# data[].attributes.body
Sonnenallee is a coming of age comedy, released in 1999, about growing up in East Germany. For these "Ossis", illegal music from the West is an essential aspect of teenage rebellion.

The question of whether Sonnenalle does justice to the brutality of the East German regime has been up for debate for 20 years. In a review for Der Spiegel, Marianne Wellershoff stated that the film glorified the GDR and played down the negative aspects of life in East Germany under Erich Honecker.
Watch the whole film on YouTube

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sonnenallee ( Sun Alley ) -  full movie - english subtittles

# data[].attributes.body
Deutschland 83 is a German-American television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who in 1983 is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA, the foreign intelligence agency of the Stasi. Watch the series from the beginning on All4.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Walter Presents: Set against the real events, culture wars and political realities of Germany in the 1980s, this stylish coming-of-age story is framed within a suspenseful Cold War thriller

Compelling thriller set in Germany in 1983, at the height of the Cold War. It's a fast-paced, compulsive and irresistible cocktail of action movie, political drama and spy story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Walter Presents: Set against the real events, culture wars and political realities of Germany in the 1980s, this stylish coming-of-age story is framed within a suspenseful Cold War thriller

# data[].attributes.body
1 min 35 video, a simple introduction aimed at young German children but great for your listening skills :-)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
logo! erklärt Was war die DDR   ZDFmediathek

# data[].attributes.body
Animated explanation of the creation of the DDR to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
simpleshow erklärt den Fall der Berliner Mauer

# data[].attributes.body
An excellent article about the 40-year existence of the DDR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1952 schlug der sowjetische Staatschef Josef Stalin mit seiner "Stalin-Note" ein wiedervereinigtes, neutrales Deutschland vor. Dies wurde von den Westmächten aber mit der Begründung abgelehnt, Stalin wolle damit die Westbindung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland unterlaufen. Bis heute gibt es in der Wissenschaft unterschiedliche Meinungen darüber, wie ernst die Stalin-Note gemeint war.

Die DDR wurde nach sowjetischem Vorbild zum sozialistischen Staat erklärt. Das bedeutete etwa, dass der größte Teil des Privateigentums - vor allem Geschäfte und Unternehmen, aber auch Miethäuser - in staatlichen Besitz überging.

Zunächst waren es nur die Großbetriebe, mit dem Machtantritt von Erich Honecker im Jahr 1972 aber zunehmend auch alle kleineren Unternehmen. Jegliche Produktion von Waren und Gütern unterstand fortan dem Staat.

Wie die Wirtschaft war auch die DDR-Politik zentral geregelt. Herrschende Partei war die Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ( SED). Diese ging auf Drängen der Sowjetunion aus einer Zwangsvereinigung der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands ( KPD) und der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands ( SPD) hervor. Wilhelm Pieck wurde erster Staatspräsident, Otto Grotewohl Ministerpräsident.

Laut Verfassung waren neben der SED noch vier weitere Parteien zugelassen: die Christlich-Demokratische Union ( CDU), die Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (LDPD), die Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (DBD) und die National-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (NDPD).

Nach außen hin schien es, als verfolge jede dieser Parteien eine eigene politische Richtung. Sie hatten jedoch kein eigenes Parteiprogramm. Alle waren der SED unterstellt.

Ihre eigentliche Aufgabe war es, systemkritische Bürger anzusprechen - also diejenigen, die mit der politischen Ausrichtung der SED wenig anfangen konnten. Identifizierten sich diese stattdessen mit den kleineren Parteien, bekam die SED indirekt die Unterstützung, die sie haben wollte.

Die SED war streng hierarchisch aufgebaut. Zu den unteren und mittleren Ebenen gehörten etwa Bezirks-, Stadt- und Gemeinderäte. Wichtige Ämter in den Bereichen Wirtschaft, Bildung, Kultur und Sicherheit gehörten zur Parteiführungsspitze, der Nomenklatura. Diese war das eigentliche Machtzentrum der DDR.

Zwar hatten alle Mitglieder der Partei das Recht, die Führungsspitze der SED zu wählen. Die Nomenklatura bestimmte jedoch, welche Kandidaten für die offenen Posten überhaupt infrage kamen. Die Mitglieder in den unteren Gremien hatten weder die Möglichkeit, Kandidaten vorzuschlagen, noch sich selbst als Kandidat zur Wahl zu stellen.

Die Wahl war damit zwar möglich, aber stark eingeschränkt. Die Partei verlangte darüber hinaus von den unteren Gremien bedingungslose Parteitreue. Die Mitglieder mussten den Beschlüssen der Führungsebene zustimmen. Wer Widerstand leistete, wurde innerhalb der Regierung nicht geduldet.

Die Bürger in der DDR konnten die Politik des Staates kaum beeinflussen. Freie Wahlen gab es nicht. Jeder Wahlberechtigte erhielt einen Wahlzettel mit einer Liste, auf dem die Kandidaten der SED vorgestellt wurden. Wer einen Zettel unausgefüllt abgab, stimmte allen Kandidaten zu.

Es bestand zwar die Möglichkeit, Kandidaten auf der Liste zu streichen und damit abzulehnen. Davon machten aber die wenigsten Gebrauch. Jeder, der die Wahlkabine aufsuchte, um den Stimmzettel zu bearbeiten, machte sich verdächtig. Die SED übte so Druck auf die Wähler aus. In der Regel falteten die Menschen den Stimmzettel einfach und gaben ihn ab. Daher nannte man die Wahlen in der DDR auch "Falten gehen."

Erich Honecker und Walter Ulbricht zählten zu den bekanntesten Politikern in der DDR. Ulbricht war von 1950 bis 1971 Generalsekretär des Zentralkomitees der SED und damit mächtigster Mann im Staat. Sein Hauptanliegen war es, den Sozialismus in der DDR zu etablieren und zu festigen. Als Anfang der 1960er Jahre immer mehr Menschen das Land verließen und in den Westen gingen, musste Ulbricht etwas unternehmen, um die Menschen im Land zu halten.

Von ihm stammt zwar der Satz "Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten". Der Mauerbau fiel dennoch in seine Amtszeit. 1971 musste Ulbricht zurücktreten, ihm fehlte die Unterstützung innerhalb der Regierung.

Honecker löste Ulbricht ab. Er bemühte sich darum, die Beziehungen des Staates zum Rest Europas und den Vereinten Nationen zu verbessern. Auch das Verhältnis zur BRD besserte sich unter Honecker. An der Ideologie des Sozialismus hielt er aber fest.

Trotz vieler Reformen gelang Honecker nicht, aus der DDR einen Staat mit stabiler Wirtschaft zu machen. Die Unzufriedenheit in der Bevölkerung wuchs. Anhaltende Massenproteste zwangen Honecker am 18. Oktober 1989 schließlich zum Rücktritt.

In der freien Marktwirtschaft bestimmen Angebot und Nachfrage den Markt. In der DDR war das anders, hier regelte der Staat die Wirtschaft. Die SED verstaatlichte die Industrie- und Handelsunternehmen.

Agrarbetriebe wurden kollektiviert und zu Landwirtschaftlichen Produktionsgenossenschaften (LPG) zusammengeschlossen. Die Staatliche Plankommission (SPK) erstellte Fünfjahrespläne. Die Kommission hielt darin fest, wie viele Güter gebraucht wurden, um die DDR-Bürger zu versorgen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
40 Jahre lang gab es zwei deutsche Staaten, getrennt durch bewachte Grenzen und Mauern: die Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD). In der DDR galt das Prinzip des Sozialismus: Privateigentum und Wirtschaft wurden verstaatlicht.

# data[].attributes.headline
Die Bezätzungszone nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg

# data[].attributes.subject
Die Bezätzungszone nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg

# data[].attributes.body
13 minute video from MrWissen2Go, in German (with German subtitles, so great for your listening practice), explaining how the DDR came to be, important aspects of everyday life for its citizens and the politics behind its ultimate failure.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
So war der Alltag in der DDR | Geschichte

# data[].attributes.headline
Das Logo der SED (die einzige Partei der DDR)

# data[].attributes.subject
Das Logo der SED (die einzige Partei der DDR)

# data[].attributes.body
An article on everyday life in the DDR.

# data[].attributes.body
Make notes on key ideas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Die Stasi und ihre Methoden | DDR | Geschichte

# data[].attributes.body
A feelgood comedy starring Catherine Tate, in English but set in the context of Cold War 1968. "She left the land of Marks & Spencer and went to the world of Marx and Lenin. Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution is a feelgood comedy following one dysfunctional family's journey from 1968 West Yorkshire to 19 below freezing East Germany and back again." The East German actress Katharina Thalbach performs as Anna and the West German actress Heike Makatsch ('Love Actually') as Fräulein Unger. Watch the trailer below.

