State film documentation

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The State Film Documentation (SFD) was a production area of ​​the GDR film production - its film documents were not produced for the public, but to complement the censored GDR cinema and television production at the GDR State Film Archive for archival purposes. The films were not intended for the present GDR, but for future generations. They should also show the unvarnished and uncensored view of the real GDR everyday life. The SFD archive includes around 300 films shot between 1971 and 1986.

Origin and activity

The idea of ​​a "government film archive" existed immediately after the GDR was founded in 1949, but its realization failed for a long time due to funding. As a result of the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in 1965, books, plays, films and music that deviated from the political course prescribed by the state leadership (such as Werner Bräunig's Bismuth novel “Rummelplatz”) were banned in the GDR . Almost six years later, with the replacement of Walter Ulbricht by Erich Honecker , a kind of "liberalization" began in art - the SFD was founded at this time.

Organizationally, the working group belonged to the State Film Archive of the GDR and consisted of editing and production with a total of around 10 employees, including Peter Badel , Thomas Heise and Thomas Grimm as freelancers . In 1971 the first of almost 300 films was made. The SFD mostly produced personal documentation and to a lesser extent factual documentation. 1986 came the end for the SFD; All of its technology and some of the technical staff were taken over by the Chronik production group of the DEFA studio for documentary films , which continued the documentaries - now only for cultural-political purposes - basically until German reunification in 1990 .

Purpose and topics

The purpose of the SFD was the systematic, complete and comprehensive self-documentation of the real socialist state of the GDR for future generations. The films were not intended for the general public, which is why they offer relatively undisguised insights into the social, cultural, economic and political life of the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. The films mainly depict everyday life in the GDR with almost no propaganda .

The SFD films show openly and in a variety of ways the deficits of everyday life in the GDR: life in old buildings that are ready to be demolished, work scenes in road construction, the difficult situation of freelance puppeteers. The cameramen capture the real GDR with the needs and sensitivities of its citizens who tried to settle in it.

The recordings were made almost exclusively in East Berlin , the GDR capital. The reason for this was probably the limited SFD petrol contingent of 70 liters per month, so that it was primarily "around the corner" - such as in Prenzlauer Berg - that the film was turned.

Present and Future

The film stock is now kept by the Film Archive Department of the Federal Archives , which was established in Berlin in 1990 in accordance with the Unification Treaty. As part of a joint research project between the Institute for Contemporary History (Berlin Research Department) and the Federal Film Archive, an initial evaluation of the unique sources on the social and everyday history of the GDR was carried out. With the aim of preserving the previously inaccessible films for later users , the restoration and digitization of the 16 mm material began with funding from the Federal Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship .

Publications

Print

  • Anne Barnert: Films for the Future. The state film documentation at the GDR film archive.
  • Anne Barnert: A state remembers itself. The “State Film Documentation” of the GDR.
  • Anne Barnert: People, big cities, blind spots. The “State Film Documentation” holdings of the GDR.
  • Anne Barnert: Everyday life between here and there. "Berlin-Milieu - Ackerstraße" (1973) of the "State Film Documentation" of the GDR.
  • Anne Barnert: Memories of an Archive Director. Herbert Volkmann in the personal portrait of the "State Film Documentation" of the GDR.
  • Antonie Rietzschel: As a GDR citizen, you were allowed to say anything.
  • Michael Bartsch: The real filmed socialism.
  • Peter Ufer: The secret film archive of the GDR.
  • Torsten Klaus: Real life. The GDR's forgotten docu diary dawned in the archive - now it is being made accessible.
  • Uta Keseling: This is the GDR speaking .

Radio

  • “GDR reality from the poison cabinet. Anne Barnert in conversation with Philipp Schnee. "

watch TV

  • Thomas Eichberg and Holger Metzner: "The secret look - How the GDR observes itself."

Film list

year title Director Others
1973 Berlin milieu: Ackerstrasse 1973 Veronika Otten b / w
1973 Berlin-Totale: weekly market in Pankow Gerd Barz b / w
1976 Berlin long shot: Steinstrasse Veronika Otten b / w
1979 Berlin long shot: Mulackstrasse Veronika Otten b / w
1979 Berlin long shot: Sophienstrasse Veronika Otten b / w
1979 Berlin-Totale: evacuation of a house complex Gerd Barz b / w
1985 People's Police / 1985 Thomas Heise b / w

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne Barnert (ed.): Films for the future. The state film documentation at the GDR film archive. Berlin, Neofelis 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Torsten Klaus: The real life. The GDR's forgotten docu diary dawned in the archive - now it is being made accessible. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung, February 25, 2015, page 12
  3. ↑ Torsten Klaus: The true life - The forgotten documentary diary of the GDR first opened - DNN-Online. September 10, 2015, archived from the original ; accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b DEFA Foundation - Film Documentation. September 30, 2018, archived from the original ; accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Today Heise is a documentary filmmaker and Badel Professor at the Babelsberg Film University
  6. ^ Anne Barnert: People, Big City, Blind Spots. The “State Film Documentation” holdings of the GDR. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, vol. 63, no. 1 (2015), pp. 93-107.
  7. ^ Federal Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship | Events | Events 2015. February 26, 2015, archived from the original on February 26, 2015 ; accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  8. ^ Barnert, Anne .: Films for the Future - The State Film Documentation at the Film Archive of the GDR. Neofelis Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95808-054-6 .
  9. ↑ González de Reufels, Delia., City 46. Kommunalkino Bremen .: Film and history: Production and experience of history through moving images and sound . Bertz + Fischer, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86505-239-1 , pp. 34-42 .
  10. ↑ Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, vol. 63, no. 1 (2015), pp. 93-107.
  11. ↑ Filmblatt, Vol. 20, H. 55/56 (2014/2015), pp. 115–125.
  12. ↑ Rolf Aurich, Ralf Forster: How the film became immortal: pre-academic film studies in Germany . Edition text + kritik, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86916-407-6 , p. 89-96 .
  13. ^ Antonie Rietzschel: RBB shows a TV documentary about everyday life in the GDR. Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 17, 2015, accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Michael Bartsch: Rare recordings in the film archive: a secret matter of everyday life in the GDR . In: The daily newspaper: taz . March 17, 2015, ISSN  0931-9085 ( online [accessed November 3, 2019]).
  15. ^ Peter Ufer: The secret film archive of the GDR | Free press - culture. Freie Presse, March 11, 2015, accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Uta Keseling: This is where the GDR speaks - this is how the Stasi filmed its citizens. Berliner Morgenpost, March 17, 2015, accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Anne Barnert: Documentaries - GDR reality from the poison cabinet. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, April 8, 2015, accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  18. ↑ filmography | Film and video production Dresden - EichbergFilm. Retrieved on November 3, 2019 (first broadcast on March 17, 2015, 10:45 p.m. in the rbb ).