Daily course 1: 4
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Daily course 1: 4 |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 12 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harry Hornig |
| script | Harry Hornig |
| production | DEFA studio for documentaries |
| music | Rolf Kuhl |
| camera |
Bernhard Zoeppfel Wolfgang Randel |
Day course 1: 4 is a documentary film by the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries by Harry Hornig from 1958 .
action
On October 13, 1957, banknotes were suddenly exchanged in the GDR . On that day, 300 Deutsche Marks from the German Central Bank (Ostmark) could be exchanged for cash, higher sums had to be paid into an account. Citizens could only dispose of these sums again after plausible reasons for their origin. The main reason was to withdraw the Ostmark holdings outside of the GDR. Due to the open borders, this money was often brought to West Berlin and exchanged there at a rate of 1: 4 in order to buy goods there and this money was now missing in the GDR. For the Weberbank in West Berlin alone , the exchange of money meant a loss of over 60 million marks, which it had earned by running exchange offices. The commentator said from the off that the honest GDR citizens were happy about this measure, because on that day many speculators' hopes were buried. The film then tries to uncover the shuffling of some citizens and the damage they caused.
A few weeks later, a trial against the West Berlin office machine dealer Otto Franz took place before the district court of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg , who bought 150 black typewriters from East Berlin middlemen within a year . A Ms. Schneider, who already had seven criminal records, was arrested because the Office for Customs and Control of Goods Movement (AZKW) was able to prove that she had taken at least seven Praktica cameras to the West. Many other valuable items, including accordions, were among the preferred contraband goods. The criminal case of Georg and accomplices was about a well-organized slider ring that worked with forged passports and had safe buyers in Switzerland and Spain . They were tracked down by information from the population. When Georg was arrested, bills for cameras and optics were found for more than 30,000 Ostmark , the total value of which has been in the hundreds of thousands since 1953.
In 1957, 2,746 precision mechanical and optical products were seized at the borders. The value of the goods confiscated by the AZKW exceeded the 6 million mark, which is why border controls were necessary, as examples of the film recordings show. For example, a pedestrian wanted to illegally bring 41 canaries across the sector border at Bernauer Strasse . A young man was caught trying to bring a thousand Ostmark into a West Berlin exchange office . In the opinion of the commentator, the exchange rate existing there was devalued 1: 4.
After several shots of citizens who were caught smuggling goods into the western part of Berlin, the interrogation of a lady is shown who had exchanged 110 Ostmark for West money in an exchange office and bought food for it. So she had to empty her bag and spread the contents out on a table. It was then made clear to her that exchanging the money was illegal and that the goods must therefore be confiscated. She knew that, but it was also the first time.
The bottom line of the film was that some people, like the banker Weber, are getting richer and that large sums of money are being used to harm the GDR.
Production and publication
The premiere of the black and white film under the working title Ostgeld at the current rate took place on May 30, 1958.