# data[].attributes.body
East German actress who appeared in Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution. Read her biography below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Biografie

Katharina Thalbach, geboren am 19. Januar 1954 in Berlin, stand als Tochter der Schauspielerin Sabine Thalbach und des Regisseurs Benno Besson von Kindesbeinen an in Kontakt mit dem Theater. Ab dem Alter von vier Jahren übernahm sie Kinderrollen auf der Bühne, im Fernsehen und im Film. 1961 spielte sie in Lothar Warnekes "Es ist eine alte Geschichte" ihre erste größere Filmrolle.

1969 bot ihr Helene Weigel die Rolle der Hure Betty in der "Dreigroschenoper"-Inszenierung des Berliner Ensembles an, wo sie als Entdeckung gefeiert wurde. Ab 1972 spielte sie an der Volksbühne Berlin. Große Erfolge erzielte sie in Inszenierungen von Peter Hacks (als Venus/Galatea in Offenbachs "Die schöne Helena") und von Karge/Langhoff (als Desdemona in Shakespeares "Othello" und als Mira in Pereira da Silvas "Speckhut"). 1973 erhielt sie in Konrad Wolfs Spielfilm "Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz" die Rolle einer jungen Schwangeren. Im selben Jahr brachte sie ihre Tochter Anna zur Welt. In den folgenden Jahren spielte Thalbach eine Bauerntochter im Mehrteiler "Die Frauen der Wardins" sowie in zwei Goethe-Filmen von Egon Günther: die Ottilie in "Lotte in Weimar" und Lotte in "Die Leiden des jungen Werther".

Nach der Ausbürgerung Wolf Biermanns siedelte Katharina Thalbach 1976 gemeinsam mit ihrem Mann, dem Schriftsteller und Regisseur Thomas Brasch, nach Westberlin über. Dort setzte sie ihre Karriere sowohl am Theater als auch im Film fort. Neben Rollen in anderen prominenten Inszenierungen spielte sie in Jürgen Flimms "Käthchen von Heilbronn" (Köln, 1979) und erhielt für diese Hauptrolle die Auszeichnung zur "Besten Darstellerin des Jahres 1980" der Zeitschrift "Theater heute".

Im Kino überzeugte sie in Margarethe von Trottas "Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages" (1978), in dem sie als Bankangestellte auf eigene Faust eine Bankräuberin verfolgt, und in Volker Schlöndorffs "Die Blechtrommel" (1979), wo sie Maria, Oskars junge Stiefmutter und Liebhaberin verkörperte. Im zweiteiligen Filmessay "Fluchtweg nach Marseille"(1978) nahm Thalbach in einer persönlichen Reflexion Stellung zu Anna Seghers Exil-Roman "Transit". Bei Geissendörfer spielte sie im TV -8-Teiler "Theodor Chindler" die revolutionäre Tochter des Reichstagsabgeordneten.

In Thomas Braschs Filmdebüt "Engel aus Eisen"(1981) spielte Katharina Thalbach die weibliche Hauptrolle der Lisa Gabler, Angehörige der Gladow-Bande, die im geteilten Nachkriegsberlin auf Raubzüge ging. Die Figur der Schauspielerin Lisa in "Domino" (Brasch, 1982) ist teilweise ihrer eigenen Lebensgeschichte nachempfunden und speziell für sie geschrieben. Die achtziger Jahre brachten ihr aber auch spannende Theaterpartien, so etwa die Rolle der Oi in der Uraufführung von Braschs "Mercedes" (Regie: Matthias Langhoff, 1983) und die der Ophelia in der "Hamlet"-Inszenierung ihres Vaters Benno Besson am Schauspielhaus Zürich.

In den nächsten Jahren spielte Thalbach in zahlreichen Filmen und TV-Produktionen, unter anderen in "Paradies" von Doris Dörrie (1986), "Helsinki Napoli" von Mika Kaurismäki (1987), "Der Passagier - Welcome to Germany" von Thomas Brasch (1988), "Die Lügnerin" von Siegfried Kühn (1993), "Die Denunziantin" von Thomas Mitscherlich (1993), "Sonnenallee" von Leander Haußmann (1998/99) und in Heinrich Breloers TV-Dreiteiler "Die Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman" (2001).

Besonders zwischen 2004 und 2008 war sie (zum Teil in Nebenrollen) in einer ganzen Reihe hochkarätiger und ambitionierter Kinoproduktionen zu sehen, darunter Leander Haußmanns Komödie "NVA" sowie dessen Schiller-Verfilmung "Kabale und Liebe", Didi Danquarts "Offset" und Detlev Bucks hoch gelobter Kinderfilm "Hände weg von Mississippi".

Eine ihrer wichtigsten Rollen der letzten Jahre spielte Thalbach unter der Leitung von "Blechtrommel"-Regisseur Volker Schlöndorff: In "Strajk - Die Heldin von Danzig" (2006) verkörpert sie die legendäre polnische Gewerkschafterin Agnieszka . Viel Kritikerlob erhielt sie auch für ihre Leistung in der Sozialkomödie "Du bist nicht allein" (2007) von Bernd Böhlich - mit dem sie ein Jahr später bei der romantischen Komödie "Der Mond und andere Liebhaber" erneut zusammen arbeitete.

Im Jahr darauf spielte sie eine tragende Nebenrolle in dem TV-Krimi "Commissario Laurenti - Der Tod wirft lange Schatten" an der Seite von Henry Hübchen. Auf der Kinoleinwand sah man Thalbach in den folgenden Jahren in Nebenrollen so unterschiedlicher Filme wie Jo Baiers Historienepos "Henri 4" (2010), der Kinderbuchverfilmung "Hanni & Nanni" (2010), der Til-Schweiger-Komödie "Kokowääh" (2011) und dem Migrantendrama "Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland", das im Wettbewerb der Berlinale 2011 Premiere feierte. Im Rahmen der Berlinale wurde sie in diesem Jahr auch mit dem vom Progress-Verleih gestifteten "Paula"-Preis ausgezeichnet.

2012 sah man Thalbach in einer ganzen Reihe von Kino- und Fernsehproduktionen: in der Filmbiografie "Friedrich - Ein deutscher König" (TV) spielte sie den alten König Friedrich; in "Hanni & Nanni 2" schlüpft sie erneut in die Rolle der putzigen Französischlehrerin Mademoiselle Bertoux; in dem Psychothriller "Du hast es versprochen" gab sie eine Fischhändlerin, die ein dunkles Geheimnis hütet; in "Die Vermessung der Welt" war sie die Mutter des Mathematikers Carl Friedrich Gauß; und in "Ludwig II" von Peter Sehr und Marie Noelle verkörperte sie Königin Marie von Bayern. Außerdem lieh Thalbach bei den Animationsfilmen "Der Mondmann" und "Der kleine Rabe Socke" einzelnen Charakteren ihre Stimme.

Kaum weniger aktiv war die Schauspielerin im Jahr darauf. In dem Fantasy-Abenteuer "Rubinrot" spielte sie die eigenwillige Tante der übersinnlich begabten Protagonistin, in Uwe Jansons Satire "Der Minister" eine Politikerin namens Angela Murkel; in der Komödie "Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee" von Leander Haußmann und Sven Regener war sie eine namenlose Figur, die nur "die zynische Irre" hieß, und in "Hanni & Nanni 3" gab sie einmal mehr die Französischlehrerin Mademoiselle Bertoux.

Auch 2014 blieb Thalbach den Genres Kinder- und Familienfilm treu. In der Kinderbuchverfilmung "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten" spielte sie die schlitzohrige Ellie Wandbek, für den Fantasyfilm "Saphirblau" schlüpfte sie nach "Rubinrot" (2013) erneut in die Rolle der Großtante Maddy und in Til Schweigers "Honig im Kopf" hatte sie als lebenslustige, leicht exzentrische Schwiegermutter eine echte Paraderolle. In Uwe Jansons sozialkritischer Satire "Die Schlikkerfrauen" (2014) glänzte Thalbach als Angestellte einer bankrotten Drogeriekette, die gemeinsam mit Kolleginnen den korrupten Chef des Unternehmens als Geisel nimmt.

