Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany
October 7–23, 2005

This collaboration between MoMA’s Department of Film and Media, the Goethe-Institut New York, and the DEFA Film Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, presents the most comprehensive retrospective of East German cinema ever screened in the United States. It brings together scholars of the DEFA period (1946–92), as well as directors and actors working at the time, to present the films and reflect on the political complexities of artistic production in the state-owned studios. DEFA produced over 750 films, many of them at the famous Studio Babelsberg, and in recent international critics’ surveys more than a dozen have been voted among the 100 best German films ever. Still, these and other original documentaries or fictional works from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) are largely unknown to audiences both in and outside of Germany. Rebels with a Cause presents a selection of significant works crafted by inventive filmmakers who tested the limits of censorship, and whose political engagement and depth add to the creative merit of film history. All films are new 35mm prints; all films are in German, with new or improved English subtitles.

Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, and Juliane Wanckel, Program Manager, Goethe-Institut New York, with Hiltrud Schulz, DEFA Film Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. With thanks for the generous support of the Max Kade Foundation Inc.; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; the DEFA-Stiftung, Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Germany; The International Council, MoMA; ICESTORM Entertainment GmbH; PROGRESS Film-Verleih GmbH; Wilhelm-Fraenger-Institut, Berlin; and the Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv Berlin.

Der Dritte (Her Third). 1971. GDR. Directed by Egon Günther. With Jutta Hoffmann, Barbara Dittus, Armin Mueller-Stahl. Told in a series of flashbacks, Her Third recounts eighteen years of a woman’s life. After two failed relationships, each of which produces a child, a newly liberated Margit discovers herself. This engaging story is also a testament to the evolving self-confidence and independence of East German women. 111 min.
Friday, October 7, 8:00; Sunday, October 9, 2:00. Both screenings introduced by Hoffmann and Mueller-Stahl. T1

Die Architekten (The Architects). 1990. GDR. Directed by Peter Kahane. Screenplay by Kahane, Thomas Knauf. With Kurt Naumann, Rita Feldmeier, Uta Eisold. Filmed as the GDR crumbled, this finely drawn portrait of life in East Berlin depicts a young architect whose circumstances and goals are strangled by communist dogma, represented in part by the older generation. 97 min.
Monument (The Monument). 1990. GDR. Directed by Klaus Georgi, Lutz Stützner. Animation by Barbara Atanassow, Holger Havlicek. 4 min.
Saturday, October 8, 2:00 (introduced by Kahane); Sunday, October 16, 2:00. T2

Das Fahrrad (The Bicycle). 1981. GDR. Directed by Evelyne Schmidt. With Heidemarie Schneider, Roman Kaminski, Anke Friedrich. Susanne, a single mother living a somewhat carefree lifestyle, lands in deep financial trouble and attempts minor fraud. Authorities were critical of this portrayal of a less-than-ideal socialist citizen, now seen as a rare view of everyday socialism from a woman’s perspective. 89 min.
Saturday, October 8, 4:00 (introduced by Schmidt). T2; Thursday, October 13, 8:00. T1

Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula). 1972. GDR. Directed by Heiner Carow. With Angelica Domröse, Winfried Glatzeder, Heidemarie Wenzel. Author Ulrich Plenzdorf and director Carow winningly portray everyday life in East Berlin in this story of undefeatable, passionate love between a single mother and a married bureaucrat. Featuring the music of the East German cult rock band The Puhdys. 106 min.
Eine Liebesgeschichte (A Love Story). 1953. GDR. Directed by Richard Groschopp. A writer tries to get a love story published. 7 min.
Saturday, October 8, 6:00; Sunday, October 23, 1:30. T2

Das zweite Gleis (The Second Track). 1962. GDR. Directed by Joachim Kunert. With Albert Hetterle, Annekathrin Bürger, Horst Jonischkan. Station Inspector Brock is witness to a robbery but, guilt-ridden by his failure to stand up to the Nazi regime years ago, he fails to report one of the culprits. The Second Track is the only East German film to deal with the sensitive subject of former Nazis leading normal lives in the GDR. 80 min.
Saturday, October 8, 8:30. T2; Thursday, October 13, 6:00. T1

Karbid und Sauerampfer (Carbide and Sorrel). 1963. GDR. directed by Frank Beyer. With Erwin Geschonneck, Kurt Rackelmann, Rudolf Asmus. Toward the end of World War II, workers in Dresden send a colleague hundreds of miles north to pick up welding supplies for their factory. His attempts to move the supplies through the Soviet occupation zone lead to an uproarious odyssey full of hijinks and misadventure. 80 min.
Es geht um die Wurst (News from the West). 1955. GDR. Written and directed by Harald Röbbeling. “Poisoned sausages in East Germany!” Karl (the irrepressible Erwin Geschonneck) panics when he hears this news on West Berlin radio. 8 min.
Sunday, October 9, 5:00 (introduced by Beyer); Sunday, October 23, 3:45. T2

