Back in Wittstock

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Movie
Original title Back in Wittstock
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1976
length 22 minutes
Rod
Director Volker Koepp
script Wolfgang Geier
Volker Koepp
production DEFA studio for documentaries
music Mario Peters
camera Christian Lehmann
cut Rita Blach
chronology

←  Predecessor
girls in Wittstock

Successor  →
Wittstock III

Back in Wittstock is a documentary film by the DEFA studio for documentary films by Volker Koepp from 1976.

action

A year has passed and the film team around Volker Koepp is back in Wittstock in 1975 to see what's new in the Obertrikotagenbetrieb (OTB) "Ernst Lück". There is still a lot of construction going on and the number of employees has now doubled to 2,000 colleagues. The OTB is sometimes called Werk auf der Wiese, last year 400 new apprentices were hired, the shell of a second large workshop has been completed and the single dormitory has been moved into. Stupsi and Edith from the first part meet them, like many others, too.

Stupsi, whose real name is Elsbeth, fell in love last December and becomes pregnant by the boy. His parents have something against the connection because he is two years younger than Stupsi. When it was also established that he was pregnant, he separated from her again in May because he was afraid of being thrown out of the door at home. Edith is still after the truth because nothing has changed, you have to look for the people who tell you the truth. In the first part, her love of truth is a topic that caused her a lot of trouble. Now she doesn't feel like it anymore, what will be discussed later.

On a night shift November 1975

The seamstresses from the youth shift come to their workplace. The plant is in an agricultural area, which creates problems for the young people, but also for the lines. Now there is also a rumor that the youth class comes last in terms of quality and quantity . The girls deal with the problem quite openly and also realize that they are partly to blame for it. But you also see the shared responsibility in the management and in the work preparation, many suggestions from the girls for improvements in the production process, which has been discussed for years. The SED party secretary who was questioned about this explains that many young leaders still lack experience. The main concern must be to further qualify the middle management level, because so far these employees often have no greater knowledge than the colleagues on the assembly line. Bärbel is such an example, she finished her training in February and is immediately employed as a training instructor.

Now Stupsi tells about herself again that she left school after eighth grade, then she studied at the OTB for two and a half years, which she really liked. The 10th grade copied them and went to the final inspection in the company. When she comes home after the shift, she goes shopping, tidies up her room a little and then goes to the cinema or the discotheque, because there is nothing else you can do in this area. Afterwards, recordings of her are shown while dancing, which prove how annoyed she is with the drunk boys. Because it is so monotonous and boring in Wittstock, she would also want to leave for a short time.

Edith, who is still the band leader in the first part, is a seamstress again. The reason she gives is that she was always in trouble, also because she once criticized a manager who gave incorrect instructions about the work flow, which he later denied. Then she said at a large meeting that the seamstresses cannot know the process if the management does not even know it. She then hears that if there is such criticism again, she has to go back to the sewing machine. When she lost the desire to continue working as a band leader, she wanted to go back to the machine. But that is not allowed and she is to be transferred to another department. Since all discussions took place without the presence of the FDGB , which was stipulated in the GDR , Edith went to the union and was then, according to her request, reassigned to the line. She doesn't think she wants to fill the post of band leader again, because the problems with the management are too big.

Stopover in Blandikow

The village of Blandikow is nine kilometers from Wittstock, where the sisters Bärbel and Edeltraut live with their parents. Bärbel is 18 years old and Edeltraut is 20 years old. Neither of them want to move to Wittstock; like most of the OTB workers, buses are taken from the villages to the factory and picked up again. The connection between the village and the company is evident from the fact that everyone walks around in the sweaters made there. Free time consists in the girls going to the pub or dancing. Both of them may want to get married in one or two years, so Bärbel at least wants to stay with the company, while Edeltraut says that she doesn't enjoy it as much as it used to, as so many of the old people leave the company. Bärbel also thinks that as a training instructor she receives far too little support from the management.

From responsibility

Edith says that you don't just live there by yourself. She wants to get people to say that the OTB is a good company that creates the plan and also brings good products to market. She is convinced that almost everyone does their best for the company. Stupsi also says that she lost her child. If it hadn't happened that way, she would definitely have kept it and raised it on her own. She wouldn't have cared what people would have said about it. After Bulgaria she would like to go once and later lead a happy marriage if she marries times. She doesn't want to stop at the company because she enjoys the work in the final inspection, even if there are still a few problems, and she has nothing against taking on a little responsibility. The thing with her former boyfriend is over for good, she wouldn't even start again. The matter is over, she has already forgotten it.

Edith is elected party group organizer of the SED shortly before the film team leaves. She is sure that she can make a difference in the company in this way.

Production and publication

Back in Wittstock , the artistic working group “document” shot a black and white film under the working title Young Workers . It premiered on September 17, 1976.

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Wolfgang Geier.

This film is the second part of a seven-part long-term documentary that was not originally planned as such.

criticism

Mimosa Künzel wrote in the report about her impressions of the second performance comparison of the documentary and short film of the GDR in cinema and television in the New Age

“Volker Koepp did a well-rounded job with 'Again in Wittstock'; young ready-to-wear seamstresses tell fresh, free, uninhibited, sometimes telegenic like perfect actresses, what they like, what annoys them, what problems and disappointments they have to deal with. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neue Zeit of October 28, 1976, p. 4