2015 gehörte sie zum Ensemble von "Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche", erneut als diebische Ellie Wandbek, und hatte eine Nebenrolle in "Ich bin dann mal weg", nach dem Bestseller von Hape Kerkeling. In "Bibi & Tina 3: Mädchen gegen Jungs" (2016) gab sie eine sympathische Zeltlager-Köchin, in dem Fantasyfilm "Smaragdgrün" (2016) erneut die gütige Großtante Maddy. TV-Hauptrollen hatte sie als listig-kriminelle Großmutter in der Gaunerkomödie "Wir sind die Rosinskis" (2016) und als ländliche Bürgermeisterin in der viel gelobten Heimatkomödie "Zwei Bauern und kein Land" (2017).

Auf der Kinoleinwand sah man Thalbach weiterhin meist in tragenden Nebenrollen: als Lehrerin in "Hanni & Nanni: Mehr als beste Freunde" (2017), als Nachbarin in dem Liebesreigen "Wuff - Folge dem Hund" (2018) und als Großmutter in der Gesellschaftskomödie "100 Dinge" (2018). Eine zentrale Rolle hatte sie in Yilmaz Arslans Coming-of-Age-Drama "Sandstern" (2018): Darin spielte sie die großmütterliche Nachbarin eines 12-jährigen Türken, der neu nach Deutschland gezogen ist.

Danach gab sie die Schulrektorin in dem Kinderfilm "Alfons Zitterbacke - Das Chaos ist zurück" (2019). Philipp Stölzl besetzte sie in dem Musical "Ich war noch niemals in New York" (2019) in einer Hauptrolle, als nach Amerika aufbrechende Frau mit Gedächtnisschwund. Für diese Rolle erhielt sie den Ernst-Lubitsch-Preis.

Ebenfalls 2019 wurde ihr vom französischen Kulturministerium der Ordre des Arts et des Lettres verliehen, eine Auszeichnung an "Personen, die sich durch ihr Schaffen im künstlerischen oder literarischen Bereich oder durch ihren Beitrag zur Ausstrahlung der Künste und der Literatur in Frankreich und in der Welt ausgezeichnet haben".

In den nächsten Jahren spielte Thalbach die großmütterliche Vermieterin der Hauptfigur in der Lehrerkomödie "Extraklasse 2+" (2021,) und dessen Fortsetzung "Extraklasse - On Tour" (2022); in der Krimiparodie "Miss Merkel - ein Uckermark-Krimi" (2023) verkörperte sie Angela Merkel, die als Pensionärin eine neue Berufung als Hobbydetektivin findet und einen Mordfall löst.

Am Berliner Theater Komödie am Kurfürstendamm sah man sie 2022 in "Mord in Orient im Orientexpress" als scharfsinnigen Detektiv Hercule Poirot - und wurde dafür mit dem Publikumspreis Goldener Vorhang ausgezeichnet. Im Kino gehörte sie 2024 zum Ensemble der Agentenkomödie "Kundschafter des Friedens 2".

Katharina Thalbachs Tochter Anna (geboren 1973, Vater ist Vladimir Weigl) ist ebenfalls Film- und Fernsehschauspielerin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Katharina Thalbach, geboren am 19. Januar 1954 in Berlin, stand als Tochter der Schauspielerin Sabine Thalbach und des Regisseurs Benno Besson von Kindesbeinen an in Kontakt mit dem Theater. Ab dem Alter von vier Jahren übernahm sie Kinderrollen auf der Bühne, im Fernsehen und im Film.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, in 1898, and the two world wars directly affected his life and works. He wrote poetry when he was a student but studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After military service during World War I, he abandoned his medical studies to pursue writing and the theater.

A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although he managed to deflect accusations of being a Communist, he moved to Switzerland after the hearings. He relocated to East Berlin in 1949 and ran the Berliner Ensemble, a theater company. As a director, he advocated the "alienation effect" in acting-an approach intended to keep the audience emotionally uninvolved in the plights of the characters.

Brecht's poetry is collected in Poems 1913-1956 (1997) and Poetry and Prose: Bertolt Brecht (2003). He wrote a wide variety of poetry, including occasional poems, poems he set to music and performed, songs and poems for his plays, personal poems recording anecdotes and thoughts, and political poems. Poet Michael Hofmann, in "Singing About the Dark Times: The Poetry of Bertolt Brecht" for the Liberal, commented, "In the course of a mobile, active and engaged life, the poems were the intelligent, compressed, adaptable and self-contained form for both his private and his public address."

Bertolt Brecht died in 1956. He is buried in Berlin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). Brecht was born in...

# data[].attributes.body
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared. The link below is to the whole movie on Planet eStream - you will need to sign in to your school account in order to view.

# data[].attributes.headline
Spitze der SED - Erich Honecker (links) und Walter Ulbricht

# data[].attributes.subject
Spitze der SED - Erich Honecker (links) und Walter Ulbricht

# data[].attributes.body
In the 2012 film Barbara, life in rural East Germany is depicted, rather than city life in East Berlin. The title character is a doctor who formerly worked in the prestigious Charité hospital in East Berlin, but is transferred to a rural hospital by the Baltic Sea as a punishment from the State after applying to leave for the West. She is still monitored by the Stasi, even in this small town. Watch the trailer here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Barbara Movie Trailer (East Germany DRAMA)

# data[].attributes.body
Es erzählt von Fritzi und dem Herbst 1989. Fritzi kommt in die vierte Klasse und darf nun das rote Halstuch der Jungen Pioniere tragen. Ein Mädchen fehlt in der Schule, weil es in Ungarn geblieben ist. Fritzi ist bei einer Montagsdemonstration dabei. Die Eltern diskutieren über den Weg, den sie wählen sollen.

# data[].attributes.body
Lilly ist 13 Jahre alt, als ihre Mutter 1988 stirbt. Ihre einzigen Verwandten leben in der DDR, von wo ihre Mutter in den 70er Jahren geflohen war. Bei der Beerdigung lernt Lilly ihre Tante Lena kennen. Sie entschließt sich, in die DDR zu gehen und bei ihrer Tante zu leben. Doch eine Grenze trennt die beiden deutschen Staaten und die Republikflucht von West nach Ost wird zu einem wahren Abenteuer.

# data[].attributes.body
In seinem Debüt "drüben!" erzählt der junge Zeichner und Autor Simon Schwartz von der schwierigen Entscheidung seiner Eltern, Anfang der 1980er Jahre die DDR für immer zu verlassen. Er verknüpft in seiner Erzählung ein wichtiges Kapitel der jüngeren deutschen Vergangenheit mit seiner eigenen persönlichen Geschichte.

# data[].attributes.headline
Erinnerung an die Marie A. von Bertholt Brecht

# data[].attributes.subject
Erinnerung an die Marie A. von Bertholt Brecht

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Erinnerung an die Marie A.

Melodie -

Bertolt Brecht

1. An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September
Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum
Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe
In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum.

2. Und über uns im schönen Sommerhimmel
War eine Wolke, die ich lange sah
Sie war sehr weiß und ungeheuer oben
Und als ich aufsah, war sie nimmer da.

3. Seit jenem Tag sind viele, viele Monde
Geschwommen still hinunter und vorbei.
Die Pflaumenbäume sind wohl abgehauen
Und fragst du mich, was mit der Liebe sei.

4. So sag ich dir: ich kann mich nicht erinnern
Und doch, gewiß, ich weiß schon, was du meinst.
Doch ihr Gesicht, das weiß ich wirklich nimmer
Ich weiß nunmehr: ich küßte es dereinst.

5. Und auch den Kuß, ich hätt ihn längst vergessen
Wenn nicht die Wolke dagewesen wär
Die weiß ich noch und werd ich immer wissen
Sie war sehr weiß und kam von oben her.

