Movies: Defa Studio Fur Wochenschau Und Dokumentarfilme

Documents important parts of the East German rock music scene of the late 1980s, from well-established bands like Silly, to underground rock bands like Feeling B. This road movie features young people using music to express their take on life, opposi...

Das russische Wunder (The Russian Miracle) (1963) is a two-part East German documentary directed by Annelie and Andrew Thorndike. The documentary chronicles Russia’s dramatic transformation from the Tsarist Empire to the Soviet Union, covering key hi...

A short biography of Arnold Zweig, through the lens of East Germany state media....

Documentary (in colour) about the first youth meeting (Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend) in East Berlin in 1950....

An international anthology about the struggles of female workers around the world....

A locomotive journey traversing the North to the South of the German Democratic Republic on the eve of its dissolution. Labourers, punks, mothers, intellectuals, young and old are implored to reflect on their life choices, the sacrifices they've made...

Documentary film about the agricultural and industrial district in Thuringia. The focus is on the district town of Erfurt, with Gotha, Eisenach and Weimar as other towns worthy of mention and steeped in tradition. This documentary, which has the char...

The story of the Grünthal peasants' uprising against the commander who oppresses and exploits them....

Portrait of a private coal company in East Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district in 1988/89. The feisty woman boss runs the business with humour and understanding. Her seven male employees respect her. To the outside world, they are all tough guys, but a...

In early summer 1989, Helke Misselwitz portrays young musicians in a band who produce their music on other people’s waste items. The four boys call themselves "Bulk Rubbish" and they drum out their resentment, having grown up on the new housing estat...

Nine very private encounters with different people of the post-war generation and their memories of childhood and youth. Among others, the guitarist and singer Peter "Caesar" Gläser and the actress Christine Harbort. Roland Steiner asked his contempo...

Urlaub auf Sylt (Vacation in Sylt) (1957) is an East German documentary directed by Annelie and Andrew Thorndike. The film investigates the past of Heinz Reinefarth, a former SS general involved in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, who later be...

Part 3 of the Wittstock series also shows the surroundings of the textile factory. Older gentlemen in a pub reveal that two factories produced fabrics for the military here during the Second World War. In 1945, only a handful of handlooms remained. T...

Sitting at her typewriter, listening to tango music, she dreams. Buenos Aires and Montevideo are far away, a different world where, long ago, the tango came into being. A dream about dance and music, as well as about unfulfilled desire and wanderlust...

Documentary about the merging of the Communist Party of Germany and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone, a merger that would lead to the creation of the Socialist Unity Party that would rule the soon-to-be-created East ...

The final exam of sixteen and seventeen year olds at the end of the 10th grade. The individual in the minutes in which he is supposed to show what he can do and who he is. A last class party before the community ends and one goes apart....

This documentary details the life of Klaus Fuchs who was a spy for the Soviet Union while working on nuclear research in the United States and Great Britain. It also discusses the contributions of German scientists to the atomic bomb....

Documentary reports on the annual icing of the Oder in the 160-kilometer border area between the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland. Icebreakers from both countries with experienced skippers join forces to make the international waterway between...

The age group in a group portrait of the fifth grade. They make suggestions for filming at school, in their free time and at home. Growing challenges through the lessons that bring knowledge and new questions and broaden their horizons....

A documentary about the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall which makes no use of vocal commentary but instead focuses on visual elements. From the Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate, the camera captures the historic events from all sides and diff...