Film in der DDR – Daten, Fakten, Strukturen

Film in the GDR
Günter Jordan

„Encyclopedia Jordannica" - A Must-Have Book

Filmmaker and journalist Günter Jordan′s ten years of meticulous research on how film production was organized and integrated into East German governmental structures is now available in the form of a book. Published by the Filmmuseum Potsdam, Film in der DDR: Daten - Fakten - Strukturen describes in great detail: institutions and important figures of East German film history, amateur filmmaking, television productions, the involvement of the Stasi, and film distribution and trade. Beyond this, the monograph explains how the East German film industry was privatized after 1990, who took over the studios, which production companies were founded by former DEFA employees and which new organizations were created by technicians and artists. Film historian Ralf Schenk has nicknamed this study "Encyclopedia Jordannica" and praised it as "a unique phenomenon, indispensable for all who in the future wish to research and publish on the ′finite collection area′ of film in the GDR."

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Günter Jordan, . Potsdam 2009, ISBN 978-3-9812104-2-2, 579 Pages, hardcover 45 Euro
Order c/o Filmmuseum Potsdam, Marstall/Breite Straße 1, D-14476 Potsdam or amazon.de

Der ungeteilte Himmel

The undivided heaven. Actors of the GDR tell their stories.
Ingrid Poss & Peter Warnecke

“The professional became a beginner, the god a nobody” – many actors of the GDR must have felt like this, when the Wall came down. Film, TV and theatre stars, who were celebrated once, saw themselves forced to go from door to door. Ursula Werner remembers that in 1989 many actors went to demonstrate for a better GDR. “But fact is that they demonstrated at Alexanderplatz to abolish themselves and their theatre”, stated Eberhard Esche. In the united Germany, lots of people shared Simone Frost’s experience: “Nobody cares about you there”. And Jaeki Schwarz summed it up: “It was foreseeable that DEFA couldn’t work like this any more according to the principles of capitalism. But that everything will be destroyed, forgotten and not even mentioned…”

In “Der ungeteilte Himmel” (“The undivided heaven”) 19 famous actors of the GDR tell their personal stories. They speak about their background, their achievements and disappointments, their working life in the East and the personal and professional changes they had to deal with after the Collapse of the GDR. Due to luck and their skills, they finally succeed in coming back into the limelight.

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editors: Ingrid Poss & Peter Warnecke, Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-355-01764-0, 480 pages, black-and-white illustrations, paperback 19.90 Euro

Spur der Steine

The Trace of Films
Contemporary witnesses talk about DEFA
Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke

They existed: those DEFA films that produced little interest when they were seen in the cinema programme. Still, there were also those that drew hundreds of thousands to the cinemas – not only in the GDR. Their makers were in a constant state of tension between political expectations and their own artistic demands. In the available, richly illustrated volume on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of DEFA′s foundation, those who were there tell their stories: about hopes and disappointments, about the adversities and amenities of a perished film production. More than 40 directors, screenwriters, dramatic advisers, actors, production managers and costume designers have their say and deliver insight into the circumstances of emergence of approx. 100 films. From more than 400 hours of interviews lead by the DEFA Foundation, Filmmuseum Potsdam and Zeitzeugen TV, an authentic inside view emerged that former accounts always lacked.

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editors: Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (eds.), Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN: 3-86153-401-0, 600 Pages, approx. 300 Illustrations, Cover: softcover, Format: 16,5 x 23,5 cm, 24,90 Euros

Thinking about Wolfgang Staudte

A documentation of an event by the Potsdam Film Museum on the occasion of Staudte’s 100th Birthday.
Wolfgang Staudte is one of the most important German film directors of the postwar period. Born in 1906, he started his career as a film director in the 1930s – after having worked at the theatre as well as for the commercial film industry. At DEFA, he made the first postwar German film entitled “Die Möder sind unter uns” (“The Murderers Are Among Us”). Staudte belonged to the few politically conscious filmmakers. Since the 1960s, he worked for television. Besides the popular series "Der Seewolf " (“The Sea Wolf”) and "Der Lockruf des Goldes" (“The Lure of Gold “), he also produced sociocritical series like “Die Pawlaks” (“The Pawlaks”) or “MS Franziska” (“MS Franziska”).
The articles in this book document the same-titled retrospective by the Potsdam Film Museum on the occasion of Staudte’s 100th Birthday in October 2006, supported by the DEFA-foundation and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the State Brandenburg.