6. Die Pflaumenbäume blühn vielleicht noch immer
Und jene Frau hat jetzt vielleicht das siebte Kind.
Doch jene Wolke blühte nur Minuten
Und als ich aufsah, schwand sie schon im Wind.

| Deutsche Volkslieder | Ahnenforschung | Ferienaufenthalt | Folksongs | Hymns | Genealogy | Pacific Holiday |HOME PAGE |Suche | Email |

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September / Erinnerung an die Marie A / DDR gospel christian songs free mp3 midi download

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Erinnerung an die Marie A. Melodie - Bertolt Brecht 1. An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum. 2.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ermütigung Wolf Biermann Lyrics (German and English) and song

# data[].attributes.subject
Ermütigung Wolf Biermann Lyrics (German and English) and song

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Russia is waging a disgraceful war on Ukraine. Stand With Ukraine!

Ni devotas, ni sumisas - Lindas, libres y locas!

Moderator / hippie-abraça-árvore

Contributions: 2004 translations, 127 transliterations, 8794 songs, 453 collections, 14900 thanks received, 116 translation requests fulfilled for 82 members, 49 transcription requests fulfilled, added 36 idioms, explained 4 idioms, left 6498 comments, added 3 annotations

Languages: native German, fluent English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, beginner Japanese, Russian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wolf Biermann - Ermutigung lyrics + English translation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Translation of 'Ermutigung' by Wolf Biermann from German to English

# data[].attributes.body
Karl Wolf Biermann (born 15 November 1936, on the left in the photo) is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song 'Ermütigung' and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Music

In East Germany, the singer-songwriter was a figurehead of the political opposition. After he was forced into exile in 1976, Wolf Biermann started anew in West Germany - but always remained true to himself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wolf Biermann, outspoken political dissident and singer-songwriter | DW | 04.11.2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Music In East Germany, the singer-songwriter was a figurehead of the political opposition. After he was forced into exile in 1976, Wolf Biermann started anew in West Germany - but always remained true to himself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eine Zeitreise im Trabant 601 | Motor mobil

# data[].attributes.headline
The lives of others: Ute Mahler's images of the real East Germany – in pictures

# data[].attributes.subject
The lives of others: Ute Mahler's images of the real East Germany – in pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The lives of others: Ute Mahler's images of the real East Germany - in pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1974, the German photographer set out to convey the truth about how people really lived in the communist GDR - depicting her fellow citizens with a 'timeless coolness'

# data[].attributes.body
See this article for some interesting images with descriptions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, also simply known as East Germany, was founded as a second German state on October 7, 1949 - four years after the end of World War II. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), or more commonly known as West Germany, was founded just four months prior.

The partitioning of Germany was a reflection of the claims laid down by the victorious Allied forces in 1945. On one side there were the US, France and the UK; on the other, the Soviet Union. They had joined forces to defeat fascist Germany, but went their separate ways after that.

The Western Allies established a parliamentary democracy in West Germany, while Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's territorial dominion spread across almost all of Eastern Europe. The most clearly recognizable characteristics of Eastern European states: Planned economies, no rule of law, no freedom of the press, no freedom of movement. Poland, Hungary, Romania and East Germany were just some of the countries forced to live under those rules until the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/1990. Ideologically, they saw themselves as people's democracies, but were, in fact, dictatorships.

East Germany occupied a special geographic and political role within the Eastern Bloc, for free Europe was situated at its western border. Moreover, the similarly divided city of Berlin - the former capital of Nazi Germany - was situated in the heart of its territory. The city had been a symbol of Nazi Germany and all of the Allies wanted a piece of it. Thus, West Berlin also became an island of freedom in communist East Germany.

Read more: How did West Germany respond to the building of the Berlin Wall?
Berlin Wall ends mass exodus in 1961
In divided Berlin, the clash between the competing systems of capitalism and socialism could not have been more stark. The city, with a total of 3.3 million residents, was the hotspot of the Cold War - and, until 1961, it was also the hole through which refugees fled. But that hole was plugged with the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Until that point, more than one million people, fed up with the economy of lack and the intellectual climate of an unfree society, had turned their backs on the GDR.

After the Wall went up, people across Germany became ever more estranged. Still, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of detente with the East led to diplomatic rapprochement in the 1970s. Brandt, a Social Democrat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In 1973, both German states became full members of the United Nations (UN), cementing their existence.
Gorbachev expedites GDR downfall
Despite that, relative stability in the GDR was short-lived, lasting only a few years. The regime was simply not economically viable. Historian Frank Bösch says economic hardship was one of the main reasons for the collapse of the East German dictatorship. As an example, Bösch, who is director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF), points to the large amount of debt the GDR had amassed with Western countries.

He says another contributing factor was the dissatisfaction of the citizenry, "which manifested itself in an incredible desire to leave." When Mikhail Gorbachev, who was seen as a reformer, took the helm in the Soviet Union in 1985, many people in the GDR hoped he would also bring change to their system. Yet, East German leader Erich Honecker remained steadfast.

The people expressed their anger not only through mass demonstrations in the streets, but also by filing in ever more applications for permission to travel outside the GDR. Within two years, the number of applications for travel documents doubled from 53,000 to more than 105,000. That said, only a fraction of applicants were in fact allowed to travel outside the country.

Read more: A dangerous escape from East Germany

Berlin's former Stasi slammer

Memorial site

The fall of the Berlin Wall put an end to the Stasi remand center. But only few interrogators were ever made accountable for what had happened behind these walls, and none were sent to jail. As the prison buildings and the interior survived unharmed, today's memorial site of Hohenschönhausen gives an authentic insight into the former East German justice system.

Author: Elisabeth Jahn

October 7, 1989: The GDR's last birthday celebration
Honecker and the Ministry for State Security, known colloquially as the Stasi, could no longer halt the collapse of the GDR. People were also protesting in other East European countries, especially Poland and Hungary. Historian Bösch says that was only possible because the Soviet Union had dismantled its traditional military support for local regimes.

On October 7, 1989, the communist regime celebrated the founding of the GDR for the very last time: 40 years of the German Democratic Republic. Just one month later, on November 9, the Berlin Wall fell. Millions of Germans, in both the East and the West, were ecstatic. Still, that was not the death knell for the GDR; that would not come for another year, on October 3, 1990, when Germany was reunified.

Read more: Reunification is an 'ongoing process,' says Merkel on German Unity Day
'East Germans have different taste in music'
Meanwhile, the relatively small country, which had only 17 million residents before it was dissolved, has spent the past 29 years as part of the larger Federal Republic of Germany, today home to 83 million people. Still, no one would think of describing the whole as a unified fatherland. The economy in the west is far stronger than in the east. Workers earn more in the west and very few companies have managers from the east.

Remembering when Germany was split in two

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall became an international symbol of separation and servitude. After its fall in 1989 the original wall all but vanished from the city. The Berlin Wall Memorial, created to commemorate those killed trying to escape, contains one of the last pieces. This is where the official anniversary commemoration will take place on November 9.

Author: Frederike Müller / sbc

Frank Bösch also points to the different attitudes and memories that characterize people from the former GDR: "East Germans have different taste in music and media, they travel differently and make political decisions differently as well."

The historian says he is not betting on assimilation happening any time soon, saying it will take a long time before the GDR disappears from the minds of its former citizens like it disappeared from the world. He says lived history encompasses roughly three generations. Many people know what their grandparents went through because of family stories.

Read more: The next generation must step up for German unification
The GDR will be history - but not until 2070
"The Berlin Wall and similar things have become such powerful icons that they will remain present as living memories for some time to come." Pointing to experience with the legacy of Nazism, Bösch predicts the GDR will not truly become a closed chapter in history until 70 or 80 years from now.

Looking back to the era of Nazism that preceded the separation of Germany, he says that dark chapter of history is only now slowly coming to an end as "the last witnesses are no longer alive." Using that metric, the chapter on the GDR won't be closed until 2070 at the earliest.
Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
East Germany: A failed experiment in dictatorship | DW | 07.10.2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, also simply known as East Germany, was founded as a second German state on October 7, 1949 - four years after the end of World War II. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), or more commonly known as West Germany, was founded just four months prior.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the BBC's John Simpson goes back to examine his reports and consider why history did not turn out quite the way he expected.

