Copyright by Sebastian Heiduschke 2006
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Copyright by Sebastian Heiduschke 2006 The Dissertation Committee for Sebastian Heiduschke Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Afterlife of DEFA in Post-Unification Germany: Characteristics, Traditions and Cultural Legacy Committee: Kirsten Belgum, Supervisor Hans-Bernhard Moeller, Co-Supervisor Pascale Bos David Crew Janet Swaffar The Afterlife of DEFA in Post-Unification Germany: Characteristics, Traditions and Cultural Legacy by Sebastian Heiduschke, M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2006 Dedication Für meine Familie Acknowledgements First and foremost it is more than justified to thank my two dissertation advisers, Kit Belgum and Bernd Moeller, who did an outstanding job providing me with the right balance of feedback and room to breathe. Their encouragement, critical reading, and honest talks in the inevitable times of doubt helped me to complete this project. I would like to thank my committee, Pascale Bos, Janet Swaffar, and David Crew, for serving as readers of the dissertation. All three have been tremendous inspirations with their own outstanding scholarship and their kind words. My thanks also go to Zsuzsanna Abrams and Nina Warnke who always had an open ear and an open door. The time of my research in Berlin would not have been as efficient without Wolfgang Mackiewicz at the Freie Universität who freed up many hours by allowing me to work for the Sprachenzentrum at home. An invaluable help was the library staff at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen “Konrad Wolf” Babelsberg . Lydia Wiehring von Wendrin, Kirsten Otto and Renate Göthe made me feel at home right away, provided me with a quiet area for my research, and arranged that the material I needed was not removed from my work place. They showed sincere interest in my project and pointed me to hidden gems in their DEFA collection. It was a pleasure to work there. Everybody who finished a dissertation knows that it requires persistence. My friends and my family provided the support and love I needed to complete this project. A v huge thank-you goes to my colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, especially to my reliable and thorough editor Lee Holt, Mariana Ivanova who provided valuable information about Bulgarian cinema, and Jason Williamson, Judith Hammer, Kersten Horn, and Karen Ewing for their friendship throughout the years. I would like to thank my parents, grandparents, and my brother for their financial support, their interest in my work and their frequent visits to Texas, Berlin, and Illinois. Countless recordings of DEFA films on German TV and newspaper clippings mailed across the Atlantic Ocean made this project possible. Finally, I would like to thank my own family, Victoria and Max, for their love and numerous enjoyable hours. Thanks, Victoria, for your encouragement, putting up with a stressed husband, taking Max out on the weekends and staying at home during the week when he came down with another ear infection to give me time to write. Thanks also to Max who reminded me every day that playing with cars, running around in puddles, going down a slide on the playground, and reading the ABC book seven times in a row are also important in life. Without you my life would not be complete. vi The Afterlife of DEFA in Post-Unification Germany: Characteristics, Traditions and Cultural Legacy Publication No._____________ Sebastian Heiduschke, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2006 Supervisors: Kirsten Belgum and Hans-Bernhard Moeller This dissertation provides insight how the former East German company DEFA lives on in contemporary German society after unification. The Deutsche Film- Aktiengesellschaft DEFA was the centralized, state-owned film company in East Germany and later the German Democratic Republic from 1946 through 1992. After the privatization procedures of all former state-owned property that accompanied German unification, the company was sold. Its films were handed over to a trust in charge of preserving the DEFA legacy. This institutional history of the DEFA looks at five examples to illustrate the extent of DEFA’s afterlife in German society. Testing Eric Hobsbawm’s thesis of an “invented tradition” the dissertations uses the method of cultural archeology to document vii the transition of the former DEFA studio at Babelsberg and how DEFA films became vehicles of East German cultural memory after the sale of the DEFA studio. This project describes the different preservation efforts of six institutions succeeding the DEFA, and explains the role of each institution. It proposes a reading of the current screening and broadcasting situation of DEFA films as regional cinema in the Federal Republic. Lastly the dissertation takes a new direction in DEFA scholarship with the interpretation of data and results taken from a 2004 reception study of DEFA film audiences in the Federal Republic. The study closes with a case study of DEFA fan culture as one specific instance of DEFA film reception in Germany. Unlike other studies of DEFA, this dissertation approaches DEFA film as cultural legacy of East Germany that has operated across cultural boundaries and decades. It presents an example for new strategies in the interpretation of DEFA film and East German culture in the Federal Republic of Germany. viii Table of Contents List of Tables.........................................................................................................xii Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 DEFA Scholarship.......................................................................................... 6 Genesis ......................................................................................................... 13 Cultural Archeology .................................................................................... 15 The Invention of DEFA Tradition................................................................ 20 Evolution of the Project................................................................................ 25 Chapter 1 DEFA and the "Babelsberg Myth" ...................................................... 29 Definition of the "Babelsberg Myth" ........................................................... 31 The "Babelsberg Myth" of UFA .................................................................. 32 The "Babelsberg Myth" of DEFA................................................................ 33 The "Babelsberg Myth" of the Wende .......................................................... 37 Controlling the "Babelsberg Myth".............................................................. 40 Babelsberg as Location of Collective Memory............................................ 42 Changing the Face of Babelsberg................................................................. 43 The "Babelsberg Myth" in the 21 st Century................................................. 45 Conclusion.................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 2 Preserving a Legacy: The DEFA Successors in the Federal Republic 49 Preserving Cultural Memory........................................................................ 50 The DEFA-Stiftung...................................................................................... 53 The Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv...................................................................... 58 Progress-Filmverleih .................................................................................... 60 Icestorm Entertainment ................................................................................ 63 Filmpark Babelsberg .................................................................................... 67 Filmmuseum Potsdam.................................................................................. 70 Conclusion.................................................................................................... 74 ix Chapter 3 DEFA Films in the Federal Republic after 1992................................. 76 DEFA Film on German TV.......................................................................... 77 DEFA Film on Recorded Media .................................................................. 90 DEFA Film on the Big Screen ..................................................................... 94 DEFA Film Reviews in the Contemporary Press....................................... 110 Conclusion.................................................................................................. 116 Chapter 4 Audiences of DEFA Films: Reception in Transition......................... 118 The Audience of DEFA Films in the GDR................................................ 119 The Audience of DEFA Films during the Wende ...................................... 122 The Audience of DEFA Films in the Federal Republic of Germany......... 124 Contemporary Audiences of DEFA Films................................................. 126 A Case Study of DEFA Film Audiences.................................................... 130 Results........................................................................................................ 132 Audience Motivations ................................................................................ 140 Types