17 May 2006 - 3 September 2006
The world’s oldest long-term documentary – a DEFA project

In 1961, Winfried Junge took up the idea and vision of documentary filmmaker Karl Gass to make a film about a school class and to accompany the children’s life with the camera. No one would have thought that the story of the children from a small village in the Oderbruch would, one day, become a work portraying GDR everyday life, the German reunification and the first steps into a new everyday life.
The exhibition focuses on the early films that emerged between 1961 and 1980 at the DEFA documentary film studios. Among other things, it shows how difficult it was to stick to the initial idea, yet also how more and more people emotionally shared the fate of the Golzow inhabitants. In 1981, "Life Stories. The History of Golzow’s Children in Individual Portraits" was awarded a "honorary" Golden Dove on the international Leipzig Week of Documentary Film. In this context, "honorary" referred to the fact that the festival’s rules of procedure weren’t made for 4-hour films. At a single blow, the Golzow people became world-famous. Awards at the Berlinale as well as invitations to London, Sweden, Turkey, etc. followed.
Looking at the photos, documents, posters, press clippings, awards and prizes and, last but not least, the films in our exhibition, you will soon be able to accompany Golzow’s children on the first part of their journey.