It's said that journalists write the first draft of history. To mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor and longest-serving correspondent, goes back to his reports on what he believes is the most important story he ever covered - the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Back in 1989, John thought this event would change the world for the better, forever. But history has not turned out quite the way he expected. Russia is yet again an enemy of the West, and the Cold War battle that built the Berlin Wall has been replaced with other destabilising global power struggles - even more dangerous and much harder to understand.

Three decades on, John wonders if he was wrong to have been so optimistic. Using the anniversary as an opportunity to re-examine how he told the story, John watches the BBC's extensive archive and talks with historians and other experts to try and understand just how accurate his reporting was.

At the heart of the documentary is an intense and personal interview with John. He begins by describing how he grew up in the shadow of the Cold War battle between the capitalist West and the communist East, and how he - like everyone else - believed that this global stand-off would continue for many more decades, ending sooner or later in nuclear war.

On 9 November 1989, John, like the rest of the world, in shock at reports that the Berlin Wall's checkpoints had been opened up, rushed to Berlin to cover the incredible story. With great emotion, John recalls his happiness as he reported from in front of the Wall as Berlin's people tore it down, until his broadcast was cut off midway by technical failure - giving him by far the most humiliating moment of his long career.

After the technical meltdown, John describes how he walked into the crowd feeling utterly depressed. But, surrounded by the thousands of people who had streamed through the checkpoints from East Berlin, untouched by the once trigger-happy border guards and greeted with delight by West Berliners, he could barely believe his own eyes and found himself overwhelmed with joy.

So, why has the legacy of the Wall not turned out the way John hoped and expected? He examines why he did not predict that the pace of change across Europe would lead to the terrible war in Yugoslavia, nor that Russia, with Vladimir Putin - a former KGB agent - as its president, would find a new guise in which to become a bitter enemy of the West.

John also reflects on the terrifying uncertainty of global politics today, which has left him with a certain nostalgia for the decades of the Cold War - a period that was certainly frightening, but arguably less so than the uncertainty and complexity of global politics that we live with today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC Four - The Fall of the Berlin Wall with John Simpson

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the BBC's John Simpson goes back to examine his reports and consider why history did not turn out quite the way he expected. It's said that journalists write the first draft of history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Secret "Stasi" Prison Berlin (GDR/East Germany) - 360° Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, in 1898, and the two world wars directly affected his life and works. He wrote poetry when he was a student but studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After military service during World War I, he abandoned his medical studies to pursue writing and the theater.

A member of the Independent Social Democratic Party, Brecht wrote theater criticism for a Socialist newspaper from 1919 to 1921. His plays were banned in Germany in the 1930s, and in 1933, he went into exile, first in Denmark and then Finland. He moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1941, hoping to write for Hollywood, but he drew the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although he managed to deflect accusations of being a Communist, he moved to Switzerland after the hearings. He relocated to East Berlin in 1949 and ran the Berliner Ensemble, a theater company. As a director, he advocated the "alienation effect" in acting-an approach intended to keep the audience emotionally uninvolved in the plights of the characters.

Brecht's poetry is collected in Poems 1913-1956 (1997) and Poetry and Prose: Bertolt Brecht (2003). He wrote a wide variety of poetry, including occasional poems, poems he set to music and performed, songs and poems for his plays, personal poems recording anecdotes and thoughts, and political poems. Poet Michael Hofmann, in "Singing About the Dark Times: The Poetry of Bertolt Brecht" for the Liberal, commented, "In the course of a mobile, active and engaged life, the poems were the intelligent, compressed, adaptable and self-contained form for both his private and his public address."

Bertolt Brecht died in 1956. He is buried in Berlin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1941), The Good Person of Szechwan (1943), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958). Brecht was born in...

# data[].attributes.headline
Erinnerung an die Marie A. von Bertholt Brecht

# data[].attributes.subject
Erinnerung an die Marie A. von Bertholt Brecht

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Erinnerung an die Marie A.

Melodie -

Bertolt Brecht

1. An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September
Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum
Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe
In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum.

2. Und über uns im schönen Sommerhimmel
War eine Wolke, die ich lange sah
Sie war sehr weiß und ungeheuer oben
Und als ich aufsah, war sie nimmer da.

3. Seit jenem Tag sind viele, viele Monde
Geschwommen still hinunter und vorbei.
Die Pflaumenbäume sind wohl abgehauen
Und fragst du mich, was mit der Liebe sei.

4. So sag ich dir: ich kann mich nicht erinnern
Und doch, gewiß, ich weiß schon, was du meinst.
Doch ihr Gesicht, das weiß ich wirklich nimmer
Ich weiß nunmehr: ich küßte es dereinst.

5. Und auch den Kuß, ich hätt ihn längst vergessen
Wenn nicht die Wolke dagewesen wär
Die weiß ich noch und werd ich immer wissen
Sie war sehr weiß und kam von oben her.

6. Die Pflaumenbäume blühn vielleicht noch immer
Und jene Frau hat jetzt vielleicht das siebte Kind.
Doch jene Wolke blühte nur Minuten
Und als ich aufsah, schwand sie schon im Wind.

| Deutsche Volkslieder | Ahnenforschung | Ferienaufenthalt | Folksongs | Hymns | Genealogy | Pacific Holiday |HOME PAGE |Suche | Email |

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September / Erinnerung an die Marie A / DDR gospel christian songs free mp3 midi download

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Erinnerung an die Marie A. Melodie - Bertolt Brecht 1. An jenem Tag im blauen Mond September Still unter einem jungen Pflaumenbaum Da hielt ich sie, die stille bleiche Liebe In meinem Arm wie einen holden Traum. 2.

# data[].attributes.body
Karl Wolf Biermann (born 15 November 1936, on the left in the photo) is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song 'Ermütigung' and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Music

In East Germany, the singer-songwriter was a figurehead of the political opposition. After he was forced into exile in 1976, Wolf Biermann started anew in West Germany - but always remained true to himself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wolf Biermann, outspoken political dissident and singer-songwriter | DW | 04.11.2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Music In East Germany, the singer-songwriter was a figurehead of the political opposition. After he was forced into exile in 1976, Wolf Biermann started anew in West Germany - but always remained true to himself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

The phenomenon of ostalgie 1 appeared in the 1990s and manifested itself predominantly in literature, entertainment, and commercial (mostly tourist) spheres. The proliferation of the so-called ostalgie wave coincided the critical discussions of Spaßgesellschaft and consequently ostalgie was approached as a noncritical romantization of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Ostalgie films, therefore, were produced in the context that regarded the phenomenon as regressive: the conceptualizations of ostalgie in film studies for the most part inherited the points of critique that were addressed in the first discussions of ostalgie novels, Ossi-parties, and Trabi safari. Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien acknowledged a moral aspect of the debates that saw the phenomenon as a device for simplifying the GDR past: "[ ostalgie is regarded as] irresponsible, because it failed to recognize the GDR's human-rights violations and the suffering of its victims". 2 Following the interpretations that see the phenomenon as "at best a naive sentimentalising and at worst an intentional banalising of the GDR past", 3 ostalgie films are criticized for reducing the German history in its complexity to simplified characters and stereotypes.

Less critical approaches consider ostalgie cinema to be an oppositional memory about the GDR past. These conceptualizations echo the understanding of ostalgie phenomenon that Aleida Assmann suggested in her analysis of German memory culture after reunification:

While today the GDR is officially condemned as a state with no rule of law (Unrechtsstaat), it lives on in people's memories as an important phase of their biography and identity. The abrupt and sweeping devaluation of the half if not the whole life leads to the oppositional memory, so-called " ostalgie". 4

Therefore, according to Thomas Ahbe, it functioned as a "communicative praxis in which memories are dealt with, processed - not repressed, denied or concealed". 5 In this line of thought, ostalgie films were opposed to those that dealt with the reflections on the Stasi legacy, like DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN / THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006), that aimed to give back the critical sight on the GDR. 6

With more focus on the cinematic peculiarities of ostalgie, some studies explore the phenomenon through its embodiment in the realm of material culture. These approaches, for the most part, derive from the understanding of ostalgie as a counter-memory, seeing the material culture and everyday life as the only possible realms for addressing nostalgic longing for the GDR. In many ways, such examinations follow nostalgia cinema's critique of Fredric Jameson and inherit accusations in the idealization of the past and understand ostalgie films as a regressive phenomenon. For Jameson, the nostalgia film style is attained through intertextuality - the effect of the "connotation of 'pastness'" - reorganizing the past images into the form of a pastiche, symptomatic of the postmodern crisis of historicity. Being a romanticized stylization, nostalgia cinema was criticized by Jameson for possessing a "pseudohistorical depth, in which the history of aesthetic styles displaces a 'real' history". 7 In this vein, according to Jaimey Fisher:

