlin magistrate and the establishment of the Allied Command to the days after August 13, 1961. For the western part of the city, above all the development of the secret services, the alleged moral decline, the enticement of GDR citizens and the role as a NATO base are presented. In contrast, the peaceful reconstruction in the other part of the city of Berlin, whose citizens are determined to defend their city and 'their achievements', is particularly emphasized. The chronology of the film is often interrupted by looking back at events of the Third Reich , making comparisons with the politics of the Federal Republic. Radio recordings from the RIAS Berlin and statements by Western politicians are placed under the selected film scenes.
production
According to the expectations of the DEFA directorate, the film should provide “a positive depiction of the Berlin Wall and a historical legitimation of the building of the wall”.
Look at this city is a DEFA propaganda film, the famous Ernst Reuters call "Look at this city ... you peoples in America, in England, in France ... look at this city ..." of September 9, 1948 the Reichstag building in Berlin, polemically turns against the West. The text written by Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler premiered on August 13, 1962 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin . The first broadcast on German television took place on November 13, 1962. On November 12, a film with the same title was broadcast by the broadcaster Free Berlin , which examines the Gass film scene by scene and detects omissions, distortions and distortions.
In an instruction from the GDR Minister for Popular Education, Prof. Dr. Alfred Lemmnitz , he ordered on August 13, 1962 that this film should be seen by all students in grades 9 to 12 and by all classes in vocational schools until the end of 1962.
Karl Gass, for whom the “documentary was always a 'weapon'”, said in retrospect about the wall film: “Since I agreed in my basic attitude with the things that were being done, it wasn't really difficult for me to find this one To do work. "
Contemporary reviews from the GDR press
“Karl Gass uses hard cuts, short fades and blatant juxtapositions in his film. The parallelism of the images from Hitler's time and those from West Berlin today is often striking. The comment that Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler wrote and that Eberhard Mellies speaks is brief and unobtrusive. "
"This film is not a feature film, and yet its script is captivating, this film does not tell a love story, and yet it speaks of love, of our love for peace and the capital of the German Democratic Republic."
Historical classification
“The film followed the GDR historical focus, especially when it traced the post-war period in black and white schemes. The GDR, or the so-called 'democratic sector', was presented as a shining example, as a haven of prosperity and peace. West Berlin as a front-line city with a capitalism of the worst, as it was Americanized, and an outpost ('stake in the flesh of the GDR') of the impending war. The building of the wall was founded above all to secure peace. "
Awards
- 1962: Rating: Artistically particularly valuable (state rating of the GDR)
Web links
- Look at this City in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Look at this city at filmportal.de
- Look at this city at the DEFA Foundation
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtGkUGHeMqQ&app=desktop
Individual evidence
- ↑ Look at this city Introduction by Jeanpaul Goergen for the screening of the film in the Zeughauskino on October 6, 2015
- ↑ Reichert, Ramon: Media parody versus evidence foundation. 'Look at this city' by Karl Gass . In: Tobias Ebbrecht u. a. (Ed.): GDR - remember, forget . Marburg 2009, p. 154–171, here p. 156 .
- ↑ 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 .
- ^ Prase, Thilo / Kretzschmar, Judith: Propagandist and Heimatfilmer. The documentaries by Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler . Leipzig 2003, p. 30 .