Das Kaninchen bin ich (The Rabbit Is Me). 1965/1990. GDR. Directed by Kurt Maetzig. With Angelika Waller, Alfred Müller, Ilse Voigt. A young student has an affair with a hypocritical judge who once sentenced her brother for his political activities. Made in 1965 to encourage discussion of democratization of East German society, the film was eventually banned by government officials. 109 min.
Monday, October 10, 4:00; Saturday, October 22, 8:45. T2

Die Mutter (Mother). 1958. GDR. Directed by Manfred Wekwerth, Harry Bremer. With Helene Weigel, Fred Düren, Erich Franz. Bertolt Brecht’s grand epic of political theater, written in 1931, is an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s novel and tells the rousing story of an oppressed Russian woman who is transformed into a militant revolutionary. Filmed by DEFA, this production retains much of Brecht’s original cast, and includes a landmark performance from Weigel. 147 min.
Monday, October 10, 6:30; Friday, October 21, 8:00. T2

Working Life: Five Documents
Der Kreis (The Full Circle). 1989. GDR. Written and directed by Klaus Georgi. Animation by Barbara Atanassow, Ralf Kukula. An explosion in a huge industrial plant leads to chaos. 4 min.
Wer fürchtet sich vorm schwarzen Mann (Who’s Afraid of the Bogeyman). 1989. GDR. Written and directed by Helke Misselwitz. A close-up of Berlin coal carriers from Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Deeply felt, unromanticized sketches depicting rough men and their resolute female boss. 50 min.
Rangierer (Shunters). 1984. GDR. Written and directed by Jürgen Böttcher. This GDR version of cinema verité allows viewers a glimpse into the physically demanding and dangerous precision work of experienced shunters. 21 min.
Mädchen in Wittstock (Wittstock Girls). 1974. GDR. Directed by Volker Koepp. The first of seven masterful films made over a twenty-three-year period, each one chronicling the lives of three funny and sensitive young women in a small town. 20 min.
Konsequenz (Consequence). 1987. GDR. Written and directed by Klaus Georgi. Animation by Peter Missbach, Lutz Stützner, Ellen Herrmann, Stefan Kerda. Cars on a highway stop, their exhaust pipes billowing fumes. A driver coughs, the driver behind him also coughs…. 2 min. Program 97 min.
Wednesday, October 12, 6:00. T2; Saturday, October 15, 6:15 (introduced by Misselwitz and Böttcher). T1

Dein unbekannter Bruder (Your Unknown Brother). 1981. GDR. Directed by Ulrich Weiss. With Uwe Kockisch, Michael Gwisdek, Jenny Gröllmann. Returning from a Nazi camp for political prisoners in 1935, Arnold Clasen is ambivalent about reestablishing contact with his resistance group, afraid of being watched. This milestone film both sustains and breaks with the antifascist traditions of East German cinema. 108 min.
Wednesday, October 12, 8:00; Saturday, October 22, 2:00. T2

Jahrgang 45 (Born in ’45). 1966/1990. GDR. Directed by Jürgen Böttcher. Screenplay by Klaus Poche, Böttcher. With Monika Hildebrand, Rolf Römer, Paul Eichbaum. Inspired by Italian Neorealism and Jean-Luc Godard, Böttcher developed a sensitive style characterized by social observation and poetic verse in his only feature film. Newlyweds Alfred and Lisa decide to divorce. Alfred takes a few days off to clear his head, wandering through Berlin and meeting strangers. 94 min.
Friday, October 14, 6:00; Sunday, October 16, 4:00. Both screenings introduced by Böttcher. T1

Der Fall Gleiwitz (The Gleiwitz Case). 1961. GDR. Directed by Gerhard Klein. Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. With Hannjo Hasse, Herwart Grosse, Hilmar Thate. Considered one of the most modern and experimental films in DEFA’s history, the eccentric Gleiwitz Case is a detailed reconstruction of the 1939 surprise attack by a Nazi unit on the radio station at Gleiwitz, a German town on the Polish border. The attack, blamed on Polish forces, served as Hitler’s justification for marching into Poland—thus starting World War II. 69 min.
Friday, October 14, 8:00 (introduced by Kohlhaase). T1; Monday, October 17, 6:00. T2

Berlin—Ecke Schönhauser (Berlin—Schönhauser Corner). 1957. GDR. Directed by Gerhard Klein. Screenplay by Wolfgang Kohlhaase. With Ekkehard Schall, Ilse Pagé, Ernst-Georg Schwill. This classic teen cult film is a perceptive social portrait of a city whose political and economic divisions affected its entire population. Greeted with suspicion by cultural authorities, the film was instantly embraced by the East German public for its truthful portrayal of everyday life. 82 min.
Einmal in der Woche schreien (Yell Once a Week). 1982/1989. GDR. Written and directed by Günter Jordan. This sensitive report of rebellious teenagers in Berlin’s “wild” East was banned before its first screening. 15 min.
Saturday, October 15, 8:15 (introduced by Kohlhaase and Jordan). T1; Sunday, October 23, 5:45. T2

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