Ostalgie seems, indeed, to confirm Higson's and Koepnick's critiques of nostalgia in heritage cinema that tends to preserve a fantastical past via fetishized, museum-like mise-en-scène. If Ostalgie served the useful purpose of reminding audiences of everyday life in the GDR - an everyday life that may have intermingled with but also outstretched conventional politics - there is a sense, looking back now from a post-2000 landscape, that films like Sonnenallee, Heroes like Us, and even Good-Bye, Lenin! went too far in recuperating the GDR, often by obscuring the suffering caused by the state. 8

Being analyzed in the context of the post-reunification German film industry, ostalgie films are seen as part of the general commercialization of the cinema in the 1990s. In this vein, cinematic versions of ostalgie are regarded to be a mere marketing strategy or fetishization of the GDR past, a "lucrative industry (for retailers and television and film producers alike)" 9 that tends to create an appealing image of the past and as a result lacks any critical reflection. 10 In the same way, films are labeled ostalgic for marketing purposes to refer to their (mostly failed) attempts to reproduce the commercial success of Thomas Brussig's SONNENALLEE (1999) or to copy the peculiarities that made Wolfgang Becker's GOOD BYE, LENIN! (2003) popular. This labeling, then, indicates that ostalgie cinema is contextualized as an industrial process, or a production trend in terms of Tino Balio, 11 but it has not been clarified what exactly constructs an ostalgic quality, or essence, of a film.

To sum up, studies on ostalgie films explore the reception, cultural significance, or ideological potentials of ostalgie cinema extracted for the most part from a narrative analysis. Ostalgie cinema is connected to the context of the German memory culture and understood as a "falsifying" form of memory. Another remarkable peculiarity is the prevalence of two ostalgie films as material for case studies: although a cinematic ostalgie wave is mentioned in many papers, GOOD BYE LENIN! and SONNENALLEE are still almost the only examples of ostalgie cinema that are analyzed. 12 Further, the role of aesthetics is reduced to the analysis of the everyday material culture or, rarely, retro aesthetics. The approaches that see ostalgie film as a set of iconic commodities do address to some extent the visuality of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, they do not explain why these particular commodities in some cases exclusively contribute to the construction of a certain historical period and in others facilitate the ostalgic quality of a film.

The article starts with an assumption that ostalgie film must be assessed beyond the discourses of historical accuracy and dismissive critique that the phenomenon of ostalgie cinema inherited for the most part from the ostalgie TV shows and other manifestations of nostalgic longing for the GDR in popular culture and commercial sphere. I argue that the emphasis on the sociocultural level of ostalgie can be enriched with potentially significant meanings of the phenomenon in cinema. Next, I introduce an interdisciplinary phenomenological approach, based on the understanding of nostalgic historical experience by Frank Ankersmit. I argue that this approach can be helpful in the critical analysis of emotionally and aesthetically charged cinematic phenomena like ostalgie. In this case, it is not so much "nostalgia triggers" but rather a nostalgic historical experience produced on both narrative and aesthetics levels and conceptualized as an experience of distance 13 that can be regarded as a core of ostalgie films. Further, an exemplary analysis of the film KUNDSCHAFTER DES FRIEDENS / OLD AGENT MEN (Robert Thalheim, 2017) is provided that is based on the above-mentioned approach. Finally, in the conclusion, the essay discusses how the analysis of the specificity of ostalgie films can contribute further to a more complex understanding of German films about the GDR past.

Nostalgic Historical Experience

Following the debates within social sciences about the nature of historical knowledge and its methodology in the 1970s, the analytical philosophy of history has been gradually supplanted by narrativism. Frank Ankersmit in his book Narrative Logic. Semantic Analysis of Language of Historians (1983) followed this shift by proceeding from Hayden White's tropological critique of explanatory historiography and claiming that history is constructed exclusively through the narrative, which is formed by rhetorical tropes. Already in 1994 in his work History and Tropology: The Rise and Fall of Metaphor Ankersmit had expressed not only his own critique of narratology but also acknowledged a general crisis within the narratological methodology.

The main line of criticism articulated by Ankersmit was to question the equation of the past with the historical narrative, which in turn would eliminate any discrepancy between the present and the past:

Since the actual past is only an argument and is never conclusive in settling historiographical debate, the idea of a correspondence between a historical narrative and the actual past will get us nowhere if we want to understand the narrative writing of history. [...] Whether we see historical narrative as a conjunction of statements or as a whole, in neither case can we meaningfully speak of a correspondence between historical reality and historical narrative. 14

In this context, Ankersmit introduces the phenomenon of nostalgia from a phenomenological position through the concept of "historical experience". 15 For Ankersmit, nostalgia is "the strongest form of memory" 16 that deals with the longing for the past as something that is missing and cannot be returned, but can be grasped as an experience of distance 17 between the present and the past. Nostalgic historical experience, nevertheless, is not an entirely affective Nacherleben (reliving) of the past in the sense of Dilthey and Rickert; for Ankersmit, an experience of the past 18 is not possible, but rather in nostalgia the unattainability, the distance of the past, comes to the fore. In the moment of nostalgic historical experience, the past is realized as "breaking away from the present" 19 and the present is "suddenly relegated to the periphery". 20 In other words, the past and the present are simultaneously interconnected and detached from each other in nostalgic historical experience - the past comes to the fore but for the experience of distance to happen one should realize oneself in the present:

Nostalgia gives us the unity of the past and the present: for, the experience of difference requires the simultaneous presence of what lies on both ends of the difference, that is, of both the past and the present. In the experience of difference, the past and the present are united. However, they are both present only in their difference - and it is this qualification that permits us to express the paradox of the unity of past and present. But in both cases, whether we prefer to see nostalgia as the experience of difference or as the unity of past and present, difference becomes central while the past and the present themselves are reduced to mere derivative phenomena. The past no longer is the "real" object it was for historism. The "reality" experienced in nostalgia is difference itself and not what lies at the other side of the difference - that is, "the past" as such. 21

It may seem that the focus on the rupture between the past and the present that Ankersmit writes about indicates similarity of the conceptualizations of Ankersmit and Svetlana Boym as the core of nostalgia. 22 But I would argue that Ankersmit's historical approach to nostalgia not only essentially differs but can be more fruitful for the analysis of cinematic manifestations of ostalgie. Svetlana Boym introduces two types of nostalgia: restorative, which "engage[s] in the antimodern myth-making of history by means of a return to national symbols and myths" and "manifests itself in total reconstructions of monuments of the past", 23 and reflective, which is focused "not on recovery of what is perceived to be an absolute truth but on the meditation on history and passage of time". 24 These types, or rather tendencies that may overlap, 25 differ in their relation to the distance between present and past: restorative nostalgia tries to eliminate this difference and actually reestablish the past, whereas reflective nostalgia is based on this distance and cherishes it. What Ankersmit describes as nostalgic historical experience may seem to correspond reflective type of nostalgia in Boym's theoretical considerations.

In this line of thought, for Ankersmit, restorative nostalgia as described by Boym is not possible at all, or it would be something other than nostalgia, as far as it corresponds with the historical experience in the sense of Collingwood, Dilthey, and Rickert - a "reliving" or "re-enactment" of the past - whereas Ankersmit agrees with Huizinga in that the past cannot be "relived" but should be realized as unattainable. Ankersmit addresses this essential difference and points out the a-historicity of the restorative type of nostalgic longing. 26 Moreover, if one tries to apply this approach to film analysis, restorative nostalgia will encompass every historical film that is made with attention to details and that is dramatic in its mode.

