DEFA - Foundation

Important works on the history of DEFA will be published irregularly within the Foundation Series. There are essays, documentations and research works from the projects supported by the Foundation.

Texts and Reviews of five Decades

Ralf Schenk, editor.
456 Pages
ISBN 978-3-00-037266-7
12.50 € (plus shipping)
available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

This book is a collection of texts and film reviews by the highly-regarded film journalist and critic, Fred Gehler. Gehler began writing for such periodicals as “Sonntag,” “Deutsche Filmkunst,” and “Film und Fernsehen,” as well as appearing on Berlin radio in the early 1960s. The collection spans over five decades of film history, both in the GDR and abroad. Gehler’s passion for cinema is clearly shown by his interest, not only in renowned Directors, but also younger, lesser-known talents. With over 50 years of films, the development of DEFA, as well as foreign production companies, can be seen throughout the book, as well as the correspondence between political and aesthetic development and film.

Strategies of Resistance

Claus Löser
396 pages
ISBN 978-3-00-034845-7
12,50 € (plus shipping)
available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

Löser co-founded "ex. oriente. lux", an archive devoted to East German underground and experimental films, with Karin Fritzsche in 1996; in the same year, this team also published a volume entitled "Gegenbilder: Filmische Subversion in der DDR 1976-1989" (lit. "Counter-Images: Filmic Subversion in the GDR 1976-1989"). Löser curated "Counter Images DVD", as well as "After Winter Comes Spring", a film retrospective at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.
Source: DEFA Film Library

Früher war ich Filmkind. Die DEFA und ihre jüngsten Darsteller

Knut Elstermann
224 pages
many coloured images
ISBN-10: 3360021142 / ISBN-13: 9783360021144
19,95 €, available at Das Neue Berlin

 

They were not celebrated as stars, but the success of the DEFA child movies like "The Little Muck" or "Fat Little Tilla" depended on the performance of the child actors. The film journalist Knut Elstermann has interviewed 14 former DEFA child actorsabout their work in a DEFA film. How has the work with the directors been? What did they do after the film? Images of the shootings give an impression of the work behind the scenes and many film photos remind of the DEFA child movies.
Source: Das Neue Berlin

German children's films of Babelsberg. Discussion - Reception.
(Deutsche Kinderfilme aus Babelsberg. Werkstattgeschräche - Rezeptionsräume)

Klaus-Dieter Felsmann / Bernd Sahling
166 Seiten
ISBN 978-3-00-030098-1
12,50 € available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

The DEFA children's film enjoyed great popularity in the GDR because of its lovely style and its thematic diversity. Klaus-Dieter Felsmann lights the part of the DEFA children's film in the other part of Germany at the first time. At this time of political seperation the children's film was a little element of contact between both states. Felsmann determines the share of the DEFA children's film in the children's cinema of Germany and in the film festivals, the public response and the effect on working processes of children's films.
Bernd Sahling talks with DEFA directors of children's films:

• Helmut Dziuba,
• Hannelore Unterberg,
• Rolf Losansky and
• Günter Meyer

The directors describe their experiences with the work, so that you have an insight in the working process with children.

The Second Life Of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow - The Historie of a DEFA film
(Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow - Die Entstehungsgeschichte eines DEFA-Films)

Siegfried Kühn
108 pages
ISBN 978-3-00-028682-7
12,50 € (shipping costs not included)
available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

On the 1st Juni 1973, there was the premiere of  the DEFA film "Das zweite Leben des Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow“. At this moment the film about the railway worker Platow had covered a long way through the instances of licensure of the GDR cultural politic. After that it was an insider tip for lovers of the German cinema.
Siegfried Kühn and his colleagues look back on the film work and remember the admission process. The director tells about long discussions with the ministry of culture, the DEFA studios and other institutions. You also can find documents of the film work to get an insight in the work of a film maker and the admission process of a film.

Cooperation or competiton? - The rapport between film and television in the GDR
(Kooperation oder Konkurrenz? - Das Verhältnis zwischen Film und Fernsehen der DDR)

Thomas Beutelschmidt
436 pages, 144 images
ISBN 978-3-00-027622-4
12,50 € available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

The study focuses the structural, cultural and personal connections between film and television in the GDR. It shows the complex functionality of a centralistic and culture administration, which depend on a party. The publication presents many statistical data, images and little-known documents, which should inspire the reader to continuative research.

The heritage of the DEFA - The nearly never ending story of a foundation formation
(Das Erbe der DEFA – Die fast unendliche Geschichte einer Stiftungsgründung)

Stefanie Eckert
218 pages
ISBN 978-3-00-026117-6
12,50 €, available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

On occasion of the 10th anniversary of the DEFA-Foundation the book „Das Erbe der DEFA – Die fast unendliche Geschichte einer Stiftungsgründung“ by the Media Scholar Stefanie Eckert. Until now the sometimes adventurous history of the formation of the DEFA-Foundation has not been published connectedly and so profoundly. As the same time the protagonists are intodruced. Some models of a DEFA-Foundation are shown, even as juristic premises and conflicts.
This documentary of the DEFA-Foundation as a keeper of the german film reveals the neccesity of its existence.

