For ten long years Guenter Jordan has been working on this book; now it is finally here in printed form, following an internet publication by the DEFA Stiftung (DEFA Foundation).
„Film in der DDR. Daten – Fakten – Strukturen“ (Film in the GDR: Dates - Facts - Structures). It is a foundational work of research of some 580 pages.
Jordan, who was once a director employed by the DEFA Documentary Film Studio and a passionate film historian, has collected everything of relevance to film production and distribution in the German East between 1945 and 1990. His work includes all institutions, organisations, and agencies that had to do with film, beginning with the Soviet occupation authorities, the SED (Socialist Unity Party), the Ministries of Culture and State Security, and television and extending to distribution, artists′ associations, festivals, film labs and disposal companies. Whoever seeks to know where film personnel were trained and where technical research was done, what houses published on film, how the film club movement was structured and who among newspaper editors was involved in reporting on film: All dates and names that could be found are collected here.

Beyond this, there is information on how the GDR film industry was privatized after 1990: Who took over the studios? What production companies were founded by former DEFA employees? And what new organizations were formed by technicians and artists?

For this work, which presumably will soon be nicknamed "Enclyclopedia Jordannica," the author scoured archives and libraries, conducted interviews, and grouped the widely scattered facts in a practical manner. Thanks to an index including subject headings as well as names,
one can quickly find out who at what point had which function relating to film. Not only the exact terms of office of the GDR "film ministers" are recorded (one only lasted half a year), but also those of the DEFA directors, heads of production units, Party cultural officials or Russion culture officers.

Jordan decodes chains of authority, describes the development and metamorphoses of the Studios and control committees, and also researches all film producers beyond DEFA as well. It may not be news that the National People′s Army (NVA) or the Post Office had their own film studios; but it is a surprise to discover the large number of small, private film producers.

Each chapter begins with a substantive thematic introduction and includes information on sources, legal regulations, and bibliographical notes. There has never yet been such a comprehensive collection of information regarding the cinema of the GDR -- although even here there are still gaps: Film exhibition in the GDR, i.e. where and when what cinemas were in operation, which films were distributed and with how many prints, and how the audiences really reacted – this remains largely unexplored.

In the years of this Sisyphean task Jordan was repeatedly received encouragement from friends and colleagues in film: for example from Wolfgang Klaue, longtime director of the State Film Archive of the GDR and first Director of the DEFA-Stiftung (which also provided financial support for the project). During a panel discussion at the Potsdam Film Museum, where the book first came out, it was remarked that a comparable standard work on the development of the West German film industry after
1945 would actually be unthinkable. The structures there were much more fragmented, are not nearly as well documented and such an overview would not be possible. Thus the "Encylcopedia Jordannica" may indeed remain a unique phenomenon, indispensable for all who in future wish to research and publish on the "finite collection area" of film in the GDR. For whoever wishes to interpret must first develop a familiarity with the subject matter at hand; Jordan′s work is an outstanding preparation of the way.