Following the overall debates in historical science, Ankersmit connects nostalgic historical experience to the realm of memory. For Ankersmit, nostalgic historical experience does not refer to the concept of "historical truth" but rather operates within the realm of "authenticity." Nevertheless, for Ankersmit, individual or collective memory should not necessarily precede nostalgic historical experience; nostalgia is opposed to big historical narratives and reminiscent of aesthetic experience that is also open to those who have no previous experience of this past. Further, whereas for Svetlana Boym nostalgia is a historical emotion - a purely affective phenomenon - for Ankersmit nostalgic historical experience is both affective and cognitive: in authentic nostalgic experience, the sensing about the past (atmosphere derived from particular everyday moments, small objects, habitual events) confronts the knowing of the past occurring in the present moment (big historical narratives):

We must observe that the events in our personal history that may trigger a nostalgic yearning are only rarely, and certainly not necessarily, the kind of events we hold to be of great significance in the story of our life. Thus we may nostalgically recall a certain atmosphere at a quite specific moment in our parental home or a holiday with our family; but we will seldom have nostalgic memories of having passed a particular examination or of having been promoted to a more responsible position. 27

Nostalgia is a very affective relation to the past, and, in regard to cinema, its imaginative and sensitive essence can, therefore, be best grasped with the help of a phenomenological approach. 28 The following film analysis aims to show how Ankersmit's historical theory can provide the basis for an approach to ostalgie cinema combined with film studies theories.

Ostalgie and Its Quest for Historical Continuity

Unlike most ostalgie films, which thematize the fall of the Berlin Wall, 29 OLD AGENT MEN takes a temporal distance from the GDR - it is set in 2015. Nevertheless, the article argues that ostalgic historical experience is possible even without direct situating of the plot during the GDR era. 30 Indeed, the film OLD AGENT MEN effectively exploits this temporal distance of more than twenty-five years since German reunification to accentuate its ostalgic quality and allows for a more overt dealing with the GDR than most historical films primarily set in the past offer.

The departure point of the film is an almost hopeless assumption that the former East German secret agents may help solve current problems of the Federal Intelligence Service ( BND - Bundesnachrichtendienst). Four retired ex-colleagues - Jochen Falk (Henry Hübchen), Jaecki (Michael Gwisdek), Locke (Thomas Thieme), and Harry (Winfried Glatzeder) - are called back on duty because only they have the relevant experience and knowledge to ensure a peaceful future for the divided republic of Katschekistan, an imagined former Soviet state. Starting with such an emblematic setup, OLD AGENT MEN employs plot and iconography to ensure its identification with an espionage genre. On the narrative level, the secret mission of rescuing Katschekistan drives the entire story of the film to unfold further in the form of a quest. On the audiovisual level, the film states its belonging to the espionage genre already in the teaser (fig. 1) 31 and the opening sequence, which shows shots from action films of the 1960s in a split-screen technique (fig. 2) accompanied by a soundtrack typical for this genre:

The track with the title Old Agent Man begins like the Kraftwerk classic Trans Europa Express and is reminiscent of the golden days of crime and espionage films. The deep voice, the 60s organs, and the dramatic brass arrangement could be created for a James Bond film like Goldfinger. 32

OLD AGENT MEN goes even further, teasing its (feigned) seriousness towards belonging to the espionage genre in one of the first dialogues about the protagonist Falk between two BND agents: "So this is him, the James Bond of the [East German] zone... It's not surprising the [GDR] state collapsed". 33 The phrase confirms the film's parodying nature and likewise indicates the reference to espionage films about GDR secret agents. Namely, the aforementioned opening credits and theme music refer to the TV series DAS UNSICHTBARE VISIER / THE INVISIBLE VISOR (Peter Hagen, 1973-1979), which was popular in the former GDR. The series was produced by the state-owned film studio DEFA in cooperation with the Ministry of State Security ( Staatssicherheitsdienst - Stasi) and told a story of an East German secret agent, Werner Bredebusch (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who fought (and - needless to mention - always won) against his West German rivals. The popularity of the series is based on the fact that it borrowed "structures of the Western genre films and TV productions, which from the point of view of the SED ideologists were charged with politically reversed messages". 34 The parodic essence of the film contains, therefore, two layers: it is a parody of espionage films from the GDR that themselves make for a parody of Western-made espionage films. In terms of Henryk Markiewicz, OLD AGENT MEN is a parody sensu stricto - the one that "ridicules its model" - and THE INVISIBLE VISOR is a parody sensu largo, an "imitative recasting". 35 Hence, the film is perceived as a parody, both for viewers who are acquainted with the GDR espionage films and for a broader public - albeit on different levels.

A parody, often understood as a critical ideological debunking of constitutive generic elements, such as "[f]amiliar conventions, representational devices or modes of discourse", 36 in OLD AGENT MEN functions in a different register, as a self-conscious celebration of the object of its mockery, a "comic, yet generally affectionate, and distorted imitation of a given genre". 37 This kind of parodic register contributes to the production of ostalgic historical experience in OLD AGENT MEN. Firstly, the reference to espionage films thematizes, or puts the focus on, the GDR past (including its film heritage), in a very affectionate parodical mode. Secondly, this parody is simultaneously charged with irony, which is applied as a rhetorical strategy that on "the semantic level [...] can be defined as a marking of difference in meaning or, simply, an antiphrasis". 38 On the one hand, the parodic register of OLD AGENT MEN requires the engagement with the previous cinematic experience and securely moves within the familiar generic narrative and aesthetic signifiers: that is, they affect viewers' expectations and moods and in doing so "establish a sense of continuity between our cultural past and present". 39 On the other hand, the ironic tonality of this parody, to sum up, creates a necessary critical distance on formal (genre), aesthetic (generic iconography), and verbal levels. In OLD AGENT MEN, irony is a rhetoric device that both makes for a parody and engages with discursive politics of ostalgic historical experience.

Whereas films of various genres are labeled as "nostalgic", 40 the modality of most of them, adopting Christine Gledhill's theory (2000), is usually melodramatic. 41 For the most part, the nostalgic quality is prescribed to the narrative dominated by the sentimental look back to the pasts that are showed as better places. Their driving force is dissatisfaction with the present, which results in a longing for an idealized past, often with a bittersweet sadness, dramatized on the aesthetic level with slow-motion sequences. 42 Being conceptualized as a genre, a cyclic concept that is constantly changing its interpretations and conventions over time, 43 ostalgie film is, on the contrary, in most cases a comedy. Further, following Svetlana Boym, it can be assumed that irony in the case of such an ostalgie film as OLD AGENT MEN might be a conscious choice of the comic device because in the postcommunist countries it "has persisted as a kind of identity politics [...] in a world where everything has to be translated into media-friendly sound bites". 44 In the film, irony becomes a necessary filter that accentuates objects of ostalgic longing: everyday life and personal recollections are contextualized ironically, whereas authority and the political system are discussed in the register of more critical jokes. 45 This ironic estrangement in the film indicates the reflective, critical essence of ostalgic historical experience in OLD AGENT MEN.

In their rescue mission, the protagonists are accompanied by the young Federal Intelligence Service agent Paula Kern (Antje Traue). A mission that the protagonists are supposed to accomplish together is a plot-building technique characteristic of espionage films, but in this case, it was also used to explore, contest, and negotiate the GDR past, as well as to produce ostalgic historical experience. Instead of introducing a romantic subplot with a Bond girl, which would be more traditional for the espionage genre, the film substitutes this generic convention with a generational conflict - Paula is half the age of Falk and could in fact be his daughter. The protagonists travel to Katschekistan and during their journey they face various situations that sharpen the differences between them. The conflict unfolds through narrative and aesthetic collisions between the former East German secret agents and Paula, confronting the knowledge about the GDR (of Paula) with the subjective experience of living in the GDR (of the four former secret agents). These collisions occur throughout the film and emphasize the distance between then and now, communism and democracy, analogue and digital, the past and the present, history as narrative and authentic historical experience.

The authenticity of the historical experience is an essential quality of ostalgie. It is primarily achieved through the subjective perspective of verbal nostalgic reminiscences, often of one of the protagonists. 46 Whereas in nostalgia films reminiscences are bound to sentimentally charged recollections from childhood or youth, in ostalgie films they show very specific moments in the past that are predetermined by particular historical, and political, frames - the state system of the GDR. OLD AGENT MEN presents right away four different kinds of experience and, consequently, memories about the former GDR: that of Falk, who seems to have largely come to terms with German reunification, Jaecki, who still regrets the failure of the communist state, Locke, who has fitted perfectly into the free market economy, and Harry, whose life has not really changed. According to Ankersmit, the "discourse of memory recognizes that we can never appropriate them and that each attempt to do so would be 'inappropriate'". 47 In other words, a viewer will never make these memories his or her own but will be able, due to their reliability and affective essence, to empathetically co-experience the distance that is made evident by them.