Unsichtbare Schätze der Kinotechnik – Kinematographische Apparate aus 100 Jahren

Invisible Treasures of Cinema Technology – 100 Years of Cinematographic Equipment

A must for everyone enthusiastic about historical filming and projecting equipment!
Invisible treasures? Everyone can see some of the most beautiful exhibits from the museum′s technology collection. Interested visitors are welcome to the equipment collection on display in Pappelallee 20. Just give us a call under (0049/331) 56704-16. This book offers an additional opportunity to make some of the museum′s technological treasures, most of which are normally not exhibited, visible for everyone. A representative choice made on the basis of our stock catalogue presents some 150 items from the collection in texts and pictures. Further information on the pieces of equipment and their manufacturers are embedded into a historical outline of the development of filming and projecting equipment. Amateur collectors and everyone else interested in historical technology will find the chapter on handling cinematic equipment helpful, which was written with respect to restoration and conservation guidelines. The final part of the book gives a summary of numerous devices from our stocks, 300 of them are pictured in small-sized photographs. A survey of almost 3000 existing technical documentations supplements this richly illustrated volume, which is thus rendered a valuable reference book.
Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor:, Editor: Christian Ilgner, Parthas-Verlag, Berlin, 2001, ISBN 3-932529-30-8, 232 pages, 471 colour / black-and-white illustrations, paperback 19.90 Euros

Das zweite Leben der Filmstadt Babelsberg DEFA-Spielfilme 1946 - 1992

The Second Life of the Film Metropolis Babelsberg" – DEFA Feature Films 1946 - 1992
"... the only book so far which (...) is capable of giving a comprehensive and credible account. The standard work until further notice." (Berliner Zeitung)
A complete history of the DEFA feature film studios and, at the same time, an exciting chapter of GDR cultural politics, written by East German film scholars. A complete filmography of DEFA feature films, including content descriptions and reviews, complete this first standard volume on the history of the East German state-owned company.
Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Ralf Schenk, Henschel Verlag, Berlin, 1994, ISBN 3-89487-175-X, 560 pages, 847 black-and-white illustrations, paperback 19.90 Euros
Press: "It is the only work so far that earnestly attempts to do justice to the DEFA phenomenon and the ambivalence between film and society, art and power. It can be anticipated that, so far, this is the only work able to present a serious conclusion. The standard work until further notice."
Berliner Zeitung, by Günter Sobe, 25 April 1994

Vor der Kamera – Fünfzig Schauspieler in Babelsberg

In Front of the Camera
– Fifty Actors in Babelsberg



Fifty portraits of actresses and actors – from Hildegard Knef to Erwin Geschonneck – who worked for DEFA in Babelsberg, including biographies and filmographies. Directors, screenwriters, dramatic advisers and film journalists wrote the texts.

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Ralf Schenk, Henschel Verlag, Berlin, 1995, ISBN 3-89487-235-7, 30 x 22,5 cm, 280 pages, approx. 300 illustrations, paperback 7.50 Euros

Regie: Frank Beyer

A book on one of DEFA′s finest directors, who was the only GDR citizen ever to receive an Oscar nomination.

Frank Beyer worked with, e.g., Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jutta Hoffmann, Manfred Krug and Senta Berger. Among his works are such important films as "Nackt unter Wölfen" ("Naked Among Wolves"), "Spur der Steine" ("The Trace of Stones") and "Geschlossene Gesellschaft".

The book includes an in-depth conversation with the director about his films and his life, stories about famous actors he worked with and numerous documents – also about his forbidden films. Essays on all Frank Beyer feature and TV films and a complete filmography complement the portrait.

