Unter den Linden - history and stories

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Movie
Original title Unter den Linden - history and stories
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1970
length (3 parts) 164 minutes
Rod
Director Klaus Alde
Michael Engelberger
script Klaus Alde
Michael Engelberger
production DEFA , KAG “Gruppe 67”
on behalf of the DFF
music Hans-Dieter Hosalla
camera Ernst Oeltze
cut Christa Bramann
occupation

Unter den Linden - history and stories is a three-part DEFA fiction film by Jürgen Alde and Michael Engelberger , produced on behalf of the German TV broadcaster , which also wants to be understood as a documentary film. Here the history of Berlin is retold using the example of the Unter den Linden boulevard .

Production and publication

Unter den Linden - history and stories was of the artistic group "Group 67" on ORWO -Color with several black and white film - sequences , filmed and photographs from archives and had its world premiere of the first part of December 6, 1970 at the second program German television broadcasting . The other two parts followed on December 12 and 20, 1970.

Günther Cwojdrak and Karl-Heinz Wegner were responsible for the scenario and the artistic advice was in the hands of Andrew Thorndike and Annelie Thorndike , who also had the idea for the films. The monologues and verses are from Hans Krause .

Movies

1st part: It started with a bridle path

Movie
Original title It started with a bridle path
length 53 minutes
occupation

The first part begins with recordings from 1970 in the boulevard and a peep box lets us look into the past through his peep box . It begins in 1647, Berlin has around 7,000 inhabitants and a castle , in which the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm now lives with his wife. The view of the meager bridle path under their windows worries them very much, until the Electress herself reaches for the shovel and plants the first linden tree , at least that's what it says later in the school books.

Berlin is transformed into a fortress city, an elector is no longer enough, it has to be a king: Friedrich I , who in 1701 put the crown on himself. Schlüter and Eosander build a new castle and a stables , under the roof of which there is still space for the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences under the direction of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz . The art academy with the director Andreas Schlueter is also housed under the roof of this house and the famous equestrian statue of the Great Elector was created here . In later years, at the time of Friedrich Wilhelm III. , the Berlin University is founded at the suggestion of Wilhelm von Humboldt . In other revue-like pictures, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Carl Friedrich Zelter , Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Käthe Kollwitz and Max Reinhardt appear. Through these images, the viewer experiences everything as vividly as if a camera had been there at the time, said the documentarist Andrew Thorndike, who was involved in the production as an artistic advisor. At the end of the first part we see footage from 1970 again.

Part 2: Hope for the fourth estate

Movie
Original title Hope for the fourth estate
length 58 minutes
occupation

After a look back to 1970, the second part presents colorfully arranged scenes that took place between 1788 and 1848 around Berlin's boulevard . It begins with the first ascent of a hydrogen- filled free balloon at the still old Brandenburg Gate. Friedrich Wilhelm II and his mistress the Countess von Lichtenau also attend the event, in which Jean-Pierre Blanchard also rises into the air .

Little information reaches Berlin about the French Revolution that has now taken place . The newspapers are torn from the hands of foreign guests in order to read them publicly in the streets and squares. In 1793 a few courageous voices even called for freedom and equality, but this was immediately stopped by the police. Ten years later there are completely different worries, Napoleon Bonaparte also moves to Prussia and Berlin as part of his war of conquest, which is reached in 1806. That prompts Friedrich Wilhelm III. to flee to Memel , where a large part of his court follows him. In 1813 the king signed a treaty with Russia , which was followed by the wars of liberation , in which Berlin was also liberated with the help of many voluntary local forces.

In 1821 Heinrich Heine began his studies in Berlin and in 1836 Karl Marx enrolled at the Berlin University, where he studied until 1941. Here he met Friedrich Engels in his final year of study , who was doing his military service in Berlin. Six years later, both published the Communist Party's manifesto . In 1843 Bettina von Arnim published her accusation against poverty in the country with This book belongs to the king . Their hope rests on the emancipation of the fourth estate . In 1844 the General German Trade Exhibition took place in the armory on Unter den Linden .

On March 18, 1848, the Berliners demanded civil liberties and rights from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . He gives the order to have the palace square cleared by cavalry , which leads to the people taking over the street on which the flags of the revolution are now waving. Now 20 thousand heavily armed soldiers are fighting against the citizens of Berlin, but the citizens are victorious. The king has to pay his last respects to the 180 fallen. This has never happened in the history of the Hohenzollern family .

To modern dance music, East Berlin presents itself as a cosmopolitan city and guests from all over the world stroll through Unter den Linden.

3rd part: decision at the gate

Movie
Original title Decision at the gate
length 53 minutes
occupation

The third episode of the DEFA history feuilleton on Unter den Linden begins with the builder Carl Gotthard Langhans , who presents his plans for the new Brandenburg Gate to the responsible minister, because this part is about this. Even Johann Gottfried Schadow needs for its Quadriga answer questions because the minister and fears that it could fall down in high winds. In addition to many well-known personalities, the newly crowned German Emperor Wilhelm I also entered Berlin through this gate in 1871 , where he was received with great effort. Also present at this reception is the emperor's grandson, his later successor Wilhelm II , as his father Friedrich III. ruled for only 99 days.

According to Oskar Messter's own statement , a film pioneer, the film he shot in 1895 under catalog number: 1 was: At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin , which will also be shown in his own cinema Unter den Linden. From here on, the presentation of the film also changes. Instead of the previously preferred revue-like staged images, film documents and historical photographs are now in the foreground. For example, the misery of the tenements and the splendor of Prussian military parades , recordings from the First World War and a speech by Karl Liebknecht are shown. The November Revolution of 1918 and the workers' movement of the 1920s are a topic as well as the book burning in 1933 by the National Socialists on Opernplatz . After the end of the Second World War , the clean-up work began in Berlin. A demonstration march passes the ruins of the city palace and over the years the Brandenburg Gate with its quadriga is restored to its old beauty. The construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 is highlighted as a peace measure, history and contemporary history are interpreted according to the official textbook. The film ends with one last drive down the boulevard in 1970.

criticism

In New Germany , Peter Berger said:

“The filmmakers didn't chatter, as often happens with storytelling, they didn't offer a description, but a brief, accurate interpretation of the historical events. In doing so, they looked not only in the books of bourgeois history, but also in their wastebasket; As it were wiping past, the camera perceived on its journey through the centuries how great history tends to be reflected in the small everyday details of the people, and lo and behold: many a new, interesting perspective opens up before the viewer, sets his thinking in motion to rediscover what has long been known. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from December 24, 1970, p. 4