For Ankersmit, nostalgic historical experience, due to its affective intensity, has an episodic, fragmentary quality. In OLD AGENT MEN, this is achieved by the aforementioned verbal reminiscences as well as by visual interruptions in the form of archival photos. These archival photos have two functions in the film. In the first group are archival photos that come naturally as an element of mise-en-scène (fig. 3). Their aim is to illustrate the narrative. In the second group are archival photos shown in split-screen technique that suddenly disrupt the visual imagery and narrative of the film (fig. 4). They depict scenes from the everyday lives of the protagonists or products like a Soviet Moskvitch car, shoes, or other products widely associated with the GDR. The archival photos from the second group appear suddenly on the screen, they interrupt the narrative, the dialogue is muted at these moments and the theme music accompanies them. These fragments, as Jaimie Baron puts it, "exceed the homogenizing force of grand narratives by grounding themselves in the contingent and unruly 'real'". 48

They depict everyday products and personal moments that may seem unimportant both for the protagonists and for the plot development as well. As was mentioned in the introduction, the thesis that ostalgie manifests itself mostly in the realm of everyday life and consumer culture was for a long time regarded as a consequence of the impossibility of talking nostalgically about the GDR in public discussions: political and social topics connected to the GDR were laden with problems such as state atrocities, that is why everyday culture has become the only realm to express nostalgic longing for. I would agree that ostalgie indeed can be regarded as a manifestation of the claim for a variety of narratives about the GDR. Nevertheless, departing from the understanding of nostalgic historical experience suggested by Ankersmit, nostalgia is essentially directed at small, seemingly insignificant fragments of the past:

We must observe that the events in our personal history that may trigger a nostalgic yearning are only rarely, and certainly not necessarily, the kind of events we hold to be of great significance in the story of our life. Thus we may nostalgically recall a certain atmosphere at a quite specific moment in our parental home or a holiday with our family; but we will seldom have nostalgic memories of having passed a particular examination or of having been promoted to a more responsible position. 49

Therefore, in OLD AGENT MEN, ostalgic historical experience focuses on the everyday, small fragment of the past and in this way confronts the "homogenizing force of grand narratives" 50 and "feeling of the past": "Their magic lies in their partiality, which emphasizes their metonymic relationship to a whole that is gone forever and whose traces are also flickering their last". 51

During their mission, the protagonists visit places in Katschekistan where they worked together back during the GDR era. These places - their former secret headquarters hidden in the basement of a public swimming pool, a bar where they spent their evenings together - do not appear to represent a "lost home," a utopian symbol of nostalgia in Heimat films. 52 In OLD AGENT MEN, the temporal manifestation of ostalgie is rather carried out through the spatial dimension: in these places, the "past thus becomes locally and spatially present", 53 albeit not in the sense of a memorial but rather as a place that triggers memory, but more inexplicitly than "artificial" forms like rituals and museums. These places, thus, contribute to the tactile quality of nostalgic historical experience. Furthermore, these mise-en-scènes, a key element in the production of "pastness" in historical films, is of an unusual character in OLD AGENT MEN. Whereas many nostalgia films operate within a very detailed portrayal of an idealized past in that they use a very glossy retro setting 54 like in the aesthetically elaborated films of Wes Anderson 55 or heritage films, 56 ostalgie attains nostalgic historical experience with the help of a completely reverse aesthetic register - aesthetics of decay. The places that give rise to ostalgic reminiscences of the protagonists are ruined, abandoned, forgotten - they are embodying the loss (fig. 5-6). The GDR past is constructed through almost vanished landscapes which sharpen the presence of the past and in doing so produce the experience of distance between the present and the past that is irretrievably gone. Unlike scrupulous recreations of mise-en-scène in historical and most nostalgia films, these traces of the GDR past are fragmented and necessarily contextualized, with a voice-over reminiscing about their everyday experiences in that particular place that the viewer simultaneously sees on the screen as "ruined," or contrasting action sequences and ostalgic moments by suddenly pausing the fast soundtrack and letting the viewer (and protagonists) contemplate the abandoned landscapes in silence.

In contrast to the idealized glossy gloriousness of retro aesthetics, the "decay" look of the fragments from the GDR past within ostalgie cinema suggests its probable urge for authenticity of the historical, aesthetic as well as cinematic experience and adds to the subjectivity of the past represented on the screen. These places obtain this affective power and create an "authentic" nostalgic atmosphere, 57 making the GDR past more tactile, more material and contributing to the "haptic visuality" of the film experience. 58 Through this authenticity, aesthetics of decay confront a personal, subjective past with big narratives of political history from the present and in this way makes nostalgic historical experience possible on the screen.

The mission of the protagonists resolves in the glorious rescue of the imagined Katschekistan. The narrative and aesthetic collisions of the old and the new, communism and democracy, analogue and digital, the past and the present - these tensions recycled clichés and ridiculed stereotypes about the former GDR and were settled in a balanced liaison of experience and knowledge. For Ankersmit, nostalgic historical experience is fragmented, it lasts only a short period; in a normal situation, it should inevitably end. To quote Keith Jenkins' study on Ankersmit, it is important to "place the past where it categorically belongs - behind us" because "the past isn't something we should nostalgically dwell in or on, but something we should get out of, not least by stressing the positive aspects of 'sublime' experience". 59 Due to its setting in the present time, the film OLD AGENT MEN begins with the premise that all the protagonists found their place in German society after reunification; this ostalgie film, therefore, begins from a safe ideological position that nostalgic longing was caused not by the protagonists' traumatic dissatisfaction with the present and a desire to relive the GDR past. Just as in Ankersmit's line of thought, the ostalgic experience of distance, according to the film OLD AGENT MEN, made the otherness and unattainability of the past visible. The film ends with the sequence where Paula receives the genetic paternity test but decides not to open it and to have two fathers - Falk from the GDR and Frank Kern, a secret BND agent. This way, the ostalgic longing remains just a fragmentary experience that allows one to "be(come) what one is no longer": 60 through nostalgic historical experience, the past becomes a part of the present identity.

Conclusion

Ankersmit's approach to nostalgic historical experience can be productive for the analysis of cinematic manifestations of ostalgie as it respects the visual, aesthetic quality of nostalgia as well as the affective essence of this relation to the past. In this sense, it allows us to see these films beyond the discussions of "fetishization" or "sentimentalization" of the GDR history, as far as nostalgia does not operate within the matrix of historical "truth" but is rather directed by the category of "authenticity." In this way, the analyzed film OLD AGENT MEN, with the help of various narrative and aesthetic means, produces an experience of distance, both temporal and spatial, between the past and the present that conveys ostalgic historical experience. Furthermore, this awareness of the unattainability of the past allows for a critical reflection that indicates a potential to act differently in the present and this way to alter our future. The conceptualization of nostalgic historical experience combined with the phenomenological approach to cinema, hence, allows us to understand ostalgie film in terms of "prosthetic memory," which can evoke empathy to the "other". 61 For Landsberg, the difference, or distance, which is likewise cherished by nostalgic historical experience, is an essential quality for producing empathy: "In its most progressive versions, prosthetic memory creates a feeling for, while feeling different from, the other, thereby permitting ethical thinking". 62 OLD AGENT MEN, therefore, allows for reflective and critical ostalgic historical experience, providing potential for ostalgie for people who have never lived in the former GDR.

Suggested Citation: Astafeva, Tatiana: On the Wrong Side of History: Towards a New Approach to Ostalgie Cinema. In: Research in Film and History. New Approaches (2021), pp. 1-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15779.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
On the Wrong Side of History: Towards a New Approach to Ostalgie Cinema

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The article argues that an interdisciplinary phenomenological approach based on the understanding of nostalgic historical experience by Frank Ankersmit can be helpful in the critical analysis of emotionally and aesthetically charged cinematic phenomena like ostalgie.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
moving history 2019 | 29.09. | Goodbye, Lenin! (2003) | Wolfgang Becker im Gespräch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Daniel Brühl sagt Goodbye Lenin bei Harald Schmidt | 2003