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Ralf Schenk, Edition Hentrich, Berlin, 1996, ISBN 3-89468-156-X, 320 pages, 17 x 24,5 cm, 160 black-and-white illustrations, paperback 3.50 Euros

Liebe mit Achtzig

Love at the Age of 80.
Asta Nielsen – Christian Theede: Briefe

The life of the first European screen goddess, for whose films the Babelsberg studios were built, ressembles a fairy tale film with a happy ending: she found her big love at an old age.
The life of Danish actress Asta Nielsen reads like a fairy tale: She came from the poorest of backgrounds and became the diva of early European film. The first film studio was built eighty years ago in Babelsberg for the production of her box office hits. Wherever she performed, the audience cheered. Asta Nielsen set the fashion; she embodied the beautiful, independent woman. Virtually penniless in her old age and in despair over her only daughter′s suicide, all the 83-year-old wanted was to die. But then, as the letters document, she met with the wonder of love.
Publisher: Allan O. Hagedorff and Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Bärbel Dalichow, Jovis Verlag Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-931321-54-1, 17 x 23 cm, 175 pages, 25 black-and-white illustrations, hardcover 4.90 Euros

Hans Albers – Ein Leben in Bildern

("Hans Albers – A Life in Pictures")
UFA star Hans Albers was most succesful during the Nazi era, but he was also considered as a personification of masculinity for a long time afterwards.

The image of the "blond Hans" boiled down to two icons within half a century: Albers flying through the air on a cannonball as Baron von Münchhausen and Albers singing melancholic and frivolous songs as a sailor. An extensive picture biography, including some rare photos and an essay by Bärbel Dalichow, draws the picture of a man who turned into an male idol.

Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Elke Schieber, Henschel Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-89487-282-9, 178 pages, 200 illustrations, 24 x 27 cm, hardcover 7.50 Euros

Oskar Messter - Filmpionier der Kaiserzeit

("Oskar Messter – Film Pioneer from Imperial Germany")
Oskar Messters was an inventor, entrepreneur and director – that is, a modern man of the kind we′re desperately looking for nowadays.
Oskar Messter was an inventor, businessman and director. The 100th anniversary of cinema celebrations opened with an exhibition on Oskar Messter, whose technological inventions laid the foundation for the development of the German film industry. The richly illustrated catalogue contains, besides contributions on Messter′s film empire and film and cinema technology by the mechanics workshops, interesting comments about the effects of cinema music and the star cult surrounding Henny Porten, our great-grandparents′ cinema darling.
KINtop Schriften 2, Publisher and Editor: Martin Loiperdinger, Deutsches Museum München, Stroemfeld Verlag Basel / Frankfurt am Main, 1994, ISBN 3-87877-762-0, 15,5 x 22 cm, 176 pages, numerous black-and-white illustrations, paperback 4.50 Euros

Schwarzweiß und Farbe

Black-and-White and Colour: DEFA Documentary Films 1946 - 1992"
An invaluably rich source for historians, sociologists and cineasts: DEFA documentary filmmakers and their work.
Almost 10,000 documentary and popular scientific films plus weekly and monthly newsreels were created by DEFA between 1946 and 1992. In twelve chapters, the authors work their way through this body of work and give an inside account of films and people, of the mechanisms of the GDR propaganda and culture politics, of ideals, dreams and hopes, conformism and quiet resistance. The authors′ efforts are by no means restricted to a few hand-picked names; instead, their judgement is based on the knowledge of the entire production. Apart from a detailed chronology of DEFA films including the weekly news "Der Augenzeuge" ("The Eyewitness"), the volume includes chapters on documentaries produced by the Film College Potsdam-Babelsberg and on the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival. Some 190 DEFA documentarists are introduced with detailed biographies and filmographies.
Publisher: Potsdam Film Museum, Editor: Günter Jordan and Ralf Schenk, Jovis-Verlagsbüro Berlin 1996/2000 (second, extended and revised edition) ISBN 3-931321-51-7, 463 pages, approx. 200 black-and-white illustrations, paperback 25.50 Euros