Uwe Fleischer
144 pages, 59 images
ISBN- Nr: 978-3-00-024361-5
12,50 €, available at the defa-spektrum GmbH defa-spektrum GmbH

From the point of view of a camera assistant Uwe Fleischer reports on the production of the DEFA-Film "Für die Liebe noch zu mager?" ("Still too slight for love?"). He describes his work, and additionally interviewed main actress Simone von Zglinicki and main actor Christian Steyer, as well as director Bernhard Stephan and other members.

Frank-Burkhard Habel
296 pages, ca. 350 images
ISBN 978-3-00-024166-6
10,00 €, available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

Frank-Burkhard Habel has collected information and several anecdotes about the DEFA. It is a short view in the work of directors, actors and other members of a film production. He also describes film genres and the organizational structure of the DEFA.

This book accounts for the last five decades of the documentary filmfestival of Leipzig - its variations and inconsistencies, along with the history, including the change from "Dokwoche" to "DOK Leipzig".
On the one hand the festival is a place to meet, interact and to inform; on the other hand it has been an instrument of politics. Today the heritage of the traditional festival and the visions of a new generation face each other.

(Bankett für Achilles. Schwierigkeiten mit der Arbeiterklasse)

Roland Gräf
174 pages, 19 images
ISBN: 978-3-00-021061-7
5,00 €, available at the  defa-spektrum GmbH

Director Roland Gräf gives an account of the work in his DEFA-Film „Bankett für Achilles“ ("Banquet For Achilles") and the difficulties of the production. In the book there are also many newspaper articles and journals about the fascinating development of the film.

The cinematographer Peter Badel has interviewed many DEFA-cinematographers of different generations and different DEFA companies. They talk about shared and individual experiences with film and DEFA-production.

The book contains essays from academics and authors about the film program "Geteiltes Land – Geteilter Sex" at the Humboldt University Berlin in 2004.
Based on some important DEFA-Films, the book shows the connection between nationality, gender, sexuality and separate identity.

A short history of the DEFA – dates, documents, memories
(Eine keine Geschichte der DEFA – Daten, Dokumente, Erinnerungen)

Ralf Schenk
294 pages
ISBN: 3-00-018775-8
5,00 €, available at defa-spektrum GmbH

The short history of the DEFA contains dates and facts as well as excerpts from letters, minutes, manifests, memories and intelligence dossiers. The chronicle wants to resume, to inform and to entertain - a reflective, exciting and also amusing reading material on the occasion of the 60^th day of formation of the DEFA.

Stefan Röske
254 pages
ISBN: 3-00-018519-4
5,00 €, available at defa-spektrum GmbH

The work of the DEFA director Helmut Dziuba has always shown a high interest in the individual problems of the adolescent generation. Several films on juvenile subjects are analysed in detail, among others “Sabine Kleist, 7 Jahre…”, “Erscheinen Pflicht”, “Verbotene Liebe” and “Jana und Jan”. An interview at full length with the director completes the book.

120 pages
ISBN: 3-00-018155-5
5,00 €, available at defa-spektrum GmbH

The German Institute for Animation Film (DIAF) was founded in November 1993 in Dresden, where the DEFA Studio for Animation Film produced about 1,500 animated films between 1955 and 1990.The bilingual book is the accompanying reading to the Europe-wide exhibition hosted by the DIAF. It provides an insight in a remarkable period of German film history and in the genre of traditional animation film.

Lothar Warneke
291 pages
ISBN: 3-00-017971-2
5,00 €, available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

Memories of the filmmaker Lothar Warneke - of his life, his films, his friends and his ideas of life and art. His ethic base has been an interest in questions of the everyday life of normal people and the problems of communication.

DEFA and copyright
(DEFA und Urheberrecht)

Stefan Haupt
517 pages
ISBN-Nr. 3-00-016728-5
5,00 €, available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

The lawyer Stefan Haupt outlines copyright problems concerning the film production of the GDR. Apart from important court decisions on copyright questions of exploitation rights there are many substantial documents attached as annex that elaborate on agreements and contracts. In addition, you can find a bibliography on copyright in the GDR.

• Wolfgang Kohlhaase,
• Ulrich Plenzdorf,
• Regine Kühn,
• Christa Kozik,
• Günther Rücker,
• Thomas Knauf,
• Gabriele Kotte and
• Martin Stephan.

The interviews were held from October 2002 to December 2003.

Sleep before awakening
(Der Schlaf vor dem Erwachen)

Karl-Hans Bergmann
469 pages
ISBN-Nr. 3-929470-28-4
5,00 € available at the defa-spektrum GmbH

An autobiographic report from the years 1931 to 1949, the time Karl Hans Bergmann, co-founder of the DEFA and later head of the Berlin International Film Festival, was member of the communist parties KPD and SED. The text impresses by showing big hope and ignominious failure, resistance and opportunism – and by portraying the personal experience of the end of an ambitious dream.